Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 The Making of Chinese Overseas in the South Seas in Longue Durèe -- 2 Chinese Overseas Bourgeoisie in the Emerging Anti-imperialist Nationalism -- 3 The Patriotic 1930s: Chinese Overseas Bourgeoisie in Nationalist Wings -- 4 Rescuing Businesses through Transnationalism -- 5 Whose National Interests? Selling Chinese Goods along the Hong Kong–Singapore Corridor -- 6 United Chinese Identity among Divided Homeland Ties -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

In Networks beyond Empires , Kuo examines business and nationalist activities of the Chinese bourgeoisie in Hong Kong and Singapore between 1914 and 1941. The book argues that speech-group ties were key to understanding the intertwining relationship between business and nationalism. Organization of transnational businesses and nationalist campaigns overlapped with the boundary of Chinese speech-group networks. Embedded in different political-economic contexts, these networks fostered different responses to the decline of the British power, the expansion of the Japanese empire, as well as the contested state building processes in China. Through negotiating with the imperialist powers and Chinese state-builders, Chinese bourgeoisie overseas contributed to the making of an autonomous space of diasporic nationalism in the Hong Kong-Singapore corridor.