Peng Chengxin 彭诚鑫

Education:
B.A., Amoy University, History (2016)
M.A., National University of Singapore, Chinese Studies (2019)

Research Interest:
Chinese Diaspora from 19th to 20th Century; the Construction of Nation-state in Modern China; Transnational Intellectual and Cultural Interaction in the Context of Colonialism

Supervisor: Dr Chan Cheow Thia, Prof Ong Chang Woei

Thesis Title: Chinese Diaspora from 19th to 20th Century; the Construction of Nation-state in Modern China; Transnational Intellectual and Cultural Interaction in the Context of Colonialism (Tentative)

There is now a massive literature on intellectual and cultural interaction between China and the Nanyang region since the 19th century. However, more has been written about the activities of so-called “Southbound literati” who traveled from China to Nanyang, and their influences on the cultural and literary landscapes of Nanyang. This research attempts to explore another group of people who also moved between China and Nanyang during the same period, but whose movement was from south to north, namely the “Returned Nanyang Chinese Students.” This research posits that examining this group can open up new understandings on the historical development of China and Nanyang since the 19th century. Specifically, on one hand, when Chinese intellectuals were formulating what was termed as “Overseas Chinese Education” for these Nanyang students, the goal was not merely to instil nationalism in them and cultivate them as patriotic “Chinese,” but rather to fashion them as “Nanyang Huaqiao” who could potentially aid China’s expansion to and exploration of Nanyang. On the other hand, precisely due to the nature of the education designed for these students who are distinct from mainland students, they were endowed with the duty of “development and settlement” (tuozhi), leading them—a group that would today be referred to as “students studying abroad”—to gradually develop a self-identity as “diasporic Nanyang Chinese” upon their arrival in China. Through activities such as forming associations, publishing journal, and writing articles, they established a distinctive “diasporic Nanyang identity” within China.