Concepts of Huaren (華人) and Huabu (華埠): Transoceanic Settlements and Manifestation of Urban Spatiality in Colonial Southeast Asia

This article seeks to reconnect discourses on the urbanity of Southeast Asia with the region’s long history of maritime trade and migrating societies. It examines the relation between Huaren, a category of people and a system of culture characterized by transoceanic connections, and Huabu, a portal-spatial pattern of trading, settling, and moving of Huaren communities. By investigating the etymology of and the relationship between these two terms—“Huaren” and “Huabu” as concepts distinct from “Chinese” and “Chinatown”—the paper discloses an alternative understanding of the urban history of Southeast Asia, traced not in relation to centers of power, nor an integrated view on ethnicity and identity, but at margins of territories affiliated to the fluidity and interconnectivity of maritime resilience, mercantile dynamics, ritualistic hybridity and cosmopolitan values. These in turn offer evidence and a new perspective on transnational and trans-territorial urban systems to widen the field of debate.