{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.027901077996195307, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007609384908053266, 'mean_word_length': 5.272365805168986, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
South China: State, Culture and Social Change during the 20th Century . Edited by L.M. Douw and P. Post. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Verhandelingen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel 169. Pp. xvi, 253. Figures, Tables, Bibliography.

It has been nearly six decades since Chen Ta published his pioneering work, Emigrant Communities in South China: A Study of Overseas Migration and Its Influence on Standards of Living and Social Change (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1940), a detailed analysis of the interactions between Southeast Asian Chinese and the socio-economic evolution in South China (Fujian and Guangdong provinces) during the 1930s. Although a number of important studies based on ethnographic field research in that area have been published, no systematic effort has been made to delineate the region's special and longstanding ties with Southeast Asia. By partially filling this gap, the book under review is therefore a welcome and important contribution to our understanding of both South China and its relations with Southeast Asia. This collection of twenty-two papers, first delivered at a colloquium held in Amsterdam in 1995, addresses two sets of broad issues: first, the fundamental political, social and cultural transformations taking place in South China, especially since the opening of China in the early 1980s; second, the relations between South China and Southeast Asia, which have been significant not only because the great majority of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia originated from these Southern provinces, but "because the greatly increased application of their vast economic potential to the development of the South-Chinese provinces decisively influenced the changes in that area" (p. xiii). The book is divided into five sections: Chineseness and Chinese capitalism, the dispersal, survival and creation of Chinese institutions, South China and beyond: political and cultural dimensions, South China and beyond: economic dimensions, South China and beyond: qiaoxiang ties. While there are a few fascinating essays concerning the evolution of Chinese capitalism in (South) China per se, space considerations permit this reviewer to discuss only some of the articles that are directly related to Southeast Asia. A major strength of this book lies not in its consistency in arguments and quality, but in its diverse approaches and contrasting propositions. A number of contributors are actually arguing with each other and are engaging in stimulating dialogues among themselves. A case in point is the question of whether or not the pattern of capitalist development in South China (and among Southeast Asian Chinese) has been culturally or structurally determined. On the one hand, Siu-lun Wong attributes their economic success mainly to Chinese cultural ethos, such as familism, pragmatism, autonomy and personal trust. On the other hand, Arif Dirlik, and to a less extent, Rajeswary Brown and Wellington Chan, place their emphasis upon the complex socio-political structures within an evolving global capitalism operates. Arguing that the rise of (overseas) Chinese