WINNERS AND^477market barriers and feelings, immaterial and personal, also matter. Thus
American outsourcers found Korean partners far less expensive than
Japanese; also a lot easier to work with. But when the Japanese set up
affiliates in Korea, they soon found wages going up and pulled out for
cheaper climes. And maybe the Koreans were glad to see them go.
(Why Malaysia? It has a population of only 19 million, so labor, at
least unskilled labor, is hard to come by. But it has entrepreneurs, and
they draw workers like a magnet. Illegal immigrants, mainly from In
donesia [population 190 million] and Bangladesh [115 million], pour
in despite strenuous efforts to guard the gates. As everywhere, a thriv
ing business smuggles people for oudandish fees. The outsiders don't
look that different, but they are; so that it's not the competition for
jobs that bothers the natives, it's mixed sex. The prime minister of
Malaysia cites complaints by village leaders: girls running off with for
eign boyfriends, unwed mothers ditched by partners, wives abandon
ing their families to elope with foreigners, who may well treat them
better.^6 Can't have that.)
Ethnic connections also count, particularly among expatriate (over
seas) Chinese. The Chinese, middleman minority par excellence, are
the leaven and lubricant of Southeast Asian trade, and from there
around the world. They cherish a work ethic that would make a We-
berian Calvinist envious, and they somehow pass it on through richer
and poorer from one generation to the next.
(I recall my first visit to Hong Kong a generation ago. It was
evening, and outside my hotel I passed a tiny camera shop tucked into
a staircase landing. I glanced in, and that was enough. The merchant
immediately asked me what I was looking for. Well, I had begun with
nothing in mind, but then I remembered that I could use a special lens;
so I asked for it. His face fell; he did not have it in stock. Then he
brightened up. If I came back later, he would have it for me. I told him
I was off to dinner, would not come back until midnight at least.
"Don't worry," he said. "You come back. I be here with lens." A litde
after midnight I returned and started up to my room. Then I remem
bered, but told my sleepy self it was a waste of time. But then I felt
guilty, went back to the shop, and of course found the store open and
my man there, with lens. Find me an American or a European to do
that.)
The Chinese played a crucial role from the start in the success of Eu
ropean rule—in Dutch Indonesia and the Spanish Philippines, and
then in the late nineteenth century in French Indochina. They con
tinue to thrive in the successor states.^7 International partnerships have