Quotes from Anthony Reid

Chinese migrants had learned from long experience to expect little of governments, and to rely much on the networks of kinship, culture, and trust.

Paradoxically, the period of liberation from European power structures marked an unprecedented embrace of modern European cultural and political norms. It marked probably the most dramatic iconoclasm towards Asian traditional cultures of any period in history.

The more balanced power equation between women and men Below the Winds encouraged serial monogamy and easy divorce for both parties… Hybridity was therefore the norm for these cities, up to the point when communication with the homeland became so well established that its prejudices were imported.…. Southeast Asian women were therefore the pioneers of cultural interaction with outsiders, a creative role appreciated by neither nationalist nor imperialist authors.