ABSTRACT
In the Asean region, ‘Chinatown’ means much more than the old, rather shabby Chinese quarter wedged into the downtowns of nearly every Far Eastern city. ‘Chinatown’ now serves as a byword for a special type of powerful commercial dynamism. At its essence, ‘Chinatown’ in Southeast Asia also connotes a steamy, secretive place, a below-decks engine room powering the region’s economic miracle. The key factors for Chinese business success seem to have been broader economic transformations occurring in their new countries, plus their immigrant status and tight clannish system. In every Chinatown across the Asean region the chamber of commerce acts as a catalyst for trade, lobbying, Chinese language dissemination, group charity, welfare of widows and orphans, burial ceremonies and even fire protection. For the better part of a century, the savings, acquisitiveness and ‘sleepless’ financial wizardry of the overseas Chinese have generated enormous entrepreneurial dynamism in Southeast Asia.
