qiaokan have been called ‘the collective letters from hometown’ by qiaokan are, by definition, transnational publications which cross borders huaqiao at a qiaoxiang ties. huaqiao construct qiaokan rapidly shifted their orientation as the political and Overseas Chinese Reciprocity Association, 1936); ‘Every

Chinese Alliances, 1938); and, rather more disturbingly, ‘Dear overseas fellows, let’s work together to build a new China!’ (The Voices of Overseas Chinese, 1988).

Starting from the 1930s, the content of qiaokan quickly expanded from its focus of the interest in one’s hometown to the interest in one’s home country, i.e. China. In the first half of the 1930s, the periodicals began to deliver reports on the government’s policies towards overseas Chinese and major news about China (see the table of contents of The Kiu Siang Semimonthly, 1936). This immediately changed them from mass publications to ‘semi-official’ ones. Many qiaokan called for donations to the anti-Japanese war effort, and for the establishment of an international Chinese alliance. Even when there was no direct governmental control, the qiaokan were strongly patriot (see the table of contents of Overseas Chinese Alliances, 1938). Sentimental and political links to the diaspora were further reinforced after the end of the war. The new focus of the qiaokan moved from the anti-war movements to the rebuilding of qiaoxiang. With the economic problems in China at the time, more space was devoted not only to remittances and welfare donations, but also with the overseas Chinese investment in the economic development of hometown districts. A strong emphasis of the qiaokan then, as today, was to advertise favourable government policies toward investments (see the attached table of contents of Great China and Overseas Chinese Monthly, 1948).