Chinese on the Mining Frontier in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The influx of Chinese into Malaysia in particular and �Central Southeast Asia� more generally is often popularly attributed to colonial rule, as if the pluralism they exemplified were not �natural� to the region. In reality, the Peninsula has always been highly plural, and the advance of the Chinese mining frontier within it preceded the British.1 This essay documents some of the means by which Chinese mining advanced the economic frontiers in Southeast Asia ahead of European capital. Tin, being the most obvious example, takes center stage in this story