Chinese Democracies — A Study of the Kongsis of West Borneo

Yuan Bingling's dissertation is a history of the Chinese gold mining settlements of West Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia, and their organizations called kongsis. Since this term (in Mandarin, gongsi) can signify various groups or associations, especially those with a common budget, one of her first tasks is to sort out the meanings of the word. J.J.M. de Groot's Het kongsi wezen van Borneo (Gravenhage 1885) is the point of departure for a discussion of kongsi organization, while the author also draws on published and a few unpublished Dutch sources, as well as some Chinese texts. Three of these are appended to the book in English translation and recall in part popular Chinese adventure tales emphasizing bravado and brotherhood. Compiled from: https://web.archive.org/web/20171024112756/http://xiguan.org/yuanbingling/ The rise of the kongsi societies (1750-1777) The golden age of the federations of Montrado and Mandor (1777-1839) Reinstatement of the Dutch authority (1818-1825) Transformation and conflict (1840-1850) The end of autonomy (1853-1884) Chinese democracy on the west Borneo frontier