Singapore as a nexus of migration corridors: The qiaopi system and diasporic heritage

Abstract

Singapore has served as a strategic hub of immigration in Southeast Asia over the past two centuries since its founding as an entrepot in 1819. It is not only due to its geographic location at the crossroads between the East and West, but also to its vibrant social and business organizations that have provided effective institutional links both within Southeast Asia and between the region and China. This has, in turn, contributed to the making of Singapore as a key migration corridor among the Chinese diaspora. An overlooked institutional link in this corridor is qiaopi, the remittances-cum-letters sent home by Chinese immigrants from the 1820s to the 1980s, which was part of the intra-regional circulation of capital, goods, people and information. Qiaopi was officially selected into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) “Memory of the World” Register in 2013, thus demonstrating its heritage significance. This paper examines the role of the qiaopi trade in establishing and consolidating Singapore’s place as the most important migrant corridor in Southeast Asia. It also discusses qiaopi from a transnational perspective of diasporic heritage and its contemporary relevance to the heritage corridor.