Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, Aug., 2007.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Hui Yew-Foong -- Section One Introduction / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter One The Chinese Diasporic Subject As Stranger / Hui Yew-Foong -- Section Two Looking for Home in a Foreign Land / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Two The Japanese Occupation and the Chinese Anti-Japanese Movement / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Three Post-War, Pre-New Order / Hui Yew-Foong -- Section Three The New (Dis)Order: Making Strangers at Home / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Four Recovering a Place in History: Narratives of Violence / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Five The Vicissitudes of the Communist Underground / Hui Yew-Foong -- Section Four Negotiating Estrangement: Between Cosmology and the Social / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Six The Phenomenology of Spirits or the Presencing of the Other / Hui Yew-Foong -- Section Five West Kalimantan as Home / Hui Yew-Foong -- Chapter Seven On the Politics and Poetics of Home / Hui Yew-Foong -- Epilogue The Uncertainty of Strangers / Hui Yew-Foong -- Bibliography / Hui Yew-Foong -- Index / Hui Yew-Foong.

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This is an ethno-historical study of Chinese from West Kalimantan, Indonesia that, unlike other Chinese Diasporic studies, takes its departure from the “away” position. The study aims to interrogate how, where, and in what terms “home” is defined for the stranger. Through examining historical events such as the Japanese Occupation, the repatriation of overseas Chinese to China, and ethnic and state violence in West Kalimantan, this study highlights the plight of the Chinese as political orphans in search of a home that eludes them, whether in Indonesia or China. Through a rich array of different kinds of data, including oral histories and memoirs of the Communist underground, this book offers novel perspectives on the role of history in subject formation.