David Ownby - Secret Societies Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Modern South China and Southeast Asia

"This book is unprecedented in the analytical breadth of its interpretations of Chinese secret societies, the critical awareness it has of past treatments of its subject and their weaknesses, and the wisdom of its geographical balance which transcends national boundaries, so that we can see the phenomenon as a whole. It achieves the rare feat of making a major contribution to both Chinese and Southeast Asian history."

Alexander Woodside, University of British Columbia

"This is a breakthrough volume. It offers a new paradigm for understanding 'secret societies'one in which their secrecy and alleged socio-political deviance are not their most important characteristics. Instead, they are to be understood as one version of a general type the Chinese brotherhooda characteristic organization of ordinary, non-elite male Chinese. It is the identification of the brotherhood as a major organizational typeone with several subcategories that include the 'secret society'that opens up a new approach to the understanding of Chinese society at home and abroad. By showing us how the brotherhood was found in both early modern China and early modern Southeast Asian Chinese societies, the authors document the transference of Chinese institutions overseas. They also encourage us to apply their model to Chinese in more recent times and more distant places."

Edgar Wickberg, University of British Columbia

History/China/Southeast Asia

Studies on Modern China

"SECRET SOCIETIES" RECONSIDERED
Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia
Edited by David Ownby and Mary Somers Heidhues

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Studies on Modern China

Perspectives on The Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia

David Ownby
Mary Somers Heidhues
editors

Robert J. Antony
Jean DeBernardi
Sharon Carstens
Dian H. Murray
Barend J. ter Haar
Carl A. Trocki

First published 1993 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

"Secret societies" reconsidered: perspectives on the social history of early modern South China and Southeast Asia / edited by David Ownby and Mary Somers Heidhues.
p. cm. (Studies on modern China)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56324-198-6. ISBN 1-56324-199-4 (pbk.)
1. Secret societiesChina.
2. Secret societiesAsia, Southeastern.
3. Hung men (Society)History.
I. Ownby, David, 1958 .
II. Somers Heidhues, Mary F.
III. Series.
HS310.S43 1993
366dc20
9326121
CIP

ISBN 13: 9781563241994 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9781563241987 (hbk)