Boundaries-Prelims.indd

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ĈčĆĕęĊė 12

Expanding Possibilities:

Revisiting the Min-Yue Junk-trade

Enterprise on the China Coast and in the

Nanyang during the Eighteenth to the

Mid-Nineteenth Centuries

1

Introduction

Scope of Discussion

The maritime expansion of the Min (Fujian) and Yue (Guangdong) people
is a broad topic, which numerous researchers have examined from a
variety of angles over the last few decades. It often requires meticulous,
painstaking efforts on the part of researchers to assemble scattered
information about the Min-Yue people’s seafaring activities in general
and their junk trade in particular. The main goal of the present discussion
is to take stock of the existing literature, re-read some oft-cited research
materials and examine the topic from a longer and broader perspective.
Often, the seafaring activities have been perceived to be the achievements
of Chinese in general, rather than more speciβically focused on particular
ethnic groups, namely the Min and Yue people, who played the most
important role in these processes. The geographical areas covered in the
discussion are the Guangdong-Fujian region on the southeastern coast
of China, other stretches of the China coast and the Nanyang (Southeast
Asia). Setting the events against their historical backdrop, the discussion

1. This is a revamped, enlarged version of a paper written in Chinese for the
   “Symposium on Ocean Cultures” held at the National Cheng Kong University,
   Tainan, on October 9‒10, 2010. The Chinese version is published in
   Haigang·hainan·haidao: Haiyang wenhua lunji 海港·海难·海盗：海洋文化论
   集 [Ports, Shipwrecks, Pirates: A Collection of Essays on Ocean Cultures], ed.
   Cheng Wing-sheung 鄭永常主編 (Tainan: Center for Humanities and Social
   Sciences of the National Cheng Kong University, 2012), pp. 25‒70.