ABSTRACT
The business success of overseas Chinese throughout much of Southeast Asia provides a good case study from which answers might be sought to the question posed as the central issue in this volume. This chapter provides a broad overview of the economic roles of the Southeast Asian Chinese and the values associated with them. The success of the Southeast Asian Chinese is frequently attributed to legendary qualities of enterprise, hard work, frugality, family solidarity, education, and other "neo-Confucian" or "entrepreneurial" virtues. Like marginal trading minorities (MTMs) in other parts of the world, such as the Jews in particular, the Southeast Asian Chinese have gravitated toward commercial, financial, and professional occupations, especially in the twentieth century. In recent decades, political connections have played such a big part in the success of the wealthiest tycoons in Southeast Asia that some attention must be given to them here.
