The Port

Reviews / Votes

'A fascinating historical exhumation of a port known to specialists, but not to the general public (though by virtue of its importance, as Xing Hang shows, it should be). A truly interesting read.' Eric Tagliacozzo, Cornell University 'In The Port, Xing Hang provides a tour de force history of the rise and fall of Ha Tien, a Chinese creole frontier entrepot on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Based on meticulous research in multiple languages, this book adds significantly to recent scholarship on the New Qing Maritime History and the Chinese diaspora by skilfully analyzing the complex interconnectedness between Chinese officials, merchants, refugees and poets, pirates, Buddhist monks, and French Catholic priests, as well as indigenous Viet, Khmer, and Austronesian populations. The author writes in an engaging and thought-provoking style that will make this book a must read for students and scholars interested in Asian history and comparative studies.' Robert J. Antony, Guangzhou University 'This study of Ha Tien (in modern Vietnam) shows how the Mo clan drew on the networks of trade, ethnicity, kinship, and Chinese culture to create a cosmopolitan hub that retained its own distinct identity. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the 'water world' in early modern Southeast Asia.'Barbara Watson Andaya Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawai?i at Manoa