Chinese in Colonial Burma

Yi Li received her PhD in history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore between 2014 and 2015. Her research interests include modern Southeast Asia and Chinese diaspora, with a particular focus on migration and colonial history.

“Li’s book is a very valuable one. Throughout the book she has successfully kept a transnational vision by interweaving the histories of political change in china, the expansion of the British imperial world and the evolution of the Burmese Chinese community. … the book has provided an inspiring basis for looking at the lives of Burmese Chinese during the British colonial period, and for continuing endeavours to explore other related archives and relevant materials.” (Wen-Ching Chang, SOJOURN - Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 33 (3), November 2018)“Li’s exhaustive coverage of Chinese and English language sources provides a new look at how the Chinese in Burma, as a smaller percentage of the diaspora in Southeast Asia, continued to transplant many of the same political, economic, and social networks through kinship connections. … it is certainly an invaluable contribution to the history of Chinese diasporic experiences, and necessary reading for scholars of Chinese and Southeast Asian studies.” (Siew Han Yeo, Journal of Burma Studies, Vol. 22 (1), June, 2018)

• 1. From Frontier to Heartland.- 2.  A Chinese Mental Map of the Irrawaddy Delta.- 3. Merchants of the Empire.- 4. The Rangoon Vice.- 5. Making No Political "Noise".