In-Person Panel PS6.5

Historical Intersections: Trade, Governance, and Social Dynamics in Asia-Pacific Relations

China and Australia: Trade, Migration, and Politics in the 19th-Early 20th Centuries 

Liping Yang 

The close trade and people connections between China and Australia today can be traced back to the mid-19th century. At that time, Australia as a British colony, and Chinese treaty ports, including Hong Kong, were all integral links in the global economic system that underpinned the British Empire. Drawing on primary sources—including English periodicals and British Foreign and Colonial office records—available in Gale's China and the Modern World series, this article aims to reexamine the early trade between China and Australia, focusing on commodities like tea, wheat, wool, and minerals, as well as the human relationship shaped by labor migration initiated by gold rush. By analyzing these exemplary records, I would argue that the challenges facing the two countries today, particularly the intertwining of trade and domestic and international politics, have historical precedents in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Navigating Customs Taxation: Unraveling the Decline of Changguan in Late Qing China, 1858-1877 

Hekang Yang 

This paper offers an internal perspective on the decline of Changguan (native customs), the primary institution for commercial taxes in late imperial China, and its linked relationship with the emergence of new taxes during the mid-nineteenth century. Scholars and officials have attributed the decay of Changguan to increasing maritime trade and imperialist interference. The Changguan crisis should be viewed under the framework of a major policy adaptation on customs revenue, transforming itself from the exclusive control under the imperial family to a national income in all respects. Commercial taxation was rapidly developing in this period and it became a new arena full of ambiguity and opportunity for rule-making. Through the lens of Manchu functionaries and Qing monarchy, my article examines how imperial power holders wielded regulatory authority, established collaborative arrangements of revenue sharing, and employed trade treaties to ensure internal governance. These measures strengthened the influence and capacity of central coordination. My article provides a policy explanation about the fiscal growth in the coming decades, questioning the devolution of state power and financial cause of China’s warlordism in the existing literature.

Democracy and Murder in Thailand 

Arjun  Subrahmanyan 

This paper examines the murders of several men in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Thai state actors. In all the cases the killers were not held accountable.  Impunity for murder is a longstanding privilege of Thai state actors, and is usually explained by the country’s authoritarian political history. This article revises our understanding by arguing that a main reason for the injustice lies in the unstable power of the Thai democratic movement in the early post-war period. It shows that the growing power of a commoner democratic movement roiled society and put the military and police on the backfoot at a time of transition in Thai history when democratic forces were the match of illiberal ones.

Charity, Loyalty, and Goodwill: Life Stories of the Japanese Wives Left in Post-colonial Korea 

Changzoo Song 

This paper delves into racialized history, exploring how it shaped the experiences of Japanese women who married Korean men in 1930s and 1940s Japan. Despite social stigma, these unions were endorsed by the Japanese Empire's aim to assimilate Korean colonial subjects, offering a unique lens for studying racialized history. Interracial marriages emerged during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as Japanese men left for battle, and Korean men arrived for labor, causing a scarcity of Japanese males. Some Japanese women, transcending racial boundaries, chose to marry Korean men. Post-Pacific War, most Korean husbands returned to Korea, and many Japanese wives followed, often against their spouses' wishes. Even after the 1965 diplomatic normalization between Japan and Korea, over a thousand Japanese women remained in Korea, facing rejection from their Japanese families. These women grappled with poverty, family violence, and racial hostilities, sometimes pushed to the brink of suicide. Nevertheless, those who endured exhibited 'internationalist' goodwill, striving to improve their adopted home and foster peace between Japan and Korea.