Delta on the Move Lecture Series

Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

Via Zoom
2022-03-18 16:30:002022-03-18 17:30:00Asia/Hong_KongFunny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

Delta on the Move Lecture Series
Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

Dr. Ka-Kin Cheuk
(Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong)

Date/Time: March 18, 2022 (4:30 pm HKT)
Language: English
Venue: Conducted via Zoom
Enquiry: (Email) ihss@hku.hk

    2022-03-18 16:30:002022-03-18 17:30:00Asia/Hong_KongFunny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

    Delta on the Move Lecture Series
    Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

    Dr. Ka-Kin Cheuk
    (Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong)

    Date/Time: March 18, 2022 (4:30 pm HKT)
    Language: English
    Venue: Conducted via Zoom
    Enquiry: (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Title:

      Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

      Speaker:

      Dr. Ka-Kin Cheuk (Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong)

      Date/Time:

      March 18, 2022 (4:30 pm HKT)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Title:

      Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports From China to Dubai Through Indian Trading Networks

      Speaker:

      Dr. Ka-Kin Cheuk (Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong)

      Date/Time:

      March 18, 2022 (4:30 pm HKT)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Abstract

      Chiefly drawing on his ethnographic fieldwork in the district of Keqiao in Zhejiang Province since 2009, Dr. Cheuk argues that irregular financial transactions — conceptualized as “funny money” in this talk — play a significant role in the sustenance of otherwise tenuous business relations between Indian traders and Chinese suppliers in the China–Dubai fabric trade. Much of the fabric exported from Keqiao to Dubai relies on intertwined formal and informal transactions operated by Indian trading networks. These labyrinthine transnational funny money transactions aim to circumvent institutional hurdles and overcome deficiencies in operating capital, yet inherent to this system is a cycle of payment lags that cause tense relations between payers and payees. Funny money transactions facilitate eventual payment in most cases most of the time and maintain enough trust to keep the trade network alive. Furthermore, the interlocking circuits of funny money also prevent the overaccumulation of wealth and power by any particular stakeholder involved in the international trade and defy or at least circumvent the formal political authority of state and financial institutions that seek to curtail such practices. These transactions thereby create a larger space for business survival among the grassroots players, especially Indian traders who may not have enough capital available when they initiate a deal with a Chinese supplier.

      About the Speaker

      Dr. Ka-Kin Cheuk is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History at the City University of Hong Kong. He previously held teaching and research positions at Universiteit Leiden, NYU Shanghai, and Rice University. Trained as an anthropologist, his research revolves around the study of migration, transnationalism, and inter-Asian connections, with transregional focuses on China, Hong Kong, India, the Middle East, and Europe as well as the US and the UK. His recent publications include “Transient Migrants at the Crossroads of China’s Global Future” (a special issue of Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration 3:1, 2019), “Teaching Ethnographic Research Methods in the Time of COVID-19: Virtual Fieldtrips, a Web Symposium, and Public Engagement with Asian American Communities in Houston, Texas” (Teaching and Learning Anthropology 4:1, 2021), and “Making Mumbai (in China)” (in Lisa Björkman, ed., Bombay Brokers, Duke University Press, 2021). At Rice University, he received three teaching grants, including an Inquiry-based Learning Teaching Grant and a Course Development Grant for developing new, alternative, and decolonizing teaching methods in Asian studies, Chinese studies, and anthropology. Having conducted fieldwork over the past decade on the Sikh diaspora in Hong Kong and on Indian traders in southeast China, he is currently developing a new project on the transnational flower industry and environmental ethics in China and Scotland.

      Organizer

      This is an event organized by the “Delta on the Move: The Becoming of the Greater Bay Region, 1700 – 2000” Research Cluster.

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