An Investigating Report
Social and Economic Development of Jinjiang, South Fujian
What factors have contrived to create the Jinjiang economic miracle during the past two decades? Are qiaoxiang (overseas Chinese native hometown) ties an advantage in social and economic development in South China? These questions were meticulously pursued during a two-year field investigation into the social and economic development of Jinjiang, South Fujian, conducted jointly by the Research School for Southeast Asia Studies of Xiamen University and the International Institute for Asian Studies of Holland (Xiamen-IIAS Project).By Cen Huang and Zhuang Guotu
Jinjiang, located on the southeast coast of Fujian province, is a famous qiaoxiang location in China. With a population of 995,000, Jinjiang is the place of origin for 2.1 million overseas Jinjiangnese, who live in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and other countries. Since China's open door policy and economic reforms began in 1978, the income per capita in Jinjiang has increased from 58 yuan in 1978 up to 6,000 yuan in 1997. As a consequence, Jinjiang has been one of the fifteen most advanced cities in China in terms of its overall economic development.The Xiamen-IIAS project has carried out comprehensive field surveys with a random sample of 500 households and 150 enterprises in Jinjiang in the past two years. The survey research covered a broad range of issues, such as the composition of qiaoxiang households, income structures, relationships with overseas relatives, and overseas remittances, donations and investments, as well as the foreign-funded and local enterprises. The time is now ripe to make several important observations.
Hometown connections
Overseas Chinese have played an important role in the creation of the Jinjiang economic miracle since the 1980s. From 1984 to 1997, Jinjiang utilized foreign investment of US$1.73 billion. Among the 2400 foreign-funded operations, more than 90 per cent were invested by overseas Jinjiangnese. In 1997, the output of the overseas Jinjiangnese enterprises reached RMB 16.8 billion, which comprised 52 per cent of the total GDP in the city. Social welfare donations are another important impact made by the overseas Jinjiangnese in their hometowns. Between 1994 and 1997, the city received overseas donations worth RMB 528 million. It was reported that about 60 per cent of the donations were used to support local educational development. More than 400 schools benefited from the donations. These statistics strongly suggest that hometown connections are indubitably an advantageous factor in the advancement of Jinjiang social and economic development.
īBig' and 'small' culture
The rapid economic development of Jinjiang is also a direct result of the strong local traditions of family institutions and the seafaring culture in the region. The local traditions are defined as including a group of cultural traits such as family orientation, overseas immigration, and challenging attitudes towards business ventures. Although, they are derived from Confucian cultural values, they are practised differently under the influence of local life-styles and history. One study, for example, reports that more than 30,000 temples were rebuilt in Fujian in the early 1990s. These are an important part of the local tradition. It was discovered that the temples also laid the foundation for business organizations in the region. The study attests to the fact that within the shared cultural values, there are sub-cultural traditions based on different local customs and life-styles. As a result of this contradiction, the Jinjiangnese have developed unique characteristics in their business pursuits, including a family-oriented, open-minded, risk-taking, and opportunist spirit. This raises interesting questions: what is the difference between the generally defined Chinese culture and local traditions? And how do these apply in business practices? An answer was: 'we carry out the 'big' culture in theory (i.e. the Chinese culture), and apply 'small' local traditions in practice.'
Diversified enterprises
Another important finding is that the overseas Chinese invested enterprises are very much diversified in aspects of their ownership, size, and scale, as well as the operation and management structures. The majority of the overseas Chinese firms in Jinjiang are small and medium-sized, with an average of investment less than US 1 million in each project. Manufacturing firms make up 89 per cent of the total foreign invested operations, and they concentrate mainly on light industrial products for export. More than 250,000 migrant workers make up the majority of the labour force in the city.
The multi-family-run enterprises are a significant feature of this diversity. It was interesting to note that many Jinjiang households operate production lines on their family estates. These are also called 'popular-run-enterprises' in local terms. the multi-family-run enterprise share are several characteristics: (1) These enterprises are based on mutual trust between different households. Family institutions are the centre of the co-operation. The enterprises are private in ownership, and co-operative in operation. (2) The overseas relatives provided the enterprises with both capital and market information, and they played a key role in grouping families in collaborative business operations through lineage and clan connections. (3) The enterprises are managed by the joint effort of investors, kinsmen, and the families involved. Standard moral principles, such as hard work, respect for the authorities, and mutual trust, are commonly held among all contracted families. Multi-family-run businesses are believed not only to save the cost of organizational transactions of the enterprise, but also to maintain the stability of the enterprise during financial difficulties. It was reported that the Asian crisis did not have a significant impact on Jinjiang multi-family-run enterprises.
Other issues
The project also investigated issues of the development of economically related local traditions, returned overseas Chinese enterprises, overseas connections, and local economic structure, as well as labour migration and urbanization in the region. On 28-31 October 1998, an international conference on Qiaoxiang Studies was held in Jinjiang to conclude the first phase of the Xiamen-IIAS project. More than 150 people from 15 countries attended the conference and 58 papers were presented. The Xiamen-IIAS team presented its major research findings at the conference in 11 investigating reports, which attracted great attention from both academics and government decision makers.
The Xiamen-IIAS project is currently working on a grant proposal to publish the Jinjiang research data in the near future. If you are interested in obtaining more information on the Jinjiang research project, please contact Dr Cen Huang at chuang@let.leidenuniv.nl, or Professor Zhuang Guotu at gtzhuang@jingxian.xmu.edu.cn.
Professor Zhuang Guotu is the deputy director of the Research School of Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University.
Cen Huang is an IIAS Programme Fellow of the Qiaoxiang Ties Project (1 November 1996 - 1 November 1999).