The Generous Face: Concepts of Personhood and Trade among the Papua New Guinea Chinese

THE GENEROUS FACE Concepts of Trade and Personhood among the Papua New Guinea Chinese

Submitted by Margaret Wilison for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London

April 1989

ABSTRACT

This thesis focuses on the principles among the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Chinese traders of generosity, social subvention, and an expanded concept of self, particularly how these concepts work to balance social contradictions between the communal ideology of the society and the competitive individualism of capitalist commerce. Generosity emerges as a system for simultaneously negotiating status and for maintaining equality within the community. The concept of 'face' and strong community identity where all PNG-Chinese consider themselves kin, create the environment for the principle of the expanded self. In this principle, the identity of self expands spatially to include all members of the community, and expands temporally to include ancestors and unborn children. This concept of self gives all action a dual place, that for the single person and that for the expanded needs of the community. Social subvention is the way in which profit is used to maintain the concept of the expanded self.

The ethnography of the thesis begins by describing PNG-Chinese traditional trade store knowledge and practice. The narrative then moves on to discuss the recent changes in trade practice that have accompanied radical changes both within and outside the PNG-Chinese trading community. The PNG-Chinese are currently expanding their enterprises

and becoming involved with national and international corporations. The final chapter discusses current concepts of trade strategy, power, and management, particularly in relation to the maintenance of community values and identity. The conclusion touches upon the effect of the recent influx of Chinese immigrants from Asia.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowl edgeinents

1

Introduction

4

Chapter 1 - Apprenticeship to a Tradition

28

Chapter 2 - The Generous Face

77

Chapter 3 - Social Subvention and the Expanded Self

128

Chapter 4 - The Winds of Transformation

180

Chapter 5 - Innovations in Trade

221

Chapter 6 - Between Poppies and Power: An Evolving Concept of Trade

259

Conclusion

307

Appendix A



Bibliography

326

332

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As with any thesis, the number of people I would like to thank are too numerous to mention. However, to several I must express my appreciation. Firstly I wish to thank the foundations and groups that provided funding for the research and writing-up of the research. These include: Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research; the Pacific Cultural Foundation; the Central Research Fund; The London School of Economics; Opportunities for the Blind and the Committees for the Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown Awards.

The PNG-Chinese made the research possible. Their generosity to me in the field, both emotional and by inviting me to take part in their lives meant more than I can express. I often intruded upon their privacy, their time and their goodwill. I only hope that what I produce will be useful for them and their children.

The following people I must thank by name although I wish to emphasise that they are in no way responsible for my analysis or any errors I may have made: Aloysius and Ling Chow; Jo Anne Chow; Clement Chow; Henry and Colette Chow; Perry and Pauline Chow; Eric and Susan Chang; Avi and Joseph Chow; Sharon and Phil Collison; Paul and Kathy Chue; Sharon Choi; Jenny and Michael Chow; Lily Dickson; Joseph and Kathy

1

Foung; Wayne and Pat Golding; Jan and Simon Hui; Anita and Peter Heijcoop; Larry Lim; Paul and Winnie Luk; Robert Leo; Julie and Ron Lee; Roger and Maureen Mack; Paul and Fran Ning; James Seeto; Loretta and Greg Seeto; David and Sekiko Seeto; Linda Seeto; Jeff Tsang; Sam Tam; Jeanette and Michael Wong; Robert Wong; Garth Wong; Gene Wong; Richard and Miriam Wong; Peter and Helen Yun. Other people who were of particular help in the field include: Christine Bradley; Rosemary Preston; Michael Oliver; Betty Wilkinson; Premier Ronald Tovue; Jacob Simmet; and Ron May.

For the entire thesis writing process I wish to thank my supervisor, Alfred Gell. His creative energy did much to spark the ideas the thesis contains. The thesis writing seminar and the support of my fellow students are what gave me the ability to actually complete, and their criticism was very helpful. In particular I must thank: Marina lossifides; Maria Phylactou; Yingkwai Huong and Johnny Parry. I am also grateful to the following people who gave me support by encouraging me to write or who gave me support by dragging me away from the writing: Christina Toren; Tom and Julie Hoehn; Maarten Merkelbach; Mauro Nasciinento; and Lucia Lamounier. Hugh Baker helped by reading and making criticisms on the manuscript. Beverly Britton of the LSE Library gave me much appreciated consideration and Jean Canfield spent many appreciated hours typing the various drafts of the manuscript. I also wish to thank Toh Chee Hong for

2

providing the calligraphy.

My family has continually encouraged me in this project, giving both their financial and emotional support. They have also given me a security that made the project possible. Finally I wish to express my appreciation to Jeff MacDonald for all he has given me.

3

INTRODUCTION

Research with the Chinese traders of Papua New Guinea took me into a theoretical realm I had never anticipated. The PNG-Chinese showed me that a gift does not necessarily lead to exchange or debt and showed me one overseas Chinese community where an emphasis on status works for community equality rather than the promotion of hierarchy. Throughout the research, I kept trying to force their principles of giving into the procrustean bed of gift exchange, or commodity

transactions to

create debt, or into anything that

was familiar. But each day, the PNG-Chinese kept showing and telling me that such an analysis of their relationships was wrong. By the end of my fieldwork, they had convinced me that deep in the midst of Melanesian gift exchange cultures exists a culture where status is gained directly from generosity rather than reciprocally, via exchange. One aim of this thesis is to explain the habitus 1 which makes this realisable as a practical strategy.

].. In using this term, I loosely follow Bourdieu (1972:78) in his definition of habitus as: 'the durably installed generative principle of regulated improvisations, (which) produces practices which tend to reproduce the regularities immanent in the objective conditions of the production of their generative principle, while adjusting to the demands inscribed as objective potentialities in the situation, as defined by the cognative and motivating structures making up the habitus.'

4

The PNG-Chinese community is sharply bounded and its internal unity is strong. The power of their sense of community, was brought home to me at a talk I gave for the University of Papua New Guinea at the very end of my fieldwork. Several PNG-Chinese attended the talk (the first time, I was told, that members of the group being discussed had been present at an anthropological seminar in Papua New Guinea), which clearly made several of the audience uncomfortable when they were asking questions. One man asked what happened if a person wanted to leave the community, what kind of censure they encountered. I found his question incomprehensible. 'What do you mean?' I asked, 'marry an outsider or maybe live overseas?' 'No', he said, 'this seems a restrictive society to me. I mean just cutting ties altogether.' I was flabbergasted, 'You mean leaving your parents, your brothers, sisters, cousins?' He nodded, 'Well, essentially how else could you get some freedom?' I was incapable of coping with his query and asked 'But why live then?' The man gave up. After the talk, one PNGChinese congratulated me, 'A stupid question, but you handled it well.' I thanked him but continued to feel disturbed. The power of this sense of community which had so deeply affected me, is a current which flows through the entire description and discussion in this thesis. The vitality of communal sentiment is what makes the principles of generosity, the concept of person, and the ideology of trade found among the PNG-Chinese possible.

5

These Chinese have specialised in trade, setting up small shops for the indigenous population in almost every town in the country. These stores are now a familiar landmark, intrinsic to a pan-Melanesian culture. Beyond the trade store, PNG-Chinese now see themselves as 'traders' in more extended contexts. By 'traders' they mean the exchange of goods and services for money and for the creation of profit. This is the definition I shall use throughout the thesis.

Although I refer to the PNG-Chinese as 'Chinese' throughout the thesis, this is culturally a term derived more from a loose connection to Chinese origins than a cultural identity. 2 The PNG-Chinese use this term for themselves which justifies its use here, however the more I consider my information, the less I can describe the culture as 'Chinese'. Certainly all Chinese immigrant groups adapt and change to the host culture, but they retain a basic Chinese cultural discourse. Similarly, the PNG-Chinese have been influenced culturally by Melanesian and Australian practices while retaining many values that are traditionally Chinese.

2. In this thesis 'Melanesian' is used to refer to all Papua New Guineans and 'European' to the general expatriate population. Although the great majority of expatriates are Australian, the term in general usage in Papua New Guinea is 'European' for all people of European descent. A Filippino immigrant community is currently rapidly expanding in Papua New Guinea, many of them brought in by the PNG-Chinese as skilled technicians or accountants. (This is discussed in Chapter 6.) These people and other immigrant minorities are referred to by their ethnicity, ie, Fi]ippino, Indian, etc.

6

However, the resulting habitus that has come from this cultural mix seems unique among overseas Chinese. In describing their principles and values, a constant temptation was to align it with traditional Chinese moral discourse or to findings of other writings on overseas Chinese. This would have been unfaithful to the PNG-Chinese. I cannot in this thesis attempt to decide if the PNG-Chinese have developed a pan-Melanesian culture. They are in a unique position of having close contact with Highianders and Islanders, and as a cohesive group themselves, internalising parts of these cultures into their own. Also, aspects of traditional Chinese society found in most overseas Chinese societies such as the importance of credit, of debt and obligation in relationships, the undervalued role of women in business, and the construction of hierarchy within the community do not carry much weight among the PNG-Chinese. Although the history that produced the current PNG-Chinese society is vital for understanding it, the culture presented here must be read as an independent one, not as the echo of a larger parent culture.

This study has tried to approach the analysis of an overseas Chinese community from a new angle. A large number of studies of overseas Chinese use an historical approach (see Chin, 1981; Sa-Onoy, 1980; Wickberg, 1965; Wu, 1982). Although these studies have provided valuable information on the development of these Chinese communities, it has often

7

been at the expense of other potential avenues for exploration. This thesis is not an historical analysis and the history included serves only to assist the reader in understanding the background that led to the current PNG-Chinese situation. This thesis is an analysis of the contemporary situation as it existed in 1986 and 1987. Papua New Guinea is an exciting, independent, developing nation. The PNGChinese, as part of the rapid transformation of the country, are a vibrant force. This thesis looks beyond the changes in external features of trade to present a model of trade concepts that appears unique to the PNG-Chinese. Freedman (1979:243) and Lim and Gosling (1983) both stress that among overseas Chinese, business ties are, above all, interpersonal relations; a principle that is also applicable to the PNG-Chinese traders, but rather than analysing the structure to reveal community values, this study seeks to describe the PNG-Chinese habitus as a means to understanding practice. Practice is a concept much discussed by theorists such as Bourdieu (1972), Ortner (1987) and Bloch (1987), and is here used as a concept which emphasises the action of PNG-Chinese community relations and trade. The principles underlying PNG-Chinese trade are abstract and difficult to convey without subverting their essential fluidity. By letting the representation of the concept evolve through the principles of generosity and the expanded self, concepts that carry inherent fluidity in their interactional definition, the role of perpetual motion within the practice of the community be-

8

comes clear.

Scholars have already devoted some attention on Chinese in the South Pacific, although many of these studies have been historical or have concentrated exclusively on kinship. Several studies have appeared on Chinese in Australia (Huck, 1968; White and White, 1983; Yarwood, 1967) New Zealand (Grief, 1974; Fong, 1959) and Hawaii (Glick, 1980). Some work has also appeared on entrepreneurs in Tahiti (Coppenrath, 1967; Moench, 1963) and Fiji (Wong, 1963; Yee, 1976). Three scholars have focused their research on the Chinese in Papua New Guinea. Dr Cahill conducted exhaustive historical research using Australian administrative archives and interviews. From this research, he wrote several papers and a Master's thesis which provide a record of the interaction between the Chinese community and the German and Australian administrators through the years of colonial rule. Unfortunately none of his work has been published. (Cahill, 1971; 1972). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, two other independent social scientists, Dr Christine Inglis and Dr David Wu, conducted field research with the PNGChinese. Dr Inglis emphasised the 'particularism' of the Chinese community, as it related to trade, credit and staf fing (Inglis, 1978:69-76) She has also written on the position of women in PNG-Chinese trade (forthcoming). Dr Wu has published extensively on the PNG-Chinese, focusing on history (Wu, 1970; 1982), adaptive qualities as a minority

9

group (Wu, 1978), kinship (Wu, 1975), on Chinese as an intrusive language in New Guinea (Wu, 1977) and on credit (Wu, 1974). For his analysis he relies particularly the work of Francis Hsu, Maurice Freedman and Frederick Barth. All of the above research was conducted before Papua New Guinea became an independent

nation,

a factor which has

dramatically affected the PNG-Chinese community. However, it is this previous research, in part, which has made the analysis in this thesis possible. A habitus is the product of a history and all of these works provide insights into the specific 'past' that influenced the concepts and practice explored in this thesis.

Before turning to the contemporary scene, I will, by way of an introduction briefly discuss my methodology, the population of the PNG-Chinese, the history of the community and the trade store,

including

aspects of intra-ethnic and

religious conflicts.

Methodology I conducted the field research for this thesis during 1986 and 1987, mostly in Rabaul and Port Moresby, two major centres of PNG-Chinese trade in Papua New Guinea. I arrived knowing no one and with no contacts. Shortly after my arrival, I needed a dress for an American Embassy party and bought it from a boutique owned by a PNG-Chinese woman. She suggested I begin research in Rabaul. I already knew that

10

Rabaul had been the historic centre of the community, but was unsure how much of the community still remained there. "The Chinese are not so busy there", this woman said, "They will have time to talk with you". A fellow anthropologist knew a woman in Rabaul who had been married for many years to a PNG-Chinese man and this woman kindly offered to meet me at Rabaul airport. Her husband introduced me to a PNGChinese friend of his. This friend introduced me to another and then the process of introductions continued. For a time I lived with a PNG-Chinese family and for a time I lived alone, but in close contact with several families. I worked for an extended period in one trade store and for shorter periods in four other trade stores of various types to give me a larger base for the analysis. With the assistance of the Provincial Government, I conducted a survey of all of the trade stores, both Chinese and Melanesian, in the Rabaul area. After I had worked in the trade stores for several months, a PNG-Chinese wholesale company allowed me to work with them for about a month. Besides the research in the trade stores, each day was filled with that combination of social interaction, informal discussions and formal interviews which forms the core of the participant/observation method of research.

After spending seven months in Rabaul, several traders suggested that in order to understand PNG-Chinese society, I should visit other areas. I followed their advice and

11

visited relatives of the Rabaul traders, many of whom I had by now met during their visits to Raubal, in Lae, Mount Hagen, and finally, Port Moresby. In this move I was in many ways following the historic movement of the PNG-Chinese themselves. Similarly, as the trade store has given the PNG-Chinese a foundation from which to enter international business, my understanding of the trade store society of Rabaul gave me the necessary background and contacts to go on to explore the international companies that are mainly based in Port Moresby. Here I was introduced to the families who are developing national and international companies based on the trade store model. I did not work in any of these companies, but visited them many times, sitting in on trade negotiations, discussions and, as a visitor, taking part in the daily PNG-Chinese social life of trade. I also spent most evenings during my seven months in Port Moresby with PNG-Chinese traders discussing trade and other interests of the community. Although some PNG-Chinese were understandably suspicious of me and of the research, and may in the end disagree with my analysis, the entire project is a co-operative venture between myself and the PNG-Chinese community. During the writing up I have continued the interactive aspect of the research by sending chapters to various members of the community and asking for their reaction. My aim is to produce an analysis that is useful to the PNG-Chinese as well as to scholars.

12

Population About 1,200 PNG-Chinese now live in Papua New Guinea. 3 They comprise only a very small minority in the general Papua New Guinea population of about 3 million. 4 However, their influence, both in trade and as friends and classmates of elite Papua New Guineans (see Willson:forthcoming) is considerable. They live mostly in the urban centres, the major population being divided between the Port Moresby area and the historic centre of the PNG-Chinese population in Rabaul. The PNG-Chinese community also extends to families in Lae, Mount Hagen, Kavieng, Madang, Kokopo, Kieta, Wewak and other towns.

Rabaul is often called the most beautiful town in Papua New Guinea. Built by the Germans on Simpson Harbour, it is perched between a ring of volcanoes and the sea. The bay itself is a giant caldera and is dotted with several island craigs. However, the lush tropical green of the volcanoes and the azure of the bay cover an earth active weekly with tectonic and volcanic tremors and periodically with actual volcanic eruptions. Despite a history of recent (1937-43) eruptions and 'tidal' waves (1971), Rabaul with an estimated population of 10,078, (The Message, 1986:2), remains a busy 3. The census figures no longer divide the population to include an ethnic category for Chinese, so an exact number is impossible to give. My figures are based on actually counting the families and on an unpublished population survey conducted in 1987 by Frank Ng. 4. The population in 1980 was 2,978,057 (National Statistics Office, 1982)

13

centre for the island area in shipping, cocoa, copra and coconut oil. The Tolai 5 are the major Nelanesian inhabitants of the area and have exerted a continual influence on the general PNG-Chinese culture.

The PNG-Chinese population now lives in two major areas of the town stemming from the original German town plan drawn up in 1905. One area is called '1lalay Town' (or New Chinatown) and is a mile from the town centre. The shops in this area are now mostly vacant and entire streets have a feeling of desertion. Because of a decrease in the PNGChinese population and change in the community, community 5. 'Tolai' is the name generally used by the PNG-Chinese for the major group of Melanesians who inhabit the Gazelle Peninsula, however: "In the past there was no single name for the various communities living on the Gazelle Peninsula. The expression 'Tolai' itself is used in the vernacular of the Gazelle as a mode of address or greeting, usually where the kinship relationship or personal name is not known. It corresponds roughly to the use of 'mate' or 'comrade' in other cultures. The first reference to its use as a group designation that I have been able to discover occurs in an item contributed to the Rabaul Times by a Wau Correspondent in the mid-1930s. This leads me to believe that the modern usage came into being as a categorizing device, non-Rabaul natives seizing on the use of the greeting to designate a distinctive category within the heterogeneous native population then gathering on the New Guinea goldfields ... The term 'Tolai' has now been fully accepted by the people of the Gazelle Peninsula" A Epstein, 197l:370n. PNG-Chinese do make a distinction between the people of different villages and areas, particularly villages they know well from past: close connections through living in them during the Second World War, through living on plantations near these villages, the villages that provide the specific customers for their trade store, or because of a close connection to a specific village through Melanesian friends. In general however they refer to these people as 'Tolai' to distinguish them from Bainang or other Papua New Guinean peoples.

14

clubs and halls now stand empty. Most of the PNG-Chinese who live in this area are people who have remained in a family home (while others have moved to the 'better' residential area across town) or wholesalers who do not wish to move their base of operations. Although this area is now a poorer section of town, the PNG-Chinese who live there are not necessarily less wealthy or have less community status than PNG-Chinese who live in the more up-market area of town.

The second concentration of the PNG-Chinese businesses is near the local market and along Malaguana Avenue (see map). The families running these businesses either live in houses attached to the trade stores or in separate residences off Malaguana Avenue. These residences were originally built for the expatriate European residents, but with the decrease of the expatriate population and the relaxing of segregation after Independence (1975), the PNG-Chinese have tended to move to this district.

In Port Moresby, the PNG-Chinese population is scattered throughout the city and environs, although the major concentrations of both businesses and residences are in the Boroko, Hohola and Gordons areas. Port Moresby, with a population of about 150,000 is a rapidly changing city and the PNG-Chinese community is in a constant state of flux to maximise their economic role in the city.

15

The PNG-Chinese community is now comprised mainly of people who consider themselves either of Hakka or Sze Yap descent. The Hakka are a non-Cantonese people, originally from north and central China. They were often nomadic and have retained a distinct culture. The Sze Yap (four districts) are a sedentary Cantonese people from southern Kwangtung Province. These two peoples were not only different culturally, but they spoke different dialects and had a history of animosity. The Christian church has also exerted a considerable influence on the PNG-Chinese community. The Chinese community had until recent years an internal division between the Catholics and the Methodists and between the Sze Yap and the Hakka groups. Although the line was not distinctly drawn, the Hakka tended to become Methodists while the Sze Yap became Catholics. For a variety of reasons, the Catholics held greater economic and social influence after World War Two. This animosity has played a role in the development of the PNG-Chinese community and will be discussed in Chapter 5•6 When Papua was opened to the Chinese in 1957, it was the Methodists who tended to leave Rabaul, looking for new areas where they could expand their commercial enterprises. The Catholics, already well established, tended to remain in Rabaul. At Independence, many Catholics, feeling the brunt of the Matangan movement 6. For a fuller history of the Catholic-Methodist conflicts see Cahill, 1972 and Vu, 1982.

16

•

:..

:.•::.........

..:.

•.•.

3 CD

I 3

a

I I

0

U U U

;

ff 7.

4

/

.Avt

Ue!.q

//

1\"

I

\

0

II

\Jk7#

I1 V

4

in Rabaul and having a great deal to lose from having their property taken from them, left. Rabaul remains largely a Sze Yap and Catholic community. The result is that in Port Moresby, Hakka and Methodist businessmen are exerting their influence. With this equalization of influence, the sharp division between the groups has diminished. Inter-marriage is now acceptable and the younger generations will soon have little knowledge of these differences of the past.

Hi story In the 1889, the Germans of the New Guinea Koinpagnie began to contract male Chinese from Singapore and later direct from China, whom they employed to work on plantations and as builders at Hotzfeldhafen on the New Guinea mainland. Malaria and other tropical illnesses killed nearly half of these men. Others deserted. The Germans flogged the deserters they captured, leading some of the Chinese men to suicide. The Germans did not find all the deserters however and some escaped to East New Britain and Namatanai where they became settlers and traders. Because so many died, the Germans decided the Chinese were of 'inferior' quality and repatriated them to Asia after their contracts expired.

Then in 1910, the Germans moved their administrative capital to Rabaul. They needed carpenters and other artisans. Again, partly because of difficulties in importing 'Malays',

17

(actually Javanese) they decided to employ Chinese. Lee Tam Tuk (Mi Tarn), a resident Hakka merchant in Rabaul 'was made responsible for arranging the passages of tradesmen and skilled labourers to Rabaul. He collected a capitation fee from the Administration, was granted the lease of 17 acres of land on which to establish a Chinatown and the monopolies on rent collecting on his lease, gambling and opium importation'. (Cathay Club Inc., n.d.:2) Many of the imported artisans became traders for the German companies and soon several of the companies hired as many Chinese traders as they did European. These Chinese settlers did not remain employed by the German companies and after a few years began to go into business for themselves. About 100 went into manufacturing, and 185 in building. Others worked as shipwrights, engineers, and market gardeners. The Occupation of World War I prevented repatriation for six and a half years and during those years the Chinese began to think of Papua New Guinea as their home.

The Chinese came to Papua New Guinea as second class citizens and the Germans and later the Australians paid them wages to fit their status. Both the Germans and the Australians placed restrictions on the Chinese, allowing them to enter few occupations. They mainly allowed trade. They also allowed recruiting, but this basically consisted of forcing or tricking Melanesians into leaving their home to work on a plantation. Only a certain kind of man could

18

do this work, so for most Chinese, this left trade. Trade also allowed the Chinese to become self-employed and independent, a value still highly regarded today. Men who were able, saved their money and returned to China to find a wife. When the wife arrived, shEloften started a trade store while the man continued to work for a wage. 7 These shops usually began with just a few supplies in the front room of the home. Lee Tam Tuk and other early Rabaul Chinese wholesalers gave goods on credit, encouraging even those with very little money to open stores. After the wife sold the goods, she could repay the wholesaler and buy more goods, again partly on credit. In this way, she gradually increased her stock until she was actually running a store. She stayed open long hours and sold the goods her customers needed. Most traders also bought copra from their customers which they could sell to increase their profits. Once the wife had established the shop and it was turning a reasonable profit, the husband could resign his job and join her in managing it. These Chinese-operated stores were, 7. Vu's (1982) findings contradict this statement as he reports that men started the trade stores and women became involved above the clerical level only in the 1960s and 1970s, and then only to manage a secondary store while their husbands managed a more central one. Inglis (forthcoming) however, concurs with my findings that women were centrally involved at least since the Second World War. PNG-Chinese, both men and women, referred to their mothers and grandmothers as the central figure in the trade stores. In a survey I made of the PNGChinese trade stores in Rabaul (September 1986), a third of the stores named a woman as the central manager, while over half claimed the store was jointly managed by a team that included women (husband-wife, siblings). The central management role is not easily defined in many PNG-Chinese trade stores because the stores are intrinsically family ventures.

19

and remain, family ventures.8

By 1914, the Australians became nervous that the Chinese traders, who paid more for the copra than did the Australians, would encourage the ?4elanesians to raise their prices. The Chinese traders also sold their trade goods cheaper than the Australians. The Australians reacted by trying to restrict the Chinese traders. These restrictions were not very successful and many Melanesians continued to trade at Chinese operated stores. The English had already gone one step further and barred the Chinese from Papua. This ruling backfired however, and as Rowley reported, 'the existence of the Chinese community (and other factors) meant that after the war (World War I) the New Guinea territory was much more attractive to economic development than Papua.' (cited in Hudson, 1971:73)

Despite the restrictions, the Chinese community slowly grew and traded with the local population. They sold such items as machetes, rice, and lap laps, which rapidly became necessities to their customers. Some of the shops, particularly those in urban Rabaul, specialized in tailoring, making the uniforms and other clothing for the Europeans. 8. Although the strong role that PNG-Chinese women take in trade and business generally is rare among overseas Chinese, women do have a business influence in other overseas Chinese communities as well. For example, in Thailand 'the wife assumes full charge (of a shop) when the husband is absent'. (Coughlin, 1960:121) For discussions of the traditional role of women in China, see Baker, 1979, and Johnson, 1983.

20

Other shops imported fancy goods from Asia. The major volcanic eruption in Rabaul in 1937 was only a minor setback for the Chinese. More annoying were new Australian restrictions. One allowed men who married overseas after 1922 to bring their wives into the country for only three years. Then the wives had to return home for seven years before they could return to Papua New Guinea to spend another three years with their husbands. Still, the community prospered and continued to trade until World War II.

During the Second World War, the question of citizenship of PNG-born Chinese became an awkward one. Although PNGChinese now considered Papua New Guinea their home, they were not Papua New Guineans. Nor did the Australians accept them as citizens. So when the Japanese attacked Papua New Guinea, the PNG-Chinese in different areas had varied experiences depending upon the local colonial policy. Luk Poy Wai, one of the few exceptions to the restriction against Chinese in Papua, continued his tailoring business in Port Moresby by providing uniforms and other clothing to the troops. (Interview data, Paul Luk, Port Moresby, May 1987) In Lae, the Australians made a last minute offer to the Chinese that if they walked to Wau, the Australians would evacuate them there. Unfortunately as most families included older people and children, the walk was impossible. The Chinese instead built themselves a camp in the bush outside Lae where they lived relatively unmolested by

21

the Japanese. (Interview data, Wan Jin Wah, November 1986) In Rabaul, the Australians did not evacuate the Chinese. As China and Japan had already been at war for some years, the Chinese in Rabaul had a great deal to fear from the incoming troops.

When the Japanese did land, they forced the Chinese at Rabaul and Bougainville to live in settlements that could easily be compared to concentration camps. The conditions of these camps varied depending upon the Japanese officer in charge. Many Chinese died. Some were shot by the Japanese or died under Allied bombing; others died under torture. Others died of malnutrition, malaria, dysentry, and blackwater fever. Relations between the Chinese and the local population were mixed. Some Tolai and resident Sepiks used their position of power over the Chinese for personal advantage. Others gave food and in some cases hid the Chinese in their villages at great risk to themselves. As for the Chinese, some, notably Mr. Chin H. Meen, helped the Australian troops. (Interview data, Raymond Chin, Port Noresby, April 1987) Most, however, had enough concerns worrying about their personal and family survival. In 1955, one girl described her experiences during the war: "In the Second World War, in 1942, the Japanese invaded New Guinea and brought to us a great deal of hardship. I was only six at the time that the enemy first landed, but I can remember the latter part of the Japanese occupation. In Kavieng the Japanese made us camp together, with some European Roman Catholic Sisters, one Father and some Malayan people, in the forest for 22

about 18 months. Before going to camp, the Chinese, both young and old, had to go to build the houses ready for the rest to move in. After we had moved to the camp, the Japanese only supplied us with food for approximately six months. From then on, we had to use our own food which we had planted during those few months, such as sweet potatoes, yams, taro, bananas, tapioca, soy-beans, pumpkin, beans and Chinese vegetables. We were occupied at this from 6am until 6pm. We rested only at lunchtime and on Sunday. We had to work hard; otherwise we would have died of starvation. Sometimes we wondered how we remained alive. We had to use our initiative to get things we wanted; for example we had to make salt; to cook coconuts to obtain oil; to make saucepans and kettles out of any galvanised iron which we could lay our hands on, because we soon ran out of both saucepans and kettles. Whenever we wanted to go out to obtain salt water, or coconuts, we had to seek permission from the Japanese officer. We had to be back at a certain time, or we would have got into serious trouble and been punished. We had only one well, to use for bathing, drinking and washing our clothes. The water was not really fit for drinking; sometimes the well nearly dried up and we became really worried. After living there for more than a year we had plenty of food but the health of the people was failing because the mosquitoes were plentiful and we had no mosquito nets to keep them away. As we had no drugs at all, this cost the lives of some of the people. Luckily for us, the war stopped early; if it had not, it would be hard to say what would have become of us." (The Beacon, 1955) After the War, the Chinese returned to their shops and homes to find that what the Japanese had neglected to destroy, the Allies had. They started again, some with war compensation money, although the distribution of war compensation money was uneven throughout the community. Those who either received advice, had connections, or themselves understood

23

how to manipulate the system, received enough compensation to re-establish themselves comfortably. Others received almost nothing. One family could claim only a piano they had owned before the war. Their compensation was reduced however when they admitted that they had already accepted a bag of rice as 'compensation' for the piano during the war. The j (see Chapter 2) helped many without funds to begin new businesses. The PNG-Chinese saved their money and some bought plantations as the Australians lifted the restrictions against their ownership of land. As the traders re-established their homes, they looked again to the education of their children.

Before World War II, most of the Chinese children attended one of two mission schools (largely funded by the Chinese themselves). The Catholic Church had established, before 1925, a school for Chinese children that became known, because of its close association with supporters of the Kuolnintang, as the 'Kuomintang School'. Chinese business people also established other schools as alternatives for parents who did not wish their children to attend the Catholic school. The Australian Administration did not provide a school for Chinese, 9 so these schools, one controlled by the Catholic mission and another that became af9. Asians were not allowed to attend the school for Europeans and Chinese parents did not want their children to attend the 'native' schools, both because of a class division and because these schools were taught in Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin).

24

filiated to the !4ethodist mission, became the major primary schools for PNG-Chinese children. (Cahill, 1972:104). For secondary schooling, the wealthier Chinese had sent their sons to Hong Kong or China. In the late 1930s, a few went to Australia. The war interrupted any plans of schooling, but after the war, a first priority was to rebuild the schools. Grammar school students could attend either a Catholic or non-Catholic school and secondary school students (both male and female) had an increased opportunity of completing their education in Australia. By 1954, the Australian Administration no longer allowed Chinese language or classics taught in the schools. This, combined with the PNG-Chinese children going to Australia for secondary schooling, pulled them further and further from China (Cahill, 1972:150-183). With the increased educational opportunity, most of the wartime generation finished high school. The next generation, those who are now in their 20s and 30s, had further opportunities for education, either at university or in such specialised fields as accountancy. Now the PNG-born Chinese have the education to diversify into other fields outside the trade store)-0

10. For more on the history of the PNG-Chinese community, see Rowley, 1958; Lyng, circa 1921; Souter, 1963; Reed, 1943; Bevon, 1890; Jinks, Biskup and Nelson, 1973; Whittaker, 1975; Sack and Clark, 1980; Salisbury, 1970.

25

Organisation of the Thesis This thesis is a progression, each chapter building upon the last to create a full view of the PNG-Chinese concepts and practice of trade.

The first chapter is largely ethnography of the traditional PNG-Chinese trade store, but is presented through the PNGChinese concepts of trading 'knowledge'. This chapter begins the analysis of PNG-Chinese values of continuity in trade through discussions of the PNG-Chinese interactions with Melanesian staff and customers.

The second chapter delves into the practices of generosity and sharing within the community. This chapter presents a model of giving which incurs no debt, an emphasis on status that does not imply hierarchy, and a unity between kin who are trading competitors. As with the other chapters of this thesis, this second chapter has been sent to the PNG-Chinese for their comments and criticisms and has emerged as a cooperative effort from this interaction.

The third chapter is on the PNG-Chinese concepts of the person and how this relates to both their practice of trade and their values on generosity. The fourth chapter begins the discussion, carried on through the fifth chapter, of the changes in the trading practices that have occurred since Independence (1975). While Chapter 4 explores the largely

26

external influences that assisted change, Chapter 5 gives an analysis of the actual working of the new trading concerns. Chapter 6 is an analysis of the new trading concepts that have emerged when the values of generosity and personhood that were tied to a more traditional trade store are confronted with the pressures of national and international ventures.

The Conclusion ties together several of the thoughts and problems raised in the rest of the thesis. It also looks to the future of Papua New Guinea, the PNG-Chinese and the potentially explosive social and economic pressures the country is currently facing.

27

CHAPTER 1 - APPRENTICESHIP TO A TRADITION

The trade store is at the core of the PNG-Chinese community. It allowed PNG-Chinese to become independent entrepreneurs and trade has become a symbolic focus for their concepts of personal and ethnic identity. The trade store and the PNG-Chinese traders 1 are now an established institution in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the financial stability of their trade stores has, over the last 80 years, earned the PNG-Chinese traders a reputation for success among the general Papua New Guinea population that reaches almost mythic proportions.

The PNG-Chinese themselves present their ability to run a profitable trade store as a specialised form of knowledge. Properly used, this knowledge will allow the trader to produce, if not millions of kina (the currency of Papua New Guinea), 2 certainly a good and steady income. Their trade store knowledge has developed from their ancestry and generations of trading in Papua New Guinea: their practice of

1. I am using the term 'trader' in the sense that the PNG-Chiriese use it. They call any person involved in an occupation where goods or services are exchanged for profit, a trader. Information collected on PNGChinese now resident in Papua New Guinea shows that 93% are directly involved in trade. The initial list of PNG-Chinese that made this data possible was provided by Fred Ng (Port Moresby). 2. Papua New Guinea currency is based on a decimal system with 100 toea to one kina.

28

trade has developed through collective memory. This collective memory is bounded by the parameters of the PNG-Chinese community both in space and in time as their shared perception of history and knowledge of Papua New Guinea.

(cf.

Halbwachs, 1980) Levi Strauss's or Saussure's ideas of collective or episëMnological unconscious do not allow for the very conscious choices the traders make in their practice of trade. Their trading knowledge is neither 'intuitive' nor 'unconscious', but rather a regenerative process structured around learned concepts, in Bourdieu's terms, a 'grammar of practice' (1977:20). The regularities of this trade practice have developed via past success so as to create principles of trade which are passed on from generation to generation. These principles have become a kind of second nature and their practice so self-evident to those who have acquired knowledge of them, that they are nothing but 'common-sense' •

Most PNG-Chinese traders learn the specific elements that form this communal knowledge of trade store practice in childhood, and internalise the fundamental principles until they become an implicit creed of business behaviour. This knowledge is like a craft and the learning of it like an apprenticeship. The PNG-Chinese trading community is

3. 'Common sense' is also used to make legitimate any action based on general practice: opening times, pricing, accounting and staff relations.

29

analagous to a mediaeval guild in that all members are united through their communally held knowledge. Inherent in this apprenticeship of trade store knowledge is the assimilation of a philosophy; the outward manifestation of the philosophy is the prescribed practice. The philosophy is a product of cumulative memory and has a fluidity that gives the practice an ability to adapt to change without disrupting the continuity of the community. This system works on a principle of harmonious balance with each person, business, or specific practice, reacting to and generating motion in others. The entire PNG-Chinese society is layer upon layer of these interconnected elements. Together they form a cohesive fabric whose 'grammar' is invisible to the eye without knowledge. To understand the philosophy, we must first understand the practice. The aspects of the practice that relate to the physical building and daily management of the trade store are the most accessible of the trader's knowledge; they also dictate much of each individual's daily life.

The BuildincT The location of the store is of primary importance. If choice of location is possible for an urban trade store, PNG-Chinese say they know that the block of land should be near the area of greatest residential density or near a local market. The shop should be on a corner because, as the traders have observed, people will never walk further than

30

necessary (and a corner is a common meeting point) and if a corner shop can provide the customer with the goods he or she wants, that customer will go no further. A location on a main street is also favourable, particularly if it is on the side of the road that will catch the evening traffic (the left side if one is leaving town). In the evening, people have sold their goods at market and want to spend the money they have made. A position that catches the morning traffic is less good because the people are on their way to the market or jobs and have no money to spend. Public transport 4 will stop at select trade stores in the evening to give their riders time to shop, but they only stop for ten minutes or so. Few riders cross the street, but instead rush into the nearest trade store to buy what they need for the evening meal. The trade store that can attract truck loads of customers will be packed with 40-50 customers at any given time between the hours of 4.30-6.3Opm. This location catches outgoing traffic also attracts the urban worker who gets paid every second week on a Friday at finishing time. A worker who has just been paid will usually be generous to his or her wantoks and spends much of his/her pay in one trade store. In the relaxed hours of the afternoon heat, a shop that faces east and can provide afternoon shade will also attract customers who will sit outside in

4. These are privately owned mini buses and trucks that have a licence to carry and charge passengers. They are free to stop at whichever trade store they choose.

31

the shade and come into the shop when they want a drink or something to eat. However, a shop on a dead end street or facing the oncoming road at a T-junction is unlucky and should be avoided.5

The PNG-Chinese trader is not concerned about the proximity of his or her trade store to other shops, indeed a shop near other shops is preferable because the group of shops, as a 'shopping area' will attract customers and is seen as an asset. If a person can find a shop position that can combine all of these advantages and avoid the disadvantages, he or she will have what the PNG-Chinese call a 'goldmine'. Generally the PNG-Chinese weigh the advantages and disadvantages of any prospective shop location against the cost of the shop and try to make a decision that will be the best long-term choice for their family.

Certain design features of the building itself are important. The exterior of the shop should include an awning that will provide shade and encourage people to sit outside 5. This rule is based on fen g shui (wind-water) often called Chinese geomancy. Geomancy is a technique to balance the interaction between humans and the world. The aim of geomancy is to 'harmonise the cosmological characteristics of the time, the landscape and individual people' (Weller, 1987:147). People hire a trained geomancer to select correct grave sites or house position to ensure that they have a good energy. Certain placing of objects within a home can also promote a better fen g-shui energy. (For a detailed discussion see Weller, 1987; Feuchtwang, 1974; J Needham, 1969.) The PNG-Chinese do not claim to follow the rules of fen g shui except for very important markers such as the placing of an ancestral tablet. However their ideas of 'lucky' and 'unlucky' positions follow closely on these principles.

32

passing the time chatting with friends. In the course of time,they will come inside the shop for a drink or something to eat. Many PNG-Chinese in Rabaul also prefer to paint their shop very bright colours: orange, cherry red, hot pink, marine blue, and lime green. The road beside the central market in Rabaul, Casuarina Avenue, is a mosaic of colour that gives each shop an obvious individuality it would otherwise not have. The underlying reason for the bright colours is not clear. The PNG-Chinese say that they attract customers and that bright colours keep a relatively clean appearance, particularly as they disguise the dark red betelnut juice stains people splatter on the buildings when they spit in the street.6

Central to the front of the shop is the shop's name. The shops in Rabaul and most other areas of Papua New Guinea do not use Chinese characters on their signs (because few PNGChinese or their customers read Chinese). The names are in English or Tok Pisin and are often the name of the family who runs the store, the family member who originally started the store, or family members that the family still wish to give respect by using their names.

Papua New Guinea Land Board regulations require a shop to cover the entire width of a plot (Tam, circa 1972:3) so the 6. Originally the shop colours probably had a Taoist and/or symbolic meaning (Eberhard, 1983; Lip, 1978a; Lip, 1978b).

33

depth of the shop is the area for variation. PNG-Chinese recommend that a shop be at least 1000 square feet and has a bulk store 7 of at least 500 square feet. The ceilings should be a minimum of 11 feet high. This is both to improve ventilation and to allow room for stock, such as lap laps8 and bicycle wheels, to be hung above the heads of the shoppers. In this way, the ceiling becomes a display area as are the walls, improving the use of space.

Ventilation is

important for both the customers and the shop workers. In a hot climate, the air inside an enclosed space quickly becomes oppressive, particularly when that space is full of sweating, breathing bodies. After a shower, the air becomes damp and ventilation helps to keep the stock dry. The best openings for ventilation are large doors that can be left open and windows near the ceiling that will allow air flow but will not obstruct valuable display area. These windows are necessary weaknesses in the security of the shop and must be barred, because Rascals 9 will soon discover unbarred windows and rob the store. Ceiling fans are important to improve this ventilation and are placed about six feet from 7. A bulk store is a space separate from the shop where excess stock is stored 8. Lap laps are large pieces of cotton that many Melanesians use for clothing. They are generally about six feet long and three feet wide. Those for the men are often plain, but others are decorated with a huge variety of designs and colours. 9. Rascals are young men and women who rob, murder and rape in a way that is deviant both to tribal custom and urban Papua New Guinea society. They have become an increasing problem for all Papua New Guinea residents, European, Melanesian and Chinese alike, since Independence.

34

the walls, so they will give maximum air to customers and to the shop keeper at the cash box. Fans so placed, also ensure that they do not hit any staff who are climbing on lower shelves to reach items displayed near the ceiling. The walls are lined with shelves six feet long and two feet high. These shelves are divided into small sections of about two feet long to allow them to support the heavy tinned food while other larger shelves display clothing. In addition to the shelves, the shops have display cases made of glass and wood. Most PNG-Chinese traders prefer sliding doors for these cases because they save room. All shops include hot water for cleaning and power points for at least a refrigerator and food warmer. The floor of the shop can be packed earth, but most PNG-Chinese prefer cement. Customers carry in with them dirt from the road and they drop litter on the floor. In the rush to refill shelves or serve customers when the shop is busy, shop workers often drop bags of sugar and rice. The bags break and sugar and rice get thrown all over the floor. A cement floor has the advantage that it can be swept easily and cleaned daily. A floor of fancy tiles or other material that could be damaged by customers or that requires special care would not only be extra wasted expense but could also make customers uncomfortable and PNG-Chinese know that if customers are uncomfortable, they will go elsewhere. This specific PNG-Chinese style extends to other areas of the shop interiors. Shops are lit well enough for the customers to see the merchan-

35

dise, but not garishly. If the lights are too bright, they waste money and make the customers feel exposed. The desired effect is to make the customers feel as though they are trading in an extension of their own village.10

The cash box 11 is a focal point in the shop. PNG-Chinese shops tend to have one major cash box which is controlled by the PNG-Chinese themselves or by a trusted Melanesian or mixed-race (Chinese-Melanesian) staff person. Near the food counter and often near the liquor stall they may have a secondary cash box for change. The person at the cash box handles all large bills and the other staff bring these bills to him or her to change. PNG-Chinese use this system because many Melanesian staff are unable to give accurate change for these bills and other Melanesian staff who can give the change cannot be trusted to withstand the lure of the big bills.

PNG-Chinese consider it important to take their staff into consideration when they design the interiors of their stores. The store should include toilet facilities for staff and in most cases accommodation as well. Their accoin-

10. A group of lights, particularly an outside light, is left on at night to discourage thieves. Some people prefer to have the control switch for the lights in the staff quarters in their home so that they can control it and save money. 11. In the trade stores, this is usually literally a box where the traders keep cash.

36

inodation should be at least one large room with washing, toilet and cooking facilities for each family or group of men. Few Melanesians who come to work in an urban trade store have their own accommodation, and housing in the towns of Papua New Guinea is scarce. If staff is forced to find their own housing, they may have to live some distance from the shop. Many shops close after 6pm. At that time, evefling is beginning to settle and travel becomes dangerous for both men and women. Women particularly cannot be expected to travel after dark either on foot or on public transport. Indeed few women would agree to such conditions. If the PNG-Chinese do not live at the shop, staff living on the premises provide protection by discouraging thieves. However, traditionally, PNG-Chinese prefer to live on the property as they will then be near if problems occur after closing time. Although the trade store is usually basic, the PNG-Chinese homes at the back are often spacious and modern. This is where families spend a great deal of time and they do not resent spending a moderate sum of money to make it comfortable. An additional advantage of having a home attached to the trade store is that it allows the family flexibility to continue their domestic duties while they also attend to those of the shop. This way they can cook themselves better meals for lunch and spend more time with their children.

37

The Stock Beyond the building a PNG-Chinese shop is recognisable by the type and amount of stock traders pack into one space. Every store includes certain essential items 12 but must also cater to the individual demands and needs of the customers in its particular area. The PNG-Chinese assess the needs of 12. These include: bread, meat pies, cream buns, hard biscuits, sweet biscuits, coarse cut tobacco, twist tobacco, matches, soft drinks, butter, eggs, chicken wings, onions, ice cream, torches, sewing needles, flavoured milk, lollies, tinned meat, tinned fish, crisps, shorts, shirts, handkerchiefs, underpants, men blouses, lap laps, children's clothing, thongs, sanitary napkins, combs, mirrors, cups, mugs, plates, basins, kerosene stoves, saucepan, umbrella, traveling bags, steel wool, moth balls, torch bulbs, balloons, clothes hangers, flints, tea, sugar, salt, coffee, tinned milk, cooking oil, soap, Chinese medicinal balms, Tiger balm, batteries, pillows, pillow-slips, kerosene, biros, pencils, exercise books, rulers, rubber bands, pencil sharpeners, mosquito coils, insecticides, toilet paper, sun-glasses, hair cream, hair dye, tooth paste, tooth brush, shoe polish, blankets, babies' napkins, safety pins, lanterns, cotton thread, baby powder, baby oil, fishing gear, envelopes, rice, monosodium glutamate, soy sauce, wool, aspirin, bandage dressing, plastic jewellery, bush knives. From a survey of 95 trade stores in the Rabaul area, that I conducted in September 1986, trade stores sold the following groups of commodities. Melanesian PNG-Chinese (63 stores) (32 stores)* grocery clothing tobacco liquor household (inc. fishing) electrical fast food petrol other

36 31 31 9 30 5 12 3 1

26 30 13 4 26 2 8 0 1

Compare this to the list given by A.Epstein for stock carried in a Melanesian Matipi village store where the list is similar but much less extensive (A Epstein, 1971:369). *These figures give an indication of what PNG-Chinese sell, but in some cases are slightly misleading because some trade stores that responded by saying, for example, that they did sell 'electrical' goods would indeed carry small items a house might need.

38

their specific customers and try to determine what they can offer that will fill these needs. If the item sells, they buy more; if an item does not sell, they will reduce the price to get rid of it or give it away as a gift. Stock that does not sell, dead stock, can be extremely dangerous to the business. Shelf space is limited and a crucial principle of a trade store is to maintain a good cash flow between expenditure and profit. Dead stock upsets the cash flow balance and can destroy a trader if he or she does not get it off the shelf. The dangers of dead stock become complicated because a trader should also have at least one or two of every conceivable item a customer might require. If a customer comes into the shop and asks for something the shop does not have, he or she will go to the next trade store. The PNG-Chinese say that once he has found what he wants elsewhere, a customer will not come back.

For continued profit and just to make the daily routine in the trade store more interesting, PNG-Chinese often introduce new items into the store, buying just one or two to see if their customers like it. The better the shopkeeper knows his or her customers, the better he or she can spot new items that will become popular. These new items are important because they encourage people to buy more, but also because customers take them back to the village and discuss them. That makes the shop, as well as the item, an object of discussion in the village. Others may want that new item

39

or are just curious to see what else the shop offers. In this way PNG-Chinese encourage whole villages to buy from them. In addition to new stock, the traders also buy and display 'seasonal' stock or stock that will be used in the village by their customers for ritual purposes)

3

The PNG-

Chinese can only provide these items because, as long-time residents of Papua New Guinea, they have knowledge about the culture of their customers. They are aware that the colour of all stock or stock packaging is a sensitive issue and a product in a colour that has low symbolic value for the customers will be left on the shelf. The preferred colours vary according to the season and the area. In Rabaul for example, shops begin to carry black and white (men) women's blouses and lap laps at Easter because these are preferred for Easter sin g sin g s 14 . Shops also carry brown and black shoe polish. The customers do not use this for shoes, since most do not normally wear them, but use it instead to rub on their bodies to make their skin a smooth brown or blue-black for rituals and other special occasions. Because of their long association with Melariesia, PNGChinese understand not just the specific Melanesian culture that surrounds their specific trade store (eg, the Tolai and Bainang people for the PNG-Chinese traders in Rabaul) but

13. An example of this would be feathers, or other goods for ceremonial dress. 14. sin g sings are dances that are celebrated at certain times of the year or at certain festivals.

40

also pan-Melanesian cultural behaviour.

The positioning of stock makes the difference between a shop that is clumsy and inconvenient for both the shopper and staff, and one that is a smoothly working unit. PNG-Chinese display all items so that the customer can easily see them. They are aware that many customers dislike asking for an item until they have seen it and know the price. If the customers do not speak Tok Pisin or simply do not feel like talking, they will nod to the item they want. If they cannot see an item, they do not know what size nor what colour of packaging they would prefer. Regular customers learn the contents of a shop quickly and often just stand beside the item they want until a staff person can serve them. If they cannot find an item easily, they will abandon the project or go elsewhere. This, of course, is the last thing the PNGChinese trader wants to see.

PNG-Chinese group stock in categories relating to those items customers will buy at one time. This means the staff has to run around less to collect the items and reminds the customer who is scanning the shelves that he or she should buy salt as well as the sugar just purchased. The main division is between grocery and non-grocery. Within the grocery category, traders display the tinned food and staples (sugar, tea, rice, matches, batteries, bread, butter, salt) as close together as possible. Cigarettes and

41

coarse tobacco (and leaf tobacco and betelnut if the shop sells these) stay near the cash box, not only because they are a major seller, but also because they are easy to steal. Soft drinks and snack foods (crisps, candy, meat pies, flavoured milk, cream buns, cooked meat, fried and battered bread) are displayed together because people buying food to eat on the spot will often buy nothing else. At lunchtime and towards evening these areas get extremely busy and staff trying to serve cannot be hampered by having to deal with unrelated items. Fishing gear and bush knives are displayed in the quieter corners of the shop. Kerosene lamps, mantles, and other such hardware are located in another quiet area. A customer needs to examine these items, deciding which fish hook he needs or which is the correct glass for his lamp, and such scrutiny and discussion takes time. The customer buying these items does not want to be hurried and he requires extended individual attention. Placing such items a distance from the centre of the shop allows both customer and staff to talk at their leisure and ignore whatever bustle may be occurring elsewhere. Clothing is a similar kind of item and is displayed some distance from grocery and food. The exception to the clothing category however is lap laps. Customers who come in to buy food will also often buy a lap lap if they see one they like at a good price. So most PNG-Chinese hang lap laps from the ceiling between the entrance and the cash box where customers can hardly avoid noticing them.

42

Trade stores that sell liquor, (four of the PNG-Chinese shops in the Rabaul area in 1986), must display it in a separate 'bottle shop.' In most PNG-Chinese shops traders make this area secure by placing a barred partition between themselves and the customer and walling the area into a separate space or at least placing it some distance from the major cash box. PNG-Chinese find liquor a delicate item to sell. It returns a good profit and turns over quickly, but it also brings its own problems. When male urban workers get paid, they often buy beer or hard liquor. After they have drunk the liquor, they will return for more. A shop that sells liquor must deal with these drunken customers. These customers easily become belligerent and argue about the amount of cash they have or have not paid for the liquor. One customer may try to steal liquor from another customer. PNG-Chinese dislike involving the police in any aspect of their lives, but if a drunk customer becomes too obnoxious, they will make that threat and even telephone the police if they cannot get the drunk to leave. Because of such problems, the PNG-Chinese keep liquor in an area of the shop where it will not disturb the other customers and they prefer to have men rather than women serving behind the liquor counter.

The percentage mark-up on many items such as butter, beer, sugar, bread and poultry is price controlled 15 by the Papua

43

New Guinea government and government inspectors come to the shops to ensure that shop keepers adhere to these regulations. Other items, such as clothing and matches, are not price controlled and the shop keeper sells them for whatever price he or she thinks gives a reasonable profit, balancing initial cost against shelf expectancy. Generally the price of these items is controlled by an informal consensus between the traders. If one shop is selling lap laps for five kina, another shop across the road cannot expect to sell the same quality lap lap for eight kina. Also, Rabaul PNGChinese traders do not generally under-cut each other because of the resentment such action would cause with other PNG-Chinese. Over the years, the traders have determined how much mark-up they need to maintain a profit and they follow this tradition.16

15. Price control is a percentage mark-up set by the government, but with certain costs of the retailer (such as a freezer allowance for butter and margarine) taken into account. As a part of this price control, all item prices must be clearly marked with a ticket, placard or label. The previous tables give an idea of percentage mark-up allowed and actual prices for cigarettes, as an example of one price-controlled item. 16. Here the market practices of the PNG-Chinese and the Tolai resemble each other, for the Tolai sellers at the Rabaul market likewise do not undercut each other with competitive pricing of commodities. (For more on the Tolai in the market, see A.Epstein, 1971 and T.S.Epstein, 1972. T.S. Epstein (1982) shows a lack of competitive bargaining among New Guinea markets in general, a market behaviour Brookfield (1969) noted in other Pacific markets. The PNG-Chinese seem to have adopted this market behaviour to the trade stores. See also Davis, 1973 on the lack of fierce competition in a Philippines market for similar reasons).

44

The mark-up is not always related to initial cost. If the trader buys, for example, babies' tee shirts, one lot at 50 toea and another lot at Kl.50, the trader may sell both at K2.50, this being the price the customer can afford and will pay. What is lost on one lot will be gained on the other. This pricing is thus not a set calculation of profit against cost, but is a loose judgement based on knowledge of the customer and the general costs of the trade store as a whole. It is however the very small items, such as matches, which are not price controlled and have a high turnover that create excellent profits. A small box of matches might sell wholesale for 2 toea, but the trader will sell it for 10 toea. 10 toea is cheap for the customer and he/she will often buy matches. Matches, like batteries, are consumed and must be continually replaced. Other items are regularly sold at a lower mark-up than government regulations, eg, 'long-life' milk (6%) and bread (7%). This mark-up will return almost no profit to the trader, but he continues to sell at that price as a 'service' to encourage shop loyalty. Many traders prefer to price their retail stock in tens or fives (25 toea, K1.20, etc.) to make addition simpler for themselves and for their customers. The mark-up of an item is also influenced by what the PNG-Chinese consider a 'fair price'. Matches with their huge mark-up are still considered a 'fair price' because the retail price is still a low one that the customers can afford. By contrast, lap laps, which as clothing would generally have at least 100%

45

mark-up, sell for much less. Part of the reason is that lap laps are clothing which sells quickly, allowing the trader to make a profit through the quantity he/she sells. Another reason is that the price of the lap lap would be prohibitive for many customers with 100% mark-up and the trader is aware of this. The lap lap is a necessity in Rabaul, and putting a high price on it would not be considered reasonable or 'fair'. The 'fair price' is one that is practicable to both trader and customer.

In serving, the traders and their staff generally scatter change across the counter to allow both the customer and the trader to check the change at a glance, thus to prevent either side being short-changed. When the shop is crowded, 50 or more people may be pressed against a counter some 15 feet long, all demanding service at once. At these times, the trader just throws the change in the general direction of one customer, while he/she rushes to serve the next. The customers keep track of their own change as well as that of the people around them. The sound of the change, metal on the heavy glass counter, together with the shouting of the customers trying to get served, creates an atmosphere of exitetnent that both customers and many traders enjoy.17

17. PNG-Chinese like this kind of noise, using it in the same way during a inah jorig game by snapping the plastic tiles against each other or onto the table. They say the noise adds to the excitement of the game.

46

Methods of

purchasin g

Stock

The PNG-Chinese traders in Rabaul buy their stock from local wholesalers, regional wholesalers, overseas agents, and a few buy direct from overseas exporters. 65% of PNG-Chinese who consider themselves of Cantonese descent buy only from local suppliers, while all those who consider themselves of Sze Yap descent, buy from both local and overseas suppliers. 18 The Asian-Chinese buy almost entirely from overseas suppliers. All of the Chinese and mixed-race traders favour PNG-Chinese wholesalers when they buy locally, although they will buy from the Australian wholesalers if these shops offer a specific item the trader wants and cannot find elsewhere.19

Among the PNG-Chinese traders a specific division exists between the kinds of goods they buy locally and those they buy from overseas suppliers. Items bought locally include

18. This distinction stems from the historical class division among the PNG-Chinese that created a difference in opportunities for overseas education and trade connections. See Wu, 1982 and Inglis 1978, for a detailed description. 19. The buying pattern of the PNG-Chinese traders in the Rabaul area is quite different from that of the Melanesian traders of whom only four stores buy overseas. Stock supp lier (Where stores buy their stock)

Trade Stores Melanesian (63 stores)

Local wholesaler Overseas PNG regional

62 4 1

47

PNG-Chinese (32 stores) 17 21 11

grocery and hardware goods. In 1986 Rabaul had six PNGChinese wholesalers. All of these sold groceries, but each specialised in a particular area. The PNG-Chinese traders know which wholesaler carries which products and about once a week, they visit that wholesaler and buy stock. For the rest of the stock, a method of using Asian-Chinese agents has developed.

Trading Agents Papua New Guinea was until recently isolated from the rest of the world. Transportation was difficult and the traders worked such long hours at their shops and had so little opportunity to get away that they needed to find a method of obtaining stock that allowed them to remain in the shop.

After World War II, agents from Hong Kong and Singapore began to travel on a semi-annual circuit of islands in the South Pacific that included the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The agents often worked for themselves, through a larger importing agency out of their home base. These agents came, and still come, carrying huge bags of samples. They go from trade store to trade store, wherever they can find a Chinese trader who wants to buy from them, showing their samples and taking orders. These agents seem to be in the tradition of the 19th century business go-betweens of South China (cf. Doolittle, 1966:451-455). Agents of a similar kind also sell in many other Chinese communities of

48

Southeast Asia. Generally the agents in Papua New Guinea can only sell from Monday to Thursday, as the traders are too busy to see them on Fridays or Saturdays. The agents also often work after hours to accommodate the traders, showing their samples after dinner when the trader has time to look at them. Many of the agents speak several languages to help them in dealing with the various clients. They all speak Cantonese, and many speak English and Tok Pisin as well.

One typical agent speaks English, Tok Pisin, Can-

tonese, Mandarin, and Hakka. The agents take the orders they receive from traders back with them to Singapore or Hong Kong where they turn them over to 'export houses'. The export houses are a collection centre for the varied goods from different warehouses. These warehouses can get their stock from manufacturers in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, China, Poland, and other countries, but will stock only one kind of item. They supply the 'exporting houses' who gather together the items and package them by area or customer. The exporting houses then ship these packages to the traders who have ordered from the agents. The exporting houses give the agents a 5% discount and the agents add a 5% mark-up when they sell to the traders, making a total mark-up of 10%. At such a low profit margin, the agents must retain a substantial number of clients to remain solvent.

Agents who have traded for many years in Papua New Guinea say that in the early years, the PNG-Chinese treated them

49

as inferior, thinking that Asia was an inferior place to Papua New Guinea. Many of the PNG-Chinese with whom they dealt had never been to Asia and had little idea of the modern conditions of Singapore or Hong Kong. The agents say that the PNG-Chinese never invited them into their homes, nor invited them to stay. Some PNG-Chinese admit that this was the case. In the last 15 years however, the situation has changed as PNG-Chinese have begun to visit the Asian cities, where they find that the Asian-Chinese salesmen go out of their way to be generous hosts to customers. After seeing the sophistication of the cities and receiving this generosity, the PNG-Chinese now reciprocate, accommodating the roles of both customer and seller into their trader identity. In consequence, few of the salesmen now stay in hotels for their visits. They usually stay with one family who will continue to be their major contact for years. These salesmen become friends with the families, bringing them gifts and doing favours.

Such friendship does not constitute an obligation to conduct all or indeed any of their business together. As the PNGChinese are fond of reminding each other, "Business is business." The salesmen, like the traders themselves, also have several standard tricks they try on customers. They bring out their most expensive items first, claiming these are the cheapest they have. Then when the trader has ordered what he or she wants, the agent will bring out the

50

cheaper goods. The trader knows the cheaper goods will sell well in the shop, but he is often too polite to take back the goods he first ordered. Also the buying is a long process. Each item must be examined individually. Most traders will continually ask the advice of Melanesian staff people, seeking their opinion of what they think customers will like. The exchange of views serves the dual purpose of making staff involved with the buying process by giving them some influence over stock, as well as enlarging the trader's insight into the current colour and style preference of the Melanesian customers. The agent knows that the trader has neither time nor inclination to go through the process again when he brings out the cheaper goods, but he also knows that few PNG-Chinese traders can resist a bargain. In this way, the trader can end up buying more than he intended. This is what the agent hopes for.

An advantage of these agents is that the traders can buy a small quantity from them at a wholesale price but some agents will only sell goods in set lots. If a trader wants to buy some lap laps, he often cannot buy all blue or black ones - or whatever colour sells best in his area - but must buy sets of five colours each, including such colours as pink or white that he knows will not sell. This ploy allows the agent to off-load unpopular colours. Until recently the PNG-Chinese traders were too polite to refuse the terms; they just accepted the stock and counted it into their

51

costs. Some agents do not sell in lots, but they may ask a higher price per unit. The trader must make a conscious choice, weighing the risk of dead stock against the advantages of a lower unit price.

These small tricks are an accepted part of trading and even the smallest shop-owner expects them. Until recently these agents had a position of considerable power among the traders. The traders prefered to deal with Asian agents because they spoke Cantonese. Although quite different from Asian Cantonese, PNG-Cantonese was until recently, together with Tok Pisin the preferred language of most of the PNGChinese and for many the only languages they knew. This made the Asian agents much easier to deal with than agents from Australia. Also, the Asian agents were culturally similar to the PNG-Chinese; they conducted business in a way that the PNG-Chinese traders understood. As one trader said, "We were comfortable with the agents, and to a businessman, comfort is important." Also the lack of mobility of the traders has made them dependent upon the agents. Between agents the trader does have some choice however. Several agents visit each area and the trader can buy from any one or all of them.

Agents can retain customers through doing them small favours. An example of this is the manipulation of duty regulations. Some imported items require a larger duty than

52

others. Because Papua New Guinea is trying to promote its own juice industry (although no industry yet exists) duty on juice is much higher than 'juice drink'. Mosquito nets and mothballs carry no duty. So, some agents will agree to import juice in crates marked as mothballs or some other nonduty or low-duty item. In this way the trader can save on duty allowing him to maintain the required balance between a viable profit margin and the retail prices his customers can afford. Generally PNG-Chinese will buy from several agents, but will have particular favourites, based on longstanding connections or how honest they perceive the agent to be.

This system of agents does have problems however. The traders must accurately plan their sales six months in advance as most goods take this long to arrive. The trader must be able to determine accurately how much stock to order. If too much is ordered, losses are made by having too much capital tied up in dead stock. If too little is ordered, they run out of goods and disappoint their customers. A more major problem however is that often they do not receive the goods they ordered. In various parts of Papua New Guinea, colour is again an issue because Melanesian customers have distinct colour preferences. Aiiong the Tolai in the Rabaul area, the women prefer black and blue for their lap laps and men blouses; in the Highlands, red is a favourite colour among both men and women,

53



but in Rabaul among the Tolai, red is generally considered a male colour and the only women who wear it are rau rau (loose) women. Certain colours will just not sell, as for example, pink soccer bags for men. A trader can order several dozen grey and brown soccer bags and receive them all in pink. The trader could refuse these goods but this is not as easy as it might first appear. A trader must generally pay the landed cost of the goods anyway in order to see them. 2 ° Also, they generally understand the problenis of the agent and know that when they refuse to pay 20. Landed cost, according to the General Price Order of 1983, 'in relation to specified goods purchased from outside the country, means the sum of the following amountsa) b)

c) d)

e)

f)

the amount charged by the manufacturer or wholesaler for the specified goods; and buying commission paid by the purchaser to any person not connected with the purchaser not exceeding, in case of goods imported fromi. Australia or New Zealand - 2 1/2%; or ii. any other place - 5%, of the amount specified in paragraph a); and import and export duties, taxes and levies paid by the purchaser of the goods; and the cost to the purchaser, in so far as it is not part of the amount specified in paragraph a), of freight, transport, wharfage, (other than demurrage and storage charges), handling and insurance necessarily incurred in moving the specified goods from their place at the time of purchase to the purchaser's store; and charges necessarily incurred by the purchaser in preparing customs import entires and obtaining bank drafts and bills; and in the case of petrol, distillate, kerosene and aviation gasoline, the cost to the purchaser, in so far as it is not part of the amount specified in paragraphs a) and d), of ocean freight, ocean losses, inland losses, landing charges (inclusive of demurrage), marine insurance and fuel additives.'

54

for the goods, the agent loses. When the agent takes his order and relays it to the central exporting house in his home country, he has little control over what goods the export house actually packs. Some of these export houses see Papua New Guinea as a good dumping ground for the goods they cannot sell in other markets. The Asian exporters realise the traders are in a bind over incorrect goods because the trader has to wait for another six months before the incorrect goods can be replaced. So the exporter will often send a percentage of their unwanted goods with an order. If the goods are not paid for, it is the agent who loses the money not the exporting house. Many of the traders have sympathy for the agents, for they work hard and spend months traveling. When they can acquire enough clients, the agents do well, but they can also lose. So, in the past, the traders have generally accepted incorrect goods, paid for them, and given them away as gifts in the shop or used the material for other projects.

This acceptance has recently begun to change as has the entire system of using agents. Most Asian-Chinese agents sell only to Asian or PNG-Chinese (in Papua New Guinea) and business for them is decreasing. One agent states that he used to spend one month in Rabaul, but now he spends only one or two weeks. He spends less time in Mount Hagen and Lae as well and he no longer visits Kavieng at all. This decrease is partly because the PNG-Chinese population is decreasing,

55

but also because fewer and fewer PNG-Chinese are buying through agents. With improved transport both within and outside Papua New Guinea, the mobility of the traders has improved. Some can now travel annually to Asian ports to buy their stock themselves. Those whose husbands or wives are Asian-Chinese and have language skills in Mandarin or Asian Cantonese, can go to the Trade Fair in Canton or travel to Taiwan if they have a large enough inventory. Increasingly, traders are buying through Australia as close connections with that country have increased. Most of the generation of PNG-Chinese after World War II attended secondary schools in Australia.

This has ensured their

fluency in English and proficiency in Western trading methods. 21 The Japanese also sell in Papua New Guinea through a somewhat different system of distributorships. A company in Japan, say one that makes batteries, will grant the distributorship of its product to one company in Papua New Guinea, and that company has, in theory, exclusive rights to distribute that product throughout the country. The Japanese company will sell to no one else and this means that the trade stores buy these Japanese products through local wholesalers.

21. The Australian agents work in a system similar to the Asian ones, but their mark-up is only 5%, to allow them to compete with Asian prices. If the warehouse gives them a 5% discount, they charge the customer nothing. If the warehouse offers only a 2 1/2% discount, they charge the customer the difference.

56

Such changes have made the PNG-Chinese less dependent upon the agents and they are now beginning to refuse incorrect goods. A recent influx of Asian-Chinese immigrants from Malaysia and Singapore has pushed them towards this move. The Asian-Chinese have more agressive business practices than the PNG-Chinese and they do not have the long-term ties with the agents. The PNG-Chinese have adapted to the Melanesian lifestyle of Papua New Guinea and have less of a single-minded profit drive than do the Asian-Chinese. The Asian-Chinese will often refuse incorrect goods. This creates an imbalance, putting the PNG-Chinese at a disadvan tage for accepting goods they cannot sell. So now, the PNG-Chinese are following the example of the Asian-Chinese. This change in policy could lead to a more considerate trading policy by the Asian exporters: it also gives the PNG-Chinese an excuse for refusing to accept incorrect goods. This allows both agent and trader to save 'face' (the PNG-Chinese concept of 'face' will be discussed in Chapter 2) while effecting a change in the system.

Traders and Their Customers The daily management of a trade store is on the surface a simple affair, but the knowledge PNG-Chinese feel they need to back up that simple daily activity makes it complex. PNG-Chinese feel that they are successful traders because they understand and adapt to the needs of their customers. Just as they stock their shelves to suit the customers'

57

lifestyles, they have developed a style of trade that does the same. A trade store on the main road that buys copra will open early to buy from the villagers when they come to town. 22 The same store will remain open after dark for the market sellers and the wage workers when they return home. A shop near the local town market has no need for late closing as all the market sellers and shoppers try to catch transport back to their villages before dark. These market trade stores must however employ adequate staff to handle the busy Saturday mornings when many people go shopping at the local market. Shops located near a wharf must be aware of the movement of the ships so they can serve the people who are waiting for a ship to depart (as the ships are often delayed this can be hours) or those who have just arrived. PNG-Chinese pride themselves on being flexible; part of this flexibility is gearing their opening hours to the needs of the customers, not to some predetermined restriction of nine to five.

Having grown up around trade stores, PNG-Chinese are aware also of the kind of social interaction their customers want. Many urban Melanesians can now count, add and subtract and they will buy a collection of several items at once.

Vii-

22. In Rabaul an increasing number of PNG-Chinese no longer buy copra. They feel that the small profit gained is not worth the extra work and so leave it to the large fermentaries (of which three are PNG-Chinese operated). For a discussion of the copra industry in the Rabaul area see T.S. Epstein:].968.

58

lagers less used to urban life will seldom trust the proprietor to add up a group of items. Also they wish to keep a closer count on their money as they spend. For these reasons, they continue in the tradition of the early contract workers, 23 the workers buying one item and then presenting the trader with a 20 kina note (traditionally sticks of tobacco) or whatever cash they have. They receive change of perhaps 19 kina and 40 toea and then determine what item they wish to buy next. They will continue to buy, one item at a time, until all their money has been spent. This process may take an hour or more but the PNG-Chinese traders understand the psychology behind this method of buying and accept it.

This kind of understanding creates shop loyalty among customers. Some will continue to shop at the same trade store for generations and these are the customers the PNG-Chinese particularly value. PNG-Chinese do not view trade as a single transaction, but as a relationship that grows and develops over time. Their customers are drawn by the continuity this creates. In the PNG-Chinese stores, the customer knows the trader by name and sight. They exchange jokes and, over the years, a loose friendship develops. For the PNG-Chinese, trade is a process, a continuity of motion between people and families. The commodities they sell 23. For a description of these earlier transactions see Sack and Clark, 1980.

59

are transitory and geared to current fashion. 24 The relationship the traders develop between themselves and their customers is, for them, a crucial principle of trade. This relationship is one reason the Melanesians prefer PNGChinese trade stores over the expatriate supermarkets. 25 As one middle- class Melanesian customer said,

'[The PNG-Chinese] compete well with the supermarkets. A supermarket has all these expatriates who come and go, but there, the important person to know is the checkout girl. But in the (Papua New Guinea] Chinese shops, the management structure is so simple but effective. The family run it on a personal basis and the manager knows you. At Steamies [Steamships, an Australian company], the manager is not important, but at a [PNG] Chinese store, the Chinese behind the counter is the important person and the customer knows that. The supermarket is a cold place, while in the trade store they ask me about my soccer. For this reason I will go to the (PNG] Chinese store and buy a chicken that is 50 toea more than the other. I am willing to pay extra for the conversation.' (Wep Kanaui, Port Moresby, April 1987)

In the expatriate stores, the manager is anonymous and is seldom visible to the customer. He changes every few years and the store has no continuity. The PNG-Chinese stores

24. When I asked too many questions about the objects on the shelves, one trader said, "That's not important. You look, ask me about people. Then you'll understand why the place is black (with customers) today." and another, "As long as I'm in Papua New Guinea, give me anything and I'll trade it. That's because people know me. They trust me." 25. This information is based on interviews of 120 Melanesians (mostly Tolai) at the Rabaul market in October 1986. Although 70 said they had used the large expatriate stores, all but one said they preferred PNGChinese trade stores.

60

are different. The customer deals with the person, not the store itself. Similarly, the PNG-Chinese trader deals with a person or family he/she has watched growing and changing with time. At Christmas or other holidays, many elderly PNG-Chinese who have retired from their trade stores and moved to Australia, will return to visit their children and grandchildren, but also to work for a few hours a day in the shop. Their children will not generally let them work too hard, but the retired proprietors stand behind the counter and wait for customers who remember them from years of trading to come in and say hello.

The customer-trader relationship has incorporated some of the aspects of traditional Tolai concepts of trade. 26 Customers bring in barter goods to trade, a practice carried over from earlier times when exchange in the stores did not involve money. At holidays, many PNG-Chinese shops give small gifts to their customers. These can be items of small value that either will not sell or that have been mistakenly left dusty in some back room and only discovered during a cleaning. The trader wraps these items in bright paper and gives them away. The item is small but the gift 26. The Tolai have traditionally conceived of trade as a medium for profit, and market price currently fluctuates according to the principles of supply and demand, although the PNG-Chinese, like the Rabaul market sellers, tend to consider that they trade in a sellers' market. The Tolai also make a distinction between barter and purchase, having different words for the different transactions, yet the Tolai, like the PNG-Chinese, regard all trade as a social as well as an economic enterprise. (T.S. Epstein: 1972; 1982).

61

makes an important non-cash exchange. The gift is an investment towards the long-term relationship the trader wants to develop with his customer.

Implicit in this relationship is a loyalty that requires a social intimacy. The PNG-Chinese women buy their produce at the local markets and they get to know the people who sell there. They will sometimes buy produce they know is not the best quality from a person who is their customer. One PNG-Chinese woman bought some tiny rambutans from a Tolai woman for the exorbitant price of one kina. The PNGChinese woman then said, in Tok Pisin, "You come this afternoon, buy fresh meat." The Tolai woman laughed and nodded and later that day, when she had closed her stall, she came with her profits to this PNG-Chinese woman's shop and bought tinned meat. (She waited until her friends had tried fresh meat, a new item, before coming in several days later to try it herself.) As an overt monetary exchange, the trader lost because the Tolai woman did not pay an exorbitant price for the meat. However, in the PNG-Chinese concept of trade, the trade had made a positive step towards cementing a trading relationship with the Tolai woman. The specific commodity of the trade was of less importance than the possibilities this transaction presented for the continuing trade. The PNG-Chinese trader did not see this as a single transaction, nor did she see it as an exchange between two isolated individuals. The Tolai woman was in many

62

ways a representative of her wantoks, 27 for to encourage her was also to encourage trade with her fellow villagers. Similarly the PNG-Chinese trader acted as a representative of her family trade store that she co-managed. She herself would not gain individually from the Tolai woman's continued custom, but her family as a whole would gain through the long-term potential of the trade of the Tolai woman and her wantoks. This is a rational choice to create 'symbolic capital', in Bourdieu's (1984) terms, an investment in relationship rather than a direct investment in only cash.28 Mutual recognition made this trade possible. The Tolai woman recognised the PNG-Chinese woman and tied her to the trade store she operated. Likewise the trader recognised the market woman as a frequent customer. The kina passes back and forth between the shopkeeper and the market seller, making both sides think of the business transaction as 27. The concept of wantok is also important to the PNG-Chinese perception of family and kinship. Wantok is a Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin term meaning literally 'one talk', or a person who speaks the same language. In Papua New Guinea, the idea of one's 'pies' (a person's home village) or 'pies tok' (the language of that home village) carries the meaning of a very special relationship. Because Papua New Guinea has so many languages, wantok and 'pies' carry an essence of identity. One wantok has a right to demand favours and goods from another wantok, and a wantok has an obligation to give. In the urban setting, away from the village, wantok carries a special meaning for kinship. The PNG-Chinese use wantok to refer, quite correctly, to each other, to Melanesians with whom they have shared a special relationship for many years (and for whom they have a financial or symbolic responsibility), and when discussing the obligations between Melanesians who are wantoks. To the PNGChinese, the term emphasises their sense of community identity, community kinship, and the parameters for proper generosity and sharing. 28. V Davis, 1973, notes that in a Philippine market the personalised relationships between buyer and seller in the market are a basis for loyalty and have a quality of mutuality or reciprocity.

63

a relationship of exchange rather than a straight cash sale. Trade is a cycle with a specific rhythi understood by both trader and customer. 29 In this kind of transaction, the trader makes a rational decision to invest in a less valuable commodity if it improves social ties and strengthens the cycle of trade.

The trader-customer relationship includes a moral code where some types of behaviour are considered dishonest, while others are merely clever tricks of the trade. On the PNGChinese side, some traders give the initial change for a 20 kina note all in two kina notes. This gives the customer the illusion that his cash is increasing rather than decreasing and makes him less nervous about how much he spends. Another example is, when the PNG-Chinese proprietor gives a small gift and the customer buys several items, the proprietor will add on the price of the gift to make sure he loses nothing (we are talking about 5 or 10 toea). He can also openly lie about the quality of any product, considering the buyer should be observant enough to notice that a higher price does not necessarily reflect increased quality. This banter of small-scale cheating is not onesided. The Tolai market seller was as aware as the PNG-

29. This interaction between market seller and trader is a female one. With few exceptions (and these are single men) the PNG-Chinese women rather than the men go to market. Similarly, during my stay in Rabaul, almost all of the Tolai market sellers were women. (For more on Tolai women in the market, see A. Epstein; 1971.)

64

Chinese buyer that the price she demanded for her rambutans was too high. Similarly most Melanesians do realise the quality of a product as they buy it, and rather than asking for a price reduction - which they know they will not receive - they counter with stories of unequalled disasters that have happened to their families in the past two weeks. Such stories will include sickness, death, despair, family obligations, and recent job loss. When the customer decides to buy an item, he or she often will slide across the counter a sum of money a few toea short of the required amount. If the proprietor catches this deficiency, the customer will open her hand to reveal the rest of the money, look at the proprietor and smile. The proprietor will pretend not to notice. Also customers will often say they do not have quite enough money to pay for an item. The PNG-Chinese proprietors will usually let young children and old people get away with this but seldom others, unless they are extremely busy and cannot be bothered to play the game. When the proprietor refuses to sell the item at the lower price, the customer usually comes up with the required change. Customers will also steal whatever they can. Most proprietors view this with annoyed tolerance, calculating the loss into their running costs. If a shoplifter is caught, different shops handle the culprit in various ways, but few turn them over to the police; most PNG-Chinese have no more wish to confront the police than do the customers. Also a customer in gaol obviously cannot

65

buy anything in the trade store. Some proprietors charge the customer double, giving the excess to the staff who catches them. The general attitude is that they do not want to lose a customer and if they show mercy, but not softness, the customer will be grateful and continue to buy in their store. This is indeed often the result. So, both sides cheat each other in small ways, but generally, except for Rascals, these dishonesties are along prescribed lines and the rules are known to both sides. This small-scale dishonesty adds interest to the day's happenings and both the customer and the proprietor discuss them with annoyance or delight, depending on how they fared.

Retail trade stores seldom give credit to local customers, because these customers have such difficulty in paying their debts. 3 ° The trader may understand and even sympathise with the customer who desires credit, but he cannot afford to carry other people's debts and remain solvent himself. In addition, the customers who owe a debt will begin to feel so guilty at being unable to pay it, they will stop coming into the store to buy. 31 Here the shop loses not only the 30. Inglis, (1978) found this attitude towards credit was already established among the PNG-Chinese by the late 1960s. This is quite a different attitude from many other overseas Chinese who consider the debt relationship as integral to business. PNG-Chinese work towards a relationship of loyalty through long association rather than holding their customers through debt and obligation. For a discussion on the importance of credit in other overseas Chinese communities, see Ward, 1972. 31. A Epstein (1971) discusses some of the problems Tolai face in business that could make it difficult for them to make enough profit to repay such debts.

66

cost of several items but a customer as well. To avoid such problems, most PNG-Chinese retailers just do not extend credit. They will however make exceptions for Melanesians they know, either personally or from many years of trading and whom they can trust to pay. Those who do receive credit already have an established relationship with the trader. Although PNG-Chinese say they do not extend credit unless they are assured of repayment, this is not always the case in practice. Sometimes credit is extended to elderly, poor, long-time and loyal customers. The trader can wait many months for these people to pay, so he or she cannot afford to carry many such customers, perhaps only two. This 'credit' is actually charity, but is euphemised as 'credit' to save the face of the customer. The loyalty of a customer is not encouraged through credit however and loyalty is not a euphemism for indebtedness. Since the PNG-Chinese attitude is that debt will often destroy a relationship rather than cement it, the retail traders generally extend credit only to those with whom they feel confident they will be able to continue their trading relationship in s p ite of a debt obligation.32

32. Barton (1983) makes an interesting comparison in his discussion of the importance of credit and trust relationships among the Chinese of South Vietnam before the communist takeover.

67

Traders and Their Staff The philosophy the PNG-Chinese use to guide their relationship with customers extends to their Melanesian or mixedrace staff. Most PNG-Chinese traders hire large numbers of staff, both to work in their homes and to work in the trade stores. A small shop can get by with four or five staff, but a larger shop can require up to 20. Currently these staff, depending on their job, receive between 50 and 100 kina a fortnight 33 with housing and most food provided. The food depends directly upon the generosity of the proprietor. Some will feed their staff with large contributions from their shops, while others will only give a bag of rice, considering that enough. The attitude of many PNG-Chinese is that what they do not give Melanesian staff, the staff will take anyway, so they might as well gain face through generosity. The staff tend to agree with this view. Again the emphasis is on developing a continuing relationship based on a cycle of give and take, rather than on a transaction with clear boundaries of wages and duties.34

The PNG-Chinese have a strong creed of family privacy and try to keep a clear separation between themselves and staff.

33. The purchasing power of this amount of money would barely feed an urban family. For villagers who have a much lower cost of living it is adequate. 34. This has some echoes of 19th century China and Taiwan where employers gave labourers only a loose definition of duties and payment was not confined to a 'cash for labour' commodity basis (cf. Martin, 1986:20).

68

However, since even the PNG-Chinese who do not have their living space at the back of the trade store spend much of their lives there, an employee can hardly help but notice family issues, and if he stays long enough, becomes somewhat involved. In the same way the trader becomes involved in the life of the employee. This situation is equally true of house staff. Births, deaths, sickness, all become a part of shared knowledge. Staff often look to the PNGChinese trader as a doctor and a person to turn to in case of need. Shop keepers respond with varied generosity. Some will pay bride price for a long-time employee or will pay for the education of a valued employee's children. As one trader said, "I cannot afford to pay a pension for the people who work for me, so I educate their children to make sure they will be able to support their parents in old age." (Interview data: Rabaul, September 1986). In return, some employees will stay with a trade store for generations: grandparents, parents, and children working for the same family. The philosophy of most PNG-Chinese proprietors is that if they are generous with their staff, then they are not ashamed to ask staff to do extra work. 35 At busy times, they will ask staff to work overtime or to skip a lunch hour at short notice. If a shop is busy enough to ask staff to remain behind, the PNG-Chinese family members skip 35. This interaction is quite different from the non-kin employeremployee interaction Wilson observed in a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey, where overtones of exploitation were implicit (R Wilson and A WangPusey, 1982)

69

lunch as well and they also repay the staff with extra food or cash. Between staff and trader, as in most PNG-Chinese relationships, generosity and loyalty balance to maintain social equilibrium.

As in trader-customer relations, the PNG-Chinese traders can maintain a long-term relationship with staff, in part because they have knowledge of Melanesian culture and the way it affects staff behaviour. They pay staff every second Friday. Male staff, once they receive their pay, often spend a portion of it on alcohol and if they get too drunk, do not show up for work the next day. The 'government pay' weekend, also every second week, is a very busy day for most urban trade stores. To avoid being short-staffed on such a busy day, most PNG-Chinese traders prefer to pay their staff on the alternate Friday. The PNG-Chinese do not try to change their staff's behaviour, rather they accommodate the staff's lifestyles into the business practice. This kind of accommodation also makes staff a universal exception to the retail traders' reluctance to extend credit. The PNGChinese are protected with this credit of course, as they hold the cash which will later be given as wages, but their attitude to staff credit also reflects a more complex cultural understanding. Staff are paid in cash, but they can buy items from the trade store on dinau (credit, or to borrow) and this dinau is deducted from their pay. Each store has a special dinau book for the staff and when the

70

staff person wants an item, he just tells the trader the item and price and the trader enters the transaction in the book. This dinau ensures that not all the staff's wages are spent on liquor, a danger both the staff and trader recognise. It also provides staff with some protection against wantoks. The PNG-Chinese realise that wage-earning staff cannot deny the requests of wantoks and in many cases must give away much of their wages. Credit allows them to maintain the important social support of the wantok system while protecting them from the problems of village wantoks coming to share the wealth of the urban migrant wage earner. The PNG-Chinese say that the power of thewantok system is also why many staff steal from the shop. PNG-Chinese traders understand that their staff often cannot charge wantoks full price, or in some cases anything, for items the wantoks want from the store. However the trader expects staff to show judgeinent and only give away cheap items that the trader can afford to lose. When staff start giving away too much however, the trader tries to catch them and charge them. This begins a cat and mouse game that is not satisfying for either side. The PNG-Chinese dislike firing staff because good staff are hard to find, staff take several months to train, and the fired staff's wantoks can vandalise the shop or cause other problems as a form of 'payback' for the firing. All of this disrupts the continuity which the PNGChinese consider so important in all of their relationships. Generally staff do not want to lose their jobs until they

71

are ready to return to the village - urban work is also hard to find - and they only give away what they think the trader will allow.

PNG-Chinese use their knowledge of Melanesian culture in other ways as well. The staff usually work five and a half days a week, but they often ask for time off due to family illness or to attend rituals. The PNG-Chinese feel they have no choice but to accept most of these requests. If they deny the requests, the staff member will go anyway and the trader will know less about when to expect him back. Also, PNG-Chinese tend to feel that the village code is a major factor in controlling the moral and ethical behaviour of all urban migrants and they do not want the power of village commitments destroyed. They try to achieve a balance between their needs and village needs to keep a hard-working and responsible group of staff. Again, they are investing in long-term relationships, de-objectifying business, keeping trade and labour on a level of human interaction and not solely a commodity transaction.36

Conclusion The apprenticeship of trade store knowledge does not require 36. The kind of employer and non-kin employee relations described here should not be taken as standard for overseas Chinese. For examples of other kinds of interaction that include debt obligation, see B M Wilson and A Wang Pusey, 1982. See also Gregory, (1982:141-149) for a discussion of the effects of wage labour, as a commodity, on Papua New Guinea workers in the 1970s.

72

an apprentice to understand the purpose of the rules, it only requires that he or she internalises them. Some traders are not fully aware of the exact relation between their cost and profit. They just mark their goods at the going rate and each day count their money. As long as they come out with some profit, they feel satisfied. Many PNGChinese have learned how to run the trade store from their parents and they just follow what they've been taught. Some do not even understand when and how they pay sales tax whether it is charged to wholesalers or is a part of landed cost or if they can pay it directly. 37 Although these traders keep simple accounts and a loose stock, they

inventory of their

continue to return a profit because they have a

knowledge of trade store practice that is specifically suited to Papua New Guinea. Because the childhood apprenticeship gives such clear directives on trade store management and design, a trader has no real need for innovation; he needs only to save and give his time to the trade store.

In some ways the PNG-Chinese traders have become like a distinct Melanesian group themselves, unique in cultural heritage and language, yet, at the same time, sharing with the wider Papua New Guinea society a common language (Tok Pisin) and many aspects of their world view. The PNG37. Sales tax is not a simple regulation. Sales taxes 'are imposed by some provincial governments, currently only at the retail level and only on a limited range of goods, most commonly beer and spirits, tobacco products and gasoline'. (National Investment Priorities Schedule, n.d. p.33)

73

Chinese see themselves as traders in a Ne].anesian society. They try to cater to the culture they serve and in this way attract customers. Their perception is that of both insider and outsider, working towards a relationship between village and trade store that will continue for generations.

74

Consumer Items - General Limitations on Maximum Wholesale and Retail Prices Consumer Item

%Retail Markup if %Retail imported directly Mark-up or purchased from producer

Aerated waters manufactured in the

14.50

tWholesale Mark-up

14.50

country. Batteries - radio or torch

52.50

26.00

Beer - manufactured in the country

13.00

13.00

Breakfast cereals

28.25

13.50

13.00

Butter

23.25

11.00

11.00

13.00

6. 00-6. 50

Cigarettes - locally manufactured

20.00-20.50

21.00

Coffee beans - ground and instant

27.50

13.50

12.50

Fish - tinned mackerel

23.25

11.00

11.00

Flour

23.25

11.00

11.00

Footwear - rubber & thongs

52.50

26.00

21.00

- potatoes

-

50.00

- others

-

Fresh fruit & vegetables

100.00

Infant Food

24.75

13.50

10.00

Margarine

23.25

11.00

11.00

Meat - Canned Corned Beef

23.25

11.00

11.00

Milk - Powdered & concentrated

24.75

13.50

10.00

Poultry (except ducks,geese,turkeys) 26.00

12.50

12.00

Rice - Brown & White

23.25

11.00

11.00

Soap - Laundry, cakes & powdered

28.25

13.50

13.00

Sugar - White, Brown & Raw

23.25

11.00

11.00

Tea

24.75

13.50

10.00

(National Gazette: General Price Order, 1983)

75

Ci garettes - maximum retail Drice

Retail Specified



Localities

Retail

Specified Other Brand



Pack Locality



Locality

20

.97

.98

Daru Benson & Hedges Size Filter 10 Goroka Blues King Size Filter 20 Kainantu Blues King Size Filter 10 Kavieng Cambridge 20 Kieta Cambridge 10 Kundiawa Consulate No 2 20 Lae Consulate Menthol 20 Mdang Double Ace Filter 25 Mount Hagen Dunhill Virginia 10 Popondetta Dunhill Virginia 10 Port Moresby Dunhill Superior Mild 20

.53

.54

.87

.88

.47

.48

.88

.89

.48

.49

.89

.90

Alotau

Rabaul Samarai Wewak

Benson & Hedges Size Filter

John Player Special Virginia King Size John Player Special Mild King Size Kool Menthol King Size Kool Menthol King Size Peter Stuyvesant Rothmans King Size Winfield Extra Mild Winfield Menthol Mild Winfield Virginia

.97

.98

.91



.98

.53

.54

.97

.98

20

.99

20

.99

20

.95

.96

10 20

.52

.53

20 25



25 25



1.00

1.00

.97 .97 1.02 1.02 1.02

.98

(National Gazette: GENERAL PRICES (AMENDMENT NO 90) ORDER 1986

76

92

.97

98 1.03 1.03 1.03

H;!l

Jirriôr o5 -j jiL {rcde skcr bLLL

.II

r.. -

-i. - -a-.-

--

-1?.

CHAPTER 2 - THE GENEROUS FACE

I asked a young PNG-Chinese boy what he thought of his mother. "She knows how to survive." he said. He smiled" 'I'm like that too." He offered me half of the cocoa pod he had just stolen off a tree. "You're lucky to have me with you, huh? Otherwise you'd get lost. And I can climb the trees and get you all (the cocoa pods) you want." I thanked him. "You're very generous." I said. He looked at me with scorn. "Of course."

What else did I expect? As his mother later explained to me, PNG-Chinese are, by definition, generous to each other, otherwise they never would have survived their history. They are traders, but not everything in life is based on trade. Generosity and consideration for others outside trade give balance and make the community whole. In this chapter I shall penetrate more deeply into the complexities of PNG-Chinese identity, exploring the conflict of community and person through the PNG-Chinese practices of generosity, consideration and sharing.

IDENTITY IN UNITY The PNG-Chinese have an elusive identity. They are ethnically Chinese, but their culture is less easily defined. Most would not consider themselves fluent in Cantonese and if their Cantonese vocabulary fails them, they quickly sub-

77

stitute a word in English or Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin). Few read or write Chinese or know much of classical Chinese philosophy. While they have retained much of the traditional Chinese style of cooking, their dishes have also incorporated Melanesian foods and cooking techniques. Their traditional medicine has become a blend of Melanesian and Chinese. The result is a culture that is neither Melanesian, Australian nor Chinese, but a product unique in itself.

Unity of Lanquace The PNG-Chinese define their identity by the relationships among themselves, by common language, and by historical experience. Their first languages include Tok Pisin because most PNG-Chinese are cared for by Melanesian house staff when they are young. Most adult PNG-Chinese grew up in Rabaul, where house staff speak Tok Pisin in addition to their Pies Tok) These house staff communicate with the parents of the children in Tok Pisin and speak Tok Pisin to the children. Children learn English in school and also learn a PNG-Cantonese dialect very young. 2 This Cantonese

1. Pies Tok is a Tok Pisin term for a person's native language. For more on New Guinea Pidgin see Vurm, 1985. 2. Some examples of the dialect differences between PNG-Cantonese and standard modern Cantonese: ) -burning, as a thing burns up, used for fever in a)f 0 siu ( Papua New Guinea. The standard Cantonese term for fever is fatt siu

78

dialect is dotted with nineteenth century terms no longer commonly used in modern Hong Kong or China and liberally interspersed with Cantonese swear words used in a way that reflects as much a Melanesian and Australian life-style as Chinese. In daily speech PNG-Chinese freely mix Pidgin, Chinese and English. The 'code-switching' (see Appel and Muysken, 1987; 117-128) or ability to use more than one language in a single sentence often serves a poetic function for the PNG-Chinese, both in their jokes and in their swearing, allowing them to use whichever language gives the best emphasis or literary meaning. An example of such a swear word is 'kidi' (

) which literally means 'adopted

younger brother'. An adopted mother, or god mother is ']çj ' (

). Since Chinese men did not traditionally live

) to rain, verb, is Sze Yap, but used as Canb) lock souy ( tonese. The staidard Cantonese term for rain is lock yu ). ) -rain water, noun (literally heaven water). C) tin sui ( ..')'- This is a correctCantonese term but is unusual in standard Cantonese. ) -to lease, in Papua New Guinea is a colloquial use. d) ( ). Yam is the The standard Cantonese colloquial term is C literary or classical use. 'y.going on a holiday. In standard Cantonese the e) han gai C ) -going on a trip. Han gai means walking a term is lou's' han g C short distance, or walking the streets (as a prostitute). j. - f) yau che ho ( ) -going for a drive with the intention of visiting a friend. The standard Cantonese the term does not insinuate intention (cruising). ) (Sze Yap)) or hon san ( 5crnQ g) ton san (ton van) ( In standard Cantonese zhon gwok van China or Chinese person. 41,'L. ) means Chinese person. Ton san is archaic, meaning descend( ants of the Tang Dynasty. For further examples see Vu, 1977.

79

together unless they were relatives, the polite way to refer to men who lived together as lovers was 'n g oh kidi', my adopted younger brother. In Hong Kong this came to mean 'homosexual'. The PNG-Chinese men use the term as a teasing greeting and most translate it as 'bastard'. They are following the Australian use of 'bastard' here, a fond exchange between men who, when they use the term, are showing they are intimate enough to tease each other with mock insult.3

PNG-Chinese often tease each other in this way. Both men and women swear freely in Cantonese, but generally only the men use the English equivalent and then only when they want particular emphasis. Many echo one man's observation that "swearing snds somehow worse in English." Many PNGChinese profess to not having understood what the swear words meant until they first travelled to Hong Kong. Their particular use of Cantonese einphasises an idealised ancestral unity. "We're peasants," as one man said with pride, meaning a simple, straightforward people, pragmatic and honest.

Several other PNG-Cantonese terms reinforce

this identity of peasant (not coolie) or earthy origins. The standard Cantonese for money is '.jj' PNG-Chinese use 'p' (

) but the

) meaning the skin of a fruit.

3. Hugh Baker notes that in Hong Kong, Chinese use this term as an insuit and also in a more friendly way. He said that a variation)ad heard was one man suggesting that another man call him 'ki goh' ( 'adopted elder brother', by implication insinuating that the othe"f"nan was an 'adopted younger brother'.

f -),

80

This term is slang on the streets of Hong Kong and gives an organic aspect to money (Personal Communication, Hugh Baker, 1988). The standard Cantonese term for 'toilet' is 'tse suo

fj-) (enclosed purging spot) whereas the PNG-Chinese use 'xi hung' ( ), meaning literally 'shit channel' or toilet without plumbing. Until the Second World War this indeed was the kind of toilet most PNG-Chinese knew. In normal circumstances this term is not considered rude, but more a reflection of their peasant history.

In addition to Cantonese, most PNG-Chinese speak with varied fluency their family's ancestral Chinese dialect, 4 usually Sze Yap or Hakka. 5 . These dialects intensify a specific identity within the community and, until the current adult generation, a division existed between the two groups within the PNG-Chinese community. This division has become less rigid as the changing conditions in Papua New Guinea have increased social and economic equality between the groups.

4. I use the term dialect here, although I realise many of the classic writers on overseas Chinese prefer the term 'speech group' (cf. Skinner, 1957, Vilmott, 1960). The PNG-Chinese themselves tend to use the term 'dialect'. In addition, Sze Yap, Hakka and Cantonese words have become so intermixed in daily Chinese speech that I think 'speech group' would be overstating the language differences. 5. David Vu, (1977:1050), notes that when he did fieldwork in Papua New Guinea in the early l970s Hakka was no longer spoken. Although few Hakka in Papua New Guinea would consider themselves fluent speakers, it is still definitely a language they use in their homes. Dr Vu conducted his fieldwork largely in Rabaul. In the l960s, most of the Hakka left Rabaul to settle in Lae and Port Moresby. The Rabaul population became mostly Sze Yap (see Chapter 5 for a discussion of this movement) who would not have spoken Hakka.

81

(See Chapter 5 for a fuller discussion of this phenomenon and the more recent changes.) Outside the community PNGChinese separate themselves from outsiders by using the Chinese languages and Tok Pisin as private languages; few non-Chinese in Papua New Guinea speak Chinese and very few people outside Papua New Guinea speak Tok Pisin. These private languages reinforce intimacy. Several PNG-Chinese traders say they use Tok Pisin in Hong Kong and Singapore while discussing the details of a bargain or business deal they do not want other Chinese to understand. In Papua New Guinea, Chinese is useful in the trade store where traders can make observations about the staff and customers with the assurance that all customers and most of the staff will not understand them. Staff who have worked with a PNGChinese family for several years learn some Chinese phrases and even use them themselves, but such people are, because of long association, not complete outsiders to the coiumunity 6 . Within the community, whichever dialect is spoken, Chinese is the language of intimacy; for gossip, for comments while playing mah jong, for swearing, for jokes, and for general evening talk around the dinner table and television. Tok Pisin is the language of the trade store and the market, for talking with the majority of outsiders the traders meet in a working day. This unique language 6. For more on inclusive (includes those who understand the message) and exclusive (excludes those who do not understand) language use, see Laponce, 1987. For language and ethnic identity see Ross, A.J. 1979; van den Berghe, 1981.

82

mixture binds the PNG-Chinese together, gives point to their jokes and strengthens their identity as traders and PNGChinese.

Unity of History Their shared history as outsiders also helps to define the boundaries of the community. Neither the Melanesians nor the PNG-Chinese consider the PNG-Chinese native Papua New Guineans, but neither have the PNG-Chinese ever been accepted as a part of the expatriate community. During the German colonial era, the Germans treated the PNG-Chinese as little better than serfs 7 . They had imported the Chinese to work as human possessions and any move the Chinese made to free themselves from that status, the Germans regarded with disfavour. (see Cahill, 1973, for a detailed account of the regulations.) One PNG-Chinese man remembers his father telling him that the main street of Rabaul was lined with oil drums. When an officer went by, the Chinese had to climb on the barrel and salute. If they did not do this, the Germans flogged them. Flogging became illegal in 1903 (Wu, 1982:23), but the oral history in the PNG-Chinese community still recalls vividly the humiliation they received from the Germans. The Australian community under the Australian Administration brought little improvement. The Australians, like the Germans, restricted both the occupa-

7. See Wu, 1982, and Cahill, 1973, for fuller description.

83

tion and area where the PNG-Chinese could live; they also did not allow the PNG-Chinese to socialise with Europeans. During the Second World War, the Australian policy decision to abandon the PNG-Chinese when the Japanese invaded, forced the Chinese to live in the bush or concentration camps under Japanese domination. As mentioned previously, the PNGChinese prisoners could trust no one (except a few Tolai) outside their immediate community. PNG-Chinese remember that many Tolai helped them, but other Melanesians, given a position of power by the Japanese, used that power to humiliate the PNG-Chinese and to assert their own position as equals to the elite Europeans and Japanese. The Japanese killed PNG-Chinese they suspected of any kind of sabotage. PNG-Chinese remember two young men, aged about 18 and 20, who strung a wire across the mouth of their tunnel (where they lived in order to try to keep safe from the Allied bombing) to hang some clothes to dry. The Japanese, thinking the wire was a radio transmitter, pulled the boys from the tunnel and, without asking questions, drew their swords and beheaded them (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987). The Japanese raped unmarried women 8 and reportedly forced the PNG-Chinese men to dig a tunnel that the PNG-Chinese learned was for them: the Japanese planned to force them 8. The Japanese did not tend to rape married Chinese women. To protect their daughters, many families married them, at a very young age, to other PNG-Chinese. Other girls made a determined effort to make themselves appear ugly. For fuller accounts of the PNG-Chinese situation during the Second World War see Seeto, 1971; Cahill, 1971; Robinson, n.d.

84

all inside and bury them alive. Only the surrender stopped this plan. Some Australian coastwatchers 9 tried to contact the PNG-Chinese to have them work as spies, but by abandoning the Chinese, the Australians had also become enemies and few PNG-Chinese were inclined to risk personal and family safety to help them. 10

During much of the colonial era, the PNG-Chinese had uncertain citizenship; they remained nominally Chinese citizens, but as the years of continued separation from China passed, their alliances began to shift towards their adopted country. As non-British subjects and non-'aboriginal natives' of the Mandated Territory, the PNG-Chinese were classed as aliens in Papua New Guinea. During the Japanese invasion, the Australians adopted a confused policy towards the PNG-Chinese, unable to decide whether to treat them as expatriates and evacuate them or to treat them as locals and 9. Coastwatchers were men who wandered around occupied Papua New Guinea sending information concerning Japanese military movements they could find to their superiors. 10. Published accounts by coastwatchers demonstrate little understanding of the danger they presented to the PNG-Chinese they visited in the bush. As the result of one such visit, a PNG-Chinese was tortured and sentenced to death. Only interference by a Tolai man saved him. See Wright, 1965, and md, 1958, for Australian accounts of the coastwatchers and the PNG-Chinese. 11. Cahill, 1972, citing Official Handbook of the Territor y of New Guinea 1937, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra 1937 p. 143: "The law at present does not enable persons born in the Territory to claim British nationality by reason only of birth in the Territory. All persons, other than British subjects and other than aboriginal natives of the Mandated Territory are, as the law now stands, aliens in the Mandated Territory. There is no Territory status."

85

leave them behind. Because of the results of this citizenship confusion during the Second World War, the PNG-Chinese began to push for citizenship after the war ended. As the Australians were then the ruling elite in Papua New Guinea this is the citizenship they sought. Most did not at that time contemplate making Australia their home. In 1957, the Australian government awarded them Australian citizenship. The Australian citizenship was granted to Chinese and other 'Asians' resident in New Guinea, their wives and unmarried minor children provided:

1. they were born in the Territory 2.

if not born in the Territory, the applicant had to be a.

the wife of an Australian citizen; or

b.

lawfully admitted to New Guinea before 7 December 1949;

c.

had lived in the Territory for 15 years;

d.

of good character;

e.

had not wilfully and without official permission disregarded any conditions of entry;

f.

had an adequate knowledge of English; and

g.

had taken part in normal Territory life. (Cathay Club, n.d.:8)

This new legal status did not change the position of PNGChinese as second class workers in Papua New Guinea. One PNG-Chinese, now a prominent businessman, remembers his at-

86

tempts to break into the Australian occupational system in the 1960's when he went to work as a chemist for an Australian company in Rabaul after leaving school. For this job he received one-third the wage of his Australian counterpart, so after a time he asked for a rise. He was of the first generation of PNG-Chinese to be educated in Australia and he feels the illusion of equality gave him the impertinence to ask for the rise. The manager refused his request and in addition told him to eat lunch at his own table instead of with the three other (European) chemists with whom he had previously eaten. A short time later the PNG-Chinese man was showing some tourists around the plant and when he came across his boss, he addressed him by his first name - as he had been doing for the entire year of his employment.

The boss turned to him, in front of the

tourists, and said, "It is . to you." The PNG-Chinese man resigned his job a week later and returned to the family business where he has remained ever since (Interview data, Rabaul. August 1986) •12

The social sphere was equally restricted. Europeans did not allow PNG-Chinese into most clubs and, until Independence, the Rabaul swimming pool boasted a sign that read "No dogs or Chinese allowed." (The idea that Melanesians might enter the pool was too remote to mention). 13 After Independence 12. For another PNG-Chinese description of discrimination, see Nelson, 1982: pp.170-171.

87

(1975), segregation has become less strict, but most PNGChinese prefer to socialise with other PNG-Chinese and families tend to encourage people to marry within the community. On one level their segregation, history and language, as well as a unity of a trading life-style, makes PNG-Chinese comfortable with each other. On another level they need their mutual reinforcement to keep their concept of self secure. Their dependence upon each other is strengthened by their insecure political status in Papua New Guinea.

In the early 1970s, the Papua New Guinea independence movements, for reasons that will be discussed in Chapter 5, made many PNG-Chinese nervous about the safety of their families and they therefore left Papua New Guinea. Those who remained encountered little actual danger, but they retained a sense of insecurity about the stability of their political status in Papua New Guinea.

Continued difficulties over

their citizenship only increased this insecurity.

When Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, the new government did not automatically give the PNG-Chinese citizenship, granting them only the options of becoming either naturalised or resident non-citizens. Under 13. PNG-Chinese closely follows a tual proof of the is a part of what

uniformly confirm this story as fact, however, it classical story from Shanghai. Although I have no acsign's existence, the image of discrimination it gave the PNG-Chinese consider to be their history.

88

naturalised status they had restricted land rights and retained a status as outsiders. Since the proposal of dual citizenship had already been rejected by the new government as well as by the Australians, the PNG-Chinese had to make a choice between becoming naturalised PNG citizens and forfeiting their Australian citizenship, or keeping the Australian citizenship and living in Papua New Guinea as resident non-citizens. The PNG-Chinese had fought hard for Australian citizenship under the Australian Administration, and despite their feeling of loyalty to Papua New Guinea, most opted for the political stability of retaining that citizenship. The Papua New Guinea government's offer, they felt, accorded them status that was second class. Either option, as naturalised Papua New Guinea citizen or as Australian living in Papua New Guinea, placed them in a politically insecure position. Despite their legal status, most prefer to live in Papua New Guinea.

Most PNG-Chinese feel they could not live in China. As one young PNG-Chinese woman said, "We had a lovely holiday. We visited my grandfather's village. It was interesting, but so dirty and poor....I'd hate to live there." 14 Most are Australian citizens, yet few of the PNG-Chinese who grew up in Papua New Guinea like living in Australia. Many who left Papua New Guinea at Independence regret the move and

1.4. Interview data, Port Horesby. February, 1987.

89

wish they could return. Those who travel south for business trips or family visits return refreshed from the change, but glad to be 'home.' As some PNG-Chinese have said about Australia, "I enjoyed Brisbane, but it got boring. There's nothing to do. Most of my friends are here in Moresby."15 or, "People are different outside Rabaul. Rabaul people are friendly ... In Australia, people just don't have time for you. In Rabaul we always have time." 16 and, "I tried living in Australia for a few months, but I didn't like it. This (Rabaul) is where I want to die." 17 This combination of background and emotion is part of what makes the PNG-Chinese racial and legal outsiders in the country they consider home.

A Composition of Kin The PNG-Chinese sense of unity is intensified because all PNG-born Chinese are now related through blood or marriage. In 1970, PNG-Chinese claim that intermarriage had reached such a peak that the community no longer had young couples who could marry without creating incest; incest being defined as couples who are first cousins or closer relations. 18 Although this is no longer the case because 15. Interview data, Port Moresby. April 1987. 16. Interview data, Rabaul. December 1986. 17. Interview data, Rabaul. September 1986. 18. PNG-Chinese no longer generally follow the traditional Chinese kinship patterns of differentiating between matrilineal and patrilineal relationship in terms of incest although some PNG-Chinese still say that

90

of PNG-Chinese marrying Chinese from overseas, the connection of kinship between all members of the community remains. Nine extended families sharing the same last name comprise over half of the PNG-Chinese population. All other last names each represent less than 3% of the population. Two families represent exactly 3% (Lee, Tsang). Of the nine major families, the Seetos hold the greatest majority (40.2%), with the Chans (11.3%) and the Wongs (11.5%) being the next populous families. The Wong family is actually two separate families sharing the Wong name but the two families are related by marriage. Using geneological charts, it appears that all of the major and minor families share either a consanguinal or affinal relationship. PNG-Chinese also consider themselves related.19

This means that every PNG-Chinese is part of a large extended family and inherent in the society are all the unity and responsibilities of family ties.2° relationships with the children of sisters are not incestuous, while those with the children of a brother and sister or brother and brother are. 19. Major families (72% of the population: Seeto 40.2%; Wong 11.5%; Chan 11.3%; Woo 6.5%; Chow 6%; Leong 6%; Chung 4.5%; Fong 4.5%; Foung 3.5%; Lee 3%; Tsang 3%. Information based on field interviews, birth and death records and a census of PNG-Chinese families conducted and compiled by Fred Ng, March 1987. 20. Sociologists, anthropologists and historians looking at overseas Chinese communities have continually returned to kinship as a vital characteristic in overseas Chinese business organisation (see Purcell, 1965; Silin 1972; Ward 1972; Omohundro 1981). The same is, not surprisingly, also true of the PNG-Chinese. The scope and size of the traditional Chinese family has been the subject of controversy for many years Wang, (c.f. Friedman, 1966; Hsu, 1895; A Wolf, 1985; H Wolf, 1972;

91

From birth, each individual becomes woven into this larger fabric of the society, fused with the rest of the community 1985). Hugh Baker (1979:2-3) describes three major forms of the traditional Chinese family. The simp le family consisting of parents and their children. A stem family which includes three generations: parents, their unmarried children, one son and his wife and their children. An extended family which would also include other sons, their wives and children. The extended family was the traditional ideal in 19th century Southern China and it is still a symbolic ideal for the PNG-Chinese. However, to my knowledge, this ideal does not now exist in Papua New Guinea. The PNG-Chinese community resident in Papua New Guinea is largely under 60 and includes few adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. The younger people are almost all sent to boarding schools near Sydney or Brisbane in an attempt by the community to ensure the best education for its youth. These young people return to Papua New Guinea for holidays at Christmas and, if possible, at Easter, or for special occasions. The older generation is missing because the majority of PNGChinese move to Australia when they reach an age where they could expect some health problems, but it also means that people tend to leave Papua New Guinea when they are no longer productive members of the community. The superior medical facilities available to them in Australia means that even a true stem family is rare in practice. This situation has altered since the late 1960s when many of the families were genuine stem families (cf. Wti, 1982). However, the concept of the extended family remains strong. An extended family will generally own one or more houses in Papua New Guinea and members of the family who are in the area will live in them. A household then can consist of a simple family, or siblings, uncles and aunts living with nephews and nieces, or other combinations. Added to this are more distant relatives who may also live in the household for an extended period. For the purpose of this thesis, I shall use 'family' to describe a simple family, and 'extended family' to describe the descendents of all the siblings of one set of grandparents. I shall also sometimes use 'extended family' to refer to the entire community, but when I do this I shall qualify the term. 'Household shall refer to the specific group who actually live together in a single home. The PNG-Chinese community as a whole is also completely interrelated (see Chapter 3 for a discussion of this) and is, in many ways, an utlimate extended family where every person has a certain right to the hospitality of any household. In defining the boundaries of a minority ethnic community, the tendency is to see their ethnicity as the common unifying denominator. Indeed in many overseas Chinese communities this is the case. These communities are heterogeneous, being split by territorial, clan, occupation and class differences. Historically such divisions also split the PNG-Chinese community, but now they are united as kin and by their common occupation as traders. In traditional China, people of the same family (through the male line) were actually a shared substance, father and son creating a continuum of the same 'breath'

92

through kin ties, community responsibility and shared identity. The community, following traditional Chinese values, places the needs of the family above those of the individual (jj). In Penang, the Malaysian-Chinese describe the unity of a family as a tree trunk that sprouts many branches (Hallgren, 1986). This analogy rings true for the PNG-Chinese and to cut oneself from the tree is severing a link with the source of life itself. As a community of kin, essentially a community that is an extended family, this concept of unity deeply influences social and trade interactions. Since the community is symbolically and by blood a huge extended family, family harmony cannot exist without community harmony. This means that the harmony they try to create through generosity has more impact than just the practical enactment of a traditional Chinese value. This strong identity of community as family is what allows the philosophies and practice described in this thesis to function. The PNG-Chinese make a clear distinction between themselves (those who were born in Papua New Guinea and have lived there for several generations) and the 'Asian-Chinese'. The Asian-Chinese are people who have come from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, or Indonesia to Papua New Guinea, mainly since Independence, because the opportunities in Papua New Guinea are greater than they could have at home. The PNG-Chinese see these Asian-Chinese as alien, both culturally and in business practice. This thesis is involved mainly with the PNG-Chinese. A mention should also be made about the kin hierarchy of the PNGChinese community. Studies of overseas Chinese commerce emphasise the hierarchical nature of the businesses and of the family (as embodied in Confucian philosophy). The traditional Chinese Human Relationships (c.f. Baker 1979) of, in descending order of importance (and excluding in Papua New Guinea ruler/minister and friend/friend relationships) of father/son (in Papua New Guinea this also includes father/daughter, uncle/nephew, niece), elder brother! younger brother (elder sister/younger sister) and husband/wife, are still ideal criteria for showing respect and deference in Papua New Guinea as are the hierarchical divisions of generation, age and sex. However, in practice these hierarchies are manipulated to suit the person, family or situation. The strong role of women in business makes employing a hierarchy based on sex particularly problematic. The ideal hierarchies can be important in political negotiations between and within families in the PNG-Chinese community, but in the daily management of the trade store and in social life, the community employed a philosophy of generosity that continually strived for equality within the community. Traditional kinship hierarchy also does not correspond to a division of labour in either the trade store or in the home. To ensure that activities are done regularly means that they must be a specific person's responsibility and since trade stores are family businesses, several PNG-Chinese will be working in one store. This may be husband and wife, parents and adult children, brother and sister, or other combinations. Every person has a specific status in the family and in the trade store, but there are no prescribed rules for an individual's duties. Rather they are determined by ability and inclination. Both

93

and the community as an extended family is a larger embodiinent of this communal principle. The emphasis on family identity demands responsibility, but it also provides unquestioned security and purpose for every member of that family. The duties of the members are clear, their choices directed, and ideally each action is for the common good. This gives each person a sense of contribution, a knowledge that they are part of what allows the community as a whole to continue.

The system of relationships that emerges from this identity could be likened to a musical composition. The community is the focus of much personal action and creates a rhythm where each person moves in time to other people, much as do notes in a musical composition. Relationships contribute to the 'harmony' and success of the 'composition'. The continuity of relationships ensures and strengthens the 'harmony' while personal action ideally makes a continued contribution to

sexes and generations do accounts, cook, tend the children, serve customers, count the money, do the banking, or open the shop. A man will usually close the shop because a woman after dark is less safe against possible attack, but generally several people of both sexes stand around during closing to lessen the chances of risk. The division of the duties however is vital so that each person knows what is expected of them in a working day. A person will seldom manage a trade store alone mainly because the amount of work and energy required is too great. One man who runs his shop alone, only because he has no wife and no family in the area, must close his shop when he goes to the wholesaler or to do his banking. He must continually man the cash box so he has little time to oversee other details of the shop. The general consensus among the surrounding PNG-Chinese community is that this man or woman will run a much more successful trade store if they have a spouse beside them.

94

the success of the community. The worth of each person lies in its relationship to others. Transactions are not the result of focus on commodity or individual criteria, but a result of each person needing to play his/her part in the community. The community, as a set of relationships, forms a network within which transactions of generosity ideally flow as a 'melody'. Each person whether a part of the prominent 'melody' or part of the supporting 'harmony' holds a position that is an intrinsic part of the community composition. A person who is out of 'harmony' or 'out of time' threatens the entire composition. A person alone and outside a composition, like a musical note, has less potential and a less defined place. The worth of each note lies in its relationship to other notes. Likewise in the community, a personal identity exists relative to others within the community. As in trade, the community is a composition of relationships.

This communal state of being makes solitude a potentially difficult reality and a community responsibility is to protect its members from this fate. No person is left alone nor do people consider that another would want or should be alone. A bachelor or a person who is alone temporarily for some reason, has an open invitation to everyone's home for meals or to any shop for lunch. Eating is particularly a communal activity. Most bachelors have a home or a selection of homes where they will eat every night. They can

95

leave directly after they finish eating and are essentially an extension of the family unit or household. A woman is less likely to be living alone and if for some reason she is without immediate family (husband, parents, or siblings) she will move in with another close relative, an uncle, aunt, or cousin, and become a member of that household. A person is often described in terms of relationship and a person alone has less identity: "He is married to Sally Wong's sister," or "She is Harry Seeto's niece, the one who married that lofan (European)." Although this is not teknonymy in the classic sense as personal names are not suppressed nor is the practice confined to designating adults by the names of their children, it does work to stress the remoteness or closeness of specific relationships. Teknonymy has a history in China (Feng, 1936) but in Papua New Guinea, as in Korea, it seems to 'suggest a greater sense of solidarity'. (Lee and Harvey, 1973:38)21 Invitation to social functions is generally by household - it would be extremely rude to invite some members of a household and not others - and a person alone is easily overlooked by those who are not close kin. So a household adopts the bachelor or single woman and the community then considers them to be a part of that household unit socially and in many ways politically as well.

21. See also Geertz and Geertz, 1964, showing that teknonomy emphasises the importance of inclusion and relationship within the community.

96

The flexibility of the household unit can result in a situation where one household may include members of two or more trade stores that are essentially in competition with each other. This means that a balance between competition and co-operation is vital. The political nature of this balance becomes more complex when one considers that not only are the household boundaries flexible, but so are the boundaries between businesses. A husband and wife may own two trade stores, perhaps one completely and the second one in partnership with a sibling. They may ask a niece and her husband to run the second trade store and take a percentage of the profits. This puts the first couple simultaneously in competition and in partnership with the second trade store. The husband of the niece may have a mother who owns a third trade store and her brother, the husband's uncle, may own yet a fourth. The husband may decide to start up a fifth trade store with his cousin, his uncle's daughter, and her husband. All of these trade stores are in competition with each other, yet they all have an interest in maintaining each other's solvency. In a community of some 50 trade stores, the permutations of ownership and kin ties make a DNA chain look simple. The relatives who are running these stores do not always work well together and one may try to buy the other out. This creates friction within the family and community and is a resort most traders try to avoid. A major way of promoting co-operation both within and outside the trade store is generosity.

97

GENEROSITY AND BALANCE A balance between co-operation and competition, between people and trade stores, is vital and is maintained through generosity. Generosity works as communication between the shops and is a creed of sharing what becomes available. Gift-giving is an integral part of traditional Chinese society, but this generosity takes on a quality of its own, derived in part from the years during the Second World War when the PNG-Chinese were forced to live together in the bush. During this period people had to share to survive and the importance of the generosity acquired among the family, or group, had intensified value. This is partly what the young boy at the beginning of this chapter meant when he said his mother knew how to survive, that no matter how little she had, she always had enough to share. His pride lay in the knowledge that he, like his mother, is also generous.

This interaction of generosity is not exchange because the person who is generous does not expect anything back. Indeed, the very notion of direct exchange PNG-Chinese call 'no good' because it implies that the giving was done for personal reasons. This goes directly against their principles of the generosity. 22 Sahlins' (1974) concept of 22. The only time I saw anything resembling direct exchange was, interestingly enough, at Christmas, a time of traditional gift giving in the West. One woman gave another trader an expensive gift. The trader who received the gift shared it generously with her family and guests at the trade store. Then she made out Christmas cards for the first woman's

98

reciprocity, even generalised reciprocity, is problematic in relation to the PNG-Chinese acts of generosity, because as Cell (Forthcoming) has noted, implicit in all reciprocity is accountability, for the gift, commodity, or service, that is given. Even in the 'suckling of children', although 'the expectation of direct material return is unseemly ... this is not to say that handing over things in some form, even to "loved ones", generates no counter-obligation' (Sahlins, 1974:194). Obligation and accountability play no part in PNG-Chinese generosity and for that reason it cannot be called even 'generalised' reciprocity. Sahlins further writes about the difference between 'pooling' (or sharing) and 'reciprocity', stating that pooling is a 'within relation' while reciprocity is a 'between relation' (1974:188). Among the PNG-Chinese, concepts of sharing through generosity differ in at least one important respect from Sahlins' notion of pooling. Pooling makes good$completely public within a community, while for the PNG-Chinese 'sharing' through generosity makes the ii or enjoyment of a good public but the possession remains private. Generosity is not the 'action and reaction' of two or more parties, but the process through which the use or enjoyment of good moves from the private to public, but inter-communal, realm. Implicit in this difference is the absence of centripetality; children and placed in each card a gift of money so that the total amount of money she gave equalled what she estimated the gift had cost. This incident underlines that Christmas gifts are an imposed tradition and are outside the cycle of generosity.

99

private generosity is ultimately directed towards increasing the status of the entire community (as will be discussed in the next chapter) and so promotes an egalitarian society not a hierarchical one.

The purposes of generosity are not those usually connected with exchange systems that create competition, individual power and hierarchy. Rather the purpose here is to create harmony, co-operation and equality. Status that is gained through generosity is not only for the face of the generous person, but also by extension, for the family and community. On a deeper level, generosity works to balance a conflict between the boundaries of self and community.

Sharing The PNG-Chinese commercial society has placed value on a principle of generosity. The way they show it is through sharing. 23 The sharing works to dissolve boundaries between tradestores, becoming a fluid movement between the immobile shops. A major forum for the sharing is via parties hosted by people who have a house with a big yard. Until 23. I have chosen the term 'sharing' even though I realise it is problematic because of the connotations it has in relation to huntergatherer societies. Gibson (1986:220) describes sharing 'the giver does not indebt the recipient for the recipient is not indivivated from the mass. Everyone present receives a share, whatever the history of the relationship between giver and recipient ... Dyadic exchanges are avoided because they are seen as inherently competitive or unusual.' He is writing about the Buid, an egalitarian society that he reflects against the hierarchical societies that surround it, but I think his explanation would also apply to the PNG-Chinese.

100

the present generation PNG-Chinese families were large, eight or nine children being normal. One prominent businessman calculated that before Independence if he wanted to invite only his closest relatives to a party, he would still be inviting 50-60 people (Interview data, Rabaul, December 1986). Families now are generally smaller with three or four children, but since households rather than individuals are invited, each party usually includes at least 50 people who will expect an excellent sit-down supper. Almost all of the PNG-Chinese adults work in the trade stores during the day, so the only way such parties are possible is through each household contributing a dish of their own. Status is tied to cooking ability, so each person strives to bring a dish of excellent quality, and indeed the guests spend much of the evening judging, criticising, and complimenting the food. Each household tries to contribute as generously as possible to make the supper a scrumptious feast. Because the generosity is the responsibility of all rather than just the host, frequent banquets of this kind are possible and give everyone ample opportunity to be generous and share food (with the side effect that everyone keeps a close eye on their weight as not to become fat). As few of the PNG-Chinese drink alcohol, 24 the host can provide 24. The majority of PNG-Chinese do not drink alcohol and those who do, drink in moderation. Several PNG-Chinese are allergic to alcohol and if they drink even the smallest amount they become flushed and drowsy. Only about three people in the community drink what the Australians would consider a moderate amount (3-4 beers a night) but what the PNGChinese consider excessive. Another exception to this is a few of the younger people (17-21 years old) who have recently returned from schools

101

the soft drinks from a household trade store, making the cost of such a party, apart from the food, minimal. The sharing of food is almost a ritual. As a quality product one household creates for another, like the kina in trade, prepared food moves through the community, symbolically renewing community unity, making kin and competitor both consumer and provider.

Since the sharing of the food is the focus for these parties, PNG-Chinese prefer to eat immediately upon arrival. The food is displayed in a buffet style to allow everyone to enjoy it as a spectacle of beauty before they devour it. In this way everyone's generosity is exhibited and appreciated. The dishes vary, but often include deep fried prawns and chicken, fried noodles, mushrooms in blackbean sauce, roast chicken, a sweet and sour dish, and crispy-skinned pork. Other special favourites are a particular kind of tinned beef, 'bully beef', that is deep-fried with taro, or local pigeon cooked in a vinegar-black-bean sauce.These last two dishes have a symbolic importance because they are unique to the PNG-Chinese; a food they consider part of their identity. Their feeling is that most non-Melanesians would not even eat the tinned beef, but for many years they had to eat it and can now transform it to something delicious. in Australia and who tend to drink more. Yet at a party I gave with a local Rabaul doctor, for 200 PNG-Chinese guests, they drank about six cases of soft drinks (24 bottles per case) and one case of beer. The beer actually was mostly drunk by the ten or so European guests.

102

The women serve themselves first amid much discussion of the food, the quality of the ingredients, colour, presentation, and texture. As the women move towards dining tables with their laden plates, the men go to the buffet table to help themselves. Children serve themselves whenever they feel like it. Men and women tend to sit separately at these parties, but there are no strict rules and men and women also often sit together. Households, including husbands and wives, do not generally sit together except when one spouse is a newcomer to the community brought in from the outside through marriage. In the warm evening breeze, people then relax, gossip, tell stories of the trade store, of happenings in the community, and recent business concerns.

After a leisurely meal, the hostess, several close friends, relatives, and house staff bring out 'air pots' 25 full of water, tea bags, instant coffee, long-life milk (as fresh milk is seldom available), and a variety of deserts. These always include sponge cakes, 'sac sac (a desert made of sago, coconut milk, and sugar), and often a tapioca cake, again symbolic foods reinforce a unique PNG-Chinese identity. Cheesecake is also a favourite and is decorated with local fruits and presented as a spectacle. After dessert, wives pour a hot drink for their husbands and serve them. 25. Large therinoses that work on a system of air compression that allows them to remain boiling hot for some time.

103

Similarly, during the entire meal and throughout the evening husbands get soft drinks and serve them to their wives. Husband and wife show their mutual respect by serving each other, maintaining a household unity at the same time as they reinforce their intimacy with other kin by gossiping about each other while they sit apart.

After the feast has been eaten and discussed, many people play mah jong (or leave the party to play mah jong at someone else's house), cards, Chinese dominoes, or perhaps watch a special video on television. These various pastimes create bonds of interest between competitors. Mah jong players will become so involved with the intensity of the game, that they will play much of the night. On Sundays or holidays (Christmas and Easter) they will play all day and into the evening as well. The same people play together for years with occasional outsiders joining, such as when a salesman from Asia is in town. This creates a bond between fellow players who may be partners in mah jong even though they own competing trade stores. People who do not play such games remain outside to chat. The people outside linger over their coffee and tea, but everyone, except for the mah jong players who must finish their game, leaves the party about eleven, knowing that the host and hostess, like themselves, must arise early to open their trade store in the morning. This is a ritual and public consideration that is integral to the ethic of generosity.

104

One man's feelings

were echoed many times, "Everyone is welcome, but they mustn't stretch this, they mustn't stay too long because the people they are visiting want to go to bed. If you remember this you are always welcome." Some kind of large feasting party occurs at least once a week and sometimes much more often. Most of the traders attend most of the parties so they can easily be continually generous with food.

To increase face through public generosity, community leaders or wealthy families will on special occasions host a party completely by themselves. This is a tremendous effort because of the quantity and quality of food needed for the 50-200 guests one household must invite to any party. Certain women, who are known as excellent cooks, will help with the cooking, and the hostess will 'borrow' house staff from other traders to help her. If the occasion is a particularly special one, the family will roast a whole pig.26 Pork is symbolically an important Chinese food. Pigs in Papua New Guinea are symbols of wealth. PNG-Chinese consider both symbolic traditions when they serve the pig. The normal occasions for such parties are a christening, a homecoming, the arrival of a prominent kinsperson or business associate from overseas, and for some traditional Chinese festivals such as the Moon Festival or the New Year. Some of the PNG-Chinese wholesalers also host parties as a 26. Often cooked in the ovens of a local PNG-Chinese owned bakery as one of the few kitchens with ovens large enough for the roasting.

105

symbol of generosity and good will towards their PNG-Chinese customers. On evenings when parties do not occur, households visit each other, two or three households sharing dinner or yam cha. 27 Sharing of food serves to reinforce identity, as an occasion to discuss gossip, and maintain a cohesive sense of community between competing traders.

Food and its preparation consume much of the PNG-Chinese attention that is not directed to business. People acquire status through their ability to cook and both men and women are skilled cooks. Certain dishes are particular favourites and, as with every dish, the quality - or lack of quality is discussed at length. When one person visits another, just as with the more formal parties, they often bring a dish of food with them or sometimes they will just stop by another person's trade store during the day and leave food for them. The PNG-Chinese who receive the food share it among themselves and usually among a few Melanesian staff as well. Fresh food is also distributed in a manner to allow generosity. Whenever people travel to other parts of Papua New Guinea or overseas, they return with foods, peaches, cherries, fresh milk, etc, that are unobtainable in Rabaul. These foods are distributed among several households. Each household will then share the food among its members and may 27. Literally 'drink tea,' meaning the sharing of tea between people. PNG-Chinese use the term to refer specifically to food and tea in the evening after dinner and for the special brunch of delicacies many Chinese restaurants serve on Sundays.

106

even invite other guests so they can share further.

This

is as much for the opportunity it allows for generosity, as for the actual pleasure of the food . The quality, rarity, and cost (the cost of a gift is common knowledge) are important for they reflect the status of the giver and affect the face to everyone else along the chain of generosity.

The sharing of food extends outside households. People take each other to restaurants frequently. If a group is eating in a restaurant, publicly one person will pay for all. Privately perhaps they will share the cost, but generally one person does actually pay for the entire meal. The public quibbling over money, so often seen among the European expatriate diners, is a quality the PNG-Chinese find distasteful as showing a lack of generosity. Playing the role of host is passed around the community so that eventually, theoretically, all will pay for a communal meal. The principle is again a relationship of continuity, the kina passes around the community so that no one loses, yet all are allowed to be generous in their turn. Some people in the community, those who are leaders or are particularly wealthy, will play host more often than others. Because of their position, they are expected to be more generous than others.

The principles of generosity in the sharing cycle extend beyond food to other material possessions. Any material

107

possession is for the use of others as well as for the owner. PNG-Chinese traders focus on saving for future generations, but they want a comfortable life-style as well. Sharing makes both desires possible. If one person has a boat, that boat is for the use of business associates and kin; if one person has a lovely home on the water, it is shared with others. If one person, or household, buys a car, they are expected to be generous with that car, letting relatives, business associates, and others who need it, use it when they desire. No item is solely for individual or even family use and others will criticize a person who is not generous with such possessions. The possessive family loses face while the person or family who uses private possessions as an opportunity for generosity gains status. Community criticism, relayed through gossip, ensures that all kin are generous.

This creed of generosity and sharing is specific to the community. The PNG-Chinese are hospitable to outsiders and as individuals they are inclined to be generous with outsiders who are friends or business associates. Such generosity creates problems for two major reasons. The PNG-Chinese expect the outsider to react with the consideration they would receive from other PNG-Chinese. Often this does not occur. The outsider does not understand what is expected of him and he is not a part of the internal PNG-Chinese network that makes the easy cycles of sharing, consideration and

108

generosity possible. The resulting misunderstanding where both sides feel used - PNG-Chinese because they feel betrayed for their openness, the outsider because he feels the PNG-Chinese were only generous because they wanted something in return - is one reason the PNG-Chinese are less inclined to try and extend their generosity to outsiders. Another reason is the community censure they will evoke. If a person is perceived as being over generous to an outsider, such as loaning the outsider a car, they are criticised for disturbing the internal generosity cycle by allowing the generosity to flow unchecked from the community. In this sense, generosity is a limited good and should be used for the benefit of the community, not outsiders. A person who breaks this behavioural code is placing his/her individual desires before those of the community and wasting family resources.

PNG-Chinese enjoy sports and many spend evenings playing squash, golf, or tennis. This is one area where the ethnic boundaries between European, Chinese, and Melanesians have become less rigid and people of all groups mix freely. Sports also promote PNG-Chinese unity, as the PNG-Chinese support their own participants and make that individual a symbol of community pride. The Catholic church in Rabaul also creates an atmosphere for inter-ethnic socialising, and the PNG-Chinese participate heavily in the church activities, particularly in fund raising. This includes meet-

109

ings to plan events, making food for various events, and actually participating in the events themselves. These events vary from fairs, to fashion shows, to amateur vaudeville where various people from the community perform. Besides the evenings, the only other time most of the traders have away from the trade store is on Sundays when people set out to enjoy themselves. On Sunday morning starting at eleven, many PNG-Chinese take each other to a local Chinese restaurant for yam cha. In the afternoon, people often visit friends who live near a beach out of town. People who have such homes are automatically expected to share them in a spirit of generosity and most consider this a major reason for acquiring the home in the first place. People gather at these homes informally, sharing food and chatting in the shade. Younger people may windsurf and swim while older people often pay mah jong. Other families go fishing, picnicking, or scuba diving. Because the PNGChinese have grown up together and know each other so well, all of these gatherings have the comfort and informality of a family gathering. The public consideration and community generosity of such social gatherings allow kin to be competitors, friends to be rivals, and yet seek each other out as a mah jong partner or admire each other's cooking.

Generosity is a ritual consideration that retains continuity through community memory. The actual gift, or shared good, acts as a physical manifestation of generosity, a repre-

110

sentation of a narrative relationship that ideally includes all PNG-Chinese. The ability to be generous is seen as one of the major benefits of wealth. Wealth, as distinct from specific business finance, is not a private affair. Rather it is a commodity to be shared among the community for status. Only through sharing is wealth a valuable asset; hoarded wealth or undue wealth spent on the individual is worse than no wealth at all. A poor family has less status than a wealthy one, but they can increase their face through personal sacrifice for the good of the family. There is a subtle distinction here between status and face. The poor family will always have less status and less power, but their face can remain intact, allowing them to remain within the social unity of the community. A family that is wealthy and ungenerous will find their invitations to social functions decline and eventually they will be ostracised.28

28. An example where this community pressure came into play was directed at a couple who bought a beautiful home and neglected to use it as a venue for parties. At first they were criticised and then others began to 'forget' to invite them when they hosted parties. After several months, the elder couple went overseas for a time and a niece and her husband moved into the house. This couple, a young couple, made a concerted effort to invite friends around, mostly other couples their own age. In this way they did not insult the uncle and aunt by seeming to publicly chastise them as would be the case if they invited the older generation the uncle and aunt had neglected to invite before. At the same time, the young couple were showing their generosity and raising family face. Gradually others in the community just began to use the outside facilities of the house (the tennis courts) when they felt like it. When the older couple returned, they did not stop this practice and began to host small parties. They were still criticised for not being generous and such criticism included comments that people who lacked such generosity could not be trusted as business partners, but the family face as a whole improved, largely through the actions of the niece and nephew, and the older couple began to appear again at parties.

111

Such isolation is devastating psychologically, but it would also destroy business. Community generosity is an inter-dependent system and in order for it to work, everyone must participate. A business that does not will die.

Face and Freedom Inherent in the creed of generosity is face. The Chinese concept of 'face' has no equivalent in standard English usage. It is a state of being. It is a condition that allows the individual to retain a position within the moral fabric of a community where respect is given value above all else. In both traditional and modern China, a high emphasis is placed on outward conformity to an ideal behaviour. Maintaining 'face' is the ability to live up to the standards of that code. A person who does not follow this code will be ostracised, they will 'lose face'. 'Loss of face' is more than embarrassment or shame; it robs a person or family of a positive self-identity. This leads to extreme humiliation and in some cases suicide. 29 'Face' is not so much a restriction of freedom as a definition for freedom. To quote Hsieh (1967:310) "Face' does not mean 'free from'. To be free from everything - free from other men, free from morality, free from thought, free from sense is to be nothing." To be free from family and community is worse than nothing. It is an annihilation of self. For 29. For more on this see Wilson, 1973 and Wilson, Wilson and Greenblatt, 1979.

112

the PNG-Chinese trading family, maintaining 'face' is vital and will be secured at almost any cost. The bottom line of any PNG-Chinese social or business transaction is face.

Face has another aspect (mm ) 30 .

This is face that is

gained through life and through family. It is a mixture of prestige, honour and dignity. A PNG-Chinese can gain this second aspect of face through generosity. The amount of a person has varies depending upon the audience: a PNGChinese trader with large

in Papua New Guinea may not

have equal jn among Australian art collectors. A person cannot add to face, but they can add to way, the opposite of gaining

In the same

is not the complete loss of

face but is more an erosion, as Ho describes so clearly:

"Decrements in face remain dormant, and social intercourse continues as if the individual were still in possession of his face, until a single incident arises in which his face is put to the test and he fails to protect or 'save' it. A physical analogy might help to make this clearer: adding weights to a ship will lower its level at sea, but it will not sink until the overloading goes beyond a critical point - or until the ship meets with a storm beyond its capacity to withstand." (1976:871) On an individual level, ego is an aspect of face. In Papua New Guinea when nephews or nieces talk with an uncle, they must always give him face (j). This is more than respect. It is deference, the omnipresent generation hierarchy. The 30.

is also the term used for the physical face.

113

nephew or niece must always remember the value of their uncle; 31 by being humble, they allow him to compliment them. This cements his status because they are giving him the right to compliment their work with the implicit assumption that he has the knowledge and status to judge them. The uncle can be a very powerful person. He can give advice, can help set the nephew or niece in business, can use his connections to make dealings with the government simpler. The uncle will gain face (j) by being generous while the nephew or niece gain face through accepting and appreciating what the uncle has given them. The intimate relationship between uncle and niece or nephew can even create problems in the generosity cycle if the uncle is too powerful and others in the community feel that he is being over-generous to his nephew or niece, either with material goods or in business advice, to the exclusion of others. 32 Although such a relationship is an embodiment of what Wilson calls the 'moral maturity' in Chinese culture 33 it subverts the PNG-Chinese balance of generosity because, as an exclusive interaction between two people, it implies obligation. This 31. Other people in the community can take symbolically the role of 'uncle.' A person who becomes the 'uncle' to many people acquires power but also responsibility. They become a leader in the community, a public figure. This position as community leader requires a great deal of face and this face is largely maintained through public generosity. 32. For more on 'face', see Hu, 1944; Wilson, 1973; Yang, 1969. 33. Mature morality is defined by Wilson as a mixture of reciprocity (taking Kohlberg's definition as 'the ability to consistently recognise the related claims of others'), empathy and individual responsibility (Wilson, 1973:3).

114

removes it from the realm of generosity and into the realm of social exchange transaction (c.f. Blau, 1964; Boissevain, 1974). Any kind of exchange relationship has an exclusive element that is geared towards profit. This makes the exchange a part of trade. Social relations between kin, including the extended family of the entire PNG-Chinese community, are not trade. Material transactions do take place between kin but they then become a part of trade. If an uncle is over-generous to his nephew or niece, he is giving them an opportunity to profit beyond what is available to others in the community. He is no longer being generous so much as promoting the position of one person. This makes his generosity suspect and the status he would potentially gain from such generosity decreases. Generosity must be for the good of the community and family, not just the individual. The uncle is showing his generous face, but in Papua New Guinea the exclusive nature of a particular relationship makes it specific to individuals, taking it away from sharing for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Face provides a definition of self, but gossip is what polices the creed of generosity and consideration between PNG-Chinese competitors. In such a small community, criticism can be very hurtful, particularly when all the participants know each other's weaknesses well. Gossip is one of the most powerful tools of the PNG-Chinese trader.

115

Both company and personal face (jj) rely upon how one can avoid or use gossip. Gossip is a means of control, of putting pressure on the individual to conform to the tight pattern of prescribed behaviour the community demands. Certain values are vital: sacrifice of the individual for the family, generosity, discretion, and family fidelity. These form the basis for gossip. Because the substance of the gossip will always return to the subject, gossip allows people to criticise each other without the embarrassment of having to do so directly with an accompanying risk of loss of face for either side. Another aspect of gossip is that it allows the accused no straightforward response. If one person confronts another with the accusation that they are stingy, the accused will become annoyed at the person making the accusation rather than contemplating the issue. Also in such an exchange, face is lost. The accused has lost face and will be inclined to retaliate by trying to make the accuser lose equal face. Gossip avoids direct conflict, yet gives the same reprimand to the accused. Gossip makes an open forum for the discussion and reinforcement of community values. Gossip is a powerful weapon against a person who does not live according to the set codes of behaviour. People who do not conform to the trade store ethics insult their fellow traders by showing through action that they do not respect the other's position. The competing traders, who are of course also relatives, will feel damaged personally. This will cause both groups to feel uncomfortable

116

at social gatherings and in general create ill will. Others in the community may give advice, but only a close friend or relation would be so indiscreet and take such a risk as confronting the issue directly. Mostly the community will just gossip and show the offenders they are displeased by ignoring them. This essentially makes the offenders temporary outcasts and if such action continues they will eventually lose face. The threat of such exclusion makes a deviation from the ethic of generosity and ritual consideration unthinkable.

Sharing as an Investment Through controlled sharing, PNG-Chinese traders are able to maximize individual profit by converting it to group profit. The 'Chinese bank', based on the Chinese j or rotating credit system is an institutionalised example of this philosophy. The j allows a community to realise individual (or family) profit through group action and numerous rotating credit associations existed in China by the end of the 19th century (See Arder, 1964). The Papua New Guinea version of the j follows the traditional Chinese pattern and was described in detail by David Wu from his research in the early 1970s: 'The operation of the Hui can be summarized as follows. If the members, say 36 of them, including the head of a Hui, agree to suscribe $100 a month, its head would initially collect the sum of $3500 at the first meeting on the first month. In the following 35 months, the head has to pay back $100 each month to the Hui, while the other members bid against each other in order to draw the fund. The 117

one who bids the highest amount, ie, the one who is willing to pay the highest interest, will draw the fund on that particular month. Given the highest bid of 15% interest $15) on the second month, the members will each pay the bidder $85 (ie, $100$15), except that the head, who has already drawn, should pay $100. The bidder would thus draw $2990 (ClOO from the head plus $85 from each of the other 34 members). In the next month, if the highest bid is still 15% interest, the bidder would draw $3005 (ie, $100 each from the head and the first drawer plus $85 from each of the other 33 members). By the end of the entire Hul cycle, the last to collect the fund from the Hui would get the full amount of $100 from everyone and thus collecting $3500. (We realize that he has paid $100 on the first month, and $90 or less, depending on the bid in each month, from the second month to the 35th month.) With such an arrangement the interest tends to be high during the initial months when there are more people needing the money and competing with each other to collect the fund, whereas during the later stages of the Hui cycle, with fewer people bidding against each other, the interest rate would drop. However, there is usually an agreed-upon minimal interest rate which is 10% among the Chinese in New Guinea. The idea is that if the highest bid is under 10% the member who bid the highest amount would still have to accept 10 percent as the minimal interest rate for that particular month. However, the last collector is exempt from any interest." (Wu, 1974: 573-4) So those who invest get a profit and the individual without liquidity realises enough capital to begin his or her project. This system works well if mutual trust and responsibility are not abused and indeed, with the strength of community pressure, did work in Papua New Guinea for some twenty years until two people were unable to fulfil their obligations and destroyed it. (Interview data, Rabaul, October 1986; also see Wu, 1974 for a more detailed account.) 34 Through promoting profit within a group con-

118

text, the entire community prospered. 35 The community prosperity brought more business and encouraged further individual profit. This institutionalised sharing of investment capital is a major factor in the establishment of the PNG-Chinese community as a strong economic force after the Second World War (Wu, 1982; Cahill, 1973) and gave many traders the opportunity they needed to invest and expand their businesses in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Rotating credit associations in various forms have been found in many areas of the world (Ardner, 1964; Geertz, 1962) and are usually regarded as a proto-capitalist credit system. Geertz describes it as a middle rung in the movement between an agrarian peasant society and a commercial, segregated one, while Kurtz (1973) describes it as an adaptation to poverty. Wu analyses the Papua New Guinea version of the j not only as an economic structure, but also in the context of values and the socio-political environment. As he described, the 'heads' of hui's also lent out home videos and made the j meetings social as well as cominercial affairs. Most jj members belonged to at least two

34. One defaulter attempted suicide. (Vu, 1974:581) 35. The Chinese Bank was particularly vital for the PNG-Chinese under the Australian Administration because during that time they were for many years restricted from obtaining formal bank loans. PNG-Chinese were also until recently hesitant to approach European banks (this is still the case for some of the smaller traders.)

119

huis, creating a network of interconnected j that included over half the community. Competitors belonged to the same j, making a co-operative venture and diffusing the divisions between them. When the 1i network collapsed in 1973, the people who lost money did not take the defaulters to court (for among other reasons this would have damaged the face of the entire conununity), but took a percentage of the defaulters' later profits and shared it equally among themselves (Wu, 1974). The Chinese bank has recently been restarted on a limited scale in Port Moresby to help some of the younger PNG-Chinese establish fledgling enterprises. The hui as it has existed in Papua New Guinea, is not proto-capitalist but rather works to reinforce social integration. It is also a commercial institution that is dependent upon sharing and promotes equality among investors.

The principle behind the institution of the j, that sharing will benefit each person, as well as the family and the entire conununity, extends to almost every non-trade transaction, be it social, political, financial, or material. It also extends to personal buying. If one family decides they want a television set, they tell other PNG-Chinese of the impressive qualities of this new set they have discovered. When several people are interested in buying the same set, they will then go together, getting a cheaper price per item through bulk buying. Likewise in the shops, if one shop receives some high quality clothing from Hong Kong or Sin-

120

gapore, they will let other traders know. The traders, who find it hard to find stylish clothing in much of PNG, will then come to visit and buy the clothing before it ever sees a trade store shelf. The trader who had bought the clothing initially will sell it to the other traders at wholesale price or at least with a 10% or 20% discount to show generosity.

Information; When, and When not, to Share Part of this generosity is a sharing of information or using personal position to help others. Since PNG-Chinese are mostly Australian citizens, they must continually get their visas renewed, particularly before they travel overseas. They also need work permits. The bureaucracy makes these documents notoriously difficult to obtain. PNG-Chinese who are better placed to get these permits, (understand the bureaucracy or happen to be going through Port Moresby, the capital) will try to help other PNG-Chinese. Everyone can give such help to others because everyone has specific skills or connections. For example the PNG-Chinese no longer have traditionally trained Chinese doctors, but several people are skilled in a Chinese-Melanesian traditional medicine. These people work as a supplement to Western medicine giving remedies for fever, hepatitis, or other ailments that specifically apply to PNG. Since this traditional medicine can often cure a problem that Western medicine cannot, these medical practitioners provide valu-

121

able knowledge to others. Other people who are electricians or accountants also offer, and are expected to offer, their knowledge and services.

Money is not used as payment for information or assistance, rather the service becomes an opportunity for generosity that does not involve material wealth. Other shared information is specific business advice. This sharing of information between shops keeps trade store knowledge up to date. An uncle traditionally gives advice, but everyone with knowledge that relates to the outside world will share it. This includes knowledge about tax, international investment, banking, accounting techniques, or dealing with the government bureaucracy. The giving of such information is a favour, but implicit in the favour is the knowledge that it is to the general community good when a business prospers. The sharing of information works on the same principle as the sharing of material wealth; it helps to maintain harmony and balance and promotes the community and family good. However, when PNG-Chinese give business assistance to kin, they are free to accept or ignore this advice. The person giving the knowledge or advice will also sail close to the wind, implying that they are giving privileged information, when they are in reality making a calculated indiscretion.

The sharing of information does not however extend to certam kinds of trade store knowledge. The management of PNG

122

Chinese businesses from trade store to corporation is an intimate family concern. This is because of a prevailing attitude among PNG-born Chinese that, in business, the only people one can trust are close family. This is not because family members are considered inherently superior to others, but because internal family influence is a driving force in the PNG-Chinese community and can be used to exert pressure on a family member who is making what the family considers unsound business decisions. This pressure also ensures a degree of honesty within the company. Over

non-family such

control is not possible. The ideal PNG Chinese business is one where a mixture of pressure and respect works as a balancing influence to create a strong and stable management team. Because of a belief in this ideal, PNG Chinese businesses use family members in top management positions when possible. Specific company knowledge is circulated among the members of such a management team, but seldom becomes general knowledge outside the family concern. The PNG-Chinese community at large does not share this knowledge. This is unlike the knowledge in the expatriate companies where hired managers move between corporations, making specific business methods general knowledge. PNGChinese businesses remain discreet about internal company methods in a hope that this will help them maintain, or gain, an advantage over their PNG-Chinese competitors. The boundaries between public and private information are flexible; a person can go too far in sharing private company

123

information in an attempt to increase face; or be oversecretive and thus insult his relatives. Basically he sits on the boundary between public and private knowledge, aware that in some circumstances private information becomes public and vice versa. More than actual categories of public and private, it is the relationship between the two that is significant.

Trading is essentially a business where each shop must try to draw as many customers as it can. This means that between shops there is always a sense of competition, sometimes overt, sometimes subtle. A person must protect his immediate family and immediate business first; all other relations and friends come next. Because nearly all PNGChinese are competitors, even cousins, siblings and close friends will try to use ideas they see in each other's shop if they think the idea is a good one. This makes certain business knowledge such as individual innovations upon a theme a private affair; a new way of packaging that a shop finds the customers are particularly partial to, or perhaps a new item they have discovered. The trader will try to keep these innovations secret as long as possible to maintain the small competitive edge they give. This means that the other shops will discover the innovation in two weeks rather than two days. People generally know the wholesale price of items and undercutting is considered unethical. Some people may visit a fellow trade store in order to ob-

124

tam information on pricing or how they might want to rearrange their own trade store. This behaviour is acceptable if the person is open about what they are doing and is not in direct competition with the trade store they are visiting. But since nearly all trade stores in a smaller community, such as Rabaul, are in competition, this kind of indiscreet inquiry creates resentment.

The ability to maintain social intimacy between relatives who are competitors requires a delicate balance between sharing and discretion, an understanding of the relationship between public and private knowledge. Information of a personal and non-business nature is public within the community as gossip. This kind of information includes who is having affairs with whom, who is not treating their baby correctly, who is having marriage problems, pregnancy, births, deaths, sickness, arguments over the mah jong table, who has been lucky at mah jong or dominoes, and breaches in proper conduct. Private information is usually company information. Some people are said to have a 'glass wallet', meaning they are indiscreet, not so much about money they make, but about money they lose. Such people lose respect. A person who can maintain moderate privacy about their finances can gain face as a steady and careful business trader. The entire community knows who does and does not make money in general terms but they do not know the specifics of another's earnings. This knowledge could cause resentment if one trader

125

is making a substantial amount more than his neighbour, who is also a relative, and he could then be expected to share more with that relative than he wishes. The community also has an unspoken ethical right to criticise a person who is obviously making more money than his neighbours and who is not fulfilling the community demands of generosity. A way to avoid such destructive action is to keep your own head low and blend in with the other businesses, be as generous and considerate as possible and share what you have. A person who competes too harshly or is ungenerous with their

known earnings will eventually lose face.

In traditional China, from the philosophy of Mencius, the conflict of generosity and humanity against profit and desire was resolved through the accumulation of moral capital (or accumulated merit) (Berling, 1982). Generosity, public consideration and sharing among the PNG-Chinese cannot be identified with a process of accumulation as they are not considered so much discreet acts as the practice of a philosophy. However, the collective memory of the community focuses on a long-term relationship of sharing through generosity and in this way balances financial capital with moral capital. Implicit in generous giving is the Maussian 'peace of the gift', but here the cycles move beyond the value of commodity to the value of communication 36 where 36. This is not unlike Emily Martin's description of a corporate cornmunity (1986).

126

wealth is shared with the trust that everyone in the coinmunity will eventually benefit. Yet the concept of generosity goes further still for it reflects an attitude where giving hasa value in its own right, where its purpose is less to create an increase of wealth, even on a community level, and more to create harmony, co-operation and equality among competitors in trade. It is important that generosity is trade. Trade is business. Generosity, sharing and consideration are interactions between traders that form a foundation of identity and community. Generosity is a reaffirination of self; sharing enlarges the self to include the entire community. In the next chapter, I will explore the way in which the self is also expanded through time.

127

CHAPTER 3 - SOCIAL SUBVENTION AND THE EXPANDED SELF

"The PNG-Chinese know how to save" one trader said "but they can't spend. You can teach a person how to make money, but you can't teach them how to spend it." PNG-Chinese do spend money, but the distinction he implied is that PNG-Chinese, even the very wealthy ones, do not often spend money to accumulate personal possessions or for self-indulgence. As we have seen, this is because goods represent profit and profit is only valuable as long as it continues to move and allows generosity. Goods that are kept, go out of community circulation, become static, uninteresting. Goods are important for their potential for maintaining or creating relationships; goods with no relationship with other people besides the owner are isolated and therefore dead.' To describe the relationship between generosity, concepts of self and of community, I must introduce the term 'social subvention'. I shall gloss this as meaning the use of private funds, goods or services for the continued public good of the community. These funds, goods or services, are firstly used as vehicles for

1. Wu (1977) in his description of the New Guinea j (rotating credit association) noted that participants who had not yet drawn on their fund were considered to have a 'living j' while those who had, were con'. So while the relationship is moving, the sidered to have a 'dead hui is living. Once the relationship is finished the j is dead.

128

generosity which then allows an increase in status. Put in another way, social subvention alters the scope of the economic concept of 'investment' to include socially productive consumption as well as goods, services and information that is 'invested' in long-term community goals. In addition, social subvention does not imply a specific return to the source apart from the continued increased well-being of the community.

A vital aspect of social subvention is its relationship to the PNG-Chinese concept of person which includes a personal identity and a self of expanded boundaries that include both family and community. This expanded concept of self means all subvention must ultimately benefit the community. Before we can understand PNG-Chinese social subvention, we must understand this concept of the expanded self.2

In the early l960s David McClelland (1961) wrote that the need for personal achievement motivated the entrepreneur, an idea Miller (1967) expanded to include 'every role-performer in society' (1967:11). Miller contrasts an 'open society' where individuals have 'inner directed' motives that create harmony in society, to a 'closed society' such as the one of 'primitives' (he does not explain who these 'primitives' are), where persons are not individuals and coercion to con2. See Elvin (1985) for an interesting account of paradoxes in the history of the Chinese concept of self.

129

form comes from the outside.

MacFarlane gives a definition of the individual 3 as

"the single person ... that society is constituted of autonomous equal units, namely separate individuals and that such individuals are more important ultimately than any larger constituent group. It is reflected in the concept of individual private property, in the political and legal liberty of the individual, in the idea of the individuals direct communication with God." (1978:5) Let us use this definition in discussion of the PNG-Chinese concept of the individual person. Among the PNG-Chinese, the community is ultimately more important than the individual. However, this does not diminish the value of individual thought and action. Rather, it gives each person an opportunity, through intense community relations, to expand his or her definition of self to include simultaneously the person, the family and the expanded family of community. The identity of the individual theoretically still exists with legal and political liberty and a direct communication with God. People can take any political or legal action they choose, but a person who acts in a way that ultimately harms the community is considered deviant. This is not because of their deviation from duty but rather because as the enlarged concept of self also includes the community, any

3. He actually gives two definitions, the first meaning a state that stands alone in its actions. I shall deal only with the second definition, the one on which MacFarlane also focuses his attention.

130

act that damages the community also damages the self. Such self-destructive behaviour is considered incomprehensible in a normal person.

People realise personal fulfilment through their relation to the community, but can exert their personal ego through their abilities of negotiation, as cooks, their ability to tell jokes, or skill at sports. The idea of the PNG-Chinese individual is not a person who divorces himself or moves independently from the community, but rather how he or she expresses him/herself in relation to the community and the family. This personal action can express itself even in the most extreme of cases. One person committed an act that, although understandable to the community on one level, carried the potential of bringing shame to both family and the community. Close relatives discussed, with sadness, that perhaps this person should consider suicide. In the end however, the family, which was in severe financial difficulty, placed the sole responsibility of negotiating a deal that would resolve these financial difficulties in the hands of the offending individual. This person, through tactics that several others called 'brilliant' singlehandedly recovered the family financial security. As the family had hoped, this act diminished the power of the previous act and allowed their relative to exist again in the community without shame. This person expressed himself in an individual manner, but his acts were still in relation to

131

the community.4

Similarly property can be privately owned, although more commonly it will be owned jointly by husband and wife, siblings, cousins, uncles with nephews or nieces, or larger groups of family shareholders. The concept of private

(including family)

ownership is important to allow posses-

sions to be generously shared and given away. The PNGChinese have certainly not, in Weber's terms (1930), shattered the 'fetters of the kinship group', but neither is the opportunity for individual thought and action subsumed by the clan (or community).

Weber (1930) argues that the oppression of the clan 'fetters' in China never allowed individualism to develop and further that this lack of individualism curbed any growth of capitalism. China scholars have for years argued about 'sprouts' of capitalism in China 5 and overseas Chinese scholars have argued about why overseas Chinese so quickly become successful entrepreneurs. 6 The general consensus is 4. Errington and Gewertz (1987) make an interesting case for a similar concept in Chambri society of the Sepik in Papua New Guinea. 5. See Dirlik (1982) for an in-depth discussion of the history of these arguments. Also Balazs (1964) who places the birth of a state capitalism in China as dating from at least the Sung dynasty (10th to 13th centuries) 6. See Omahundro, 1983; Freedman, 1979; Purcell, 1965; Mackie, 1976; (as related to involvement in politics). Other studies, such as Hallgren, 1986 note that all overseas Chinese do necessarily become successful as entrepreneurs.

132

that their success comes from their cohesive kinship system. So, in China, their kin 'fetters' constrict them economically while overseas the same 'fetters' grant them success. What Weber and others have failed to grasp is that a person can have as much 'individual' identity and direction in a community oriented society as in a dispersed society. A person with an expanded view of self has merely added several levels to their concept of the person. The musical note in the analogy of the musical composition used in the last chapter has an identity as a single note, but it is more complete as a part of a larger harmonious composition.

Kinship and community are the measures by which most PNGChinese develop their concept of self, yet this does not constrict individual drive. The community allows change and creative experimentation. The older generation tends to be more conservative and resistant to change, but the younger generation has pressed forward and, as will be described in the next two chapters, revolutionised the trade store and its scope. This is individual action and creativity, but the implicit faith is that the new changes will ultimately benefit family and community. This does not mean that fights and arguments about business practice and planned changes do not occur in the family and community. They often do. But these arguments do not stop personal free expression of new trading ideas, nor do they stop actual change. Rather they reflect a nervousness on the part of

133

the more conservative members that a certain idea or practice might not be the best family and community investment. More than a hindrance to innovation, the community provides a support network that gives goods, services and knowledge. Ultimately each company develops as it wishes, but at the same time it does not wish to insult or seriously damage any of its competing relatives in the community. When Weber writes "the great achievement of ethical religions, above all of the ethical and asceticist sects of Protestantism, was to shatter the fetters of the kinship group. These religions established the superior community of faith and a common ethical way of life in opposition to the community of blood, even to a large extent in opposition to the family". (cited in MacFarlane 1978:50) he ignores the strength of a philosophic ethic. With the PNG-Chinese, their 'common ethical way of life' is in consonance with their 'community of blood'. Indeed, each is reliant upon the other to function: the generosity and sharing are only possible because the community is a tightly knit community of kin. In the same way the kin community of competing traders can only exist because of their generosity and sharing. The PNG-Chinese concept of the person appears to have its roots in Taoist philosophy and the popular peasant religion of 19th century South China. In traditional Chinese belief, a person who died relied upon his descendants to 'feed' him 134

and give him wealth after death through offerings of food and paper 'spirit' money. Ancestors judged their living descendents on the respect the descendents gave through their offerings. 7 Every living person was watched by ancestors and actions in life were ideally to win their ancestors' approval. Most PNG-Chinese now have little formal training in this Chinese philosophy. Some pay ritual respect to their ancestors in a traditional Chinese fashion through Qing Ning (a festival to show respect to the ancestors), others in a more Western fashion through visiting and presenting flowers to the graves of their relatives, while others conduct no ritual at all. However, as one PNG-Chinese trader, when talking about a prospective business deal, said, "When this (deal) happens we ask advice from the eyes of Grandfather." 7. In traditional Chinese belief, there are three main and seven lesser souls. Of the main souls, one remains in the coffin, one becomes the ancestral tablet, and one either goes to a 'heaven' or 'hell' or is reborn in the transmigration of souls. The ancestral tablet becomes the ancestor himself after an official or scholar writes the word shen chu in red ink on the ancestral tablet (Freedman 1967; Graham 1961:122). The traditional concept of ancestor worship is one of mutual dependence. After death, people embodied in the ancestral tablet need the same things they need in life, including food, money and shelter. If ancestors are provided with such provisions they will help and protect their descendents, giving them wealth, long life, happiness and success. If the ancestors are not respected and provided for, they will become demons bringing death, poverty and destruction. The Red, symbolic of health and in this case actually life giving, is also the colour of the paper that envelopes coins given by the older generation to the younger generation at New Years. Here the elders give life and prosperity to their offspring. An ancestral temple contains one tablet representing the family and one tablet for each ancestor, going back at least three generations. A hired caretaker looks after the tablets and daily burns incense. At specific times of the year, descendents make offerings of food and spirit money. All the money spent on the ancestral temple, on the food, the caretaker, and the spirit money itself is an offering to the ancestor. (c.f. Ahern, 1973)

135

"But I thought he was dead." I said. "He is, but - well, we're like that - he's involved." The PNG-Chinese do not now build ancestral tombs or spend a great deal on ancestral celebrations; the relationship is more an abstract one. If a family and the community can improve their status, then by extension the status of the ancestor will also improve. The improved position of the family in the present makes the sacrifices that ancestors made worthwhile. In this way, profit affects not only the present, but also the past.

Profit also unites the present with the future. Children ensure the long-term continuity of the family, but merely providing progeny is not enough. These children must uphold, and if possible improve, the family's face (jjj). Profit that is saved in the present can help to establish the family's good position in the future. A person saving in the present has a vision of himself as a future ancestor, an ancestor whose position will be affected by the position of his descendents. The PNG-Chinese have developed a kind of Protestant version of ancestor worship through trying to create the world for their children that their ancestors would have liked to create for them. Their emphasis is not on the ritual expressions of honouring ancestors, but on practical action that improves the status of the community self. The search for grace is expressed through worldy success, yet neither this grace nor the success is individual. Profit makes a vital link between present and fu-

136

ture, and present and past. The process becomes a continuum that moves profit through time. History and profit become symbolically intertwined. Each person is part of the large PNG-Chinese family, but is also the link between the deaths behind him and the births before him. Achievement on any level extends beyond the individual.

This expanded concept of the individual self makes every living PNG-Chinese a vital link between ancestor and unborn child. It gives every action, in business and in family, a dual place, that of a single life in the immediate present, and a place in a much larger context where the past and future have equal validity to the present. The image of personhood is expanded beyond one generation. Profit from trade maintains a continuity from one generation to the next, creating a sense of community that includes not only the living but also those who lived before and those who are not yet born. Generosity and sharing are the practices that reflect an enlarged concept of self in space that includes the entire community. Saving and social subvention reflect a self that grows through time. The concept of time itself becomes contextual. Everyone lives their daily lives in what could be called 'inorganic' time, the linear progression of daily and yearly segmented units, but they also hold a concept of an 'organic' time. This is time where the grandparents and children stand together in a temporal unity; the community as an extended family makes the future

137

and past a vital part of the present. Status is not for the individual person, nor is it for a discrete present. Status in the present immediatel y also affects time and persons that surround the present. The 'organic' time takes on a cosmological quality and becomes a temporal space whose boundaries can change depending upon the context, expanding and changing the very quality of the present. 8 Each person incorporates both these concepts of time into their perception of self. Douglas and Isherwood state that 'the poor sections of the population are defined as those with the least assets and who may, for that very reason, be said to live in the present and even have a characteristic shortterm structuring of time'. (1979:27). This could not apply to the PNG-Chinese. Their 'organic' sense of time is defined more by their relationship to each other not their physical assets. Even PNG-Chinese who are fairly poor now, or were certainly poor in the past, still hold a strong concept of a relationship with the needs of family past and future (the next chapter details how they coped with their poverty in the light of this ideology). Through these relationships every person acquires an inherent importance, an expanded self.

8. Traditional Chinese philosophy places the uniting force that couples past and future in chi, the fluid energy. The two are opposites, a temporal 1j and yang, yet both combined act as a unity between Taoist space and the natural space of life and death.

138

Savinc For Status PNG-Chinese traders will often say that the reason they run successful trade stores is because they work hard and they know how to save. This is particuarly true in the traditional trade store where the trader often knows little of costing, merely doubles the price of items and watches the level of cash that accumulates in his pocket. Basically he or she focuses on saving what profit they make. They will never waste anything in a trade store. If they wrap the parcels they sell in plastic bags, they will use every plastic bag they themselves receive from other shops and not just the bags they have purchased for this purpose, thus making savings. They realise that their customers use newspaper for rolling tobacco, so they sell newspaper for 3.5 or 20 toea for five sheets. Some items, fishing gear and other hardware, is usually wrapped in newspaper, but since the newspaper is a usable commodity to the customer - and a saleable item - they use only as little as is necessary. They use old bits of cloth to make men blouses. Everything has a use, and if it can possibly save the trader money, he or she will use it. An ability to curtail consumption is considered to be saving.

In most stores, sophisticated or not, the working members of the family draw an income and the rest of the profit is ploughed back into stock. 9 The family will take only a 9. Compare this to Potter's (1968) description of peasants in a Hong

139

small wage for many years until the shop is returning a steady profit, then they may increase the family wage. The bulk of the profit however will be used to increase the family's wealth and to increase their long-term status. Much of their liquid capital is set aside in secure investments: in the trade store stock, in property, safe investments that involve little risk. The traders are conservative with this kind of investment because they cannot afford to lose the basic savings of the family. In necessary family consumption the PNG-Chinese are also conservative and tend to follow the lead of each other. They dislike wasting money - they use fluorescent lighting in their homes because they like bright lighting, but also because it saves money but at the same time they do not want their family to appear shabby. They devote too many hours of time and thought in their business to waste much of it on their home decor, so when one person comes up with what appears to be a good idea, such as buying a fish tank 1 ° or a certain kind of sofa, several others in the community will follow (saving money through bulk buying or by a discount).

This spending for necessity is different from spending for Kong village where, although thrift was an important value, the majority of the peasants were unable to save despite their rising income. 10. Fishtanks assist in maintaining good energy in the traditional Chinese philosophy of fen g -shui. As discussed in a note note in Chapter 1, most PNG-Chinese do not claim to understand or follow fen g -shui, but its principles of balance keep cropping up in daily action and design.

140

status. PNG-Chinese compare themselves to their Melanesian customers and neighbours in relation to their views of savings and investment. They feel that the Nelanesians (this applies largely to the Tolais of the Rabaul area) live from day to day, so they do not save in an obvious way. The Tolai can have such an attitude because for most starvation is unlikely and they do not relate survival to cash. This is especially true since until recently they considered 'cash' (or tambu) transitory, a status item had to be given away to make it valuable. These Melanesians invested 'cash' in status rather than saving it for later personal or family consumption (c.f. Strathern, 1983; A Epstein, 1969). PNGChinese recognise that they, like the Melanesians, devote a great deal of profit to acquiring status. Profit allows a PNG-Chinese family to be generous. Although the generosity is given freely and no reciprocal gift is expected, it is a long-term social subvention to create improved status for the family. Children and grandchildren profit through the status a parent gains through the generosity the parent can offer today. A paradox arises here. Profit that is shared in the cycle of generosity is not trade and works towards daily balance in the community. This same profit however, becomes social subvention for the historic and future status of the family. Generosity is not expected to be repaid in kind because the status gained through the generosity is in itself the repayment of the investment. The consumed generosity in this case becomes, in Bourdieu's terms,

141

'symbolic capital' (1972). Persons who act in a selfserving manner disrupt the harmony of the community and cause a personal and family loss of face (in). This means that self-serving acts actually work against the self. By the same logic, altruistic acts (generosity, restricted personal consumption) maintain face and improve personal and family status. Altruism is one acceptable reflexive act. Generosity is an individual or family act that reflects directly back upon the giver. Social subvention however is for the family and subsumes individual action. Generosity allows the individual ego to promote itself through an acceptable show of altruism but the family status gained from the generosity keeps the ego in check. The ego's actions are not ultimately for himself, but for the family and community.

This ideology extends to anything a person may buy. A certain proportion of profit must be 'invested' in status items to maintain the face of the family and community as a group of successful traders. In anything, PNG-Chinese try to acquire the best, or what by current definition is considered the best. This can be designer clothes, well-known and expensive brands of sports equipment, jewellery, boats that can increase status either because they incorporate innovative technology or were previously owned by well-known individuals. The brand and cost of these items is of interest to others in the community and status gained through the

142

discussions about them is a major motive in their purchase. Clothing must have style and should, if possible, be expensive. At the very least a person, man or woman, must be well-dressed in the conventional sense of the term. If a person does not maintain this norm, he or she will be criticised. Personal adornment is as much for the community and family as for the person. The PNG-Chinese also buy expensive jewellery. This not only reflects publicly the family profit, but is a sound investment in financial terms. People may argue the merits of buying diamonds, which have a higher social value, or gold, which is more stable in resale, but as a general rule, investment in jewellery is considered sound judgement. A person who is wealthy has status and increased power both within the community and in dealing with the outside world. Jewellery is a visible statement about status, power and profit. The aim of buying fashionable clothes and gold jewellery is not a competition to look smarter than one's neighbour or kin, but it is an investment in the total respectability of the community. Each person should be 'well-dressed' as a reflection of the status of the community as a whole. Such social subvention reflects a commitment to community and to the continued need to maintain community face.11

11. Gell (1986) notes a similar value on consumption among the Muria Gonds of India. Again consumption is not for individual status, but is a commitment to make the entire community appear respectable in the eyes of outsiders. Such consumption is rooted in a desire for conformity, not to promote individual differences.

143

Purchased items, other than jewellery and other personal goods, are shared easily; much of their value being of course the opportunity they give for generosity. The person who buys an expensive item must not actually be attached to that item as an object but must allow a new car to be driven by others over rough terrain. This restriction of personal consumption, and the non-possessive attitudes towrds personal goods, on the surface, reflects a classic Weberian idea of the worldly ascetic. However, their concept is not an ascetic one. The expansion of self to include family, community, the dead and the unborn, makes any action that benefits that unit a rational personal decision. The PNGChinese attitude reflects a feeling that possessions are not so much 'objects to be enjoyed' as Simmel calls them, but are potential for generosity that will in turn increase status. Possessions are not independent from the community, they are valuable largely because of the relationships they serve. Possessions can only be a positive 'extension of ego (in Simmel's terms. 1978:322) as long as they are also a part of social interaction. Any possession works ideally for long-term social subvention, not as a personal selfindulgence.

The concept that restricted personal consumption creates a saved 'profit' affects every act in life. Everything either symbolically or in physical terms is a limited good.

144

This perception is reflected in a joke told about a PNGChinese man who had been a priest for some years. After he was married for several years (so the joke went) he still wanted sex every night while other men had become content with once or twice a week. "That's alright", one man said, "he hasn't even started on his overdraft yet." Virility, like capital, is a limited good to be rationed carefully over a lifetime. During his years as a celibate priest, the gentleman in question had not used any of his virility. Because of these earlier savings, he could now 'spend' easily for many years before he would have to 'borrow' from the bank of virility through an overdraft. The other men, having 'spent' their virility for more years, were already working on an 'overdraft' and so needed to ration their spending with some care.12

When Douglas and Isherwood (1979) state that saving is 'consumption postponed', they reflect a traditional Western notion that investment is oriented towards the individual. Wealth among the PNG-Chinese is for family status, and financial investment is to ensure that this status will affect future generations. Since the PNG-Chinese community is a huge extended family united through kin ties and ties of occupation, all profit affects the entire community. If one calls the PNG-Chinese capitalists (and this is debatable), 12. This idea of virility as a limited good relates directly to Taoist concepts of virility and sexual practice. See Van Gulik (1961).

145

their concept of social subvention makes it a communal capitalism. 'Financial investment' is what the PNG-Chinese do in business; generosity and social subvention are not business but a major motive for the production of profit. Since the continued ability to be generous is an important aim of all profit, the capital is community directed. Indeed the community defines a reason for profit: without the community the need for generosity is lost.

In discussing the idea of social subvention, there are several pitfalls we must avoid. On the surface, it could appear to fit into a Weberian traditional Catholic economy. As a community of traders, the PNG-Chinese are like a guild, in that membership is restricted (by birth or marriage) to a group united by knowledge. Many of the PNG-Chinese are even Catholic. They contribute generously to the church, but a place in the afterlife is one of the least important reasons for these contributions. They see the church as a part of their community and therefore it is important to be generous on general principle. In addition, the church reflects back on the community and therefore must have enough money to function properly. The major Catholic church in Rabaul was sadly in need of repairs in 1985 and the church said it needed 50,000 kina. The money was raised through bingo games and fetes and the PNG-Chinese gave considerable donations in time, money and goods. Not all of those who contributed were Catholic, and indeed, a few were people who

146

are strongly opposed to the Catholic church both on philosophical and historical grounds. These people contributed because of their creed of generosity. No matter what the cause, if it is a part of the community, few would think of refusing their help. They are not 'investing' in the afterlife, but in the continuation of the community itself. Their contributions are social subvention for the maintenance of community status. Theirs is not a Weberian Protestant economy; social subvention is ultimately for the family rather than the individual. The underlying idea is to increase wealth and status, not only past and present, but also future generations; the aim of most consumption is to reflect and improve family status. So, for the PNGChinese, consumption as well as saving creates future 'profit'. Just as financial capital is transformed into moral capital, capital investment becomes valuable for its symbolic returns of family and community status. Communal capital investment, combined with social subvention, is what allows the continued transformation of the solitary self into the expanded self.

The Status of Money The idea that people increase status through showing and sharing profit reflects a PNG-Chinese concept of money. The concept of the expanded self makes money a nonindividual acquisition that must ultimately be used for the community good. At Christmas and other occasions, friends

147

and relatives give each other money as gifts. In many ways cash is a better gift than a purchase because the purchase is just one step further removed from direct profit. A person who gives cash is particularly generous; the receiver knows exactly what this cash means in terms of investment or profit. A purchased gift can always be obtained very cheaply or free and all traders know this. Cash however represents a specific generosity because of its direct connection to profit. The amount of cash a person gives is important. One trader who was known to be making a good profit was finally goaded into giving out the traditional red envelopes that contain cash that many people give at Christmas or New Year (or other occasions). Everyone was pleased when he gave out the envelopes, thinking they would each get k20, but inside was the traditional one toea (representing the one piece). The trader said it was the thought that counted, but the others reacted with derision. They suggested he take them all out to dinner before he got the reputation of being tight.

A person who makes money has to have a degree of luck and their money is therefore lucky. Generous cash gifts reflect profit; profit reflects clever luck. Profit and luck combined increase face. In giving money a person gives the aura of their luck to others. Such a gift can only increase luck; one gives the money in the hope that it will multiply) 3 Just as in a gambling game where a PNG-Chinese

148

person may take a winner's cash as lucky money to begin his or her game, a cash gift is a wish of luck and profit. Beyond luck, money is a useful and practical gift. Money that is given as a gift is money for independent spending, not family or trading money, and can be spent for pure personal indulgence. One uncle gave his niece 1000 kina to spend while she was on holiday. The niece had an acceptable sum she took from the trade store profit, but the money gift was above this and unaccountable in monetary terms. In keeping with the creed of generosity, this money was a pure gift, a symbol of the uncle's affection and he did not expect any return. In the widest sense, the generosity was social subvention because it continued the cycle of generosity, but the money itself was not. Similarly, when I worked in a trade store for one family, that family periodically gave me small gifts of cash. This was not a wage. Wages for expatriate workers in Papua New Guinea are very high and if the family were to give me a wage, they would have to pay me the going rate a) so as not to insult me and b) in order to avoid seeing themselves as ungenerous. (It was also illegal and would have caused problems, both for them and me.) Working in the trade store was part of my research and their openness in allowing me to work with them was an act of pure generosity. The family was generous to

13. Bloch and Parry discuss how Western scholars have also tended to fetishise money in this manner. (Bloch & Parry, Forthcoming:12)

149

me in many ways and as one of these, the money gifts represented independence. This gift of money was always given with such comments as "Here, no don't pay anything towards dinner tonight, I've done that. Use it for something else." The giver did not want an account of her gift. Similarly, the niece returned from her holiday laden with gifts, but her uncle did not expect an account of how she had spent the money he had given her, nor would the niece expect to be asked. Gifts of money are 'individual' money while trade store profit is communal capital for social subvention.

Money also embodies community independence. Profit from trade is what has traditionally allowed the PNG-Chinese to live outside the discrimination of the colonial elite. They can only remain independent entrepeneurs as long as they maintain a profit and money represents this profit. To the PNG-Chinese, independence as a community is one of the most valuable commodities they have. Although profit represents independence or 'freedom' in Sixnmel's terms, from the ruling elite, it does not represent freedom within the community. Since everyone is kin, freedom from the community in most cases would represent a destruction of purpose. In a community where each person measures their existence relative to others, 'freedom' in the pure individualist Western sense of the term would be a kind of hell. Money, like other shared commodities, is de-objectified and the giving of it represents a relationship. Within the community, money p

150

se does not behave as the 'ina gna carta' of personal freedom quality of the West, where one can 'buy oneself out of personal obligation by means of money' (Siinmel, l97ê:286). Obligation to family and community is an intrinsic part of life. 14

Marriacie As Social Subvention Monetary profit is only one of the complex aspects of social subvention needed to ensure the social stability of future generations. One of the most important aspects in PNGChinese family life is marriage and the majority of people do marry.

Marriage carries importance beyond the individual because marriage is a contract between families more than between individuals. Yet marriage is also more than just a contract. It is an ultimate social subvention. Any union affects on a three-tiered level the individual, the family and the community. The couple are taking partners for life; the family is uniting with another for generations; and the community 14. Bloch and Parry in an introduction in their edited book on concepts of money, use the various articles in the book to develop a theory of money that tries to move beyond the 'gift and commodity' and 'primitive and modern capital' dichotomies. They analyse the varied functions of money between societies and indeed within societies. They argue that money can be central to short-term exchange of an individual life and also as a de-objectified exchange for the long-term public benefit. Such a relationship allows capital to serve both 'the transient individual and the enduring social order which transcends the individual'. (Forthcoming:2) Hart (1986) discusses this same issue from a different angle when he compares the conceptual development of money as immutable to money as influenced by market value and social transaction.

151

is looking to its continued well-being. Again the individual concerns are for the single lifetime, but the family and community interests take such prominence because they affect future generations and community evolvement. Marriage, like financial and moral subvention is a rational choice. Douglas and Isherwood (1979) discuss (citing Glass) the tendency in England for marriage partners to be from similar social classes, but the emphasis is still on individual and, at the most, family betterment. Among the PNG-Chinese, marriage also affects the community status. Since the community is a large extended family, the actions of any community member, as kin, reflects back upon that community.

Family involvement is intrinsic to the entire marriage selection process. Families who are friends joke about the possibility of their children marrying. When the children are young, the parents will tease the children. "Kiss, kiss," they will say to a boy and girl of perhaps three and four. When two friends or relatives are pregnant, they will also tease, "You have a girl, we have a boy, when they are big, they will be engaged." In both of these occurrences, the two families are complimenting each other. They are saying in essence that they consider the other family a good addition to their own family, one they would like to be united by the strong bond that comes when children marry. This teasing is not serious, but reflects the importance of

152

long-term planning in marriage.

When children are young, perhaps 13 or 14, they go to parties. These often include dances on a platform built in the yard of a relative or family friend. In the tropical night air, young people dance and talk, laughing together in the soft light of coloured bulbs and the moon. This is a romantic setting by any definition and the parents encourage the romantic sparks that fly between the young. These young friends form romantic attachments and tease each other about who likes whom. Since most of the children go away to Australia for schooling, these parties are confined to their vacations and this is a time of vitality and fun that parents and the younger people alike find delightful. Although watched carefully by the parents, these romantic loves are not taken very seriously and seldom lead to marriage. This underlines a fundamental difference about how traditional Chinese and Westerners view marriage, a difference which is still important to the PNG-Chinese community.

As the children grow older, certain people emerge as the most eligible. These are the children of the more wealthy families and children who themselves show some spirit and aptitude for business. The Western ideal of romantic love is seldom appropriate. Sinunel says of the Western notion of love 'With the exception of religious feelings, love is more

153

intimately and unconditionally linked with its object than any other feeling' (1984:164). This is exactly the aspect of love that makes it a subversive emotion in PNG-Chinese society. Any kind of exclusive love is destructive to the cohesion of the community. Similarly an exclusive love for an inanimate object with its possessive overtones, makes generosity problematic. A person should love categories of people, their parents, their children: these loves are considered innate. But the love for a spouse is a learned love, one that develops with time. A person does not have to feel love for their spouse at marriage because if they show generosity and respect, both to each other and their respective family, then love should develop between them as the years pass. They will, if they are lucky, develop what Simmel calls 'Christian love', a love that focuses on the giving rather than possession. Traditional Chinese philosophy calls this the kind of love that fosters benevolence. This is a non-exclusive love, for any marriage bond must never exclude kin and community. From classical Chinese philosophy: 'Fan Ch'ih asked about benevolence. The Master said 'It is to love all human beings'. Mencius also asserted 'The benevolent man loves others' (Hsieh, 1967:171).

This is, of course, an ideal, but in a com-

munity where the entire group is both kin and competitors, harmony hinges in a very real sense on benevolence, as expressed through generosity and consideration. The concept of the expanded self is also incompatible with an exclusive

154

passion. Exclusive love between couples endangers the cohesion of the community and its future. As such, it, like selfishness, is a destructive act. A relationship based on sexual passion is for immediate enjoyment, and in some cases for status, but is not a foundation for marriage. 15

As

one single man said, "A lover must be like a shirt, able to be worn one day and discarded the next. Losing a friend is like losing your right arm." (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987) A friend is a relationship, a commitment to continuity, a love of passion is replacable, in Simmel's terms 'has the character of a means ... nothing more than the mere means for the realisation of a solipsistic purpose (1984:168).

Marriage for the PNG-Chinese is a rational choice. One person will weigh another's qualifications for marriage, their education, their ability to work, their social status, their family background. A man and woman are partners and a good partner has specific qualities. The PNG-Chinese have few prescribed rules for an individual's duties, determining them instead by ability and inclination. Both sexes and generations do accounts, cook, tend the children, serve customers, count the money, do the banking or open the shop. A man will usually close the shop because a woman is less safe 15. A common PNG-Chinese term for Western single women is, 'three time virgin.' This means that on the first date, the woman is a virgin, the second a knowledgeable virgin, and on the third date they can be easily encouraged to bed.

155

after dark, but generally several people of both sexes stand around during closing to lessen the chances of risk. A division of the duties however is vital so that each person knows what is expected of them in a working day. A person will seldom manage a trade store alone mainly because the amount of work and energy required is too great. One man who runs his shop alone, only because he has no wife or close family in the area, must close his shop when he goes to the wholesaler or to do his banking. He must continually manage the cash box so he has little time to oversee other details of the shop. The general consensus among the surrounding PNG-Chinese community is that this man could run a much more successful trade store if he had a wife beside him. A woman would likewise not generally run a trade store alone unless need forced her to do so. In another instance, three sisters and the husband of one of the sisters operated a trade store their parents had left them. When a brother joined them, he decided he wanted to try manufacturing and other sales, and his branch of the company expanded quickly. After a few years he decided that although he had excellent business ideas, he was not a very good manager and that he needed to find a wife who would be his partner and manager of his business concerns. He had already been introduced to a potential wife, a PNG-Chinese woman who had recently received qualifications as an accountant. The woman had several qualities that made her a good marriage choice: she was from a respected PNG-Chinese trading family (and a dis-

156

tant relative); she had made clear her desire to marry him; she had a likeable personality; and she had the education and intelligence to be his partner in his expansion of the family business. It should be noted that the woman's family also saw this man and his family as a good addition to their family and exercised a great influence in the marriage negotiations. All of these instances illustrate the importance of a spouse as a partner in both community and business life.

Since marriage is for social subvention, it is important that family finance is not allowed to dissipate through marriage. The traditional Chinese ideal is that marriage is virilocal with the wife joining her husband's family and company, and the ideal inheritance is to give sons assets and daughters cash to take with them in marriage. But, as Pasternak wrote, 'One of the lessons to be learned, even in casual comparisons, is that the net of Chinese culture is a loose one: it constrains lightly.' (Pasternak, 1983:11). Hence, in Papua New Guinea, this inheritance rule does not always apply and many women remain strongly united with their natal families. Their entire family sometimes joins the husband's family business, Similarly, husbands can join their wives' family's company. These are generally men without resources of their own and are seldom accepted as completely in the family as are wives (see chapter 7 on how this affects the internal structure of the international

157

companies). Wives will also continue to have interests in their consanguinal family business after marriage, depending upon her family's dependence upon her management abilities and her negotiation skills with family members. Parents, uncles and aunts will also invest in a trading concern that a wife will start with her husband. Generally the family will do what it thinks is best for the family. The bias in business inheritance is inclined towards the male line, but is easily switched to the female line.

PNG-Chinese generally find marriage partners in two ways. One is by chance, made through acquaintance where a man and woman will meet an acceptable partner at university or at work. The second is by introduced marriage. 16 If it is generally known in the community that a man or woman is looking for a spouse, a go-between (usually a friend or relative) may casually arrange a meeting. Both sides know this meeting is made with the intent of marriage, but the couple involved have every right to reject each other and this often occurs. An eligible man will often be invited to parties where eligible young female relatives of the host will also be coincidentally present. Both sides are free to react as they choose. The relatives who paid for the plane fare of the visiting relative may grow annoyed if

16. Arranged marriage, as it was traditionally practised in China where parents choose marriage partners, is not currently practised in Papua New Guinea.

158

they feel they have wasted their money, but basically they realise their investment carried a large element of risk. Many people prefer these introduced marriages. The selection of eligible men and women for the PNG-Chinese is not large. Young men and women are usually deeply involved in family business and have little time to wander around searching for an acceptable partner. If others can help them by bringing forward people they would otherwise not meet, this gives them a wider choice and makes the selection process easier. As one eligible man said, "I am waiting for my family to select someone for me. If I go out with a woman alone, I don't know her. I don't know if she is sincere. My family knows me better than anyone else.

If they select someone,

I know that person is from a good family and my family thinks she is best for me. I may end up not liking her, but at least from the beginning I know she is sincere and that she is a person my family respects. And that goes a long way."

(Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1987)

Men and woirJfl weigh possible marriage partners with the same scrutiny they would give when they consider acquiring a new business, except that a marriage partner's qualities are even more important because this is an agreement one should not break or leave. A traditional Chinese proverb compares a bad marriage to water spilt on the ground, for spilt liquid can never be gathered up and is forever lost. Although PNG-Chinese do divorce, the ideal is that marriage

159

is a sacred and unbreakable contract. The Western courtship pattern of dating several people and becoming involved with several serious liaisons before a person makes their final marriage choice is still not acceptable. An advantage of the introduced marriage is that it ensures the support of the family on both sides. If the parents on either side see problems in the marriage, they will do everything within their power to help resolve them. They will give money, new businesses, emotional support. They do so because by taking a hand in the marriage selection, they have made themselves responsible in many ways for its success. If the marriage fails, they lose face because they promoted it to begin with. So, a young couple who marry with parental involvement will have the advantages such a dependence can give, while those who marry without parental approval will not)7

Outsiders in the Family Marriage patterns of inclusion and exclusion in Port Moresby vary from those in Rabaul. In both coimnunities, roughly half of the couples in the community are married to other PNG-Chinese) 8 This figure would be much higher, were it 17. Sometimes a woman not yet married will become pregnant. Nearly all of these unplanned pregnancies end in marriage. Usually a couple who have advanced to sexual relations will be planning marriage anyway. If the intended marriage was between approved partners, the community will gossip about the premature marriage, but will not condemn the couple. The important result of any pregnancy is the child, no matter when it is conceived. The birth of the child confirms the continuation of the family.

160

not that the selection within the community of possible mates who are not too closely related to involve incest is so small that many PNG-Chinese have to search elsewhere for their spouses. This means that half of the PNG-Chinese in Papua New Guinea are currently married to non-PNG-Chinese. But in this respect the two populations look different. In Rabaul 9 of the 44 PNG-Chinese couples have married AsianChinese, while in Port Moresby only 9 from a total of 65 couples have. These marriages are nearly all introduced marriages where the husband has either gone to Asia to seek a wife or has chosen a wife among the Asian-Chinese women who come to Papua New Guinea looking for a husband. In either case, the arrangement is usually set up through the family and the Asian-Chinese woman is usually a relative or friend of a woman already married to a PNG-Chinese. Either the woman's relatives in Papua New Guinea will bring her over and introduce her to an eligible man or the man will go to Asia and arrange to meet the woman there. A family may encourage the man to choose a certain woman, but he is completely free to make his own decision. In the same way an Asian-Chinese woman is theoretically quite free to refuse him, although this would seldom occur if a woman has come to Papua New Guinea looking for a husband. Marriage to an Asian Chinese is are often fraught with problems because of 18. The PNG-Chinese consider the marriage partners, and particularly the children, of all consanguinal kin as kin. This means that although many PNG-Chinese marry outsiders, the entire community still considers itself a kin group.

161

the cultural differences. 19 Very few Asian-Chinese men marry PNG-Chinese women. This is possibly because PNGChinese women tend to marry younger than men, creating a larger pool of eligible PNG-Chinese men and because if a PNG-Chinese woman married an Asian-Chinese man, his family, in keeping with Asian-Chinese patrilocal custom, would expect the woman to come to Asia. In Asia, she would be unlikely to have the same business and domestic power she would have in Papua New Guinea. This is a choice few PNGChinese women would make.

In Rabaul, as many PNG-Chinese are now married to Europeans as are married to Asian-Chinese. The vast majority are again PNG-Chinese men who, with limited choice, have met European women in Papua New Guinea whom they have married. Most of these Europeans have now lived in Papua New Guinea for 20 years or more and some grew up themselves in Rabaul. Some of these women have entered the family business or

19. Asian-Chinese women who come to Rabaul as wives in introduced marriages are often desperately unhappy for their first few years. Women say that when they came they found the PNG-Chinese different from the Chinese of their native country, that PNG-Chinese in many ways did not even seem Chinese. These women found the PNG-Chinese swore too much, that they were not sophisticated in any urban way, that they ignored vital Chinese ritual, that they were too relaxed and Helanesian. Also these women did not like the idea of working in a trade store which seemed to them when they arrived as a dark and dirty cage. In almost all cases however, the women grew attached to their adopted home and became deeply involved, sometimes even managing, the family business. As one PNG-Chinese woman said about an Asian Chinese woman who had come to Papua New Guinea on an introduced marriage, "At first she cried and we were worried, but now she hates to leave. You couldn't tear her away from here for anything now." (Interview data, Rabaul. September 1986).

162

developed a business in partnership with their husbands, and these are the most accepted into the PNG-Chinese community. Three of the women have, with their husbands, become comanagers of trade stores and they have earned respect from the PNG-Chinese community. Trading is a family concern and women who are clever at trade, European or otherwise, are respected for the contributions they make. Through working in the trade store, these women are also more integral to the community and come into daily contact with PNG-Chinese. The wives who do not work in a family business are less accepted into the community and given less respect. The two women who chose to marry European husbands are of course accepted as kin, but are not generally invited to social functions. One works in a trading concern and receives respect for her work, but both are pitied because the general feeling among the PNG-Chinese is that they made an unfortunate choice in marriage and their husbands are inadequate. In a sense, they have betrayed the community by rejecting the available PNG-Chinese men. They will contribute less to the continuation of the community and have neglected an important social opportunity for subvention. Their children however, are still considered good, if the not the best, possible marriage partners, who could easily be reaccepted into the community fold if they entered trade and married a PNG-Chinese.

Approximately the same percentage of PNG-Chinese in both

163

Port Moresby and Rabaul have married Europeans, but unlike the situation in Rabaul, the numbers of Lofan spouses in Port Moresby is almost equally divided among husbands and wives. Here again, however, acceptance is largely determined by the business the spouse has entered. Several of the European husbands in Port Moresby have entered the family trading business and are accepted, not as Chinese, but as respected colleagues who are, of course, kin. These families are generally included in social functions. European husbands who are outside trade however are ignored and often people will not even remember their names. The European wives in Port Moresby are considered an extension of the community if they are liked and considered hard workers.

Marriage to Europeans is overtly regarded with disfavour by most parents. However, one parent said, "I've gotten used to it." (Interview data, Rabaul. December 1986) reflecting a changing attitude. 2 ° Several people who had been involved in European-Chinese relationships, whether male or female, 20. In the early 1960's a PNG-Chinese young man and Australian women began courting. They were well liked and came from 'good 'families. Later they were both found behind the football stadium mutilated and murdered. The murderers were never found, but it is unlikely they were Melanesian, both because of the type of mutilation and because news of the guilty group would have leaked through the village grapevine. Most likely the murderers were Chinese or European. In another case, a European woman and a PNC-Chinese man decided to marry. Her parents protested. She fought by telling them, "You brought me up to be nonracist. Don't expect me to begin now." The Chinese community expressed their displeasure after the engagement by continuing to address all social invitations only to the man. "It was horrible," the woman said.

164

PNG-Chinese or European, blamed much of their difficulties on family pressure. For the PNG-Chinese this pressure comes in part because of family fear that marriage to a European will destroy the continuity of the family contract. The community is also worried about such unions because in the recent past they have often led to divorce. 21 Four PNGChinese women who married European men, all of whom have what they consider solid marriages, said that they realised when they married that they were giving up wealth as they could not expect a European man to have the same financial drive or connections as a PNG-Chinese man. Two women said 21. European women are thought not to make good wives (good in the sense that the families are financially stable and respected in the general Rabaul community) because they do not work as hard as PNGChinese and also because they will divorce if they are unhappy in the marriage. PNG-Chinese men are said to go 'soft' when they marry Europeans, letting the woman boss them around. This statement does not reflect the actual state of a PNG-Chinese marriage where the woman lives very much as a partner with her husband rather than in a subservient role, but rather reflects the public way in which European women are seen to treat their husbands, being 'loud' and demanding, which many PNG-Chinese find distasteful. European husbands are generally considered useless; they do not work and are often supported wholely by their wives, they drink too much, and they don't respect the wife's family. European-PNG-Chinese matches have other problems. PNG-Chinese women who have married European men say that they expect a husband to fulfil certain duties, in business and in the home, and these the European man often does not do. They also say that European men are not as considerate as PNG-Chinese men of the pressures the women have from work or the home. Between these couples, such cultural differences are often seen as personal traits. The PNG-Chinese feel that sensual touching is for private occasions only and they find public touching of an intimate nature embarrassing. This has created problems when the European woman has felt rejected by what she sees as the PNC-Chinese man's neglect and lack of sensitivity and warmth when he will not give her the physical reassurance she has been culturally prepared to expect from a marriage partner. The PNG-Chinese person is confused because his/her spouse is exhibiting shameful behaviour by initiating caresses in public (holding hands, kissing, cuddling) that should be intimate and private, almost sacred, between the two of them.

165

that they chose a European man in part because they did not want to work in a trade store, although in the other two cases, the European men joined the PNG-Chinese trading company. These women who married Europeans said they now had more choice; their families and the PNG-Chinese community in general was still central to their lives, but they could also move easily among the European community. Of five stable marriages between PNG-Chinese men and European women, much of the community acceptance of the women appears to be rooted in these womens' ability to fulfil the important expectations PNG-Chinese have of wives; these women are all dedicated to the family business or at home, and work in a partnership with their husbands.

If a PNG-Chinese man or woman becomes involved with a Filippino the family will put pressure on them and may send him or her away on business or holiday for a time in the hope that they will dismiss their involvement. This is generally what occurs; the person follows the family's wishes and makes his or her choice among a group of more acceptable partners. From the time of earliest settlement, some men who could not bring over Chinese wives, married or set up house with Melanesian women. The resulting mixed race community is considered as a group apart but acceptable to the PNG-Chinese community. If a mixed race person goes into business and is successful, he or she is acceptable as close kin by their PNG-Chinese relations. A mixed

166

race person who has acquired such community status also becomes a much more eligible marriage possibility, again reflecting the attitude to marriage as a uniting of family and future rather than of individuals.22

The continuation of the family and business relies upon children, but a child born out of wedlock by an outsider is still the responsibility of the family. When the, mostly male, Chinese immigrants came to Papua New Guinea in the early l900s and several formed relationships with Melanesian women that resulted in children, nearly all of these men claimed paternity and responsibility for their children.23 The importance of assuming such responsibility for the child has not changed. 24 Marriage then is not a break in society, 22. When one woman fell in love with a Chinese-Niuginian mixed race man, her family sent her away and she eventually married someone else. Years later her son became involved with a mixed race woman. The mother does not have the influence to separate the couple, but finds fault with the woman and hopes that her son will not marry her. (Interview data: Port Moresby, June 1986) 23. This is quite unlike the children of European-Melanesian relationships for whom responsibility was often not accepted by fathers of European descent. 24. One man, John, (not his real name) had a sister who had a child out of wedlock by a lofan Australian and the Australian did not take responsibility for the child. Neither would John have anything to do with the child, so when his sister died young, an old lady looked after the child. The sister had been a Hakka speaker while the old lady spoke Sze Yap. One day, the old lady began to speak like the sister, speaking Hakka which she normally could not speak. She began to criticise John for his treatment of the child. People ran to get John and when he came, she said that he had better look after this child as one of his sons or she would never go away. When John said yes to his responsibility, "it was like the old lady woke up from a sleep" and the sister was gone. John treated the child better than his own Sons after that. When the child, now an adult, finished his schooling at 21, he moved to an area of Australia where few PNG-Chinese live. Every year he sends John a

167

where the parents 'lose' a child, rather it is a further expansion of self and community. Marriage does not turn a person away from their family but includes more people, the uniting family, in a close bond. Marriage is a building rather than breaking of society. Outsiders who join PNGChinese in marriage are subsumed into the community and if they do not enter the cohesion of generosity completely, certainly their children, who are then blood kin to the entire community, will.

Marriage is considered so important because it is the continuation for the rest of the family; the future rests upon the children of a marriage. The relationships between couples vary and so does the power balance between them. An accepted outsider must work to improve the status of the in-laws' family. An accepted husband or wife from the outside must establish their position in the family as well as in the community. The community watches them to see how they treat their parents-in-law, how they fit into the community and family hierarchy, and how well they work in business. Outsiders, men or women, who become integral to the

Christmas card, but he never includes a return address. Other PNGChinese say this is because he believes John has done enough for him (Interview data, Port Moresby: May 1986) John's rejection of the child was unacceptable because the child was part of the family no matter how or by whom he was conceived. His sister, as a ghost, brought shame to him from the grave, a powerful shame that allows no defence. The son's current response is seen by PNG-Chinese as an honourable one; he may not have entered the family business, but he has, through a large personal sacrifice, ended John's obligation to him.

168

family trading business, become living parts of the PNGChinese community while those who stay outside the trading circle continue their role as outsider. With nearly half of the PNG-Chinese married to outsiders, this creates a community defined more by a PNG-Chinese philosophy and occupa tion than by ethnicity.

Education As Social Subvention The continuity of the family rests upon children as does the continuation of the family business. Parents realise that a business will stand or fall with their children, and children tend to learn early of the importance of business concerns. A girl of five showed already a clear idea of both social investment and monetary profit. The family was eating sweets of which the children had been given a limited number. The five-year-old gave her sister two sweets for the use of the sister's reading cards. Then, she brought the cards to me, the outsider, and said she would explain the cards to me for three sweets. I accepted her offer and she explained not only the cards, but also what she had done, very aware and proud that she had made a profit on the 'capital' of her two sweets by first investing them in a commodity - the cards - and then increasing her capital through trade, ie, offering the cards to a third party with her knowledge which increased their value. Then, in a show of generosity to a family friend, she gave her profit of one sweet to me. She gave one sweet to her sister for loaning

169

her the cards in the first place and ate one herself. This simple transaction showed a sophisticated understanding not only of principles of profit and trade, but also how immediately to turn that profit into generosity. If the community is to continue to exist as a cohesive group, then the children must understand principles of trade and generosity early. This does not mean that all children necessarily maintain a strong work ethic through adolescence. Many PNGChinese are not particularly diligent academic students and those who attend tertiary education seem to be more intent on enjoyment than their studies. Parents indulge their children during this period, not considering them full adults. A person becomes an adult with full community responsibilities once they get married or once they take a responsible position in the family business (or start one themselves). Academic education is more an investment in family status and in teaching children a sophistication in Australian life than in creating intellectuals or professionals. Ultimately the family expects the child to return to the family business, or join with another PNG-Chinese and start a new business, join the family business of their husband or wife. Increased connection with the world outside the community has in part made academic education important for status and to increase the sophistication of the family business. As such, the PNG-Chinese try to obtain the best education available for their children.

170

After the Second World War when Allied bombing had flattened Rabaul, one of the first concerns of the PNG-Chinese was to rebuild the schools. In 1945, they built a public school, the Goong Lap School (school open for all) as soon as they had all been provided with houses. The Catholic mission, with considerable support from the Chinese community, built another school and by 1952 the PNG-Chinese had again firmly established educational opportunities for their children (Cahill, 1973: 182-195 ).

PNG-Chinese now say that in the 1950s a major reason they attended school was to improve their English to help them when they later ran the family trade store. Another reason was to improve family status. 25 PNG-Chinese say that when the Rabaul schools were first established, it was not so much the quality of education that mattered, but the essence of the education itself, the fact that parents who had never had the chance to be educated could ensure that their children did. This meant that the status of the family as a whole rose. Recently their attitudes about education have become more sophisticated as the younger generations have

25. This stems from the traditional educational practice of the Canton area peasants who formed the bulk of the PNG-Chinese community's ancestors. These peasants used the term 'si goon' to refer to the schools where they paid an outsider to teach their children. Public schools are now available in China, but these peasants still refer to all schools as 'Si goon' (Interview data, May 1988: London. Lin Zheng Yu). The PNGChinese still refer to all schools as 'si goon' and the grammar schools they helped to establish in Papua New Guinea were also schools where they paid outsiders to teach their children.

171

continued to increase their educational level. They realise that some types of education are better than others, not only because of the poise and social sophistication their children acquire, but also because of the educational content. The traders say they now have an advantage over their Australian competitors because, through their education, they understand both Western and Chinese culture and trading methods. It is in the boarding schools in Australia, where they meet European Australians and live and eat in an Australian way, that they acquire much of this knowledge. At these Australian schools, PNG-Chinese also become friends with the children of the elite Melanesians, children who, when they have grown, will become the leaders of Papua New Guinea. 26 Parents invest a great deal in education, sending their children to the best schools they consider Australia can offer. The PNG-Chinese tend to go to the same schools; recommendation is by word of mouth and the merits of each school is a constant topic of

conversation

among the parents

in Papua New Guinea.

Many of the younger generation, those who are now in their thirties or younger and particularly those whose parents have moved to Port Moresby, now have some kind of tertiary education, usually in accounting, marketing, or some other study that will help the family business. The parents pay 26. For more on PNG-Chinese and Melanesian friendship through education, see Wilison, (Forthcoming)

172

for this education for social subvention, as an investment for the family business, and to help improve family status. The ability to pay for education is a mark of profit and families do not generally accept scholarships for their children. When the Australian administration offered subsidies for Australian education in 1956, 200 'Asian' children received them, but in 1960, only four years later, only 147 accepted the subsidies (Cahill, 1973: 202). The Kwong Yick Club, an association for descendents of the PNGChinese pioneers, also offered scholarships from the profit gained from their investments, but since no-one applied for a scholarship, the practice was discontinued. (Interview data, September 1986: Rabaul) The acceptance of such a subsidy would show publicly that the parents are either unable or unwilling to invest in their children's future. Parents do not wish to be embarrassed in this fashion and fund their children generously during their school years. Children of the wealthier families remember being better off than their Australian counterparts.

Sacrifice Fundamental to the ethic of generosity and the expanded concept of self is sacrifice. This sacrifice is not Tylor's (1874) gift of homage nor is it the destructive gift of the potlatch (Mauss, 1954:15) The immediate sacrifice is yet another aspect of social subvention for family and community continuity. The individual willingly gives of himself for

173

the family good. Among the PNG-Chinese, the need for sacrifice is implicit in all adult relations. It would be easy to see this idea of sacrifice as merely a manifestation of filial piety as the 'leading Chinese moral principle' (Hsieh, 1967:167) and source of basic virtue, and indeed concepts of filial piety are deeply influential, but sacrifice here goes beyond that to a personal contribution in social subvention. In the PNG-Chinese community, social subvention does not take a substance out of circulation in a classic capitalist sense, rather it allows a long-term circulation and unity of past and future. The sacrifice of wealth through generosity allows wealth to pass, if not from the common to the religious domain, (c.f. Mauss, Hubert, 1964:9) but from the common to the moral domain, from financial to moral capital. The sacrifice of personal desire is a symbolic 'investment' in the future harmony and prosperity of the family, company and community.

Parents are generous with their children, and children, when they become adult, also try to achieve for their families. Children, whose parents could not provide for them, often feel more keenly the need for personal achievement to increase family status. As one man, whose family had been poor, said, "I wanted to make money so that when my family needed anything (his brothers and sisters) I could provide it." (Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1986). Another successful trader said "When I was young we were poor and I

174

was bitter because we had to struggle. Now I am wealthy. I can give gifts to my mother. People respect us now." (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1986). Both of these men sacrificed their youth for family status. People who are too self-indulgent upset the cycle of generosity, but they also affect the long-term community and family social subvention. Such behaviour is more than selfish; it is destructive both for individuals because they will lose face, and for the family because whatever money the individuals consume themselves they are taking from the family pool. The community will criticise them and the family business will suffer. One woman spent too much of the trade store funds on herself and this action was directly responsible for a serious schism in the family firm; others in the family were not only annoyed at their investment finding its way to her instead of the family good, but also annoyed because they did not want their name associated with her selfishness. This woman, as an adult, was not being responsible. Self-sacrifice coupled with an unpossessive attitude towards goods (a non-religious and capitalist form of the Christian ascetic) are necessary to maintain respect.

The individual is expected to sacrifice whatever is necessary for the family because each person is just one small link in a continuum that should last for generations. One man no longer had a wife. This severely limited his ability to run a successful trade store, and indeed he is now

175

employed by a large PNG-Chinese firm. He is personally poor because he spends almost all of what money he does earn on his children's education. He is respected for this action, and most people feel they would do the same in his position. Parents also expect to endure the pain of sending their children 'south' to Australia for schooling. By sending them south, the parents miss much of the children's development from the ages 12 to 18. As one woman said, "You never get to see them growing." (Interview data, Rabaul, November 1985). Both she and her husband suffer greatly every time the children leave. Yet their sacrifice is beyond question; they know that what they are doing is best for the children and for the future of their family.

Children are expected to, and do, make equal sacrifices for their family once they reach adulthood. On one level this is a manifestation of filial piety, 'the fountainhead of benevolence' (Hsieh, 1967:170), but it is not so much a sacrifice for one's parents as a sacrifice or giving of self for family continuity. Families who need people to work in the business sometimes request that children, cousins, nephews or nieces, abandon outside education or vocations to return to the family business. Very few would deny such a request, for to do so would be seen by the family and community as more than a gross act of selfishness, but a betrayal through an assertion of immediate personal desire over the long-term development of the family. This means

176

that people often give up degrees nearly completed or careers in art, dress design, music or law to enter the family business. Many of these admit that, had they not had family obligations, they would have entered another field, but none that I knew were bitter about the path they had taken. Their families needed them and, although on one level they made honourable sacrifices, they were also honoured to be needed. One man wanted to be an artist, but at the suggestion of the family obtained instead a degree in marketing and business management. Then, as he recalls, the family said to him, "We're opening a new factory. Come up (to Papua New Guinea from Australia)." He asked, "Shall I pack an overnight bag or a suitcase?" They replied, "A suitcase." and he knew he was going into the family business. At the time he completed his schooling, he considered himself a socialist, but that did not affect his acceptance of the family invitation. Now he is a respected trader and has become proud of the contribution he makes. 'I am a trader' he said. 'I can trade anything and make a profit.' (Interview data, March 1986: Port Moresby) In another situation, a woman gave up a career in fashion design when the family needed her in the trade store. She used her position of power in the face of family need to negotiate a better position within the ownership of the family concern, but her dedication to family interests is unquestioned. Her ability to negotiate merely reflects her potential as a trader. As co-manager of the trade store, she is excellent

177

with staff, continually brings innovations to the shop, and through her continued generosity maintains family face.

In these children, in nephews and nieces, the investment in the future is returned to the elders and to the ancestors. One man described the expanded self, the unity of future and past, as a wheel with spokes. Ancestors and children form the rim of the wheel and he was at the centre connected to them by the spokes. He had to support all parts of the wheel to keep it intact; a wheel can only be strong as long as every part is strong. If he deserted his family, the entire symmetry would collapse and his perception of self would be lost. (Interview data, Brisbane, January 1987) A person who turns his back on the needs of the family threatens the entire structure and security of that family. Such a person betrays parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings and unborn children. Sacrifice of self is an accepted part of life; paradoxically an individual can hardly have the face needed to maintain ego without it. A person who rejects their family in need is in many ways rejecting their family and by extension, rejecting himself. This is part of what gives face among PNG-Chiriese its power. Since almost all action is long-term social subvention for the family and community, to reject the family is to reject a sense of history and future and a sense of self. Such a loss is akin to the loss of life itself. The potential risk is too great for in such rejection one could lose the balance that makes personal existence v1id.

178



TABLE 1

Marriage Partners Partners of PNG-Chinese

Total no. of couples PNG-Chinese European Asian-Chinese Mixed race (PNG-Chinese/Melanesian) Other*

Number of Non PNG-Chinese married to PNG-Chinese (by gender) Port Port Rabaul Moresby Rabaul Moresby 44 65 In f In f 25 9 9

35 15 9

2 1

7 8

8 2

7 7

- -

1 5

- -

- - - -

1 5

*The 'other' in the Table, are mixed race Melanesian-Chinese who, although not married to PNG-Chinese, are considered part of the community and are nearly all from one descendent, a Chinese tailor who was one of the only Chinese allowed into Papua New Guinea before 1957. He married a mixed race woman (PapuanItalian) and his sons have continued the family business. One of these sons is also the one mixed race person who has married an Asian-Chinese woman. She studied clothing design before marriage and has made an excellent contribution to the family concern.

179

CHAPTER 4 - THE WINDS OF TRANSFORMATION

The PNG-Chinese, about 1200 people in a general population of about 3 million, do not live in ethnic or cultural isolation. Theirs is a society in transition, transforming a practice of trade and society in response to the transformation in Papua New Guinea itself.

Papua New Guinea is a country of many different languages and cultures, yet, despite the multitude of ethnographic films and anthropological and general literature that portray these peoples as cultural isolates, Papua New Guinea is now also an independent state replete with vast natural resources in timber, oil and gold. Depending upon the observer, these resources are a blessing or a curse to the country (cf. Good, 1986; Amarshi et al, 1979) because such potential wealth can bring either increased opportunities or increased corruption for the Papua New Guinea government. Investment opportunities, backed by Australian aid, have given Papua New Guinea a strong economy (in 1988 the kina remained stronger than the Australian dollar and since 1985 has fluctuated a cent or two above or below the US dollar). The resulting urban and commercial development has forced the Papua New Guinea government to try scheme after scheme in an attempt to create a cohesive national structure that will cope with this basic change in economic circumstances.

180

The Melanesian population is also changing; people from the villages are moving to the towns amd the villages themselves are becoming more connected with the rest of the country. As a key element in the economic and social composition of this changing country, the PNG-Chinese community must also

continually change. The first three chapters of this thesis described aspects of the community as it existed in 1985-6. The trade store society that provided the data for these chapters reflects few of the dramatic changes the Papua New Guinea economic and social system has undergone since the 1960s. If, by analogy, the PNG-Chinese community harmonises like a musical composition, the melody is changing. The community has however remained cohesive, transforming in resonance to the social and legal evolution of the state. This chapter explores some of the influences that have, in the last 25 years, forced the community to change its philosophy and practice of trade.

Independence Independence for Papua New Guinea came in 1975, and many of the political activists who led the fight against Australian colonial rule came from the Rabaul area. By the late 1960s, the Tolai of East New Britain had already lived under colonial rule for nearly 100 years. Under the leadership of Oscar Tammur and John Kaputin, many Tolais came together to form the Mataungan Association in an attempt to achieve the decolonisation of New Britain. The Australian Administration

181

opposed the Mataungans and the clash eventually resulted in violence. As tensions between the Mataungans and the Administration increased, the Administration called in police troops. This threat did not encourage the Mataungans to back down. As Mr Kareku (another Mataungan leader) said while telling his supporters that the police were prepared to shoot, "If any of our people should be shot by the police, the foreigners will have to be prepared if our people should turn loose in Rabaul and Kokopo". Although this conflict was mainly between the Tolais and the colonial Administration, the PNG-Chinese, as foreign traders, also became a symbol of oppression for the Mataungans. As John Kaputin said in Tok Pisin to the New Guinean police in a confrontation with the Australian police commissioner, "Whose laws and property are you protecting? Only those of the white man and the Chinese". (Woolford 1976: 56-57)

Within the colonial hierarchy, the PNG-Chinese stood somewhere between the Melanesians and the elite European ruling class. The income they earned seemed to come directly from the pockets of their Melanesian customers and these customers watched that accumulation of cash collect daily in the till. But, at the same time, the PNG-Chinese spoke the same language as the Tolai and shared with them a long and personal association. The European expatriates were more removed; they existed at a distance from the Melanesians. The PNG-Chinese themselves expressed a familiarity with the

182

Tolai that the segregated society did not allow them to have with the Australians. As one PNG-Chinese said at the time 'if you go into the Chinese family and ask them if they have any friends with the natives, I think you will find a lot of them has bosom friends. I think a New Guinean would come to his Chinese friends ... and tell him a lot more than he would otherwise tell a European who has been drinking a lot with him in the bar' (ABC Broadcast, 1973). This closer connection at both the personal and trading level made the PNG-Chinese much more immediate objects of envy than the inaccessible European ruler. This envy fuelled resentment against the PNG-Chinese who had grown comparatively wealthy directly through trade with their customers, most of whom were Tolai. As a result of such resentment, before the actual day of Independence, some Tolai walked into PNG-Chinese trade stores in Rabaul claiming that when Independence came, they would take the store as theirs. Some Tolai also threatened to take PNG-Chinese women as captured brides. In several instances PNG-Chinese sat locked in their homes while Melanesian demonstrators threw stones and shouted outside. PNG-Chinese had heard that in other areas of the world such as Africa, Chinese had been massacred in similar Independence movements.

Many PNG-Chinese began to fear for the safety of their property and families. Since they had by then Australian citizenship and therefore had the legal right to migrate to

183

Australia, many of them decided to do this. They sold most of what they owned in Papua New Guinea and re-invested in Australia. Because prospective buyers in Papua New Guinea knew the Chinese were leaving under some duress, they offered low prices for trade stores and stock. When the PNGChinese arrived in Australia, many were naive about the wheeling and dealing of a metropolitan country and were often cheated by Australians. A few people became very wealthy through investing in property development in Queensland, but many lost, and some lost badly.

In total about half, or about 1500 PNG-Chinese emigrated at that time. The Catholics and Sze Yap tended to move to Sydney, while the Hakka and Methodists tended to prefer Brisbane. PNG-Chinese in Australia still consider themselves a distinct group from the Australian-born Chinese (ABCS, as they call them). These people tend to remember Papua New Guinea as a paradise lost, a place they loved, but which is unlikely ever to become a physical home again. 1 PNG-Chinese in Australia do however return for frequent visits. Rabaul has become in many ways like a traditional Chinese ancestral village. China itself is far removed for the PNG-Chinese

1. Some of the reasons they do not return are the difficulties in obtaining investment permits in Papua New Guinea; the older PNG-Chinese do not want to give up the health facilities Australia provides; PNG-Chinese children who are now growing up in Australia do not want to move to Papua New Guinea; and the expense of opening a new trade store is now high (about half a million kina for a 'reasonable' shop and stock).

184

both culturally and because the China their parents or grandparents knew has changed. One woman went to her grandparents' village only to find it had become a city. For others family memories of China are those of poverty. Post-war Rabaul however was a place, and a time, of good memories and, for most, business success. The main PNGChinese cemetary is at Rabaul and this now possesses a community ancestral tablet. Rabaul is a spiritual home for many PNG-Chinese even if it can no longer be a physical one.

The remaining half of the population, those who stayed in Papua New Guinea, benefited by their decision. Independence came about peacefully and the pre-Independence resentment of Chinese traders lost its force. Those who remained say they weighed life in Papua New Guinea against life in Australia and decided ultimately that their home was in Papua New Guinea. They now say that the actuality of violence against them at Independence was unlikely and that several o them received personal assurances (some from Mataungan leaders) that the feelings of violence were not directed towards them. One man could say in 1987, "I don't consider moving to Australia a choice. Even at Independence I was too old to get a job there, so what would I do - go on the dole?" (Interview data, Port Moresby, March 1987). In 1973, however, the PNG-Chinese could only express a hope and faith in their future in Papua New Guinea.

Their thoughts are

expressed through some comments they made at the time:

185

'Nobody can determine his own fate. I think everybody just hope(s) for the best that things will work out for mutual benefit'. (ABC Broadcast, 1973:13) 'I think there's got to be a great future for anybody who wants to believe as far as commerce wise and that, because the indigenous population needs us, and we need them. And I think things like this (violence) is not going to happen here from what I can see you know with this government here I think they are pretty fair mob.' 'I like to see the kind of society that is, maybe I'm a dreamer, ... like Hawaii ... . If places like Hawaii, and Tahiti where they could, you know, sort of live harmoniously together there is no particular reason why we could not do that here.' (ABC Broadcast, 1973:13). 'I can see a New Guinea it's a great country; and there is a lot of resources. But we'll try to be here as long as we can, we love to be here and we hate to leave the country. But we do have some worry because we have to be prepared in case we have to be expelled. So we just don't want to be surprised that we be sent out without anything to live on'. (ABC Broadcast, 1973:13) By 1987 PNG-Chinese could joke about their relief when the Melanesians merely lowered the Australian flag at Independence instead of pulling it down as some had predicted The initial effect for those who stayed was that fewer Chinese now ran trade stores, opening the way for expansion. It meant that the trade opportunities of the PNG-Chinese were divided among fewer people. This gave the poorer families their chance to secure a larger percentage of the market share.

The Op enin g of Papua A legal change some 15 years before Independence also had a great influence on the PNG-Chinese community. This was the

186

opening of Papua, including the major centres of Port Moresby and the Highlands, to the Chinese. Previously the PNG-Chinese had largely been confined to the Rabaul area. In Rabaul the PNG-Chinese, as mentioned earlier, had become split into two major classes, with the Catholic and Sze Yap forming the wealthier and the Methodist and Hakka generally forming a poorer class. One Methodist PNG-Chinese described in 1973 why he had left Rabaul to set up trade in Port More sby. 'The place has been divided into two religious sectors. One being Catholic and the other being Methodist. And the situation resembles, in some ways, to a Northern Ireland at the present moment ... This is solely within the Chinese community. But there was no bloodshed whatsoever; it's just some sort of bribery or hatred, and they seem to be the wealthier sector simply because they have accumulated some sort of a finance from their trading, and they have always been able to get into plantations as well. And our sector seems to be the poorer sector.' (ABC Broadcast, 1973:8) The opening of Papua gave an opportunity to these poorer PNG-Chinese to move from Rabaul and go into business elsewhere. 'I decided to more or less go out on my own, and see what I can do instead of sticking to the family business. You see Rabaul was a well established commerce town and for a young fellow without experience to go into that field is more or less getting your throat cut; because you wouldn't compete with people who are established and then Moresby was the opening where there wasn't really that much established commerce ... with the exception of BP's, Steamy's and some other big ones.' (ABC Broadcast, 1973:8) The administration opened Papua to the Chinese in 1957 and in the years that followed some PNG-Chinese moved to Lae,

187

some to Mount Hagen, and some to Port Moresby. Those who were already financially established tended to remain in Rabaul.

In 1955 there were only four Chinese recorded in Papua of the approximately 2,500 in New Guinea. Several PNG-Chinese moved to Port Moresby shortly after the opening of Papua, but a substantial migration did not begin until the 1960s.2 By then, most of the big Chinese firms (Man Kwong, George Kui, Frank Chow, Chin Hoi Meen) had decided to leave Rabaul and settle in Port Moresby. From being the centre of Chinese commercial interests in New Guinea, Rabaul lapsed to the status of a province. The arrival of Chinese in Port Moresby also broke the monopoly of the major European trading firms in Papua.

The diaspora increased in the years following Independence under the changing conditions of a National Government. This has resulted in a PNG-Chinese population where those who live in Rabaul are now mostly Catholic and Sze Yap from the wealthier families 3 and those who are in business in

2. The Chinese Immigration Ordinance in 1898 (under an English administration) barred Chinese from Papua and in 1942 four Chinese lived in Port Moresby. These were two tailors, a baker and one long-time resident, Mr Luk Poi Vai. By 1967, 618 Chinese lived in Port Moresby making up 3.6% of the non-indigenous population. Except for a few public servants, all of these Chinese were traders. 3. Only four stores in Rabaul in 1986 claimed that the operators were Hakka.

188

Port Moresby are largely Methodist with a much higher proportion of Hakka. The resulting increased opportunity after Independence for the Hakka and the Methodists has given them wealth and power in the PNG-Chinese community equal to that held by the Catholic families and this has forced an equality between the groups. PNG-Chinese now joke about the ethnic and religious differences although resentment remains, particularly among Hakka, for the past discrimination within the community. When a Sze Yap and Hakka couple announced their marriage plans in the 1980s, a Sze Yap relative said to the Sze Yap woman, 'What are you going around with a Hakka for?', insinuating that the man was not a good marriage choice because of the stereotype that Hakka are always less wealthy. Some Sze Yap say that the initial division occurred because 'Hakka are selfish' and 'They (Hakka) think only of themselves'. Hakka claim that the Sze Yap were so annoyed at having to work for a Hakka when they first arrived in Rabaul (the early wholesaler Lee Tam Tuk was Hakka) that they have insulted the Hakka ever since; that the Sze Yap worked for the Japanese selling scrap metal during the Second World War; that the Catholic Church created the division. Hakka state that the Sze Yap joined the Catholic Church largely for economic reasons and after the Second World War, as the Catholic Church, which has a great influence in the East New Britain area, gave legal support to their followers. This support gave the Catholic Chinese an edge in re-establishing their businesses.

189

The

Catholic and Methodist teachers in the schools also encouraged the religious rivalry which in turn fed the ethnic animosity. The current economic equality and the fact that Sze Yap and Hakka must now recognise each other as kin has made the actual conflict largely an issue of the past, however. Now religious differences no longer prevent marriages, business partnerships, or friendships.

The general business communities of Rabaul and Port Moresby have also changed in recent years. Rabaul was established as the administrative capital of New Guinea, but, since the Second World War, Port Moresby has increasingly become the financial centre of Papua New Guinea partly because of its proximity to Australia. It is now also the political centre. Port Noresby is a vital, growing city with vast opportunities for business. Rabaul however becme a beautiful backwater. The PNG-Chinese trade stores tend to be more traditional there, and the discussions of the trade store presented so far in this thesis are based largely on them.4 The PNG-Chinese national and international corporations discussed in subsequent chapters are mostly managed from Port Moresby. The resulting changes within the PNG-Chinese community because of these various influences are threefold. History, notably Independence and the opening of Papua, has

4. Some Port Moresby Chinese now jokingly refer to their kin in Kokopo or the Rabaul area as 'little pig' or 'bush pig' (siu iu [ ) meaning an unsophisticated person.

190

forced the community to change. The effects of these historic occurances have resulted in a change of place, with dispersement of the community from Rabaul and the emergence of Port Moresby as the new centre for its commercial expansion. These combined changes have dramatically changed the social structure of the community, giving the Methodists and Hakka traders more prestige and commercial success. This has created a more egalitarian community where generosity and the concept of self as an aspect of community can exist.

Under the Volcano A major reason Rabaul has become a backwater is because the town is surrounded by volcanos and Simpson Harbour itself is a giant caldera. The last major eruption was in 1937. On 29 May 1937, the island of Vulcan erupted, rising to a 225m peak within 24 hours. The next day Tavurvur, across the bay from Vulcan, also erupted. The Europeans and PNG-Chinese in Rabaul and surrounding areas were evacuated or managed to escape to a safe distance, but hundreds of Melanesians died. About a week after the eruptions, the Administration began to allow Asians and Europeans to return to the damaged town and the PNG-Chinese were among the first to return (Johnson and Threlfall, 1985). One PNG-Chinese man claims that he never even left his house when Tavurvur erupted. He says that he was drinking his tea and when he heard the ash falling onto the roof of his house he thought it was rain (Interview data, Rabaul, September 1987). His story is com-

191

pletely unlikely but reflects a PNG-Chinese attitude of mmilnising the effects of this and later eruptions (1941-3). Most of the PNG-Chinese were frightened by the eruption, but they did not see it as any reason to leave their homes or trade stores permanently. 5 Certainly the trauma, displacement and destruction of the Second World War was much greater. The volcano became a presence, a part of daily life, one aspect of what made Rabaul a spiritually powerful area. The volcanoes were no reason to leave.

In recent years volcanic activity has again increased. In 1971 a geophysical shift caused the water to drain out of the harbour. The reaction of the PNG-Chinese and many

5. In 1955 one PNG-Chinese girl described her experience during the 1937 eruptions: 'We were awakened in the early hours of the morning by the sound of urgent knocking on our door. When my father went out, he was told that the vulcanologist had sent a warning that Matup (Tavurvur) was about to erupt. We quickly tumbled out of bed, and from the front of our house we could see over Matupi, a sinister, red glow of lava pouring out of the crater. Without delay, we gathered up a few of our belongings and drove off in our own car. In no time, we found ourselves heading straight for Tunnel Hill. After driving two tedious hours, we reached a native viilage. The people greeted us heartily when we had told them what had happened. Morning came, for we stayed there the night. The natives gave us some food to eat, but, although we were hungry, we could not eat anything, because we were very worried about how much damage the eruption had done to our things. Late in the afternoon, news came to us that the eruption was over and it would be quite safe for us to return home. When we had thanked the natives for their kind hospitality, we drove off. At home, we found all our things were covered with dust. Afterwards all our time was spent in cleaning the place up and tidying up all things that had fallen during the eruption. Tired and weary, we went to bed, without any doubt or fear of the eruption because the vulcanologist told us it would be quite safe to go to bed.'(The Beacon, 1955:46-7)

192

others was to run to the shore to take a look. But then, according to observers, the water came back in one huge wave (probably a seiche). People could see this wave in the distance and they all turned and ran. 6 This shift caused three waves, each of diminishing size, that flooded the Rabaul business district. Reportedly two people died, a man who raced into the harbour to gather fish, and a man who was so busy taking photographs that he forgot to run. Whatever actually happened, the event has, like the eruptions themselves, become a mixture of local history and myth, an element that reinforces the mystic qualities of Rabaul.

Then in 1983 and 1984, the Rabaul area began to shake with frequent earthquakes. The volcanologists at the nearby seismology centre predicted another eruption but they could not predict the size of the eruption. As the potential danger increased, the government evacuated all women and children from the town. At this time some of the PNG-Chinese began to take the danger of the volcano as a serious threat and moved to other parts of Papua New Guinea or Australia. After about a year however, the earthquakes subsided and most people returned to their homes. Seismologists still say the volcano will erupt, but they cannot say when, nor can they yet predict the size of the eruption.

6. Apparently the manager of the local car dealership threw car keys at people trying to get them to drive his cars up the hill.

193

The PNG-Chinese in Rabaul tend to regard the volcano in a fatalistic manner; if the eruption is large, 'It will be like Krakatoa, and we'll all die.', but most expect an eruption similar to the last ones, causing minimal damage. After the Second World War and again after the recent scare, administrators encouraged people to move to Kokopo, a village across the bay (see map in Introduction). Few people are willing to move however, because they prefer Rabaul as a town, as well as a stated feeling that in the event of a large eruption the time difference of the volcanic impact on the two towns is so small, about 20 seconds, that the move is pointless.

The volcano is a potential threat, but a more immediate threat to the running of PNG-Chinese family concerns in Rabaul is created by the attitude of insurance companies. Insurance companies refuse to insure against volcano damage and are also cancelling existing policies that PNG-Chinese hold. This makes all investment in Rabaul risky and, more to the point, banks will not give loans to a company unless it is insured. Such conditions are deterring business from Rabaul and encouraging even the PNG-Chinese traders to invest elsewhere. Traders say business is down 7 although they make enough to continue their operations. Observations and private discussions with traders indicate that trade is 7. It must be borne in mind that this is the expected reply to such a question, given that any other response could cause envy in others.

194

actually improving, although the inability of the PNGChinese traders to obtain loans and insure their investments has stifled their ability to expand. This means that children of traders must look elsewhere in Papua New Guinea if they want to create a new company. A major inhibitor of Rabaul PNG-Chinese business is the echo of fears from the outside.

A Business Shift Since Independence, the PNG-Chinese have begun to move away from the traditional trade store. The trade stores on Casaurina Avenue, a major shopping district next to the market, were nearly all PNG-Chinese shops before Independence. In 1985, 10 years later, most were operated by Melanesians. 'Malay Town', another centre about one mile from the market where many PNG-Chinese once ran shops, is now largely deserted. Nearly all the trade stores open in that area are now also run by Melanesians. 8 In the Rabaul area overall, the PNG-Chinese operate only 32 of 95 surveyed local trade stores. All but two of the Melanesian stores opened under their current management less than ten years ago and 18 of the 29 Melanesian stores that responded to this question opened less than five years ago. This con8. This data is from a survey of 95 trade stores in the Rabaul area. The survey was conducted with the support and assistance of the Provincial Government, who provided a car and an employee who specialised in small businesses. The assistant's knowledge of Kaunua and ability to phrase the questions, made it possible to include the Melanesianoperated stores in the survey.

195

trasts with the PNG-Chinese operated shops, where 21 out of 32 stores had changed management in the last five years (but remained within the PNG-Chinese community) while six of the 32 had run under the current management for over 20 years. Even more telling for PNG-Chinese shops is that 15 out of the 30 stores that gave information on this question acquired the business from a relative, while this was true for only two of the 47 responding Melanesian stores. This reflects a gradual moving away from the trade store by the PNG-Chinese, backed by stability in the management of those who have retained their trade stores. Most PNG-Chinese who are keeping their trade stores are also investing elsewhere, often with an eye towards diversification for their children. (See Tables at the end of this chapter.)

This move is no accident. The PNG-Chinese feel that they should move away from the trade store when possible. This is partly because many Melanesians now have the educational background to run the stores themselves and as most PNGChinese support an economically independent Papua New Guinea they see the trade store as a major avenue for Melanesian business. Other influences on this shift are the increasing educational level of PNG-Chinese and increased opportunity since Independence. This business shift was also encouraged by the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme and the National Investment and Development Authority.

196

Stret Pasin Stoa9 This scheme was developed in the early 1970's by the Agriculture Bank (formerly the Development Bank). The initial concept was promoted by the Agriculture Bank staff, but the actual design of the programme was developed by Mr Tam, a PNG-Chinese businessman. Many, both within the bank and outside, claim that this scheme has become one of the most successful in Papua New Guinea for encouraging Melanesians to become entrepreneurs.

The bank approached the Mr Tam because he had earlier trained Melanesian managers in two shops. Even more impressive, particularly in light of the bank's high failure rate with lending money for shops, Mr Tam had then turned these shops over to the Melanesian managers and they had continued to run with a profit. The bank offered to buy Mr Tam's wholesale business and use it as a part of the scheme. Mr Tam said he agreed to this offer for two reasons. Mr. Ted Paulius, then Secretary for the Department of Business Development, had recently stated that the Chinese contributed little to charities or to the country in general. Mr Tam wished to prove him wrong. His second reason was the obvious approach of Independence. He, like other PNGChinese, was unsure of the outcome of the political change and felt this would be a good time to liquidate his assets 9. Stret Pasin is Tok Pisin for a person who gives a fair deal, a person who can be trusted. A Stret Pasin Stoa (store) is a trustworthy store.

197

without actually having to divorce himself from the country. So he sold his business to the bank and for four years devoted himself to trying to teach what he considered sound principles of business.

Mr Tam visualised the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme as a series of circles with each part connecting and flowing into the others. He decided that his base line was the need to protect both the Bank's reputation and his own. This was a question of face; outsiders were criticising both him and the Bank for embarking on such a project. People in the Bank other than the two who approached him felt reluctant to support him because of the European opinion of the PNGChinese, that they could not be trusted and would use the position for personal gain. Despite such conflict, the Bank gave AUS $200,000.00 to pay for everything from the land to the wages of the participants. Once the money had been granted, the difficulty was to choose the correct initial participants. The criteria Mr Tam set for the applicants were that they wanted to work and that they held a pass in Maths. He only considered husband and wife teams because he felt the wife is the stable influence in business. 'The man will always go "walkabout".' He decided this on the basis of his experience of PNG-Chinese trade stores where the woman is often considered to be the 'backbone' of the business. He interviewed the husband first, and then the wife alone. While the husband was present, the wife said little,

198

but once the husband left, she talked about alcohol problems and other important issues. The involvement of the women was also vital in providing stability during the conceptual jump the venture required. For a person who has never seen much money, just the fact of AUS $20,000 in cash going through his hands in one month was beyond belief) 0 For some people it was like an intoxication and they would 'go to pieces.' Here the wives could provide the steadying influence. They did not 'go to pieces' when they encountered the cash and they would ring Mr Tam up for advice when their husbands had problems. Mr Tam considered that this personal contact, where the women felt free to ring him, was more vital in many ways than the organisational structure of the project and he realised early that the personal touch would be his key to the project's success. So, in the interviews, he gave marks for a pass in Maths and for the wife's ability and inclination.

He required the successful applicants to pass a three month course, after which they became probation managers. In this course, he taught them costing, accounting, and other tasks 10. The PNG-Chinese and the Stret Pasin Stoas tend to have a much higher turnover than the private Melanesian stores. PNG-Chinese estimate that a store must have average sales in one year of a half million kina to return a reasonable profit. The Bank in 1986 would only consider buying a store to be incorporated into the scheme (they were often PNG-Chinese stores) that had a half million kina in average sales. When the Stret Pasin Stoas scheme began, the required average sale was about half that amount. Compare this to the figures for average sales per indigenous store in New Britain for 1968-9 of AUS $482 (Trade Store Survey, 19689:5-6, cited in Gregory, 1982:160).

199

that because of their background they would find difficult. After the first course, he had trained supervisors who could then check the stores. During the probation period, the manager received a wage, but the profits returned to the Bank. The ownership of each shop was divided into shares, one for the Bank and one for Mr Tam. Mr Tam maintained control during this probation period through his ability to fire managers and because of the shares that he and the bank held. When the probation period ended, Mr Tam sold his share to the manager. The repayment schedule was individually designed to fit the needs of each shop and the project controlled the payments until the Bank was repaid. Mr Tam claimed that the beauty of the plan was that it took from no one. The Melanesian manager received a wage and ended up with a trade store. The Bank was assured of repayment through the probation and repayment restrictions. The profits were reinvested into new stores, creating Mr Tam's original vision of a continuous, ever-widening circle of moving cash. The project became, and remains, completely self-sufficient. The stores pay management fees and interest on their loans, so it costs the Bank nothing and costs the participants nothing. After four years, the project was running to Mr Tam's satisfaction and he returned to his wholesale business which he bought back from the bank. He used this wholesale business, both during the time he developed the project and after he left, as a nucleus. It supplied all the wholesale goods for the stores, did the

200

marketing, the advertising, and the overseas buying. This returned a sizable profit to his own company, but also provided a training ground for the managers, training them to work with a wholesale company that was, by extension, part of the group. The managers also learned important principles of how a PNG-Chinese wholesaling company works.

To keep the project solvent, Mr Tam adapted it to the Papua New Guinea business environment. He claimed that although he supported the Melanesian wantok system, it made capitalist ventures difficult for Melanesians)-- He confronted this problem by placing managers in areas that were not their home, for instance he would place a Papuan in Tolai territory or a Highlander in Papua. Also he encouraged managers to lie about their repayment schedule. For the time they were repaying their loans, they could easily blame him and tell wantoks that they had nothing to give, but once these loans were repaid, they had little defence. Mr Tam again saw this dilemma as a question of face that the Melanesian could not lose before his wantoks. Only a very strong person can refuse the requests of wantoks, because a denial makes that person an outcast. He felt that lying in these cases was justifiable as a way of retaining face while at the same time maintaining vital relations with wantoks.12 1]..

Gregory notes this same problem in 1968-9, that storekeepers had to extend unlimited money and credit to their kinspeople (Gregory 1982:p.16O)

201

Another issue he felt was vital was the concept of saving. He felt that most businesses failed because managers spent their money on politics, wantoks, or women. Although he said in his lectures, "I'm going to tell you how to make money, but I can't teach you to save or spend money," it was PNG-Chinese principles of saving he tried to teach. He taught investment and long-term planning, but in this he felt he was never successful because of the Melanesian perspective on need, that Melanesians make money for immediate rather than long-term status. At this point he said he realised that markers of success are culturally defined goals. 'For some people success in business is earning 100 dollars a day, for others it is 1000 and for others it is still more', but for Melanesians the cash return of a trade store was not vital to the people who wanted to be managers. Rather it was the physical store itself that mattered. During the initial interviews, he asked applicants why they wanted to go into business. Here no one offered the response he wanted, which was that they wanted to make money. Through their responses he grew to understand that they looked for social status not money. The trade store as an institution would give them status; whether they made money or not was immaterial. While the PNG-Chinese used the 12. Envy and wantok obligations have continued to create problems for Melanesian entrepreneurs. One Highlander who tried to start a trade store, first had it burned by fellow villagers, and was subsequently robbed (Ganarafo, 1974).

202

trade store to create profit, which could then be invested in status through generosity, the Melanesian gained status directly from their possession of the trade store. 13 He felt that to a Melanesian, owning a trade store made him a Big Nan or "King". He said the Melanesians felt the trade store put them on the same status as the PNG-Chinese, 'skyrocketing them from one status to another'. This shift in status made them successful, not the money they earned. He saw one of the greatest problems for the managers as the difficulty they had in coping with this jump in status.

Other PNG-Chinese worked for and shaped the Stret Pasin Stoa scheme for the first few years, but it is now entirely run by Melanesians and a few European bank employees. The scheme still raises controversy in Papua New Guinea, but, according to the Bank and six Stret Pasin Stoa managers interviewed in the Rabaul area, it has continued to produce solvent Melanesian managed trade stores. In the Rabaul area it provided the initial finance for 12 of the 62 existing Melanesian trade stores. The Stret Pasin Stoa scheme has become one institutionalised force that is encouraging PNGChinese to leave the trade stores in favour of other trade.

13. In this comparison, he may have been defining too sharp a distinction between Melanesian and PNG-Chinese concepts of status. The Melanesian must give to his wantoks to maintain status, so that for them, like the PNG-Chinese, status is tied to shared wealth.

203

National Investment and Develo pment Authority The Papua New Guinea government policy is localisation of all business. One way they are trying to achieve this is through the National Investment and Development Authority (NIDA). NIDA was established in 1974 as a 'statutory authority responsible for the promotion, regulation and control of foreign investment in the interest of National Development' and to 'co-ordinate the activities of the various departments and agencies of the government dealing with foreign investment' (National Investment Priorities Schedule, n.d.:l). NIDA affects all enterprises (this includes corporations, sole proprietorships, partnerships, cooperatives, etc.) that are 26% or more owned by a foreigner. The industries NIDA tries to encourage, mining, fishing, agriculture and forestry, are not areas of major investment for the PNG-Chinese traders. Although some favoured enterprises, listed as secondary industries, such as the manufacture of biscuits and garments, are areas of investment for PNG-Chinese, the PNG-Chinese commercial concerns are mainly 'restricted activities', ones that 'foreign investors will not, as a general rule, be allowed to establish'.

This includes the 'secondary industries' of

copra processing, 14 coffee processing, 15 and trade. Trade 14. Two large fermentaries near Rabaul were until recently owned by two PNG-Chinese brothers - one has now converted to a management scheme where one of the PNG-Chinese men, his son and his son's fiancee, manage the business for Melanesiari shareholders. 15. One of the largest PNG-Chinese coffee processing companies and plantation near Lae has recently been sold because the family has grown too nervous of Rascals.

204

includes trading and exporting copra and coffee, trade stores, and snack bars that employ less than six employees. The snack bar restriction is peripheral to most PNG-Chinese because most PNG-Chinese run their snack bars in conjunction with an existing trade store. The few that are not trade stores all, to my knowledge, employed more than six Melanesians.

New PNG-Chinese businesses must be accepted by NIDA as foreign investments. All foreign enterprises that have been established since the initiation of NIDA must be registered with NIDA and must supply information about roughly how much capital is being invested in the business, the kind of business (eg, partnership or company), the shareholders and the nature of the business. All post-NIDA foreign businesses must be 26% citizen-owned at the outset, with the citizen partners gradually taking control of the business over a period of three to five years. 16 Since trade stores are a restricted business for foreign investment, in theory PNGChinese, as mostly Australian citizens and therefore foreign investors, cannot open new trade stores. Non-citizens who already owned trade stores could keep them as long as they notified NIDA. These and other businesses in the same category are called 'notified' enterprises. They can remain

16. The National Development and Investment Act considers any enterprise foreign where 26% or more of the voting power or shareholders are noncitizens (National Development and Investment Act, 1974:9)

205

100% foreign owned but they must inform NIDA of their existence. 17

NIDA has provided an obstacle for other foreign investment more than for the PNG-Chinese. A few PNG-Chinese have, over the years, been invited by the government to serve on the NIDA Board. This has put them in an excellent position to understand NIDA so they can, if required, advise other PNGChinese. The PNG-Chinese are also not wholly considered foreign investors, despite the regulations, and Melanesian officials often turn a blind eye to their activities. Few PNG-Chinese like this situation however because it makes the stability of their ventures too reliant upon the whims of the public service. However, another advantage PNG-Chinese have over other foreign investors is their friendships with educated Melanesians with whom they can try joint commercial ventures. (This is discussed further in Chapter 7) They, like other foreign investors, will also sometimes take on a 'silent partner', a Melanesian to whom they pay a set fee or a percentage of the profits to act as a

non-participating

partner. Still others will sell their business to a Melanesian firm, but remain a manager, being responsible to Melanesian stockholders.

17. For a discussion on the development of NIDA and localisation policy, see Ballard (1981).

206

The Melanesian partner however, silent or otherwise, can create problems. A silent partner is suspect and could always try to flex the power he or she holds. In a family company, a Melanesian partner, or any partner outside the family, creates problems because theoretically that outsider could attend all Board meetings. In a family company many decisions are based on intimate family knowledge that the family would prefer not to discuss with outsiders. One business with more than one store tried to acconunodate the regulation restricting foreign ownership to less than 26% through franchise. This business made 26% of its stores 100% citizen owned and 74% of the stores 100% foreign (ie, PNG-Chinese) owned. The PNG-Chinese parent company trained Melanesian managers and guaranteed them a wage plus a percentage of the profit. This was a conunercial answer to the Stret Pasin Stoa as it, like the SPS, tried to train Melanesian managers whilst guaranteeing solvency and giving the Melanesian managers protection from the demands of wantoks. This scheme was only partially successful because the Melanesian managers wanted more independence and profit while the parent company wanted to protect its own interests and was nervous of granting greater independence. In addition, the level of profit the Melanesian manager expected from the business often were not yet practicable. 18 This 18. This scheme became completely defunct by 1988 because internal family conflicts over power and investment forced them to sell many of their shops to Melanesians and various relatives within the PNG-Chinese community.

207

scheme was experimental but was one way Melanesians and PNGChinese tried to work together within NIDA regulations.

Many PNG-Chinese notified trade store owners regard NIDA with distrust. This is particularly true of those in the areas outside Port Moresby. NIDA does have the power theoretically to make the PNG-Chinese give up their trade stores. As of 1 August 1987, all notified trade stores were required to register with NIDA. For traders in Port Moresby, complying with the regulations was not such a problem. They could actually visit the NIDA office and those who are politically fluent already knew several people in the office, so they no longer regarded the office with alarm. Here the politically sophisticated PNG-Chinese used the concept of familiarity between client and proprietor in reverse. Because they knew people in government offices, their dealings were on a personal basis rather than as clients of a bureaucracy. The traders in the outlying districts however do not have this advantage.

The Minister of Trade and Industry at the time, Mr Wep Kanawi, made a great effort to publicise the policy changes, the reasons for them and how each company could easily register. He spoke before the Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and gave an even more detailed talk at the Cathay Club before an audience of PNG-Chinese. The policy under Mr Ka,tc..i had been protection of the PNG-Chinese over other

208

foreign businessmen. Because of their long association with Papua New Guinea, he sees their businesses as a contribution to Papua New Guinea that other foreign and Melanesian businesses cannot provide. He wanted to encourage them to remain in the country and to this end gave -y as much help as he could.

Unfortunately many PNG-Chinese outside Port Moresby are not aware of his attitude and in addition are nervous about approaching any bureaucracy, let alone one that could so dramatically affect their business. This makes them prey to accountancy and investment firms that try to make money from their insecurity. The NIDA registration is a simple affair involving one page. For this service, accountants and investment firms charged between 2000 and 2500 kina. One PNGChinese made an estimate of how much money this represented through the simple means of multiplying the charge by the number of notified companies. The result of his calculations was 12 million kina. (Interview data, Port Moresby, 1987)19 19. The following letter was sent by an investment company to many PNGChinese traders. The company used overseas Chinese to help them target this approach directly at PNG-Chinese. 'Dear -REGISTRATION OF NOTIFIED COMPANIES As you would be aware, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry is now calling for registration of all notified companies, ie, foreign companies which had been in existence before NIDA was formed on 6 December 1974. The deadline for submission for registration is 30 .June 1987 (see attached newspaper advertisement). You would no doubt appreciate the importance of meeting NIDA guidelines as well as securing for your company an approval which is not so overly

209

Rascals While the shifts in government policy and the changing Melanesian commercial sophistication are encouraging PNGChinese to change the focus of their business, a more serious problem of social unrest is threatening the viability of all ventures. Tension between village and town is creating problems for all urban dwellers in Papua New Guinea in the form of Rascals. Rascal is the Tok Pisin term given to young Melanesians who commit crimes that are culturally deviant in urban Papua New Guinea. These young men and women are often displaced people who have come to the urban centres from their villages. They cannot find jobs, or have no wish to change their life so dramatically as to obtain one, and look for alternative ways to make money. They are further pressured by the extreme cultural disparity they encounter when moving from their native village to the city. Many of these Rascals have discovered that robbery is a lucrative operation. The wantok system and

restrictive to the detriment of your existing and future business operation. In this regard we believe we could help having previously worked closely with NIDA and its officials. This is also part of our new Bank's corporate advisory services being provided to our clients. Our offer of assistance includes:- Preparing submission for NIDA registration for existing and new activities. - Follow-up clarification with NIDA and the relevant government bodies if required. For your information, within the ---- group, we have successfully submitted to have 9 of our own subsidiaries registered with NIDA recently. Should you have any enquiries about this matter please contact ...'

210

'payback' in Papua New Guinea makes arrest by police difficult and Rascals know that if they attack houses in large numbers, few will stand against them. They are also being exposed to films and television programmes from overseas that show violence, particularly rape and murder, as glamourous activities.

The result is gangs of young people who terrorise most of the cities of Papua New Guinea. For the PNG-Chinese this limits their lifestyle. They do not walk outside beyond their own yards after dark. Most have large and vicious dogs. They build high fences to protect their families. They also have several Melanesian staff who live upon the premises to keep watch over the house and protect it from intruders. Such precautions have kept the numbers of murders and rapes down among the PNG-Chinese but the traders are still targets for robbery. The small trade store is an easy target as it is more accessible than the larger stores and such stores sell items the Melanesians value. Because of previous experience with Rascals in the last few years, stores in the urban centres of Port Moresby, Mount Hagen, and Lae are now built with heavy bars on the windows, heavy metal doors, huge fencing in the back, and other safety features. Rabaul however was until recently relatively free of Rascals. Most of the shops there were built some years ago and built with less security. Although these shops will have barred windows and heavy doors, they will often

211

have some weak points. Rascals quickly discover these weaknesses and robbery in Rabaul has become rampant.

The following are just a few examples of Rascal activity concerning PNG-Chinese in Rabaul during the first six months of 1987: A Melanesian woman entered a restaurant about 11 pm just as the owner was closing and asked for her take-away order. The PNG-Chinese proprietor said he did not know of such an order, so he went to the kitchen to check. Whilst he was in the kitchen, two Melanesian men entered the restaurant and shot the Melanesian cashier dead. They stole 60 kina from the till. In another incident, a Rascal stabbed a PNG-Chinese trader in the hand while the trader was unlocking the gate to his home for his family. The trader was robbed of the day's takings. Another trader kept his shop's takings under his bed until he could get to a bank. Rascals robbed him of 3000 kina. He, like many PNG-Chinese in the Rabaul area, was uninsured. At one PNGChinese wholesale store, Rascals drove up to the warehouse during the night in a large van and just piled goods into it. 2 ° This robbery and violence is not racially directed. Melanesian traders are targets as well as PNG-Chinese. Such assaults have made PNG-Chinese nervous about their freedom and property. They do not wish to leave Papua New Guinea

20. This robbery is clearly the work of a well-organised group. PNGChinese believe the goods are going to a 'fence' who is either European or Filippino and who ships the goods overseas.

212

but they also want to ensure that their children and livelihood are safe. PNG-Chinese react to Rascals by protecting themselves and waiting for continued social change to diminish the Rascals' power and to diminish the motives behind Rascal action. The PNG-Chinese are not passive - few would hesitate to kill a Rascal who threatened their family - but when they are threatened, either socially or physically, become detached, watching from a distance until they have enough knowledge to manipulate or ignore that threat. The concept behind this action is that a threat controlled is no longer a threat. Interaction with Rascals is one area for which trade store knowledge has not yet devised rules.21

Generosit y and Change This chapter reflects a rapidly changing business and social climate for the PNG-Chinese. The community has scattered from the centre of Rabaul to various towns throughout Papua New Guinea (and Australia). Papua New Guinea itself has moved from being a colonial territory of Australia to an independent state. The trade store will not be the business focus of the PNG-Chinese for long and the general stated feeling among the PNG-Chinese is that in a few years the 21. Several PNG-Chinese businesses in Port Moresby have made contacts, through Melanesian friends, with the Rascal gangs, and are trying to develop a relationship whereby they are protected from further attacks. Because of such relationships they can also often find their stolen goods. These relationships are too new yet to determine their eventual effect.

213

traditional trade store will disappear altogether. Yet, throughout this massive change, the PNG-Chinese community has become more cohesive and more directed towards egalitarian practice within the community. How has the community managed this and why?

The simple answer that comes to mind is kinship. The PNGChinese are all kin, and adapting bonds of kinship are a frequent explanation for the ability of overseas Chinese to adapt to change (indeed Wu uses it for the PNG-Chinese situation of the late 1960s). But for the current PNGChinese community, this cannot be the only answer. Kinship does not necessarily promote a movement towards egalitarian practice nor does it guarantee a cohesive community. Most overseas Chinese communities have clan associations that create a kin-cohesive group within communities that are segmented by class division. The PNG-Chinese community in Papua New Guinea now has neither influential clan associations nor significant class division. They certainly had class divisions in the late 1960s and when the Catholic and Methodist, Sze Yap and Hakka Chinese formed class alliances. They also had clan and political associations (see Wu, 1982:69-72), but these associations are now largely defunct. The Seeto clan has an association (Kau Lun Tong), but nobody pays it much attention except the accountant (himself a Seeto) who has to keep track of its capital investments. The other two major associations include the entire corn-

214

munity. The Kwong Yick Club started as a clan association but is now a general association of men and women descended from early settlers (the recent inclusion of women as bearers of descent in this club makes an impressive shift from the role of women in traditional Chinese society where women had no place in descent). (Interview data, Rabaul, October 1986). This association now serves as a tie with Chinese tradition and the money from its dues and investments goes towards a dinner at Qing Ming (festival for honouring the dead) and such traditional gestures as laying an ancestral tablet in Rabaul cemetary. The other existing association is the Cathay Club. The main purpose of this club was 'to provide a focal point for recreational and social activities as well as providing a platform from which to contribute to the wellbeing of the community'. (Patron's report for the Cathay Club, Port Moresby, undated). A further purpose was that it should serve as an avenue through which the PNG-Chinese community could contribute to the general Papua New Guinea community through offering scholarships and assisting in providing water and education to villages in the Central Province. Although founding members in 1968 were PNG-Chinese who donated to the Club (or Europeans married to PNG-Chinese), (Carey, 1969). European members were soon accepted and now the club has more European and Asian-Chinese members than PNG-Chinese. It does not serve as a clan association. Neither of these associations serve a unifying function for the PNG-Chinese in the face of the

215

dramatic changes both within and outside the community.22 The ability to move with the change and still remain a cohesive group lies, for the PNG-Chinese, in their generating principle of generosity.

Generosity is between kin and in many ways creates an identity for kin. Outsiders who marry into the conununity are kin if they become a part of the generosity complex and become involved in trade. Their kin however are not part of the community unless they also marry in. Those outside the kin group do not enter the complex of generosity. Generosity is spatially-rooted and the only persons within the core of the generosity complex are those who physically live in Papua New Guinea. PNG-Chinese who now live in Australia are no longer within its bonds. PNG-Chinese complain that their kin change when they move to Australia, that they become selfish and ungenerous. They no longer feel as unified with these kin. Thus the parameters of generosity become the boundary of the Papua New Guinea community.

A generous PNG-Chinese trader makes an investment in family status and his or her generosity does not create a debt obligation for those who receive the generosity. A family in need does not ask directly for favours - to do so would mean a loss of face - but they let it be known that they are 22. The Chinese in South Africa have also tended to move away from traditional Chinese associations. c.f. Human, 1984

216

in need. The person or family who has the ability to generously cure that need is then expected to offer their generosity. If they do not, they are criticised and lose status. Those who receive are not in debt to those who show them generosity. Indeed if any concept of debt exists it has already been paid through the generous person's resulting increase in status. A person in need can take more generosity, while a wealthy person is expected to give more because they have more to give. Generosity creates an enabling framework for the increasing status of the expanded self. It improves the material and symbolic wellbeing of the community and thus works as a motivating force for the community' s cohesion.

The status of the expanded self is the ultimate investment of the community. The investment in status has a long-term benef it and becomes a symbolic good that is not consumed as it is produced. Generosity is the enabling framework for this investment, or put in another way, generosity enables transactions to take place that become investments in the increased status of the expanded self. Goods that become involved in the creation of generosity change from personal goods to public goods because the generosity gives the community access to them. As goods become public, the generosity allows the entire community to become wealthier. Wealth exists in the eyes of the ego (as each person assesses his own wealth regardless of community opinion) but

217

status, a total of all of a person's benefits, is in the eyes of the community (because status only exists in the reflection of the opinion of others). This makes status a community determined good. Since investment, capital or otherwise, is for status, and status needs the conununity to exist, then all investment is at its bottom line an investment in the community.

The PNG-Chinese investment (as an investment in status) is only valuable as long as a cohesive community exists. PNGChinese have a vested interest in retaining this cohesive community because without it, their investments become worthless. They would become symbolically bankrupt. Generosity produces investment, investment needs a cohesive community. On a larger scale, the community needs a stable Papua New Guinea. Rascals are a threat because they affect the PNG-Chinese community's ability to function. Incentives to help Melanesians establish themselves as traders will Ultimately help the PNG-Chinese community by encouraging a healthy indigenous Papua New Guinea economy. As the next chapter reveals, the PNG-Chinese can always move into other lines of trade. Kinship is certainly a network that defines the ethnicity of PNG-Chinese. Generosity between kin defines the community within Papua New Guinea. As an investment in the status of the expanded self, generosity also makes the maintenance of a cohesive community that can adapt to change the only viable option.

218

SURVEY September 1986 Table A - Business as Ma j or Income Number of Stores Melanesian PNG-Chine se

60 (63 total) 25 (32 total)

- Business Under Current Management Number of Stores PNG-Chinese

Melanesian Less than one year 1-5 years 5-10 years 10-20 years 20+ years





TOTAL

4 14 9 2 0 29



7 14 1 4 6





32



Total 11 28 10 6 6 61

- Business Under Previous Owner Friend Relative Other Custom TOTAL

3 2 10 12

2 15 5 1

27

23

0 7 0 2 12 3 11

0 0 1 15 11 0 3

35

30



5 17 15 13 50

- Initial Finance Government Stret Pasin Stoa Friend Relative Self-financed Other Bank TOTAL





219



0 7 1 17 23 3 14 65

Table B - Formal Education Level

Number of Traders

Melanesian

PNG-Chine se

None

2

1

1-6

14

2

7-10

27

3

11-12

3

12

10

9

56

27

Tertiary

TOTAL

220

CHAPTER 5 - INNOVATIONS IN TRADE

Trade Store Innovation The changes in the PNG-Chinese community that came with Independence brought changes in their styles of trade. The traditional trade store could no longer provide a viable service for all Melanesian customers. The PNG-Chinese themselves had changed and had begun to explore new ideas in business. NIDA regulations and the emergence of a more sophisticated stratum of Melanesians further encouraged them to expand and move up the economic ladder. The businesses they explored have taken several directions,although they still retain the model developed through trade store knowledge. Rather than being entirely new directions in commerce, they are innovations on a well developed theme.

The challenges these charges imply for the PNG-Chinese practices of generosity and their philosophy of the expanded self should not, however, be underestimated. The increased stakes of competition both within and between families and the demands of the new larger companies as regards structure and organisation have forced the PNG-Chinese to rethink certain aspects of their trading practice. Traders have reacted by refining their trading knowledge into a concept of trade that encompasses their needs for generosity and community harmony, yet has expanded to intowards aspects of their new businesses such as negotiation, increased competi-

221

tion and increasing personal power. This trade philosophy will be discussed in the next chapter, but first we must explore, at least briefly, the directions these new businesses are taking, the problems they are facing and how these businesses actually work. This will form the topic of this chapter.

Hicks and Redding (1983:5) have listed the features of a 'typical' overseas Chinese business. These include: 1.

Smallness of scale;

2.

Centralised decision-making with one key dominant person;

3.

Strong family control via the occupancy of key positions;

4.

Low levels of structuring;

5.

A generally autocratic (though commonly benevolent) leadership style;

6.

A lack of formality in planning with high flexibility;

7.

Financial acumen of a high order;

8.

Reliance on trust in external business relationships.

Their model could be loosely applied to the trade store with a few important differences. In the trade store, decisionmaking is not particularly centralised (see 2. above), nor are they managed by an autocratic leader (see 5. above).

222

Decision-making in the trade store generally occurs through discussions and arguments between the relatives who operate them. Traders in trade stores also could not be charactensed by having 'financial acumen of the highest order'. The new businesses however, do require a more sophisticated financial knowledge, but the role of a dominant family member depends upon the family. Some of the new companies are largely directed by one family member and some are not. The success of both structures seems more dependent on how family members use power rather than on any inherent quality in the structure itself.

The business trend (see table) is varied but predominantly includes trade. Those companies in the table should also be recognised as being connected to other companies, both included in the table or otherwise, through groups of relatives venturing into several directions at once. In general, the major new categories of business are: retail stores that are directly related to the trade store model; wholesale stores that are just expanding from their traditional position or exploring new avenues of wholesale trade; manufacturing; specialised multi-store expansion. I shall discuss each of these areas in turn.

223



in r- C .—i — cn o

'IVIOl U TP 1O33 J

—

uJflnsuo3

cS.)

OTPTtS

i c.i

u

I

—

—

UUTJ

In

—

I

in

c'i

en C')

u —

u

i

u

i

i

i

i

i

en

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

C')

I

C1

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I-

i

csi

i

i

i

i

u

i

i

i

0

u — I — I

I

I

I

In

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

'.O

p

p

I

en -4

2UTUnozz /uwa2ueui

m

-

UTIflSUO3 iaua2

r— ci

in

i

2ufllnsuo3 ivauidoaAap iadoad/asa

, — — — u

Ti

3Jqd12ooq

1oCaA1nS

— —

u ci c'.i —

C','

I

I

c.i —

p

—

.-.' -

I

I

I

I

p

p

p

p

—

I

—

I

p

— -

,

p

p

1odxa1aquIJ

p

—

a1uaDqnaH iaqo

i

.

p

—

I

I

I

—

I

i

p

i

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

p

p

i

p

p

p

p

p

I

I

I

p

p

i

p

p

i

-

I

I

I

I

I

I

p

p

p

-4

i —

i

p

p

i -

u

I

I

-

I

I

I

I

I

-4

C')

—

-

-

I —

3JflUJ4

91fl

-

en —

I—

I

en L1

I r-1

I

I

I

nz,JnuN

L4U3

-1

en

-4

aino;nuw uu)upuptTqJ 2UTSS91P2TH

S1Td91/satBs O9PTA

sais ianduio

I

I

I

I

.-i •-'

I

I

p i

u

i

in en e'i

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

-4

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

-4

i

i

i

i

i

I

u

—

I

I

-4

u

i

u —

u

I

p

u

--4

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I C'1IC"lIIIIIiIpI..-4IIIIICjIIIIIIIIi

I

9IsaToqAl

-

I I

I

—

I

I

I

-4

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I

I i

II

'I

'I

II

ii

Ii

Ii

II

ii

p1

'Ir_IcnIcnI_L-4I_LI_iIpIlpI_4Ic.J_.4 ITB1 't1aua/ap1.L T1aue2 apBlJ,

.,o C') .-I

'..O

a)

a'4 -4

N. in

I

Zr)

a)

Z

Ifl C") C')

I

I

I -4

I

-4

C')

-4 I In - - C') .-4

'.0

en

0

a) ,.0 14 CO

'

OW

P4u

en - -

'.0

.-1

a) 14 a)

r4U

Ia)

Cfl

-4 a)

a)

C")

I

I 11

I - 4 1

I

a) a) a) 14 14 0 -.0 Z 0 a) Z

'.0

, 4.1 0 04.1

0'.

0

-14

-' P4

0

0

0

,-100

bO

a)

a)

a)

4-' a)

a) a) .,-4 a)

-

'

a) a) a) a) a) 0

,

a) 4,) 0

a)

•i-I 0,-I r4 P4

E-4 0 E-i 22-

GENERAL RETAIL Self-Service Trade Store A recent innovation on the trade store theme is the selfservice trade store. The influence here is Australian, combined with the increasing urban sophistication of the Melanesian customers. A self-service trade store is generally just a trade store where the owners have ripped out most of the counters and replaced them with simple check-out stands. This has only been possible for PNGChinese traders since the availability of Melanesian staff who can easily handle money and pricing. These shops sell the same goods as the traditional shop, the difference is that the customers can select the merchandise themselves. Self-service increases the opportunity for stealing, but traders who convert their stores say that the increase of turnover makes up for the increased loss from shoplifting. A major advantage of self-service is that it frees the proprietor from the counter. The shop keeper works in an office, often enclosed by glass, where he or she can watch the entire store and conduct other business at the same time. This gives the trader more freedom to make plans for the shop and for future investment. It also gives him or her the chance to complete during shop hours the indispensible parts of running a trade store such as costing, bookkeeping, and buying from agents or local wholesalers.

Self-service also changes the relationship between the cus-

225

tomer and trader. The interaction where the trader and customer become friendly associates is only possible in a selfservice trade store when the PNG-Chinese traders themselves spend an amount of time behind the counter. In one selfservice trade store in Rabaul, a Mr 'Wong' (not his real name) has worked behind the counter for 20 years, both before and after the shop's conversion to self-service. The shop is actually part of a larger business and is owned and managed by relatives of Mr Wong. The Melanesian customers, however, associate the shop with Mr Wong and he is much of the reason for their loyalty to the store. In many selfservice trade stores, the PNG-Chinese traders still spend a majority of their time in the shop, so the customers still know them. But since the Melanesian customers are now selecting the items they wish to buy themselves and only approach the trader when they wish to pay, the interaction is much shorter. Melanesian customers in Rabaul stated that they like the self-service store, as long as the stores keep the personal continuity of the traditional trade store. They maintained that they still do not feel comfortable in a shop that is anonymous.

Supermarkets In the last few years, supermarkets have become increasingly popular in the urban centres. Part of the reason is because NIDA regulations allowed, until August 1, 1987, a noncitizen to open a supermarket, but listed trade stores as a

226

restricted activity. This has made the supermarket one way a non-citizen can enter the retail market and still comply with NIDA regulations. The difference between a supermarket and a trade store is difficult to define, but distinct. A supermarket is self-service, more brightly lit than a trade store, and will carry products that cater to an urban household that is serviced with electricity. It generally has wider aisles and does not have items such as lap lap s or bicycle tyres hanging from the ceiling. PNGChinese and Melanesians perceive it as being more modern and more Western. While the trade store will usually cater to the villager, whether that villager lives in urban Port Moresby or Wewak, the supermarket caters to the more urban Melanesian elite, that growing population of people with white collar jobs whose needs have changed.

WHOLESALE Wholesale House The wholesaler has always played a vital role for the trade store. When the early PNG-Chinese wholesalers in Rabaul gave credit to the PNG-Chinese traders, they gave many of these men and women the break they needed to start their fledgling businesses. These wholesalers provided products to small PNG-Chinese trade stores at a time when most traders had neither the knowledge nor the international connections to import for themselves. These early wholesalers themselves had good connections in China or Hong Kong and

227

were often those who could speak English or German, a language ability which allowed them to negotiate with the colonial rulers. These people became some of the leaders of the community and established the precedent for running a PNG-Chinese wholesale trade store.

A wholesale trade store offers both counter service and fills 'country orders'. In the counter service, PNG-Chinese traders, Melanesians, and some European missionaries who run church trade stores or who buy for their missions conie to the front of the shop and order the goods they need from a staff person. The staff person writes the entire list on an invoice sheet (two copies) and then gives one copy of the list to another staff person who collects the goods. The goods are generally scattered over a large warehouse in a fairly loose system of arrangement depending largely upon when the goods arrived, who costed them, and where the staff could find a bit of vacant shelf or floor space. While the staff are off looking for goods, the customer stands around, drinks a cold soft drink (whether customers pay for this depends upon how much they usually buy or how long the wholesaler has known them), and chats with other staff and customers. The speed of this process varies considerably between wholesalers, but most customers are not overly concerned about the time; buying wholesale supplies is a valid excuse to leave the trade store for a few hours and few want to rush their return.

228

The PNG-Chinese wholesalers, and their Melanesian staff who mostly manage the counter service, treat their customers differently depending upon many factors. They will generally give PNG-Chinese traders a 10% discount because of the obligation of mutual generosity and sharing. Since the PNG-Chinese traders are usually friends and relatives of the wholesaler, the wholesaler also takes a little extra time for them. In general PNG-Chinese traders use their trips to the wholesaler as a chance to chat, spread gossip and in general to keep in touch. This is particularly true for PNG-Chinese who come from outlying areas. For them their one day in town for buying supplies is a cherished social event they have to allow themselves about once a week. These traders who come from out of town will generally come on the same day every week, so the wholesaler knows when to expect them. If they are pressed by many errands (or want to have lunch with a friend) they will just order the supplies and collect them later. They realise also that the wholesalers are busy and they do not want to impose too much on their time. When Melanesian male traders come to buy, the staff and PNG-Chinese working at the cash till will generally greet them in Tok Pisin "Hey Big Man, what would you like?". In this way, they give the man the proper respect a Melanesian who runs a trade store would expect. When a Melanesian female trader comes to order stock, she and the staff will generally joke together.

229

PNG-Chinese

wholesalers realise that Melanesian women, like PNG-Chinese, are often the backbone of a successful trade store. As such, they are valued customers. The Melanesian staff and PNG-Chinese alike treat European customers with reserve. Some Europeans who have been customers for many years and know the Melanesian staff and the PNG-Chinese are exceptions, but they are few. Priests and nuns in Rabaul are treated with reserve, but also with respect by the mostly Catholic PNG-Chinese wholesalers. Part of the reserve towards Europeans comes from generations of segregation in Papua New Guinea, and also from the Europeans themselves who are often not comfortable in either a PNG-Chinese trade store or wholesale house.

After the staff collect the goods, another trusted staff person or member of the PNG-Chinese family, checks the list against the goods to ensure that they both match. Then the customer pays at a cash till that is usually run by a member of the PNG-Chinese family or a very trusted staff. If the wholesalers know the trader, they will give credit. If they do not know the customer, they will take only cash (or a cheque if they can check it against the customer's bank account). The cashier counts all cash where the customer can see the notes as a measure to protect the cashier against accusations of miscounting. The customer receives one copy of the list of goods and the wholesaler keeps the other.

230

In another part of the warehouse, other staff look after 'country orders'. These are orders customers send by mail or telephone in from outlying areas where the traders cannot come easily to the wholesaler) The general system of checking goods against a list is the same for country orders as it is for the counter service, but these orders are generally much larger. Since the ships that take these goods to the outlying areas or to various islands come at set times, the country orders section of the warehouse is nearly always in a panic to meet its next shipping deadline. Likewise the counter section of the warehouse becomes frantic about mid-afternoon as the staff try to complete all their orders before the wholesale house closes to the public at 5.30 pm. At these times most of the staff work very hard, shouting at each other, tossing around boxes, stacking bags of rice into huge piles. Most wholesalers in Rabaul close at noon for an hour to allow the staff a relaxed lunch break, but the PNG-Chinese themselves often continue to work, munching on a sandwich, some fruit, or a hot meal,

1. A wholesale house will generally have outlets (trade stores or missions who buy from them) in a specific area, for example, most wholesale houses in Rabaul confine their operations to the East New Britain and New Ireland regions, although they can supply further afield. These 'country' trade stores are usually in logging stations, missions, plantations, or smaller villages that are inaccessible by road. The wholesaler will also supply the larger towns such as Kaviong or Kieta. Generally, a 'country' order is anything that must be shipped to the retailer.

231

cherishing the hour of quiet as a time to think or talk together without interruptions.

The accounts section of the wholesale house keeps a record of all transactions, both cash and credit, and includes a record of the items each customer has bought. Some PNGChinese wholesalers have begun to use computers for their account work but most are nervous about such techniques and prefer to do the accounts by hand. Most PNG-Chinese traders give 30 days credit, but given the delays in sending out bills, this becomes effectively 60 days credit. In addition, a customer can generally place two orders without paying his or her bill before the wholesaler will cut their credit so this really extends the credit to 90 days. A customer who pays even part of his or her debt will generally be allowed to order again. 2 PNG-Chinese customers are theoretically under the same obligations as Melanesians and most do pay their bills regularly. 3 A person who does not pay his bill becomes a delicate problem and one of the PNGChinese in the wholesale house will eventually ring the PNGChinese customer to remind him of his debt before resorting to gossip and community pressure.

2. Increased competition from recent Asian-Chinese immigrants who tend to have a less relaxed attitude about cash flow is forcing PNG-Chinese to begin to change their credit policies. 3. Except that usually the wholesaler gives them 60 days initial credit.

232

As with the trade store, some Melanesian staff work in these wholesale houses for many years. Because of recurrent deadlines, tension often runs high and all of the workers have frequent arguments with each other. These arguments are balanced by continual joking and co-operation to complete an order. The joking and pressure also work to relieve the boredom of what is essentially a tedious job. Some workers, both PNG-Chinese and Melanesians, work very hard while others barely work at all. The wholesaler will tend to keep all of these people employed unless they cheat on the job. For the wholesaler to fire a PNG-Chinese is almost impossible as that person will be a relative and the firing would give loss of face to the individual and embarrass the wholesale company itself. If the company feels it must get rid of a PNG-Chinese employee, the situation will generally be manipulated so the worker is offered a more suitable position elsewhere in the community. Firing a Melanesian staff member is almost as difficult because the wantoks of that member of staff - who are, most likely, being supported by the staff member - will try to exact 'payback' from the wholesaler. This payback can either threaten the wholesaler, the wholesaler's property, or his or her family. 4 Wholesalers will also go to extremes to keep an employee because they realise the implications such a firing has on a Melanesian family and they know that jobs are hard 4. The PNG-Chinese say that the people threatened are those the Melanesians consider to be wantoks of the wholesaler

233

to find. The wholesaler also knows how difficult new staff are to train. For all of those reasons, wholesalers dislike firing staff. Some wholesalers will go to extreme lengths to keep even a staff member who has cheated them if they think that person is intelligent and that keeping him or her employed may discourage him/her from becoming a Rascal. In one wholesale house in Rabaul, a member of staff who wrote up invoices and collected cash from customers, began writing one price on the wholesaler's copy of the goods list and a higher one on the copy he gave to the customer. The difference between the two prices was pocketed. The wholesaler discovered this trick quite by chance and after checking the records realised that this staff member had stolen at least several hundred kina. The staff person came to the wholesaler and begged him not to fire him. He offered to work for three months without pay to make up what he had stolen. Because this member of staff was bright and the wholesaler knew he had several wantoks to support, he gave him another chance. Within a few months however, the man had developed another scheme, equally clever, and was cheating the wholesaler again. When he realised the wholesaler had discovered him, he just stopped coming to work. The wholesaler was sad to see the fellow go because he had genuinely liked him, but at the same time he was relieved that the man, through resigning, rather than forcing the wholesaler to fire him, had protected the wholesaler from payback action from his wantoks.

234

Of the 35 retail trade stores that responded to the question on the questionnaire regarding their specific local stock supplier, all PNG-Chinese and Melanesian shopkeepers in the Rabaul area, buy at least some stock from a local PNGChinese wholesaler.

Table A

Supp lier



Buyer Melanesian Trade Store PNG-Chinese Trade Store

PNG-Chinese

24

11

Australian

9

4

Melanesian

2

-

Choice of local wholesale supplier used by PNG-Chinese traders in the Rabaul area. Traders buy from several suppliers, so those who buy from PNG-Chinese suppliers may also buy from Australian or citizen-operated firms. The wholesaler is restricted to a mark-up of 11% on most items. Before Independence, Rabaul and the surrounding area supported 17 PNG-Chinese wholesalers, but now supports only five. 5 For those remaining five, business is excellent and 5. These are: Tropicana, Seeto Hung, David Cheung, Chin Chew, Freddy Chan. As explained in Chapter 4, the opening of Papua and the tensions surrounding Independence cut the PNG-Chinese population in Rabaul from 889 in 1971 (Wu, 1982:9) to about 220 in 1986. The business district of Rabaul as a whole has also diminished, due to the growing importance of Port Moresby and the volcano danger. All of these factors have contributed to the fewer numbers of PNG-Chinese wholesalers in Rabaul.

235

from their deliveries to various outlying areas and islands, they had increased their area of influence beyond that generally held by wholesalers before Independence. These wholesalers are not all in direct competition as some have specialised in food products and others in dry goods.6

The Wholesale-retail Trade Store There has been a natural evolution of the retail trade store as PNG-Chinese traders are now able to buy directly from the markets in Canton and Taiwan. Also PNG-Chinese wholesalers, by increasing the quantity they import, are now able to bring in food products at a landed cost only a toea or two higher than the small retail trader would pay an agent. A great advantage for the retail trader who begins to import his or her own products and then sells them retail, is that he or she can then collect both the wholesale mark-up (11%) and the retail mark-up (11% or more) making a net profit of at least 22%. These wholesale-retail stores are also possible because of the increasing number of trade stores that are operated by Melanesians. These Melanesian shops often carry less stock than the PNG-Chinese shop and the Melanesians do not normally have the same connections with agents and foreign distributors as do the PNGChinese. These Melanesian shops have however expanded the 6. PNG-Chinese also operate two bakeries and a soft drinks bottling comI have counted these as manufacturers who sell pany in Rabaul. These manufacturers also wholesale rather than wholesale traders. operate trade stores.

236

market for wholesale goods. This expanded market allows the medium sized retail trade store with a good location to begin selling wholesale to Melanesian and PNG-Chinese traders who wish to buy small quantities. 7

These

wholesale/retail traders will sell in lots as small as six tins of fish, for example, and give the customer a reduced price. This way Melanesians who have a small trade store can buy just enough to restock their shelves from their profits of the previous day. These people would not have the cash resources to buy from the larger wholesalers who usually require them to buy at least twelve of one item. These Melanesian traders also often use public transport for carrying their goods, making bulk buying difficult because the goods are too heavy to carry to the truck or bus. So the small-scale retailer/wholesaler covers a middle ground and gives the fledgling Melanesian trade store owner a chance to operate.

These retailers/wholesalers also continue to sell retail items. This allows them to serve families, or extended families who wish to buy some items in quantity, such as rice or tinned fish, but also buy single items, such as sugar, to suit their personal needs. Particularly on Satur7. The retail/wholesale trade store has improved the circumstances for the Tolai trade store operators that Epstein noted in the 1960s when the Tolai entrepreneurs 'were unable to buy in bulk, and as stocks ran low they purchased from Chinese shopkeepers at retail prices. Thus their own prices were frequently higher than those in town'. (A Epstein, 1971: 356)

237

day, a good market day, or payday when the government workers have money, these retail/wholesale stores will do excellent trade with Melanesians who wish to stock up. Again one reason such shops are currently so popular is because more and more Melanesians are earning more cash and learning to be discerning shoppers, comparing prices and realising they can save money by buying in bulk.

THE MULTIPLE STORE COMPANY The multiple store companies include only a few families but they represent a growing trend among the PNG-Chinese and their influence is extensive. They are still based upon the trade store model, but have specialised in one type of commodity. In most of these companies, one family owns the company and from the success of a single store has expanded to other centres throughout Papua New Guinea. Such expansion is possible since Independence for several reasons. The opening of Papua in 1957 had already made expansion into the Highlands and Port Moresby legally possible for PNGChinese. The emigration of many prominent PNG-Chinese trading families to Australia at Independence lessened the competition for the smaller traders and gave them room to expand. Education has also played a role in these businesses. The younger generation PNG-Chinese have the advantage of university educations or diplomas in accountancy from Australia. This allows them to integrate Western and

238

Chinese business practice easily. By combining this knowledge with a trading background that gives them extensive knowledge of the Papua New Guinea cultures they are in an excellent position to determine the wants of the urbaninfluenced Melanesian population.

Despite the dispersion of PNG-Chinese from Rabaul to urban centres throughout the country, the PNG-Chinese have remained a tightly knit community. The trader who is centred in Port Moresby can easily keep in touch with trade and culture change in Kavieng or Mount Hagen through his or her relatives who are traders there. Papua New Guinea is comprised of hundreds of cultures and the PNG-Chinese trading community is the only group that closely interacts with several of these. The European expatriate community is also dispersed throughout the country, but few European expatriates either speak Tok Pisin or know much of local culture. The Melanesians have loyalties to and an identity with their own particular culture. The PNG-Chinese as a community are the only group with the historical background and sophisticated trading knowledge to understand pan-Papua New Guinea commercial trends. Using this knowledge some traders have experimented with opening chains of stores that offer certain commodities or a certain atmosphere to specific urban areas.

In keeping with the traditional emphasis, all of these corn-

239

panies focus on trade, but each has concentrated on an particular specialised sphere. In this way, they do not encroach upon the territory of other PNG traders in the areas where they put their branch stores. The pattern of development varies between companies. A few companies have expanded from a trade store that specialised already in the fields they later pursued; others have diversified. Three companies will serve as a sample of the multiple store companies.8

Master Meats One company sells fresh frozen meat. This company has established franchised 9 shops with relatives who sell the meat retail and also sell it wholesale to PNG-Chinese traders. The fresh frozen meat is intended for the Melanesian market and is a conscious effort to wean the Melanesian population of f tinned meat. This product has only become possible now that trade stores, through readily available electricity backed by emergency generators, have been able to install freezers easily. The meat is lamb 'flaps' (breast) and 8. The names are fictional to protect each company's privacy. 9. Several PNG-Chinese companies use franchises as a way to expand their businesses, although they prefer to franchise to PNG-Chinese relatives. In a franchise, the buyer pays a sum for the goodwill of a shop name; they are just buying the name, although they will generally be supplied by the parent company. The parent company acquires an outlet that carries little risk. If the franchise goes bankrupt, the parent company only loses one outlet rather than infringing upon the core finances of the firm itself. Also, the cash from the sale of a franchise does not count as capital gains but is rather treated as a material item. This means that the parent company can re-invest the cash and avoid tax.

240

Australian mutton that is too old to be sold on the world market as lamb. The company buys an entire paddock of sheep in New Zealand or Australia in partnership with a Muslim buyer who wants only specific parts of the sheep. This systern of buying reduces the cost per item considerably. This meat can be sold very cheaply in Papua New Guinea and is excellent for Melanesian cooking where meat is mostly boiled. In marketing, this company uses a principle straight from the trade store tradition. All meat is priced so that it can be sold retail at even numbers of, for example, one kina or one kina and forty toea per package. If the price of the meat fluctuates per pound, the company does not change the price, but rather the quantity, keeping the price to the customer consistent for as long as possible.1° Trade stores have traditionally repackaged staples such as rice and sugar into smaller, more affordable containers, and then sold them at a constant even price, reducing the quantity as the wholesale price increased.

Em Nau Enterprises Another family combined the assets of a brother and sister to allow their children to begin a clothing store based on the trade store model, but specialising in clothing that catered to a new Melanesian migrant urban elite. This company gave its shops a name in Tok Pisin and created a Papua 10. A bakery also uses this policy, selling packages of hard crackers for an even kina.

241

New Guinea logo for their clothing, allowing Melanesians to purchase 'designer' clothing at cheap prices that sported a label of Papua New Guinean design. This company set up many stores, sometimes several in one urban area. They retained control of some of these stores and franchised others. They bought a clothing factory, so they were able to produce part of the clothing they sold in Papua New Guinea. They also experimented, with mixed success, with exporting this clothing.

Harry Won A third company has expanded since Independence from a trade store that had specialised in photography since the 1930s. The PNG-Chinese man who with his wife began this shop was a photographer and the family has continued his interest through their retail and wholesale trade. Before Independence, they sold, to European expatriate buyers, stereo and recording equipment that they bought cheaply in Asia. Since Independence, as the demands of the Melanesian population have changed, they have focused on selling this equipment to Melanesians, as well as selling tape and video cassettes and video equipment. They still develop film and now distribute through several stores in three urban centres of Papua New Guinea.

These companies and others who have formed a centralised corporate family network have made it possible for an ex-

242

tended PNG-Chinese family to provide incomes for different branches of the family within the various holdings of one company. All of these companies, in the trade store tradition, will also trade in almost anything they can acquire cheaply and that they think their Melanesian customers will want. This means that although in general terms companies such as the three mentioned above have a distinct specialised focus, they also have large areas of overlap. This makes them trading competitors in many spheres. Like the families in the smaller trading concerns, the companies are operated by families that are closely related by blood or marriage.

These companies, and others like them, have linked themselves with international corporations and suppliers. Their major contacts are in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Australia, but they are now also going further afield to Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries. Those who are selling electronic equipment and other foreign-produced commodities have gone after and obtained the distributorship for such equipment from their foreign manufacturers. This increasing ability of the PNG-Chinese traders to attract the support of foreign suppliers is also part of what has allowed them to expand in Papua New Guinea. This has also put them directly in competition with the large Australian trading companies which had traditionally held a near monopoly of such goods.

These Australian companies traditionally

243

catered only to the expatriate market (before Independence many did not even allow Melanesians to enter them). Since Independence as the expatriate population has dwindled and the Melanesian tastes have become more urban and consumeroriented, expatriate companies have begun to recognise and court this Melanesian market. PNG-Chinese have continued to cater to the same market, but have changed the goods they offer as the demands of the Melanesian population have changed. In competing for this Melanesian market, the PNGChinese have an advantage because their experience with Melanesian customers stretches back several generations, while the Australian companies have only had such experience for about 15 years.

The foreign major distributors tend to chose PNG-Chinese for distributorships because PNG-Chinese companies have stable management. Two major Asian distributors stated that because the Australian companies have a high turnover of staff, the distributors deal with institutions rather than individuals. With PNG-Chinese companies, they are dealing with a family. A PNG-Chinese company will also often actually outsell a larger Australian company. This is partly because a PNG-Chinese distributor will supply the PNGChinese wholesalers who supply the PNG-Chinese trade stores. So although the major Australian companies may have more retail outlets individually than any single PNG-Chinese company, the PNG-Chinese working as a trading block can offer

244

greater sales and outlets. The PNG-Chinese retail traders are also more effective in selling than their counterparts in an Australian company because they are working for themselves. Paid employees generally care little about sales, as long as they receive their pay each fortnight. The PNGChinese have a further advantage in that they sell directly to outlying areas where a PNG-Chinese or a Melanesian may have a village trade store. Distributors stated that the Australian companies rely more on their direct retail outlets. If one takes as an example a distributorship in batteries, one PNG-Chinese trader with a distributorship in this product estimates that 2 million people in Papua New Guinea do not have electricity and use battery power.11 Batteries are a consumable item and must be constantly renewed. The combination of PNG-Chinese knowledge and community trading unity allows the PNG-Chinese distributor of batteries to offer the batteries in the trade store at a very low price which is passed on to the Melanesian customer with the assurance that the quantity sold will make the price viable. This quantity of sales is why the foreign company chose the PNG-Chinese as their distributor.

The ideal PNG-Chinese company never expands beyond the capabilities of the family to manage it. Most PNG-Chinese companies try to work with a very small core of top managers 11. This is because electricity is expensive to install in homes in Papua New Guinea

245

on the principle that a company that is top-heavy is not only expensive but increases scope for conflicts between those in positions of power. Once a PNG-Chinese company has to start hiring outsiders as top management the company no longer works with family continuity and faces the dangers of internal individual interest. Because PNG-Chinese would never expect an outsider to give himself to their family in a way they would expect of each other, they can never fully trust an outsider. They are also aware that the outsider's self-interest could be very destructive to the company as a whole.

Most companies however, must hire some outside staff ad many must hire non-Melanesian outsiders for positions they cannot yet fill with qualified Melanesians. This would include certain specialised sub-management positions and other specialists. For these positions, the PNG-Chinese have found that it is better to hire Asians than Europeans. The Asians are more productive. People who are productive and qualified and who want to come to Papua New Guinea, must have some reason for wanting to leave their home country. The international political and economic climate determines which Asians are most likely to want to leave their home, but many of the recent employees have come from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Europeans who have less political incentive will generally only stay for two years, while the Asians are willing to stay longer.

246

Since part of the job of every outside non-Melanesian is to train a Melanesian to take his or her position eventually (as required by the National loca].isation policy), the Asian who stays longer gives the training of the Melanesian employees more continuity and consistency. Every change in management personnel creates conflicts over training procedure. If this happens every two years, the Melanesians who watch these managers come and go, begin to see their own training as a joke. This is not fair to them, nor does it benefit the company as a whole. A related problem with hiring Europeans is that the financial incentive required to get a person of reasonable calibre is extremely high, currently K60,000-80,000 per annum, housing at Kl,500 per month, trips to their home country, and overseas schooling for their children. An Asian will expect much less. In addition, the quality of an employee is difficult to determine. One PNG-Chinese company says that after it had recruited Europeans through a consultancy and having tried it themselves, it came to the conclusion that recruiting from Australia and New Zealand is successful only one time out of ten. If a person from overseas cannot be productive in eight months, then the cost of hiring him is too high and he becomes a liability. Some companies consider this situation unfortunate because they feel that Europeans give a 'better presentation' and tend to be more effective with customers than Asians. A problem with Asian employees is that some cannot speak English well and are nervous about

247

undertaking tasks where their English is important. This means they will avoid ringing the bank or discussing business on the telephone in general. Despite these problems, most PNG-Chinese companies, when they have to hire outside their families will hire Nelanesians first but when they cannot find qualified Melanesians, they will hire Asians and lastly Europeans.

MANUFACTURING Manufacturing exists on several levels within the PNGChinese community. Most of the manufacturing is in conjunction with a retail trade store, but a few companies own factories whose sole purpose is manufacture. The major areas of manufacture among the PNG-Chinese are clothing and food.

Clothing Trade store manufacturing of clothing comes from a long tradition of tailoring among the PNG-Chinese community. Many of the early immigrants set up tailoring shops and ran these in conjunction with trade stores. They sewed mainly for the Germans, English, and Australians, making women's gowns and men's uniforms, shirts and trousers. The need for tailored clothing among the ex-patriate population decreased with improved possibilities for the importation of ready-made clothing and the availability of air transport to overseas shops. In Rabaul and some of the other urban

248

centres outside Port Moresby, tailors, now often Filippino, still cater to the reduced expatriate and Chinese population, making clothing these customers need between their trips overseas where they now buy most of their clothing. Most of the PNG-Chinese tailors however, now cater to the Melanesian population.

Most PNG-Chinese traders will make some of the clothing they sell. Usually they will make the men blouses (the loose short- sleeved blouse worn by most of the urban Melanesian women throughout Papua New Guinea). However, sewing men blouses is not the same kind of tailoring of the specialised nature the ex-patriates require. An experienced worker can turn out a men blouse, already cut, in about ten minutes and can do this sewing while the shop is not busy. These small-time manufacturers are familiar with their customers; they know the colours and small design features, such as the cut of a neckline, or the kind of trim, their customers prefer. These garment manufacturers also accommodate for local festive dress, such as the black and white men blouses preferred by the Tolai for the Easter dances.

Some of these small-time manufacturers will also make lap laps, but since these can be bought very cheaply overseas, the labour is not often worth the saving. Some trade stores will also sell simple dresses that are made on the premises.

249

These are modelled for the local clientele and are often worn by the women who work in local larger Australian-style stores such as Burns-Philps or Steamships. In some of the trade stores, the PNG-Chinese trader will sew the clothing, while in other stores, the trader will hire an outsider to sew. The PNG-Chinese tailors can be either men or women, but the hired outsider is usually a female Melanesian or Filippino who can offer the necessary skills.

A few PNG-Chinese trading companies have specialised in clothing manufacture in Port Moresby and Lae. The largest of these companies makes their clothing mainly for export and a few other PNG-Chinese factories are trying to follow their example. The largest of these companies in 1986 hired about 90 Melanesians in various positions ranging from garment workers, technicians, sales representatives, clerical help, managers and drivers. The family that runs this company says that the educational level of their employees has continually increased over the last decade until they can now fill jobs and train Melanesians for middle management positions who have had high school and university educations. Because of this, they have been able to continually lessen their dependence on foreign staff to the point that the company in 1986 employed only two or three nonMelanesians in its manufacturing.

The labour for all clothing manufacturing is expected to be

250

quite skilled and at least some of the garment workers must be able to create dresses from simply drawn pictures without the aid of commercial patterns. These workers are paid according to their skill and position. A difficulty in such attempts at large-scale export manufacturing is the Papua New Guinea company's ability to maintain a quality consistent with what others can produce overseas. Labour is also relatively expensive in Papua New Guinea, and this makes it difficult for them to compete with Asian producers. However an advantage that they have is that Papua New Guinea, as a developing country, is given quotas from several Western countries. This means that the manufacturers can apply for a quota for a specific overseas country. If they receive it, they can export to that country and pay no import tax. This makes exporting a viable enterprise.

One PNG-clothing manufacturer in Port Moresby caters exclusively to the Melanesian market. This company is run by a family that has been established in the area since the late l930s. The man who started this company was one of the few Chinese people the British allowed into Papua before 1957. He was a skilled tailor and made clothes for the British expatriates throughout the Second World War. As the British left and Port Moresby grew, he focused more and more on the local market. The company is now managed by two of his Sons and one son's wife, a woman from Hong Kong who has

251

had training in clothing design. It has not expanded beyond the scope of the Port Moresby area, but is successful within that sphere because the owners understand the needs of their clientele. For example, they realise that if they can create a style that the population of a specific urban village likes, the entire village will want that style in exactly the same pattern and colour. This makes for simple manufacturing once a style is picked up by a village and also allows the trader to sell the clothing at a cheaper price per unit.

An aspect of the clothing industry that has become popular among PNG-Chinese traders in recent years is printing on cloth, both through the traditional method of silkscreening and through more modern photographic methods. Many companies in urban Papua New Guinea who provide uniforms for their workers want a specialised design and the company name printed on the uniforms. Sports teams are often sponsored by a company which advertises by having the team's gear printed with the company name. Some of the PNG-Chinese manufacturers can actually make the clothing and then have it printed for a customer. Other PNG-Chinese specialise only in the printing itself. PNG-Chinese manufacturers also sell printed clothing through their retail outlets and sell to other trade stores. Some of these printed designs, particularly on tee-shirts, are created by Melanesian artists and graduates from the Port Moresby art school. Such

252

manufacturing creates an outlet for these artists and encourages development of urban-Melanesian designs.

Food The manufacturing of food can also be divided into those who manufacture small amounts of food in conjunction with their trade stores and the companies that concentrate on the food manufacturing.12

The small-scale traders will usually just sell small food items they have made before their shop opens, such as fried scones 13 , ice blocks or cooked meat. These they will sell with the other food the trade store stocks, just for a little extra profit for the store as a whole. Other trade stores specialise in a kind of 'fast food'. This food includes fried bread, rice and meat and other simple items. The turnover and profit of such items is high and many PNGChinese trade stores have now added them to their basic stocks.

12. Some PNG-Chinese do run restaurants. Most of these specialise in Chinese food and the families who own them will often also run, or have a share in, a trade store or other concern. These restaurants mostly cater to an expatriate and elite Melanesian clientele and are quite distinct from the food sold through the trade stores and from the larger scale food manufacturing. My fieldwork experience did not include working in restaurants so I am not competent to discuss their operation in this thesis. 13. A 'fried scone' is flour, salt and water made into a dough and deep fried.

253

The larger PNG-Chinese food maufacturers have until recently been mainly bakeries. Three of the major bakeries in Papua New Guinea are operated by PNG-Chinese families. One of these has expanded since Independence and in 1986 had branch bakeries in the major urban centres of Papua New Guinea. Another operated a large bakery out of Lae and the third bakery continued to operate from Rabaul. All of these bakeries produce bread and other kinds of perishable baked goods for the urban population, but the staple product for all of the bakeries is hard biscuits. These they sell to the more rural areas and in the towns. Most baked goods are transported by plane to outlying areas, but with the extreme heat and humidity, they perish quickly. The hard biscuit will survive the flight and the local conditions, both in the village trade store and in the village itself.

THE LEGAL REALM PNG-Chinese families who have moved from the traditional trade store to manufacturing or multi-store firms, have taken legal steps to protect themselves against internal fissures and external threat. These legal steps vary between families depending upon their knowledge of Australian PNG law and their business needs.

Some families began their companies as a partnership. This is because a partnership requires limited capital and many of these PNG-Chinese companies began with very limited

254

capital. 14 When two people decide to form a partnership, they only need to make a simple agreement between themselves. A partnership does not need to be either audited

or registered with the state. The Papua New Guinea government also does not require a partnership to publish accounts and many PNG-Chinese prefer to keep their accounts closed. This is partly because PNG-Chinese consider such information private as protection against competition and envy. Many of these partnerships also, when they started, kept incomplete accounts and they would be embarrassed to have outsiders realise this. Also, PNG-Chinese distrust accountants and having to publish accounts would force them to use accountants. They feel that accountants charge too much for the services they give and that they cheat Chinese when possible, or at least, operate under a stereotyped assumption that all Chinese will make money, so they needn't be careful about overcharging by 100 kina here and there. The less sophisticated PNG-Chinese traders attribute to accountants an almost mystical knowledge and are dependent upon them for dealing with all manner of governmental financial regulations. The more sophisticated company traders resent this dependence which, they suspect, many accountants consciously encourage. They also do not trust the advice of accountants because they tend to reflect a Western practice of business rather than the practice the PNG-Chinese prefer. Many PNG14. My research found no companies founded after 1975 with sole propietorships.

255

Chinese have found an answer in having a family member who is a trained accountant or by using a PNG-Chinese accountant whom they can trust. Any PNG-Chinese who becomes an independent practising accountant is in a delicate position however because he Is constantly torn between the needs of his own family and those of his family's PNG-Chinese competitors. Other PNG-Chinese are also, understandably, nervous about trusting their books to an insider who will then hold a certain power over their family concern. So, for all of these reasons, PNG-Chinese try to avoid accountants altogether if possible. A partnership is one way to do this.

Table B

Business Structure (1986) of PNG-Chinese Firms Incoor porated since 1975

Partnership

Limited Company

Port Moresby

24

28

Mount Hagen

2

4

Rabaul

2

6

Lae

4

6

Madang

1

2

Other

6

5

Total

39

51

256

As a partnership grows it begins to have disadvantages and despite the privacy it allows, many PNG-Chinese find they are forced to form companies. A company is an artificial body that has rights in perpetuity. This means that as an institution, the rights of the company go beyond the individual or even living family members. The aim of becoming a company is partly to give a greater assurance that the company will continue to the next generation. The division in a legal company between the shareholder and the company is also specific and legal. Since in PNG-Chinese companies, the major shareholders are family, this legal division gives the family as a whole some protection against a maverick family member who tries to take too much control or who is creating internal problems. Some of the other differences between a partnership and a company are also important. In a company, unlike a partnership, property is owned by the company rather than by its members. This means that as the members change - if one member of a family dies for example - the assets do not have to change as well. While a partnership has the disadvantage that it carries unlimited liability, members of a limited company are not personally liable for company debts. Also, while members of a partnership can sue each other for rights, in a company this is more difficult. A member of a partnership can dissolve that partnership, but a member of a company generally cannot. (Bruce, 1978) All of these restrictions help to protect

257

the family venture against dangerous individual action that may not be in the best interests of the family. Another advantage of the company is that it has a specific set of directors, while in a partnership, every partner must be in management. The company structure allows the family to retain tight control over its management decisions as it grows. Another vital difference is that Papua New Guinea taxes a partnership as individuals but not a company. This allows a company greater freedom for trying new ventures and investments. A company with several stores will often become corporate so that all their shops will be taxed as one group. This means that if one shop is showing a loss it can be set against another which is in profit, to produce a neutral net balance overall.

Unfortunately the view of these new companies presented in this chapter is very brief and only gives an overview rather than a complete and detailed ethnography. It is however a preparation for the analysis of the next chapter in which I explore in some depth the trading philosophy that has emerged when the PNG-Chinese concepts of generosity and the expanded self met the increased competition within the community which came from the formation of national and international companies.

258

FLOW OF GOODS

LEGEND

Q 0 0 V D

Nelanesian retailer

PNG - Chinese retailer PNG - Chinese wholesaler Agent Export house Warehouse Orders Goods

NOTE The map is intended as a schematic aid and is not drawn to proportion.

CHAPTER 6 - BETWEEN POPPIES AND POWER: AN EVOLVING CONCEPT OF TRADE

The previous two chapters described a practice of trade in flux. Influences, both from within and outside the corninunity, have made the traditional PNG-Chinese trade store an endangered species. The practice developed from the Rabaul trade store is no longer appropriate for the emerging national and international companies. The business people of Port Moresby continue to call themselves 'traders', but outsiders would categorise them as manufacturers and entrepreneurs. The 'knowledge' of the trade store is no longer adequate for a company manager. The fundamental principles of generosity, social subvention and expanded self are still strong, but the way they are expressed is changing. The 'traders' have devised an altered practice of business and, if you will, an evolving ideology of trade. I do not wish to bring in the Marxist overtones this concept can carry, but mean it more in the sense of the Mannheim total conception of ideology, 'the characteristics and composition of the total structure of the mind ... ofthe group'. (1936:49-50) On the surface, the present trade practice between the larger companies contradicts the concepts of social subvention and the expanded self. The PNGChinese have begun a transition from what is basically a market-based community economy to a 'capitalist' one. The tensions of such a transition have forced them to alter

259

their concepts of trade and temper their model of community values. Yet, as of 1987, the basic template of generosity, social subvention and expanded self continues to support the community. This chapter explores the new practice and concepts of trade. Throughout the chapter I argue that these new concepts do not in reality undermine the fundamental principles of the community.

FAMILY MANAGEMENT: CONFLICT AND BALANCE PNG-Chinese families that have expanded their businesses since Independence are still using traditional family knowledge from the trade store, but they have added several layers to the complexity of trade. On a trade store level, relatives who operate competing trade stores, deal with the resulting tension through generosity. When a family moves from the trade store to a multi-faceted company they raise their stakes, both in capital and face. A family that ventures into larger or more innovative businesses improves family status but can also attract what the PNG-Chinese call the 'envy' of the rest of the community. If their business does well, they improve personal and family face, but they also increase their obligations, not only as a business but as community representatives. The whole family must work to maintain whatever standing they achieve. A company is a capitalist institution, but the ultimate purpose of the PNGChinese company is still to improve the status of the family within the community and by extension to improve the face of

260

the community as a whole. In this sense the PNG-Chinese company operates on a theory of 'communal' capitalism, not directed for the individual good, but for the good of the family and community. At the corporate level, as with the trade store, profit is for family status: it allows the directors of the family company to offer generosity and favours that maintain the family's standing. This means that members of a family company are dependent upon each other to make the company work. If one member disappoints the others by not giving enough to the company, that disappointment is almost a betrayal. Traders expect the most dedication from close relatives because the status of the family company is vital to their personal and community standing. On a superficial level, it would appear that between such companies, the competition for status within the community undermines a concept of community social subvention because it creates a situation where the companies appear to act as individual entities. This has not been allowed to happen however. The policing mechanism of 'envy' and the ultimate connection of identity to community have combined to allow competition to work on a level removed from community principle.

This increased emphasis on family status creates a specific morality within and between companies. Each family member who works in the company holds a position in the structure of the company and is responsible for making that position

261

as valuable as possible. This is a responsibility to the family and to fail is to disappoint the family as a whole. Each member of the company is working for the success of that company because that company is a vehicle of family face. If one person loses face, the family loses face and vice versa. The family company is for the family's present status and for the status of future children. Outsiders must by definition be morally accorded less importance than family. Once this moral distinction is accepted, almost any business move with or against people outside the family can become morally justified if it is good for the family company. An immoral act is one that will damage or demean the family and company. This allows, and indeed forces, a family member to be ruthless with outsiders if such an act will serve the family. This statement is the bottom line of corporate family morality, but in reality a PNG-Chinese person who is truly ruthless (without provocation) in business, loses the support of others. A person who is overtly ruthless acts not only in bad taste but risks making enemies who could damage family and community welfare. In reality, PNGChinese only apply this morality when they deal with nonPNG-Chinese companies since the PNG-Chinese of one company are related to the PNG-Chinese members of every other company and all PNG-Chinese companies are, on several levels, interconnected and responsible to each other.

262

Although PNG-Chinese will employ some outsiders (non-PNGChinese) in management when necessary (as noted in the previous chapter), this morality makes it almost impossible for PNG-Chinese companies to have outsiders in p management positions. Outsiders will inevitably put their own desires before those of the company. Another reason outsiders create difficulties is that few can achieve an intimacy where they know how to respond to the intricate interactions of PNG-Chinese life. One trader described the combination of qualities he looks for in a person he would choose as a company partner as, firstly honesty, then generosity, and thirdly an ability to contribute to the business. He defined honesty as placing the company interest before personal achievement. Generosity means not only understanding the PNG-Chinese creed of generosity but also an ability to give and take from others, a person who will work hard, but give space for themselves and others to relax and laugh together. A person who is generous understands how to balance that mixture of intensity and reserve, being continually sensitive to the needs of others. Usually only close family members (and sometimes other PNG-Chinese) have the knowledge to maintain this level of generosity over a long period. This same businessman said that a partner must also contribute to the firm with creative energy but he placed this third in importance because he felt that many can learn this skill

(Interview data, Port Moresby, May

1986).

263

This dichotomy between the outsider as a threat and the family (or community) as a united entity is an ideal based on traditional Chinese thought, but in Papua New Guinea reality is much more complex. Many complications emerge from within the family itself. The greatest danger to the family corporate structure as well as to the concept of the expanded self is the desire for individual money and power. PNG-Chinese say that this danger commonly manifests itself in three ways. The most common internal threat to the family is blamed on the addition of wives. In Papua New Guinea outside (non-PNG-Chinese) wives can hold shares and hold a position on the executive board of a family firm, although they only rarely hold the publicly central role held in the trade store. They are then in a position to threaten the interests of the family shareholders if the outside wife wishes to further the interests of her nuclear family over the extended family of her husband. A woman who is a consanguinal kin is not perceived as such a divisive threat even if she stays with the family firm rather than joining that of her husband. This is because any consanguinal kin, male or female, is expected to place their first loyalty to their own consanguinal family. The conunon PNG-Chinese custom of inheritance also makes an outside man who marries a consanguinal kin female shareholder less of a threat. PNGChinese parents generally leave cash to their daughters and assets to their sons. This is because, in theory, they as-

264

sume that the women will marry out into the business of her husband's family. Because of this, she will need cash to invest in his company. The danger of giving a daughter assets is that she could take them with her if she joins her husband's company and this would split up the family holdings. Parents give a son assets because they assume that he will continue the family business and will use the assets to build the family investment. A son who joins his wife's company will usually come from a (non-PNG-Chinese) family with few assets, but if a son with assets does try to leave, the family will try to negotiate for a cash settlement. This combination of inheritance customs and the split loyalties of non-consanguinal kin makes outside wives a potential threat to the family firm.

The new wife in traditional China was always an outsider who had to serve her husband and his family. When problems occurred the family often blamed the daughter-in-law. In Papua New Guinea, outside wives have a great deal more power. In some family companies they become the central manager, and in others, they bring their own relatives in to join the husband's company. This gives the outside wife an uncontrolled and dangerous potential in the family firm. When a woman enters her husband's family, her first concern is for her consanguinal kin, her husband and her children rather than her husband's extended family. For this reason she may push her husband to put himself in a position of

265

greater individual power in the corporate structure. As she is often officially or unofficially a participant in board meetings and executive decisions, she may try to manipulate for a larger share of the company to come under her husband's control. This creates tension between family members, but even more it creates tension between the other outside wives of the various men in the family as each wife battles for greater control for her nuclear family. Such conflicts can easily escalate, forcing a split in the company, with various family members taking total control of different parts of the company.

In some cases, a daughter will hold a share of the company assets, but this share is generally less than that of her brothers. If her husband (this applies both to PNG-Chinese and non-PNG-Chinese) has no family company of his own, she may bring him into the family company. This will increase her influence, but if this husband begins to create problems, he is much less of a threat than the outsider wives, because he can be manipulated out of the company (usually into another PNG-Chinese firm if he is PNG-Chinese) without damage to the family core. A daughter and her husband in this situation may be given a separate small company to develop themselves. In some cases, an unmarried daughter will negotiate for a central share of the company. She can acquire this status if the family is short of family members to run the business and requests the daughter to leave

266

her current employment to join the family company. Her business ability and how desperate the family is for her help will determine how much influence she can acquire. If such a daughter marries, her husband may be given a subordinate role in the company and she will retain a central one. The husbands of such daughters are often PNG-Chinese who are less business-oriented than their wives and put a larger part of their energy into other pursuits.

Another situation that can cause problems in a family corporation is if parents give one member of a generation too much power over other members of that same generation. It is assumed that members of an older generation will have power over the younger generation family members, but same generation members tend to establish their position according to their ability and desire. However, in some cases, the parent generation have given one member of the younger generation total legal right to make executive decisions. This system works only as long as the decision process, in reality, works on a principle of consensus. If the legally subordinate members feel that the manager forces decisions that harm the company, they will try to demote the manager. If this is impossible, they may eventually try to split. Similarly, if the family manager feels that he is not being given enough creative freedom to take decisions, or that the more conservative practices of subordinate family members are restricting company growth, or even that family

267

profit is being invested unwisely, he may also try to split the company's interests. In both of these cases, the split companies usually work as subsidiaries under the umbrella of a larger company. Profit is still used for social subvention.

A third kind of internal problem can occur when a successful businessman tries to increase his personal status by taking a PNG-Chinese mistress. These are not secret liaisons and have as much to do with power as sex. They add to the businessman's self-image, allowing him to perceive himself as a leader not only financially and socially, but also in the sexual sphere. The women involved may be women with business influence themselves, although most PNG-Chinese women in the public eye would not risk the power such a liaison could give others. An exception would be if she felt the liaison could provide a good opportunity for business contacts and advancement. Such involvements can lead to divorce, but the influence of traditional Chinese values and the importance of the continuity of the expanded self makes divorce a last resort for the PNG-Chinese. The damage of divorce would affect not only the couple involved, but also create deep fissures in the family firm that would affect the couple's families, children, grandchildren, ancestors and the total community. Such destruction to the continuity of the family would be a selfish act. For this reason outside liaisons seldom cause divorce. Others gossip

268

about people involved in such liaisons but the community does not condemn them as long as they are between approved members of the conununity. As long as the man and woman involved in such a liaison use it for the advancement of their own families or if at least do not allow them to intrude on family life, the community will tolerate their behaviour.1

Envy' These are some of the internal problems that can develop when a PNG-Chinese family becomes a corporate power. The individual trade stores have the same inherent problems, but their problems are usually on a smaller and more manageable scale. As the community moves from a group of small-time traders to a group of corporate 'traders', these problems become increasingly dangerous for communal values. One problem that can become a devastating threat between the principal holders of a company as well as with the outside spouses, is what the PNG-Chinese call 'envy'. This 'envy'

1. Quite different are encounters with female prostitutes while the men are on business trips. These women are generally offered by an Asian or overseas Chinese company with whom the man is dealing and sometimes he would have difficulty refusing that company's hospitality without insult. Most men consider these encounters part of business, but a few abstain. It is general knowledge in the community who abstains, and friends of the man may tease him, saying he is too much in love with his wife. This teasing is not meant to demean the man's masculinity, rather it reflects a fond joking between people who remember the husband and wife when they were all children together. It also acts as a gentle warning that a husband and wife should not let mutual affection interfere with family or community obligation. These prostitutes are no threat to the family and are therefore not a concern for the family or community.

269

is not jealousy of another's assets because PNG-Chinese continue to emphasise generosity and the use of such assets for community benefit. Rather, a person who incites 'envy' is one who is perceived as not using personal or family gain for the good of the family and community. PNG-Chinese are continually aware of 'envy', both in themselves and in others. As much as a family wants status, it does not want to make others 'envious'. Because all PNG-Chinese companies stand on a knife edge as competitors and kin, for one to rise too high above another is a potential insult to the face of the family that has not secured or achieved the same position. The very presence of the advantaged family will continue to be an insult until the rest of the community can make them 'equal' again through forcing them to 'invest' their advantages towards social subvention. From this comes the strength of the image of the 'tall poppy' whose head will be cut by 'pot shots' from the other 'poppies' until it is trimmed to an equal size again. 2 No family wants to be a vulnerable tall poppy, nor do they wish to insult their relatives. In this way the 'envy' works as a policing agency to maintain community principles in the face of increasing individualistic temptation. The threat of 'envy', while serving to promote community values, has also made the Port Moresby PNG-Chinese community less overtly communal 2. Thei. Wn Veizen (1973) writes about a similar process in the 'levelling coalition', where a target attracts the resentment of others. This incites gossip which in turn creates a fertile environment for manoeuvres against the target.

270

than the Rabaul one. Because the Port Moresby family companies tend to be expanding more and using more capitalistic practices, the use of 'envy' is greater between them than in Rabaul where expansion is more overtly communal. 'Envy' is a powerful force and between individuals and families a mixture of generosity and privacy is used to keep its more destructive elements at bay. As long as the need for 'envy' remains outside the firm, then the company is relatively safe. Once the need for 'envy' enters the corporate structure, the company is doomed. Like the trade store, the corporate company must think in terms of plans that outlast the individual or the current family members. 'Envy' occurs because a family member has shortened the scope of vision to individual power. A PNG-Chinese family that loses its cohesion, its belief in capital as a communal investment and its principle of social subvention, no longer has a purpose and will eventually destroy itself.

FRIENDSHIP Between PNG-Chinese Competitors The individual ego keeps erupting among PNG-Chinese Port Moresby traders, but a concept of self as part of their family and the community is still integral to their personal identity and morality. This unity within the PNG-Chinese community makes competition between PNG-Chinese companies also a moral concern. At the company level, the principal balance of business competitors as relatives still applies,

271

only the relationship between these competitors has moved from trade store society to a situation where company negotiation and trading spheres of influence take on increased importance. To trade in a country as small as Papua New Guinea and at the same time inaxixnise his or her own position, every PNG-Chinese trader of influence should know and respect the position of other PNG-Chinese in the community. At the same time these larger companies are in fierce cornpetition and one company will undercut (to a limited degree) 3 or mislead another company. They will use what would appear to the outsider as Machiavellian techniques against their brother, cousin, or niece. At the same time I heard of no serious schisins between companies and many are simultaneously good friends and fierce competitors: both quite willing to overtly damage each other's profit one day 3. They will offer the cheapest price they can, regardless of the price in other PNG-Chinese shops, but they will generally not allow an Australian customer to make them negotiate against each other. For example, a potential customer rang up one company requesting a quotation for 100 uniforms. They then rang up another PNG-Chinese company (cousins of the first company) and also asked them for a quotation. They then stated that the first company had given a lower quote, suggesting that the second company could go even lower. The trader at the second company became annoyed, 'If (the first company) can do it cheaper, go back to them. And good luck. At that price their quality can't be much'. Then the trader of the second company telephoned his cousin in the first company noting that if his cousin could offer goods so cheaply then he (the second trader) should be buying wholesale from him instead of going to Hong Kong. Upon comparing quotations, the cousins discovered that the customer had lied to the second trader about the first quotation he had received (in reality the two quotations were almost identical). In retaliation, the two cousins began to play a game with the customer, passing him back and forth with promises of lower prices. When they got bored, one trader provided the goods at the original price, but put the order low on his list of orders. The goods arrived four weeks late amid profuse apologies by the PNG-Chinese trader.

272

and go fishing together the next. These competitors genuinely consider each other intimate friends, as well as sharing a deep familial obligation and respect for each other. This would not prevent one from trying to manipulate the other into a bad business move. The circumstances that allow such relationships are complex.

PNG-Chinese who are competitors know that each must first be loyal to his or her family company and each will respect that loyalty in the other. Indeed a person who did not negotiate for the best interests of his family would clearly be betraying that family. A friend, whether kin or not, who betrays his or her own family is difficult to trust and mistrust would weaken the bonds of friendship. PNG-Chinese who are members of competing companies expect business tricks from each other. At the same time they know that noone would badly cheat another or force another into bankruptcy. A public bankruptcy would be damaging to community face and "their family's children would hate our family's children forever". Friends know that each will protect the other, for the sake of their extended family status as well as friendship, against the outside world, but within the community, their loyalty to the family company is primary.

Competing friends also expect to be able to manipulate in business equally well, or at least, almost as well. A

273

friendship is built on mutual respect and traders respect each other's skill. They do not really expect their friends to go in for any business deal without first protecting themselves. If they do, the equality of friendship becomes damaged and its foundation compromised. A good friend is a person would could, given the correct circumstances, also be a 'dangerous' competitor.4

PNG-Chinese traders will push family and other PNG-Chinese the hardest because these are the people from whom they expect the most as traders, as competitors, as friends, and as kin. PNG-Chinese traders see in each other a reflection of self, a re-affirmation of their united identity. One company may fiercely battle with another company, perhaps their cousins, over market share one year, and join together for a joint venture the next year. The business tactics they used against each other one year, will be used against someone else the next. Or, two companies may, at the same time,

4. This concept that a person one respects will recognise gaming tricks is similar to Bourd'u's discussion of the challenge. 'To make someone a challenge is to credit him with the dignity of a man of honour, since the challenge, as such, requires a riposte and therefore is addressed to a man deemed capable of playing the game of honour' (1972:11). One PNGChinese will not generally try to trick another PNG-Chinese trader whom they consider is gullible. For example, one PNG-Chinese trader who had recently opened a dress shop (retail) went to her cousin, who manufactures dresses, and also sells retail, and asked him to manufacture some dresses from her design. 'You can bring us your dresses to manufacture' the cousin said, 'but we'll copy the design'. The first trader was grateful for her cousin's frankness. The manufacturer said that he did not want to steal the design, which he would feel obliged to do if it were good, because to do so would be to take an unfair advantage of his cousin's relative inexperience as a specialised retail trader.

274

have a joint venture in one branch of their company, say importing lap laps, and be in direct competition in another branch because they both have outlets that process photographs. Even more so than the trade store, company interests are interwoven between families. The boundaries between these interests are in continual flux as families try new business ideas. Friendship is on a level removed from tactics of competition. Friendship between PNG-Chinese is based on mutual identity, humour, and respect; the tactics of competition are played like a dangerous game.

PNG-Chinese and Melanesian Friendship Many PNG-Chinese traders are also friends with urban Melanesian white-collar workers but their friendship with Melanesians is not the same as with other PNG-Chinese. Among themselves, the PNG-Chinese fidelity of friendship has many of the overtones of the Melanesian wantok system, people within the same group who have the ultimate ability to give each other status. Friendship is an ambiguous term that implies varied meanings for different cultures. In general Western usage, it means a person who has access to the domestic life of another person. The word was early incorporated into Tok Pisin with the Western meaning. The eighteenth century European meaning of friend implied a unity of elites that supported each other, for example the King's Friends were those who supported his rule. 5 The 5. For a discussion on concepts of friendship in non-Asian societies, see Wolf, 1966.

275

friendship between PNG-Chinese and these Melanesians encompasses both meanings. They have emotional commitment, but both are members of a Papua New Guinea elite where they benefit by supporting each other. Both the friendship and the elite status are partly grounded on the Papua New Guinea educational system.

Before Independence, primary schools in Papua New Guinea were segregated and the European children attended a school separate from the Chinese and Melanesians. The two Chinesefunded primary schools established after the Second World War in Rabaul catered at first exclusively to Chinese students (largely because the classes were taught in Chinese). The Australian Administration also adopted a policy to provide "separate Primary and Post-Primary Schools for Asians and Natives" (Cahill 1973:192, citing Annual Report, 1948/49: 84) Beginning in 1948 the Australian administered education system allowed the resident Chinese to attend secondary schools in Australia (Cahill 1973:193). In 1952, twenty-two 'Asian' children enrolled in Australian schools (Cahill 1973:196, citing Annual Report 1951/52:186) and that same year, a secondary department was established at the Administrative Chinese School in Rabaul where students could prepare for the Junior Public Examination of the University of Queensland (Cahill 1973:198 citing Annual Report, 1951/52). Those who remained in Rabaul could attend the Administrative Chinese Secondary School for

276

Chinese and mixed race students (Cahill 1973:199, citing Thompson 1951/1952:39).

Beginning in 1948, the Nelanesians from either elite families or those who showed exceptional promise had a similar chance to continue their secondary schooling in Australia. When the opportunity came many elite Nelanesians and Chinese attended the same schools mainly because these schools were recommended from one family to the next.6

In Australia, both the PNG-born Chinese and the Nelanesian Papua New Guineans felt like strangers in an alien land. PNG-Chinese recount their first experiences of riding a lift or an escalator, or their nervousness at entering a large city. The Nelanesians had many similar experiences. In this alien country, the PNG-Chinese and the Melanesians found they had more in common with each other than with many native-born Australians. Their shared background of a childhood in Papua New Guinea and a shared language of Tok Pisin created more empathy between them. Also racial prejudice in Australia against people with anything but European coloured skin further tied them together.

The

Brothers' College (Ashgrove, 6. These schools included the Marist Qid.), Scots College (Warwick, Qld.), Eagle Heights School (Mt. Tamborine, Qld.) University of Queensland, Oakhill College (N.S.W.), Blackheath College (Qld.), Slade School (Warwick, Qld.), Rockhampton Grammar School (Qld.) St. Brendon's College (Qld.), and others.

277

result was that many Melanesians and PNG-Chinese developed deep and lasting friendships. As these school children reached adulthood and returned to Papua New Guinea many of the PNG-Chinese became entrepreneurs while the Melanesians became public servants, professionals, politicians, and entrepreneurs. As one prominent public servant said, "I went to school with (PNG) Chinese....They're friends" (Interview data, Mr Wep Kanaui, Nay 1987). This special relationship is a Melanesian version of the 'old boy network', and should not be underestimated. Both groups form an elite segment of PNG society and as friends they influence each other. The reciprocal nature of this relationship should be stressed here. PNG-Chinese do influence the views of friends who are in government, but the public servants also influence the views of their PNG-Chinese friends.

Such relationships of long association sometimes provide a catalyst for the introduction of business connections between PNG-Chinese and elite Melanesians. PNG-Chinese prefer to conduct business with a friend because they know the strengths and weaknesses of a friend. This is why many PNG-Chinese who enter a business transaction prefer to deal with someone they know. Sometimes this person will be a long-standing Nelanesian friend. Some of these transactions are financially successful; some are not. However, at a broader level both sides usually benefit. The PNG-Chinese through continuing ties with a Melanesian who has become

278

influential and by continuing to build upon their understanding of Melanesian culture. The Melanesian gains through the business knowledge and support he receives from the PNG-Chinese trader. As with nearly all business transactions, both sides hope for financial gain.

The PNG-Chinese offer the elite Papua New Guineans the opportunity to learn about their business methods that have made them perceived as per capita the most successful entrepreneurs in Papua New Guinea. In this way, the PNGChinese are assisting the development of business in Papua New Guinea in a way that foreign aid cannot. Theirs is a grassroots involvement. They are not giving anything and therefore are not insulting the Papua New Guinea sense of pride. The Melanesians are neither granting a favour that will increase their influence over the PNG-Chinese, nor are they accepting a favour that would put them in debt. Rather they are working in a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial to both.

The PNG-Chinese also act as 'social brokers' (c.f. Boissevain 1974:148-52) putting one group of people in touch with another who will be of financial benefit. Because of their extensive personal contacts, both in Papua New Guinea and overseas, they are powerful 'transmitters' of information and open channels of communication for others. These friendships further open channels where the Melanesian

279

politicians and government officials feel they can ask select PNG-Chinese for advice. This is different from an informal exchange of views where PNG-Chinese and Melanesian friends continually ask advice from each other. Formal advice is when specific advice is sought on a specific issue or for a specific transaction. The advisor acts in an off icial capacity and is paid for services rendered. At least four prominent PNG-Chinese business people offer consulting services to government bodies while many others give advice when they are asked for it. The PNG-Chinese have lived in Papua New Guinea longer than any other expatriate group. They have experience, through their own lives and through that of their parents and grandparents, of the changes and problems of Papua New Guinea under two colonial

administrations and over more than ten years of independence. At present, most expatriates come to Papua New Guinea on a contract basis for a period of two years. Some remain for more, perhaps even as much as ten years, but few stay long enough to call the country their homeland. Fewer still pass from childhood to adulthood in Papua New Guinea and then return to work as qualified professionals. As a people who spent their early years in Papua New Guinea and who place an emphasis on education, the PNG-Chinese have qualities that other expatriates do not. Their background gives the PNG-Chinese the advantage of continuity when they give professional advice to the government. They have watched the ebb and flow of political trends; they have con-

280

ducted business under various administrations and survived the results.

Most of those who are in the position to ad-

vise the government are also connected to international trade networks and have extensive knowledge of international politics and finance. When Melanesian politicians and government officials want outside advice, they often turn to the PNG-Chinese as the experts best able to serve them. This formal advice is not based directly on friendship and PNG-Chinese also offer their services to Asian-Chinese and other Asians.

CONCEPTS OF POWER The concepts of power discussed in this section are the notions of power PNG-Chinese employ with non-PNG-Chinese. Power within the community is much more ambiguous and the stated feeling is that personal influence should never be used to pressure another PNG-Chinese, except in the case of an uncle to a nephew or niece, or, in rare cases, a parent to child (when all else fails to make an errant family member conform to community morality). This power of parent to child is considered shameful to both parties, so the role of enforcing community values generally falls on the uncle. Power conflicts, as described earlier, do occur within and between family companies, but this is considered destructive and selfish behaviour that is squashed as soon as possible through 'envy' or family pressure. The PNG-Chinese notion of power within the community is in many ways an exact op-

281

posite of Tawny's comment of the orientation of power in Britain where 'The conviction that advantages which are shared are not advantages at all is, in England, deeply ingrained'. (cited in Siu, 1979:50) For the PNG-Chinese, the community will destroy another's advantage if it is not shared.

Outside the community however, the situation is different. Embedded in PNG-Chinese concepts of power is the principle that in Papua New Guinea, they should try to be friendly and develop continuing relationships with everyone. Continuity is of course a vital part of any business deal because PNGChinese look at any deal from a long-term perspective. PNGChinese try to encourage a good continuing relationship between themselves and others in trade transactions by giving gifts and their time easily. In dealing with the Papua New Guinea bureaucracy, they make a point of knowing the people with whom they deal in the offices. This is just an extension of the trade store practice where everything is on a personal basis, and the trader is never anonymous. When the PNG-Chinese company directors deal with the Papua New Guinea bureaucracy, they are the same. They do not ignore the secretary or the office clerk. "In doing business in Papua New Guinea, whether with the government or any other office, you must work from the bottom. When you have a solid base, when these people know you and understand what you are trying to achieve, then you have these people present your

282

petition to the top. In this way, your idea will easily be approved. You must know the person at the top as well, but in Papua New Guinea to approach only the top person is lethal because the people underneath can so easily stage a passive resistance to your petition and ignore it." (Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1987) PNG-Chinese note that in other countries, the top person usually runs an office, but in Papua New Guinea, the top person often follows the lead of those who work under them. 7 If an applicant is arrogant, the Melanesian office workers will give them passive resistance. Several PNG-Chinese traders admitted that perhaps they understood this system because they reacted in the same way: if a person is arrogant to them or to people who work under them, they just ignore that person. As one businessman said, 'You shouldn't try to present yourself as a Big Man until you've earned it.' (Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1987)

In his statement this businessman is expressing clearly a PNG-Chinese attitude towards status and power. Power, like status. is based on the respect of others and a person with power should continually understate his influence. A person with power recognises the potential importance of everyone he or she meets. PNG-Chinese do not consider it appropriate 7. This view of executive power varies considerably from the power structure considered common in a Western organisation. For a discussion of this kind of power see Suresh, Srivastva and Associates, 1986; Mintzberg, 1983.

283

to use their influence to pressure others directly in a confrontation. In business as well as in personal life, a PNGChinese does not like to accept a favour from someone who is requesting a favour in return - if you do this from me, I will do that for you. Rather, exchanges related to trade relationships should be generalised and give face to the participants. By taking the time to know the office clerk, as well as the Minister, the trader gives that person status and the office clerk will give him status in return. Not only does the office clerk learn what the PNG-Chinese is trying to do, but the PNG-Chinese trader learns the influence, knowledge, and abilities the office clerk may have. The businessman in the previous paragraph feels, that like the Big Man, he earns his status through the support that others give him. This means that like the Big Man, his power is negotiable and will exist only as long as the community allows him that power. This the community will only do if the trader is felt to be contributing to community face. His use of power must be for the communal rather than the individual good.

284

Another trader described this same concept of power as being built on interpersonal relationships, in more abstract terms as a triangle, with the two facets forming a solid base to create power:

power

/\ status earned status given

Some people are given status but that status will collapse unless they also earn status through the support of others. He prefers first of all to earn personal status and then have others give him the corresponding corporate status he deserves. In this way he knows that any power he holds has a solid base, that his influence is earned and supported by people who know him. (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987).

The ability to maintain power requires several levels of knowledge: knowledge of trade, of community principles, of gossip, of Melanesian cultures, and of the world outside Papua New Guinea. The benefit this person's knowledge gives to the community is part of the reason he is allowed to con-

285

tinue to use the power. 8 The trader with power outside the community must be extremely generous within the community to ensure that he does not become a threat to the equilibrium of the community. This means he must be generous with his time as well as with other more tangible forms of generosity. The more powerful traders of the Port Moresby community always made time\for others: to visit kin from Rabaul; to have lunch with an older PNG-Chinese on a visit from Australia; to give advice to a fledgling trader. Other PNG-Chinese realise that these powerful traders are, in reality, extremely busy and that the giving of their time is the most generous gesture they can make. Again, the vehicle for generosity is malleable whereas the concept remains consistent.

As traders, the PNG-Chinese are very aware of the value and vulnerability of power outside the community. They realise that its influence can be 'both awful and fragile, and can dominate a continent only in the end to be blown down by a whisper. To destroy it, (power) nothing more is required than to be indifferent to its threats and to prefer other goods to those which it promises. Nothing less, however is required also'. (Tawney, cited in Blau,

1964:115) To

main-

8. Concepts of power and knowledge have been much discussed elsewhere. For several lively articles on power, knowledge and ideology, see Farden, 1985. Marilyn Strathern's article in this same volume gives a fascinating analysis of the relationship of power and knowledge to concepts of personhood in three Melanesian societies. (Strathern, 1985)

286

tam power in trade, PNG-Chinese are developing strategies of negotiation which they use both within and outside the community. The advantages a skilled negotiator gains (for his or her family, of course) are only permissible as long as the profit of those advantages is shared and taken out of the context of trade. This does not, however, diminish the vitality of the desire to become skilled at trade strategy. The use of this strategy with those outside the community is clearly defined as a bid for trading advantage and power. Several PNG-Chinese traders claimed that their ideas of strategy stemmed, in part, from the writings of Sun Tzu (1963), a Chinese classical writer on tactics of war. Indeed, this is perhaps the only Chinese classic many of these traders appear to have read. 9 I will now describe some of their specific tactics of trade strategy)0

The Ne gotiating Game One businessman said, "To write about us, you must understand how we think." (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987) He was referring to the complex of concepts that guide PNG-Chinese attitudes about trade and profit. These concepts make company ideas of power and management 9. Many have not heard of Confucius. One man who became a priest claimed that as a child the Catholic nuns had told him that the Christian teachings were originally from China. His ordination was, in part, an attempt to 'find his roots'. When he discovered the truth and began reading Lao Tzu and other Chinese scholars, he resigned from the priesthood. 10. For a fascinating comparison of strategy or 'the craft of power' see Siu (1979).

287

relationships more understandable and work together to create a sophisticated knowledge and practice of trade negotiation. Like the traditional trade store knowledge, this more sophisticated knowledge is shared by all the major PNGChinese businesses and the process of teaching these new principles to inexperienced PNG-Chinese is obvious within the community. In the evenings, experienced large-scale traders share their knowledge with those new to these businesses, by telling stories and explaining daily events. During the day and in the evenings, the traders are generous with direct advice. In this way, they contradict the overt competition between companies. Their principles of the importance of communal knowledge and a united identity remain uncharged, but the model for trade practice is quite different from the traditional attitudes in Rabaul. It appears that their ideology of self and community has remained consistent, while their ideology of trade is modified. This new trade ideology is concrete in action but becomes esoteric when described. One principle that guides this ideology is the attitude that business is a game. Trade is a game and is closely related to face. One trader can try to manipulate the cash flow or market share of a friend or relative as much as he or she likes, but he or she must never stab that person in the back or make them lose face. As one trader said, "Face is the most vital aspect of trade. At the bottom line you are trading egos and you can completely screw someone, but if you leave their face intact

288

you will not make a real enemy." (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987) Many traders become captivated by the game of trade partly because it is one of the very few acceptable ways they can achieve personal recognition. The ultimate aim is for the family concern, but the ability of a trader, in negotiation or in corporate strategy, is personal) 1 This is where ego stands directly against ego. Two people, possibly friends and certainly relatives, who are negotiating with each other are completely reliant upon themselves and their personal skill. Through the game in trade, people can vent personal expression. The stakes are high, the potential risk great, and the immediacy of strategy contains the same excitement as a gambling game. Good players are respected, and sometimes feared for their skill and luck. A very good player understands the distinction between ego and face so well , that he or she can outmanoeuvre a competitor in trade and, at the same time, give him added face. 12 A clear distinction is made here between what could be called the moral economics of the community and the personal ethics of the player of the business game. 11. Much has been written on concepts and practice of negotiation in business and society. For a sample of the more popular literature of styles of negotiation ('this book will benefit you') see Ilich, 1973 and Maital and Maital, 1984. A sample of more serious studies include Guiliver, 1979; Raiffa, 1982; Strauss, 1978. 12. Starting with Goffman (1967), Western writers on human interaction have begun to use a modified version of the concept of face to describe certain strategies of interactive play. This use of face includes various kinds of insecurity and other features that make it quite different from the PNG-Chinese concept of face. For another interesting discussion of Western 'face' in business interaction, see Brown (1977).

289

The economic system of the community as a whole is ruled by a morality embodied in face, a morality where all actions must be for the ultimate good of the family and community. Within that construct, each trader will have a personal ethic, different ideas about how best he or she can increase family status and wealth. This allows people to act as individuals within a family company. Members within a family firm will also play against each other for personal power and to enjoy themselves. Within the company, some relatives who control various subsidiaries may ring each other up just to check whose subsidiary is making the most money. The money goes back into the company of course, but the competition is just who is the more skilled trader or is graced with the better luck that month.

By making trade a game, PNG-Chinese can allow themselves to have fun while they work. Humour is intrinsic to almost every PNG-Chinese conversation. Any statement can be, and usually is, twisted into a joke or a tease. Business is the same: at its base it is a serious matter for the family, but the actual day-to-day living of it is a game that allows humour and simple fun to distance each person from this serious core. Even business ideas or opportunities are the basis for a joke. One trader got sick of seeing the red slime of betlenut juice making the inside of rubbish tins filthy, so he decided to see if the city wanted to buy rubbish bags. He could get them cheap because a friend was

290

shipping a million bags to New Zealand and he could just tag on the order. But the timing had to be just right and the city delayed, so he dropped the idea. The trade would have made h.is family money, but more, he was having fun planning the trade and could have improved the cleanliness of Port Moresby in the bargain. (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987) The game allows each person to use individual wit to make each day more exciting. The similarities between this game of trade and that of the gambling table are not completely superficial. In many ways the trader is a gambler, staking his or her knowledge and abilities against another's skill and luck. And like a gamble, the game of trade is vital, it makes the players alive to the intensity of the moment where often a person's reputation, the highest stake of all, is on the line. Trade for these PNG-Chinese is more than occupation, it is a way of enjoying themselves. One simple reason why they are good traders in Papua New Guinea is because work and pleasure become fused in the excitement of trade.

Several PNG-Chinese traders compared trade to a chess game. The game of trade, like chess, has standard moves and standard responses. 13 Skilled players can attempt a very complex 13. Although PNG-Chinese use the chess game as an analogy for trade strategy, they do not imply the premise of Harold Garfinkel that all action can be reduceable to a limited set of rules and practices. The PNG-Chinese work on the premise that trade rules and practices can be used as strategy to formulate reality, but that they are merely tools for the trader's mind and negotiating ability. For further discussion of this topic see Goffman (1967:5) and Schutz (1962).

291

strategy, while less skilled players satisfy themselves with a more simple game. In trade strategy, PNG-Chinese have a clear idea about what qualities make a skilled player. A good player must have the ability to visualise the entire board before he or she understands the significance of a move. Then the player can manipulate for strategic position in his own overall plan. A good player in trade knows the importance of being prepared to meet any opportunity and gaining an advantage in any discussion. This applies to every aspect of life that affects the family concern, and since the family is the reason for business to begin with, this excludes very little. If any kind of opportunity comes up, PNG-Chinese traders will send someone out to discover whatever they can about it. When a trader wants a bank loan, he or she needs to know if the bank has had a bad year or a good year and why. If a bad year was caused by borrowers letting the bank manager down, 'then you have to be careful'. Every bank in Papua New Guinea has a lending limit and if the trader wants to borrow over that limit, say KlOO,000, the bank has to get permission from their head office either in Papua New Guinea, Australia, or Asia. "You should find out where they get permission. If (the bank has) had a bad year and has to ask permission, unless your deal is a dead sure thing, then the head branch will likely refuse the loan" (Interview data, Port Moresby, July 1987) This kind of information tells the PNG-Chinese trader which bank to chcse and what kind of indicators he or she wants to

292

give the manager. Likewise, "If a person comes to buy from you, find out why they want the goods. This will tell you how much you can demand" (Interview data, Port Moresby, March 1987). One Australian company ordered goods from an Asian-Chinese manufacturer and the goods were not ready in time. So the company had to go to a PNG-Chinese manufacturer to re-order the goods. The PNG-Chinese trader found out why they wanted the goods - the background - and charged what he knew he could get. "I charged them extra because of course they should have come to us first". (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987) At short notice, the PNG-Chinese manufacturer delivered the goods on time.

This emphasis on researching the background of a situation not only protects PNG-Chinese against making incorrect assumptions, but also gives them a clearer idea of what others may want of them. Since trading does not stop at the doors of a shop, PNG-Chinese traders learn as much about social interactions as they do about business ones. Even a fieldworker does not escape notice. When I came to Port Moresby, a PNG-Chinese trader I knew in Rabaul suggested I look up a relative when I arrived in Port Moresby. I did that and the relative was pleasant but not overtly friendly. The next time I met this relative however, she was warmer and seemed to know a great deal about me. She later told me that she had made several enquiries about me until she decided I was no threat to her family or their company.

293

Then she decided she could be friendly to me or ignore me as she individually chose. This same principle applies to every situation from applying for bank loan to finding the background to a chance piece of gossip.

PNG-Chinese are traders and they realise that one of their most valuable assets in any trade is having more information than their competitor and knowing what others want from them. 14 Such information helps them know how people think. Only when the trader understands how others think, will he or she know what they want. The basic premise of trade is learning what people want and people's motives for wanting what they do. Then the trader knows exactly what others value. Once traders know that, they hold in their hand the choice of what kind of offer they would like to make.

Part of this knowledge comes from a trader's ability to listen to what people say and analyse it. A good trader should be articulate, but rather than speaking, he or she tries to learn the motives behind what another person says. A trader assumes that everyone speaks for a reason. If one company wishes to sell a property to another, they could have

14. In the Western corporate firm, information is seen as decreasing uncertainty. '"Intelligence" is information which has been accumulated and processed by an enterprise. The intelligence possessed by an enterprise determines the degree of 'uncertainty' it faces in its environment ... A perceived lack of intelligence results in uncertainty in decisionmaking, while a perceived abundance, in greater apparent predictability.' (Scott and Griff, 1984:20).

294

several reasons for wishing to sell. They could wish to increase their own company's liquidity; they could be trying to change their company's balance between cash flow and fixed assets. They could be trying to protect themselves against a competitor by tying up enough of their competitor's capital to make that competitor more vulnerable. The list of such business motives is endless. A good negotiator will know these motives and use his or her knowledge to parry and direct the conversation. A skilled trader also knows other more personal motives behind a conversation. If they can understand those various motives, the meaning of a conversation becomes clear. This is much more important than the actual words a person speaks. Traders who speak too much themselves inevitably reveal their own motives and give the competitor dangerous insights about their own weaknesses. A good negotiator can often establish his own power through well timed silence. A qualitative balance between silence and sound will create a tension of

continuity as

tangible as a string. This ten-

sion, if well managed, can maintain the negotiator's control of the

conversation. It

is the motion of this symbolic

string that allows the negotiator to make the moves in the direction he or she wishes. The motion must be smooth, calculated to flow like a sign wave. If the negotiator makes a false move, he can begin to roll, to tumble in an uncontrolled motion that can, unless balance is regained, destroy the entire position he or she has previously created.

295

(Interview date, Port Moresby, May 1987) Another reason not to speak is because the trader can reveal himself as an expert in the discussion and this will dampen the other person's inclination to talk; people are less likely to expose themselves to an expert. When this happens, the trader loses a valuable opportunity to learn information.

In business as in daily life, PNG-Chinese do not often tell another person anything directly, rather they make suggestions and the person they are speaking to should just pick up these suggestions. These suggestions are often subtle, but PNG-Chinese do not expect them to be missed. To state something too directly is coarse, overbearing, and allows less movement between speakers. This kind of interchange could be compared to bidding in a bridge game when every bid carries several levels of meaning. A good player can make a bid or counter-bid that gives his partner information, yet allows that partner room to change their bid. They give the partner the choice, to try for more information, or just keep the information for later use. PNG-Chinese who are skilled traders have developed this use of suggestion to an art, but all PNG-Chinese traders understand how suggestion works. This extensive use of suggestion makes for subtle and powerful negotiators, but also creates difficulties when an Asian or European employee wants to be given a direct order and cannot understand what a suggestion means. PNGChinese realise this can be a problem, but many will still

296

refuse to give direct orders to management employees. To do so would be impolite and go against a strong sense that conversations should be carried on with a degree of finesse. In conversation, PNG-Chinese often tell another person what they think that person wants to hear, not what they think the person should be hearing. This is a politeness to protect the face of everyone and is more important than a factual 'truth'. Meaning comes through the sub-surface channels of suggestion.

The use of suggestion is also a

consideration. PNG-Chinese try to be sensitive that everyone has pressures and problems beyond the obvious; "You can't see them at first, but just scratch beneath the surface and there are the problems teeming away". (Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1987) suggestion allows people room to react as best fits with the other considerations they have to make, while direct statements can force them either to compromise their position or embarrass themselves by bringing their own problems into the open.

Through frequent use of suggestion in conversation, PNGChinese also learn to be aware of its use by others. Within or outside business, a trader should look for that which is not obvious. In a conversation, or on a contract, what is not said is as vital as what is said. To the untrained however, indicators of importance will remain invisible and a good business eye is a trained one. For example, a company receives a contract which reads, 'We are delighted to

297

be able to offer the services you require. We have received the papers from your agent and we can build your doghouse for K2000.' Because this contract does not give the exact identification of the papers rece"ed from the agent, the contractors can, halfway through the project, raise their price on the excuse that they never received specifications for the door. On a contract, as in conversation, the nonspecific phrases are a trap that can later be used to manipulate the intended meaning. The idea is to look beyond the specific, focusing on the meaning of an omission. Such analysis comes only with practice and training. A trader trains himself to look for a motive rather than any overt statement. "You should watch for certain signs in the conversation." For example, one PNG-Chinese trader rings up the bank manager, just to chat and see how business is going. If the manager says that business is good, then the trader knows it is not a good time to borrow money because the manager has just indicated that others are asking for loans and he is giving out loans already. If the manager says business is not going too well, then the trader knows he has plenty of money to lend. The same principle applies to buying stock. "If someone says their business is bad, you know they have a storehouse full of stock. You would never be so obvious as to ask these questions directly." (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987) This information, coupled with other background information the trader probably knows, gives him or her an indication of how low an of-

298

fer they can make without insulting the seller.

Some Port Moresby PNG-Chinese described their non-specific ideology of trade in more symbolic terms, but all agreed that recognition of subtle meaning comes with experience. Company directors all gave similar presentations of what they looked for. One said she looked for spaces between words, another that he looked for roads between the obvious. He said a trader must learn to recognise these roads and then decide continually which road to take. Throughout a negotiation, the most advantageous road will be defined not by the direct conversation of the competitor, but by other markings that work off angles in the conversation. Two businessmen described business negotiation in terms of fishing. One of them said, "Business is like fishing. If you want the fish, you must go after them. You cannot wait for the fish to come to you. You must do research, find out where the fish are, then go and find them. ... A 'fisherman", this businessman continued, "may know that the best place to find fish is a reef, but first he must find that reef. A good seaman travels through the ocean along a set course, known not by actual markings on the water, but by the course's relation to such outside influences as mountains or islands. It is the angles off these influences that mark the course, not a physical crease in the water itself. By these signs, a good 'fisherman' will find the reef the size of a room".

(Interview data, Port Moresby. June

299

1987) In business, as in fishing, a negotiator must know the lay of the water, how the angles fit together, and watch for the various signs as they present themselves. A negotiator's skill comes in learning to manipulate these sub-surface aspects of conversation. This skill will often make the difference between a person the community respects and one they regard as a friendly 'inauswara' (mouth-water, ie, one of inconsequential speech).

The Use of Ruirrour The extensive use of symbolic suggestion makes rumour a valuable tool when planning business moves. Rumour comes in two major forms. One trader defined these as gossip and controversy. Gossip passes the time; it is the allowable public conversation between friends and relations who are business competitors. Gossip flows around the community in a single wave and moves through people's mouths daily. Controversy however takes a life of its own. Traders will sometimes deliberately direct it, but the subject of controversy always becomes amplified. This tendency increases its power. Controversy is rumour that can be used to make people who have power in the community indirectly lose face. It is a release for resentment and envy and allows people with less power in the community to equalise themselves with those who have more power. A clear understanding of the influence of gossip and controversy is vital to a good negotiator.

Controversy is dangerous for the stability of a

300

company because other families can use it to devalue a company's face. Loss of face damages a family's ability to expect the respect of others. "You (a trader) walk on eggshells, a minefield between gossip and controversy." (Interview data, Port Moresby, April 1987) An

influential

company generally has one or more 'tall poppies' who act as a public negotiator for the company (although company decisions are often made by some form of consensus in reality). If a member of the company becomes an object of controversy among the community, that person can and will be used to discredit the company's 'tall poppy'. Every company is seeking an advantage over the others, and such a person offers an easy opportunity. In order to maintain position, the company members must draw around the person who causes the controversy, both protecting him from external criticism and simultaneously devaluing his importance within the company. In this way, community pressure becomes a powerful manipulative tool for corporate strategy.

An ability to manipulate rumour into controversy allows a company to use its competitor's strengths and weaknesses to personal advantage. This is one reason the flexible boundary between public and private takes such prominence. The skilled trader will know to whom in the community he or she can leak information with an assurance that it will travel to their competitor in the form of gossip before a planned meeting. Certain people in the community fill this vital

301

role. They become popular for discussions others want public, but are seldom privy to private information. For this reason they become good social acquaintances but cannot generally become intimate friends of people with power. The overt privacy of such leaked information gives the trader an advantage for he or she can now use their own apparent ignorance to elicit information he or she might not otherwise obtain. A favourite trick of the good negotiator is to leak misleading information about his company, for example to give a false impression of financial vulnerability, or about others. The trader's hope is that the competitor will make assumptions from this false information and give away valuable hints of his bottom line through an illadvised statement.15

The influence of rumour makes any conversation have possible political overtones. At the company level, PNG-Chinese become extremely sensitive to how others could use any public action to create controversy. This means that within the community few people make public individual alliances because of their potential danger. The 'tall poppies' are open game for the rest of the community and a person who allies themselves openly with a 'tall poppy' becomes a channel through which others can reach poppies with power. Each person of influence tries to maintain as large a power base 15. Goffman (1967) describes this kind of strategy as deliberately 'misframing' a negotiation interaction.

302

as possible with many connections in areas of business and government. These connections are only useful however as long as they are loosely defined. A clear alliance is exclusive because it implies that the people who are allied will look after each other's interests at the expense of others. This goes against the concept of the expanded self and also destroys a power base. If PNG-Chinese traders know that another trader has connections with everyone, they will not damage him in business because they run the risk of insulting a close relative. "If I insult (a non-PNG-Chinese person with a wide assocation), I also insult (a close relative) and for that I would have to think seriously. We don't insult our own." (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987) Traders who ally themselves too openly with another company (particularly a non-PNG-Chinese company) besides their own become unprotected pawns and as pawns are dangerous both to their own company and to their allied company. This is because other PNG-Chinese traders can use weaknesses in this alliance, if they need to, as a weapon against either company. Other traders would not trust either allied group because they would be afraid that whatever they said to one would go to the other and once privacy is compromised, a discussion is only useful when a trader wants overtly private information to move along subtle channels.

Any person in an open alliance becomes

esentially a spy.

303

Styles of negotiation vary between companies and between individuals. Some companies prefer to have someone who is not a top manager negotiate for them. This "leaves you a back door" from which to escape any decision. It gives the company another layer of protection between themselves and the other company and gives the company the ability to consider two views of a situation, one presented by the negotiator and the other a more removed and objective view of the top company manager. 16 Other PNG-Chinese traders say they would never let someone else negotiate for them because they prefer to control a situation completely themselves. Part of such control is a control of timing. PNG-Chinese say that in trade and in life "timing is everything. You cannot push something. If an event is not happening at the proper time ... then you do not push." (Interview data, Port Moresby, 1987) Some Asian-Chinese find this non-agressive sense of timing disturbing. "(The PNG-Chinese) here (in Papua New Guinea) deal on a different time sense, they nibble, go away, nibble, take time. I like a decision fast." (Interview data, Port Noresby, Nay 1987) This Asian-Chinese man was annoyed because the PNG-Chinese held control of the timing, not himself, yet he still went to them because of their contacts, because of their knowledge, but also because of the atmosphere of success they cul-

16. Those who use a middleman or go-between could be following a mid19th century tradition from South China where all transactions of commercial property were done through go-betweens (c.f. Doolittle, 1966: 451-55)

304

tivate. PNG-Chinese know this aura of success attracts business. "It is like the gambler who has all the people betting behind him while he is winning. These people will not go to someone who is not successful, or who they feel will not be a success for them. Even in athletics, in squash say, you must not think while you are playing, that you will lose or your shot will be weak. Business is the same." (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987) A trader with power knows the game he plays. He also knows that he can only continue to stand as long as the other poppies protect him from the wind, as long as the soil beneath continues to support him. 'Power is nothing without a community to give a reason for being.' (Interview data, Port Moresby, June 1987)

Summary The transition of the PNG-Chinese as small-time traders in a market-style economy of Rabaul to corporate traders working from Port Moresby has had a decided impact on their practice of trade. The potential for inequality and power conflicts increases as the firm becomes larger. Similarly, the tensions between competing PNG-Chinese companies could disrupt the community cohesion. To cope with these problems, PNGChinese have modified aspects of their trade store habitus. The concept of 'envy', used against people who have allowed personal desire to take precedence over the community good, has emerged as a policing agent to keep traders from stray-

305

ing from community values. The concept of friendship has taken an increased prominence amongst traders as a way of balancing competitive trading practices. Friendships with Nelanesians have taken on a completely new meaning from those of the traditional trade store. The increasing sophistication of both the PNG-Chinese traders and the elite Nelanesians, combined with their shared cultural background, has allowed a relationship between equals who share many similar values.

Notions of power and its use have become more concrete for PNG-Chinese traders as individuals have begun to acquire more power in the larger society of Papua New Guinea. Similarly, concepts of negotiation and business practice have developed to accommodate the demands of corporate trade. The PNG-Chinese are evolving a style and ideology of this practice that is basically consistent with their original trade store ideology but is, at the same time, more sophisticated and multi-faceted. The eventual effect of changed trading practices are not yet clear and even the PNG-Chinese are hesitant to speculate about future values in the community.

306

CON CLUS IONS

This thesis was a co-operative venture between myself and the PNG-Chinese. As a part of the process of writing the thesis, I sent several letters and chapters to various inembers of the PNG-Chinese community. The letters I have received in reply contain comments about the chapters, but they also contain news. These letters show that already the trading practices of the community which I felt I had begun to understand a year ago, have changed. The work of Cahill, Wu and Inglis reveal how radically the community has changed in the last 15 years and I suspect the change will be even more radical in the next 15 years. A large influence on this change is a recent influx of Asian-Chinese. The possibility is that the society as I describe it, will not exist much longer, although I think the community will, in some form, stay closely united.

The PNG-Chinese, as business people, share similarities with other overseas Chinese. As traders and in the market they share similarities with Melanesians, particularly the Tolai. In their concepts of friendship and 'fair play' they share similarities with Australian culture, yet despite these similarities they have also developed values and a habitus that is unique to themselves. It has not been the scope of this thesis to determine what combination of influences, internal and external to the community, have created this

307

habitus, but to explore it in some depth. In doing so it has confronted some major issues in anthropological thought. I shall explore some of these as they have appeared in the preceding chapters.

The first chapter gave an intimate view of the trade store. The ethnography of the building, the interior design, the placing of the stock and the kind of stock each trade store contains laid the groundwork for an understanding of the kind of knowledge traders have behind their trading practice. This knowledge is communal, held jointly by almost all adults and each person expects other adults to have this knowledge. A crucial aspect of this knowledge is the value of continuity in interactions with customers and staff and a knowledge of Melanesian cultures. This chapter provides an ethnographic base for the discussions of generosity and face that follows it.

The PNG-Chinese traders are kin, and in many of their trade store practices they resemble more a Pacific market than a group of overseas Chinese business people: they set prices by consensus rather than competition; they consider the social transactions of trade a vital aspect of any exchange, whether it involves cash or not; women are major traders; and, despite the fact that all the trade stores are theoretically 'independent' businesses, the strong connections between traders, both as kin and for other more syin-

308

bolic reasons relating to identity, they work together as a community, like a market in a sense, offering their goods from a centralised locale. (c.f. Brookfield, 1969; Epstein, 1982) The PNG-Chinese shops in Rabaul are in clusters, while the collection of shops on Cassaurina Avenue work almost as an extension of the public market. The PNG-Chinese traders had a marked influence on the development of the Rabaul market (c.f. Salisbury, 1970:49) and the market has in turn influenced PNG-Chinese practices of trade.

Despite these similarities to a Melanesian market, the PNGChinese traders have fundamental principles that diverge from Melanesians. One particularly prominent concept is that of 'face'. In its simplest rendering, the two aspects of face among the PNG-Chinese are: a state of being based on the most fundamental and moral code of the society, without which one is not a social being; and mm: the ability to manoeuvre within this basic ethical framework. This dual concept should be clearly distinguished from the use Goffman (1967:5) employs for his analysis of interaction ritual 'where the term face may be defined as the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact. Face is an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes - albeit an image that others may share.' He uses face as a mask to be changed and coloured depending on the environment. For the PNG-Chinese, face is no mask;

309

it is the essence of personal identity and a definition for freedom.

This brings me to one aspect of the society that I knew from the beginning would be controversial: their values and practices of generosity. This concept is full of paradoxes. The community works in many ways as an extended family where sharing is a vital cohesive force which links the entire community on several levels. Yet in this sharing, often of a material object or knowledge, the use becomes public while the actual object remains, theoretically, a private possession. Even when objects are given away or eaten, it is the very fact that the object (or food, or information) was originally 'privately' owned (by a family or sometimes a person) that makes the sharing of it generous. Similarly, generosity simultaneously works to give status and to create equality within the community. Even more disturbing is that the generosity is not gift exchange, no matter how hard one tries to make it work this way, as indeed I did myself for several months in the field. Blau (1964:89) explains exactly why generosity is not exchange, for in exchange 'An individual who supplies rewarding services to another, obligates him. To discharge this obligation, the second must furnish benefits to the first (or another) in turn.' Even in the most extended sense that Firth (1967:15) explores where 'no material equivalent of any kind is rendered in return, but the giver is regarded as acquiring status or

310

merit by his act. The recipient repays by serving as an "instrument of enhancement" for the giver', the process of generosity is not gift exchange. This is because implicit in Firth's argument is that the giver gains status through outstanding debt whether this debt is repaid or even is in reality expected. The concept of the debt still exists and could, theoretically, be called in. PNG-Chinese generosity is not related to debt.

A generous person or family

receives status through the of giving and therefore requires no reciprocal gift (or service). The receiver incurs no debt. The interaction is not an exchange, rather it is a means to create a greater level of respect for a person, family and the community as a whole.

Taking this argument further, a person who is generous gives an 'essence of themselves' (in Mauss's terms regarding the giving of a gift), but rather than expecting to redeem that essence, either directly or indirectly, the generosity works as a means to give subvention for an expanded self. Mauss (1954) and Parry (1986) write about the essence of the spirit in the gift itself. In generosity the act of giving creates the essence. A good or service that is given is a vessel in which the essence of generosity can accumulate and through which the accumulated generosity can be shared throughout the community.

311

The PNG-Chinese imbue their daily lives with three separate concepts of interaction and all three can work siinultaneously. The first is the principle of generosity. This is related to face, status, community respect and identity. It is not considered trade and is in fact outside trade. The second kind of interaction is a relationship of trade and reciprocity. This kind of relationship traders tend to develop with Melanesian customers. Reciprocity is vital to Melanesian trade and the PNG-Chinese use it as a way to promote continuity in their trading relationships, as a way to keep the momentum of a trading relationship moving. Reciprocity j an integral part of trade and is inherent in PNG-Chinese practice of business in Papua New Guinea. Both of these kinds of interaction, generosity and reciprocity, tend to de-objectify commodities and cash. The third kind of interaction involves trade with people outside the PNGChinese and Melanesian populations. This would include Australian or other European and Asian business people both within and outside Papua New Guinea. PNG-Chinese prefer to maintain good personal relations with these people (and indeed will often only trade with people they have met), but they are very aware that the tension uniting these relationships is comprised of objective goods and cash. They trade with these people for monetary profit and the business practices they employ reflect this attitude. All three of these values must be considered in PNG-Chinese interaction.

312

In the second and third kinds of interaction, gift exchange is practiced. The traders give 'gifts' to customers, but they do so in the hope of reinforcing shop loyalty, that loyalty being in an abstract sense, the reciprocal 'gift'. In national and international business transactions, PNGChinese may also give presents to business associates (particularly Asian-Chinese who expect this kind of interaction). They also give hospitality. Both the presents and the hospitality act as gifts for which a return of some kind is expected: in reciprocal hospitality when the PNG-Chinese trader (or a relative) goes to Asia; in cementing important business relations; or, as a means of encouraging the business associate's patronage. It is vital to note that both of these kinds of exchange are with people outside the community. These distinctions between exchanges and generosity are clear to the PNG-Chinese and are one reason why generosity becomes a limited good, a waste of community resources, if it is extended beyond the conmiunity boundary. This boundary is very strong and works almost like a mirror, reflecting generosity from one part of the community back to the centre, keeping the generosity fluid within community walls to reinforce equality and community status. Personal generosity affects status beyond the single person because of the concept of the expanded or 'dilated' (to steal from Whitman) self within a prescribed boundary.

313

The spatial expansion of the concept of self is certainly not unique to the PNG-Chinese. The Australian Aborigines speak of their own clan as 'my body' while Hyde (1979:17) describes the process, even in Western society, of the egoof-one becoming an ego-of-two with a lover and even the existence of a group ego in relation to certain communities. Traditional Chinese philosophy allows that the men of the same lineage share a vital substance. This idea of a communal self is certainly not new. What makes it disconcerting is its appearance in an urban business society such as the PNG-Chinese. These people are not tribal huntergatherers; they live in an overtly competitive environment of commerce surrounded by affluence of not at all the 'primitive' kind. Within this society, they define themselves in relation to their community. While as traders they 'invest' in schemes for monetary profit, this profit is only a means to allow their fundamental subvention in the increased status of the enlarged self.

Some aspects of this conception of self are contradictory. While the long term manifestations of the self are defined by the community, the outward manifestation is directed by the outside world. For example, the idea of fashion is very much determined by Australian trends. Similarly obvious objects of consumption that are acquired with an eye towards generosity and an improved external status for the community, such as Mercedes cars or expensive boats, are again

314

objects determined by the societies outside the PNG-Chinese community to be symbols of success. This is because these objects are acquired for the specific impression they make on non-community observers. PNG-Chinese want to be considered uniformly successful by the outside world by whatever criteria that outside world sets.

What MacFarlane writes of the mediaeval English peasant could also be applied to the PNG-Chinese, that 'the basic fact which both Marx and Weber realised, namely that it is not simply the case that the means of production - the technology and the ecology - determine social relations and ideology, but that this is a mutual interaction' (1978:193). This 'mutual interaction' means continual change. Omohundro writes about change in a Philippine Chinese community as a 'constant evolutionary motion by means of small incremental choices ... Analogous to a biological population adapting through minute adjustments in individuals, change in the merchant community comes from these small and constant network adjustments (1983:80)

As aspects of trade, reciprocity and market interaction continually enact change, transforming one condition into another. PNG-Chinese, as traders, are skilled manipulative transformers in this cycle of change. Their generosity to each other however works to keep change at bay, to cement conformity and unity as a means to retain a positive self-

315

identity. However, recent influences have brought changes in their ideology of trade that appear incompatible with their principles of community. While in Rabaul the traders have developed an ideology of trade that relates to a relatively non-competitive market system, the national and international companies in Port Moresby seem to have left many aspects of this ideology behind. Yet the principles behind that ideology remain unchanged. For example, in 1988 a leading PNG-Chinese trader in Port Moresby was awarded a title by the Papua New Guinea government for his contributions to the country. He has also recently built a successful shopping arcade in Boroko. Many of the shops in the arcade are operated by PNG-Chinese. The resulting increase in personal prestige and wealth has placed this man in a position of potential inequality with the rest of the community. In the past this man has been very generous to members of the community, with money to support projects and help for people with visa problems. Such generosity from him has been expected by the rest of the community: when I once commented on the man's generosity, a trader replied 'I should hope so'. The trader's increasing status will require even greater generosity to maintain a personal equality with the community and to maintain his family face. He has reacted by building onto his house, already an architectural landmark in Port Moresby, a hugh 'entertainment deck' that will be used by PNG-Chinese for communal parties, etc. Although the deck remains a 'private' possession, its use will

316

become 'public' within the community. How can such principles of generosity and community remain relatively unchanged in a changing ideology? I shall try to explain.

Rabaul has provided a relatively unmediated situation for the development of a trading ideology. The trade practice grew in situ over a common history of some 80 years. Rabaul PNG-Chinese bear the impress of this common history, a continuum where the same families have been involved for many years in basically the same occupations: as the product of a favourable environment; as growing co-existent and alongside the development of the Rabaul local market. Port Noresby has evolved as a situation that requires in trading practice a more mediated expression of community principles. While the trade practice emanating from the PNG-Chinese of Port Moresby is on several levels connected to their practice in Rabaul because of the traders' commitment to the community, the Port Moresby practice is, on other levels, anachronistic. The mediating filter in Rabaul is weaker than is necessary in Port Moresby.

In many ways, China was to the early Rabaul community as Rabaul is to the Port Moresby community. The connection between Rabaul and Port Moresby is stronger than the original connection with China because the Port Moresby group is still engaged in essentially the same occupation as their kin in Rabaul, while the original immigrants to Rabaul

317

quickly abandoned earlier occupations for trade. However, the similarities between the two migrations remain, in a uniting bond of kinship, history, community, identity and language. Rabaul, as mentioned earlier, is even explicitly described as an 'ancestral village' by PNG-Chinese. The new environment of Port Moresby requires a mediated expression of practical schemes and innovations in trading ideology, but the fundamental community principles remain valid because of the common occupation and mutual interdependence of the community.

One major change the PNG-Chinese will not be able to keep at bay long is the recent influx of 'new' Asian-Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. For individuals, Papua New Guinea offers opportunities the AsianChinese may not find in Asia.

Large Asian companies also

find Papua New Guinea attractive for investment. The economy of Singapore is not as strong as it was a few years ago and investors are looking for new grounds for investment. In Hong Kong the impending Chinese takeover has also encouraged people to invest elsewhere. Malaysia has a high level of poverty and Papua New Guinea offers opportunity to those Malaysians who would otherwise have no chance for expansion. As one Malaysian-Chinese involved with the timber industry said, 'Malaysia gives opportunities and education only to the elite. Papua New Guinea is better ... Here I have a chance... '.

Such Asian companies are going into

318

timber, car sales, and supermarkets, while individuals are starting up shops, wholesale outlets, and service stations. The 'new' Asian-Chinese are providing stiff competition for the PNG-Chinese. The large companies have financial backing not available to the PNG-Chinese and the individuals are willing to work on a lower profit margin. Over the years, PNG-Chinese have become more Melanesian in their business practice. They feel comfortable with the Papua New Guinea lifestyle and have acquired attitudes that balance desire for financial gain with involvement in sports or other recreation with friends. The 'new' Asian-Chinese are coining with a strong profit motive; they are bringing new sharp and sophisticated business practices and new values from Asia. Many PNG-Chinese have neither the aptitude nor the desire to compete.

The kinds of business and the kind of family involvement varies considerably between the 'new' Asian-Chinese investors. At one extreme are those like an Indonesian-Chinese man who came to Papua New Guinea in 1973. He married an Indonesian-Chinese classmate who speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Indonesian. They began a small wholesale shop and because of their language ability and contacts, were able to order direct from Hong Kong and Singapore instead of using agents. The exodus of PNG-Chinese at Independence opened the avenues for expansion and they have now diversified into a fast food shop, a knitting factory, a block of

319

flats, an export-manufacturing company and interests in Taiwan. The original couple have now brought over several classmates and relatives who help them in business.

Another kind of 'new' Chinese are the men and women who come to jobs in a branch office of a parent company in Asia. One such man came with his family in 1985. The company sell cars, an industry that does not infringe upon the PNGChinese traditional trade interests. The family enjoys Papua New Guinea and the sports and both the man and his wife are well liked in the Port Noresby area. The parent company hopes to expand extensively in Papua New Guinea and although it will hire Singapore Chinese as managers, this is not a family company. Another example of an Asian-Chinese individual being sent to Papua New Guinea as manager of one section of a parent company is one Singapore-Chinese man who took over a large grocery store, working as manager for a large Singapore investment company. This man says he understands the PNG-Chinese community, that in business they are almost the same as the companies of Singapore 25 years ago. Further, he states that although he can train Melanesians to be useful employees, they need better education. He suggested that the schools and university should concentrate on educating a few people well, rather than trying to educate a mass of people inadequately.

320

Such attitudes bring him in conflict with PNG-Chinese who regard his dealings with them as condescending. As one PNGChinese trader said, "What he calls 'backward' is just dif ferent. We aren't like Singapore and we don't want to be." The Singapore businessman's attitude towards Melanesians, the PNG-Chinese consider elitist. One PNG-Chinese trader who deals with the Singapore Chinese man's company often, noted that the Singapore ideal would create a rigid class system where only a few Melanesians had access to education and power. This trader, and others who had dealt with this Singaporian, resented him and his company because of his competition, his formal business style and the cultural differences he imposed on his trade transactions.

This Singapore businessman's attitude towards the PNGChinese is echoed in the statements of a Chinese-Malaysian representative of a major company who wished to distribute their product in Papua New Guinea and open a factory in Lae. This man described the PNG-Chinese as "backward", but "although they are not too bright, they are not taken easily for a ride". He sees one problem of the PNG-Chinese as the degenerate influence from Australia, "Australia is a Third World country anyway. They have almost no added value to their products", meaning that they rely heavily on primary industry. "In cultural development (the Australians) are also a Third World country ... The Chinese here (in Papua New Guinea) have not had the advantage of the refinement of

321

an Asian culture because they have been so isolated." He further sees the 'new' Asian-Chinese influence as central to Papua New Guinea's future economy. "The Malaysian and Asian Chinese are interested in Papua New Guinea and if the restrictions are lifted, they will definitely be the new economic force here (in Papua New Guinea). They will take over most businesses here ... The only thing stopping a large Malaysian influx right now is the government restrictions. But we can easily get around NIDA and any of the other (government) bodies because everyone has a price and the Malaysians will provide it. The trading sector will be more interesting than, say, timber. Timber has the problem of having to cross custom lands where each local group must be considered and paid royalties. This is compared to Indonesia where the entire industry is controlled centrally and you can just go in and cut. So trading, if it were opened up a little, would be the market to move into." (Interview data, Port Moresby, July 1987)

In 1988 and 1989, the Indonesian-Chinese company has bought all of the major Port Moresby and Lae property of a large PNG-Chinese company. A new Malaysian bank has also been established. This company used a PNG-Chinese trader from Rabaul to assist them in developing contacts in business and government, but, at the end of the first year, they cut him from their company. The PNG-Chinese trader, who operates a trade store in Rabaul, signed no contract papers. Other

322

PNG-Chinese traders are now calling his actions 'stupid' and a 'betrayal'. The PNG-Chinese are nervous about the political drive of the Malaysian-Chinese particularly.

The new immigrants from Asia say they are bringing in foreign capital and creating jobs for Melanesians. They state that much of the capital they invest will remain in Papua New Guinea and Asian influence can only help to hasten the overall development of Papua New Guinea into a competitive sophisticated country.

These Asian-Chinese immigrants, as well as other new unmigrants, come with different values and methods of conducting business. Recent Asian-Chinese immigrants have particular difficulty with the Papua New Guinea bureaucracy because 'there is no sense of urgency' (Interview data, Port Moresby, May 1987) and they find it impossible to get anything done. They cannot control the stealing by their Melanesian employees, the Melanesians continually get 'sick' or just disappear for months at a time. The PNG-Chinese are, in general, unco-operative in business and unfriendly in social life. Asian-Chinese are learning however, that traditional Chinese values of gifts in business practice and the use of cash gifts for smoothing government bureaucracy are proving increasingly effective. PNG-Chinese see these cash gifts as bribes.

323

Melanesian cultural emphasis on exchange and strong links between wealth and status make this use of cash gifts slide easily into the Papua New Guinea political and public service- system. These new immigrants do not understand Melanesian culture or local bureaucracy. One businessman from Singapore said 'Up to a year ago, I knew nothing of Papua New Guinea' (Interview data, Port Moresby, March 1987). However, they are learning quickly how to use Melanesian values effectively.

Their investment in Papua

New Guinea is directly related to monetary profit. Some have backed politicians or government officials for the benefit of business gain. Such action is causing conflict among Melanesians on all levels of government and business. PNG-Chinese fear that Melanesians will soon make no distinction between PNG-Chinese and the 'new' Chinese arrivals, crediting PNG-Chinese with the same trading and moral values the Asian-Chinese use.

One PNG-Chinese trader wrote with some bitterness 'What seems to be an unforgivable introduction of Asian Chinese influence is the smell and ever-present and growing corru p -tionfhepublcsrviandpoltcsbyagroupwh seem to have no concrete ties with the country. They sow, and reap the harvest in 3-5 years and depart, leaving the Papua New Guinea (political) parties and citizens with empty shells of businesses and mounting debts.' (Personal Communication, January 1989). The implications of his comments

324

are vast. PNG-Chinese conversation and writing is like the writing of Ibsen in that it always has a sub-text, an undercurrent of meaning that flows through action and word. The sub-text here relates to the kinds of changes the PNGChinese will make and the kinds of changes they expect in the Papua New Guinea government and urban society. This change will affect every word this thesis contains.

325

APPENDIX A

An example of an actual negotiation is impossible because so much,. is reliant upon silence or small glances or movements of the hand. However, I will try to illustrate the complexity of a negotiation by giving at least some of the information both negotiators would have in a single discussion.

The Negotiation John (not his real name) is making an offer to Gary Lee on a shop and adjoining flat owned by the Lee family company. The stated offer is k400,000.

Relevant Backg round Information 1.

The relationship: Gary Lee's father (Hakka Methodist)

is the brother of John's sister's husband. John (Sze Yap Methodist) is thus considered an uncle of Gary.

2.

Ownership of Lee family company: The shop is one

property of a large company (by PNG-Chinese standards, worth in assets about k7 million) that was formed in 1962 when Gary's father and Gary's father's brother (ie, John's brother-in-law) joined a percentage of their assets to create a company for their children. As the eldest of the children, Gary was named official director, but the company shares were divided equally among Gary, his younger brother

326

Harold, and his four cousins (children of John's sister and brother-in-law) Larry, Matthew, Cary and Jane.

Oual-i•fications and Personal Qualities of the Characters Gary - age 38, BSc in commerce, is known in the PNG-Chinese community to be aggressive in business (his nickname is 'Shark'), is considered brilliant, is generally disliked because of various insults he has given people over the years and because he once hired two Melanesians to beat up his wife's lover (an Asian-Chinese). This second act deeply embarrassed the entire community. He has a house in Port Moresby, but spends most of the year in Brisbane. Conununity rumour holds that he very much wants to live in Papua New Guinea, but is afraid of community censure. He is known to admire his uncle John greatly, but is also very competitive with him. He is married to a Taiwanese woman and has four children, the eldest of whom (a girl) is engaged to a PNGChinese boy from Rabaul.

John: aged 56, had a Papua New Guinea high school education, has interests in many companies, and his family is one of the wealthiest of the PNG-Chinese. He is extremely generous and has helped many PNG-Chinese begin their companies. He has served on many government boards and is influential in the general Papua New Guinea urban community. PNG-Chinese community rumour holds that he is deeply upset by Gary's competitive actions and wishes to improve their relation-

327

ship. The community considers him a clever businessman who is a desirable ally in any negotiation, but a dangerous opponent. His PNG-Chinese wife is general manager of their company and they have five children the eldest of whom (a boy) is engaged to a PNG-Chinese girl whose family moved to Sydney at Independence. At marriage, the couple will live in Lae as managers of one branch of the family company. Both Gary's parents and John's sister (who have all retired to Brisbane) have asked John to look after their children's interests.

Larry: aged 32, MA in commerce and law, is currently general manager of Papua New Guinea assets of the Lee company. The community speaks of him as a bright, gentle and generous man whose largest burden is working with his cousin Gary. He plays the piano well and enjoys classical music, and for this reason is considered to be a bit of a scholar. He is single, but John and his wife want him to marry their daughter.

Matthew: aged 30, BSc in accounting, is, with his wife, submanager under Larry of the company's Lae assets. He is considered bright, but has many interests besides business and divides his time accordingly. He and his wife are competent managers however, and generally just follow Larry's lead in all business decisions. Matthew's wife is PNG-Chinese from Lae (and closely related to John's wife) and they have two

328

small children.

Cary: aged 27, MA in marketing, is the general manager of a PortMoresby Lee company factory and works closely with Larry. The community considers him eccentric and often refer to him as a genius. He plays guitar very well and likes to drink beer which adds to his reputation as a maverick. He owns a large fishing boat with which he is very generous. Recently he has become the major negotiator for the family firm, a role which he enjoys. He is single.

The other two cousins, Jane and Harold, are not involved because Harold is managing a branch store and Jane and her husband are in Hong Kong looking after family interests there.

Other Influences Lee company is currently in direct competition with two other PNG-Chinese companies for a share in the market. One of these companies (Firm A) is known to be in severe financial difficulties and the owners are cousins of Larry etall's mother. The other firm (Firm B) is smaller, but ex-

panding rapidly. Cary is a close friend of one of its central managers. The Lee firm is considering buying out Firm A, but realises Firm B has the same idea. They wish to suggest to Firm B that they have a cash flow and liquidity problem and for this reason must sell their shop and flat.

329

They hope Firm B will become more confident of their position and offer less to Firm A, allowing the Lee company to place a higher bid easily. They also know that Firm B will, in ie next month, open a new shop in partnership with a cousin in Madang and that much of their liquid capital is tied up in this venture. This means that Firm B will be hard pressed to act on a bid for at least a month. If they can insinuate to Firm B that they will not themselves be acting on any bid for Firm A, then perhaps Firm B will relax their guard, allowing Lee company an option of moving quickly on a bid.

The shop the Lee company is offering is adjacent to Firm B's major manufacturing office and central trade store. It would thus provide an excellent space for expansion for Firm B. Firm B would not want John to buy the property because he already owns a neighbouring property together with one of the female shareholders of Firm A, on the other side of Firm B's property. Lee company does not want Firm B to buy the property because this would make their manufacturing base stronger, but it is quite willing to negotiate with Firm B in the hope of learning more about their financial position.

Problems relating to the negotiation Gary tells Larry to ask Cary to do the actual negotiating and to make a counter offer to John of k450,000. Both Larry and Cary know this price is too high and will insult John

330

who has made a reasonable bid already. Gary is putting his individual competitive feelings (by overvaluing the family property) ahead of family and community values. Larry visits the shop of a cousin who is a gossip and is very close to John and mentions to her that he is upset by the price Gary has suggested. The cousin says that she has heard that Firm B's Madang venture is running into problems. Upon further investigation, Matthew's wife in Lae discovers that the partner has to pull out because of a cash problem.

Outcome of the Negotiation The price of the shop and flat is never discussed. John agrees to invest cash in partnership with Firm B and the manufacturing arm of Lee company will begin the Madang venture with Firm B. John mentions that he will make a bid for Firm A and because of this can no longer make an offer on the shop. Cary and John spend the rest of the time discussing John's recent trip to Rabaul and a visa problem Cary is having with one of his Asian-Chinese employees.

331

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABC

Documentary broadcast 'Kivung' May 17, 1973. Other Ex p atriates: The Chinese of Papua New Guinea, a transcript.

Ahern, E.M. 1973. The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Viilage. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. Alip, E.M. 1974. The Chinese in Manila. Manila: National His. Corn. Ainarshi, Azeem, K. Good & R. Mortimer. 1979. Develo pment and De p endenc y : The Political Econom y of Pa pua New Guinea. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ardner, S. 1964. 'The Comparative Study of Rotating Credit Associations.' Man (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute) 94:201-29. Baker, H.D. 1979. Chinese Famil y Kinship . New York: Columbia University Press. Balazs, E. 1964. Chinese Civilization and Bureaucrac y . New Haven: Yale University Press. Ballard, J.A. 1981 Policy-making in a New State: Pa pua New Guinea 1972-77. St Lucia: University of Queensland. Barton, C. 1983. 'Trust and Credit: Some Observations Regarding Business Strategies of Overseas Chinese in South Vietnam' in (eds.) Liin, L.Y.0 and L.A.P. Gosling The Chinese in South East Asia. Singapore: Maruzen Asia. The Beacon 1955. The Beacon: Journal of the Rabaul Elementary A and High School, December. Berling, J.A. 1982. 'Religion and Popular Culture: The Management of Moral Capital in the Romance of the Three Teachings' in (eds.) D. Johnson, A.J. Natham, E.S.Rawski, Po pular Culture in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bettison, P.G., C.A. Hughes, P.W. van der Veer. 1965. Th Paua New Guinea Elections 1964. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Bevon, T. 1890. Toil. Travel and Discover y in British New Guinea. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. Exchange and Power in Social Life. New Blau, P.M. 1964. York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 332

Bloch, M. 1971. Placin g the Dead: Tombs. Ancestral Villages and Kinshi p Organization in Mada gascar. London: Seminar Press. Bloch, M. 1987. 'Ortner and Her Critics.' Presented for AES session, Sherry Ortner and Theory in -. Anthropology, AAA Meeting 1987. Bloch, M. & J. Parry. 1982. Death and the Re generation of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bloch, M. & J. Parry. Forthcoming. 'Introduction: Money and the Morality of Exchange' in (eds.) N. Bloch and J. Parry Money and the Morality of Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Blood, R. 1967. Love Match and Arran ged Marriage. New York: The Press. Bodde, D. 1962. China Cultural Tradition. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, Winston. Boissevain, J. 1974. Friends of Friends: Networks. Manipulators, and Coalitions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Bourdieu, P. 1972. Outline of a Theor y of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1984 (1979). Distinction: A Social Critiaue of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Brookfield, H.C. (ed.) 1969. Pacific Market Places. Canberra: Australian National University. 1972. Colonialism, Development and Independence: The Case of the Melanesian Islands in the South Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brookfield, H.C. and D. Hart. 1971. Melanesia: A Geo graphical Interp retation of an Island World. London: Methuen. Brown, B. 1977. 'Face-saving and Face-Restoration in Negotation' in (ed.) D. Druckman Ne gotiations: Social Ps y cholo g ical Pers p ectives. London: Serge Publications. Bruce, J.H. and J.M. Dawd. 1978. Australian Com pany Accounting . Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons. Cahill, P. 1971. The Chinese in Rabaul. 1942-45. Unpublished BA (Hons) thesis. University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby.

333

Cahill, P. 1972. The Chinese in Rabaul, 1914-1960. Unpublished MA thesis. University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby. 1973. Chinese Free Settlers in the Bismarck Archipelago. Unpublished manuscript, Port Moresby. Carey, D. 1969. 'Chinese Club is a Dream Come True'. PostCourier, 9 October. Cathay Club Inc. n.d. The First Decade 1970-1980, Unpublished manuscript. Chao, P. 1983. Chinese Kinshi p . London: Kegan Paul International. Chin, J.M. 1981. The Sarawak Chinese. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press. Conroy, J.D. 1982. Essa ys on the Develo pment Experience in Papua New Guinea. Boroko, Papua New Guinea: Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research. Coppenrath, G. 1967. Les Chinois de Tahiti: de l'aversion a l'assimilation, 1865-1966. Societe des Oceanistes, Vol.21. Paris: Musee de l'homme. Coughlin, R.J. 1960. Double Identit y : The Chinese in Modern Thailand. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Creissman, L., G. Beattle, J. Selby. 1985. 'The Segmentation and Integration of the Chinese in Brisbane', Aust. J. Com.Fam. Studies. Vol.XVI, No.2. Dalton, G. 1967. Tribal Peasant Economies: Readin g s in Economic Anthropology. New York: Natural History Press. Davis, W. 1973. Social Relations in a Phili pp ine Market: Self Interest and Subiectivity. Berkeley: University of California Press. De Glopper, D.R. 1972. 'Doing Business in Lukang' in (ed.) W.E. Willmott, Or ganization in Chinese Society, pp.297-326. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Deyo, F.C. 1983. 'Chinese Management Practices and Work Commitment in Comparative Perspective' in (eds.) L.Y.C. Lim and L.A.P. Gosling The Chinese in Southeast Asia. Vol.2. Identit y . Culture and Politics. Singapore: Maruzen Asia. Doolittle, J. 1966. Social Life of the Chinese. Taipei: Ch'eng-Wen Publishing Co.

334

Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Dan ger: An Anal ysis of the Conce p ts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge, Kegan Paul. Eberhard, W. 1983. A Dictionar y of Chinese S ymbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thou ght. London: Routledge. Elviri, M. 1985. 'Between Earth and Heaven: Conceptions of the Self in China' in (eds.) N Carrithers, S. Collins, S. Lukes. The Cate g or y of the Person: Anthropology, Philoso phy . History, pp. 156-189. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Epstein, A. 1969. Matup it: Land, Politics and Chan ge among the Tolai of New Britain. Canberra: Australian National University Press. 1971. 'The Economy of Modern Matiput: Continuity and Change on the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain' in (eds.) L L Langness and J C Weschler Melanesia: Readin gs on a Culture Area, pp.335-371. London: Chandler Pub.Co. Epstein, A., R.S. Parker and M.Reay. 1971 The Politics of De p endence: Pa p ua New Guinea 1968. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Epstein, T.S. 1968. Cap italism, Primitive and Modern: Some Aspects of Tolai Economic Growth. Canberra: Australian National University Press. 1972. 'Economy, Indigenous' in (ed.) P. Ryan Encyclopoedia of Papua New Guinea, Vol.1, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. 1982. Urban Food Marketin g and Third World Rural Develo pment: The Structure of Producer-Seller Markets. London: Crooin Helm. Errington, F. and D. Gewertz. 1987. Cultural Alternatives and a Feminist Anthro pology : An Analysis of Culturall y Constructed Gender Interests in Papua New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fardon, R. (ed.) 1985. Power and Knowled ge: Anthropological and Sociolo g ical App roaches. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. Feng, H.Y. 1936. 'Teknonymy as a Formative Factor in the Chinese Kinship System'. American Anthropolocw, Vol.38, No.8, pp.59-66. Feuchtwang, S. 1974. An Anthro polog ical Analysis of Chinese Geomancy . Vientane, Laos: Editions Vithagna. Firth, R. (ed.) 1967. Themes in Economic Anthropology. London: Tavistock. 335

Fong, N.B. 1959. The Chinese in New Zealand. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Freedman, N. 1966. Chinese Linea ge and Society : Fukien and Kwangtung . London: The Athione Press. 1979. The Stud y of Chinese Societ y . Stanford: Stanford University Press. Fryer, J. 1975. The Great Wall of China. London: New English Library. Ganarafo, R. G. 1974. 'Ms trade store: a small highland business' Uagl-Ambu, Vol.1, No.2. Geertz, C. 1962. 'The Rotating Credit Associations: A 'Middle Rung in Development.' Economic Develo p -mentadCulrhn ge, x:241-63. Geertz, H. and C. Geertz. 1964. 'Telenonymy in Bali: Parenthood, Age-grading and Genealogical Amnesia' 94:94-108. Gell, A. 1975. Metamor p hosis of the Cassowaries: Umeda Society , Language and Ritual. LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology, No.51. London: Athione Press. 1977. 'Magic, Perfune, Dream' in (ed.) I.M. Lewis Symbols and Sentiments. London: Academic Press. 1986. 'Newcomers to the World of Goods: Aspects of Consumption among the Muria of North Bastar' in (ed.) A Appadurai Commodities and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming. 'Inter-tribal Commodity, Barter and Reproductive Exchange in New Guinea' in (eds.) S. Hugh-Jones and C. Humphrey The Anthro p olo gy of Barter. Gibson, T. 1986. Sacrifice and Sharing in the Philippine Highlands: Reli g ion and Society Among the Buid of Mindaro. LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology. London: Athlone Press. Glick, C.E. 1980. Solourners and Settlers: Chinese Migrants in Hawaii. Honolulu: The Chinese History Center and University Press of Hawaii. Go-Gien, T. 1971. 'The Changing Trade Position of the Chinese in South East Asia', International Social Science Journal, 23:4.

336

Godelier, M. 1977. 'Politics as Infrastructure: An Anthropologist's Thoughts on the Example of Classical Greece and the Notions of Relations of Production and Economic Determinism' in (eds.) J. Friedman and M.J. Rowlands The Evolution of Social Systems. London: Duckworth. Goffman, E. 1967. Interaction Ritual: Essa ys on Face to - - Face Behaviour. London: Penguin Books. Goldberg, M.A. 1985. The Chinese Connection: Getting Plugged in to Pacific Rim Real Estate. Trade and Cap ital Markets. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Good, K. 1986. Paua New Guinea: A False Econom y . London: Anti-Slavery Society. Goody, J. 1973. The Character of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Graham, D. 1961. Folk Reli g ion in Southwest China. Washington DC: The Smithsonian Institute. Gregory, C. 1982. Gifts and Commodities. London: Academic Press. Greif, S.W. 1974. The Overseas Chinese in New Zealand. Singapore: Asia Pacific Press. Gulliver, P. 1979. Dis p utes and Ne g otiations: A CrossCultural Pers pective. London: Academic Press. Hago, P. and F. Harary. 1981. 'Mediation and Power in Melanesia', Oceania, 52:2, 124-35. Halbwachs, M. 1980. The Collective Memor y . English Translation, New York: Harper Colophon Books. Haligren, C. 1986. Morall y United and Politicall y Divided: The Chinese Communit y of Penang. Stockholm: University of Stockholm Press. Hao, Y. 1986. The Commercial Revolution in 19th Century China. Berkeley: University of California Press. Hart, K. 1986.

'Heads of Tails? Two Sides of the Coin', Vol.21(4), 657-79.

Hicks, J. and N. Redding. 1983. 'Overseas Chinese Business Management' in (ed.) C.Edson, Overseas Chinese and Business in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Maruzen Asia.

Hill, A. 1985. 'A Preliminary Perspective on Kinship and Ethnicity Among Chinese in Thailand' J.Com .Family Studies, Vol.XVI(2). 337

Ho, D.Y. 1976. 'On the Concept of Face', American Journal of Sociology, 81, 867-84. Hookham, H. 1969. A Short History of China. London: Longmans Press. Hsieh, Y. 1967. 'Filial Piety and Chinese Society' in (ed.) C.Moore, The Chinese Mind: Essentials of Chinese Philosophy and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Hsu, F.L.K. 1989. 'Rethinking the Study of the Chinese Family Fieldwork, Cultural Differences and Interpretation' in (eds.) J. Hsieh and Y. Chuang, The Chinese Famil y and its Ritual Behavior.Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academica Sinica. Hu H.C. 1944. 'The Chinese Concept of Face' American Anthropology , 46:45-64. Hubert, H. and M. Mauss. 1964. Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. London: Cohen and West. Huck, A. 1968. The Chinese in Australia. London: Longinans. Hudson, W. 1971. Australia and Pa pua New Guinea. Sydney: Sydney University Press. Human, L. 1984. The Chinese Peo p le of South Africa: Freewheeling on the Frin ges. Pretoria: University of South Africa Press. Hyde, L. 1979. The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Prop erty . New York: Vintage Books. Ilich, J. 1973. The Art and Skill of Successful Ne g otiation. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. md, A. 1958. Spy Rin g Pacific. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Inglis, C. 1978. Social Structure and Patterns of Economic Action: The Chinese in Pa p ua New Guinea. PhD Thesis, London School of Economics. 1978. 'Particularism in the Economic Organisation of the Chinese in Papua New Guinea' in Anthropolog ical Forum Vol.IV, No.1, pp.69-76. Forthcoming. 'Women and Trade: A Chinese Example from Papua New Guinea' in (ed.) H.Baker Memorial Volume for Maurice Freedman. Jinks, B., P. Biskup and H. Nelson. 1973. Readings in New Guinea History . Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Johnson, K. 1983. Women. The Famil y and Peasant Revolution in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 338

Johnson, R.W. and N.A. Threlfall. 1985. Volcano Town: The 1937-43 Rabaul Eru p tions. Bathurst, New South Wales: Robert Brown and Associates. Kwong Yick Club. circa 1971. Members' Pamphlet. Rabaul, New Britain. Unpublished. Kurtz, D. 1973. 'The Rotating Credit Association: An Adaption to Poverty'. Human Organization, Vol.32, No.1. Laponce, J. 1987. Lan gua ges and Their Temtones. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Lee, K. and Y. Harvey. 1973. 'Teknonymy and Geononymy in Korean Kinship Terminology', Ethnolo gy , 12:31-45. Lim, L.Y.C. and L.A.P. Gosling. (eds.) 1983. The Chinese in South East Asia (2 vols.). Singapore: Maruzen Asia. Lip, M.H. 1978a. 'Feng Shui, Chinese Colours and Symbolism', Journal of the Sin gapore Institute of Architects. 1978b. 'Symbols, Colours and Decoration of Chinese Temples in Malaysia and Singapore' Journal of the Malaysia Institute of Architects. Lyng, J. (circa 1921) Our New Possession. Melbourne: Melbourne Publishing Co. McClelland, D. 1961. The Achievin g Society . Princeton: D Van Nostrand Co. MacFarlane, A. 1978. The Ori g ins of Eng lish Individualism: The Famil y , Pro p ert y and Social Transition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Mackie, J.A.C. 1976. The Chinese in Indonesia. Melbourne: Nelson. Maital, S. and S. Maital. 1984. Economic Games Peo1e Play. New York: Basic Books Inc. Mannheim, K. 1936. Ideolog y and Utop ia: An Introduction to the Sociolo gy of Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Martin, E. 1986. 'The Meaning of Money in China and the United States'. University of Rochester, unpublished manuscript. The 1986 Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures. Mauss, N. & Hubert, H. 1964. (Original 1898) Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function. London: Cohen & West. 339

Mauss, M. 1954. (original 1925) The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchan g e in Archaic Societies London: Cohen and West. The Message, 1986. Ninth National Premier's Council Conference, Rabaul, East New Britain. Government Document. -. Miller, D. 1967. Individualism: Personal Achievement and the O p en Society. Austin: University of Texas Press. Mintzberg, H. 1983. Power In and Around Organisations. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Moench, R. 1963. Economic Relations of the Chinese in the Society Islands. PhD Thesis, Harvard University. 1963. 'A Preliminary Report on Chinese Social and Economic Organisation in the Society Islands', in (ed.) A. Spoehr, Pacific Port Towns and Cities. Honolulu. Money-Kyrle, R. 1929. The Meaning of Sacrifice. London: Hogarth Press. Moore, B. Jr. 1984. Privacy : Studies in Social and Cultural History . London: M.E.Sharpe, Inc. Moore, C. (ed.) 1967. The Chinese Mind:Essentials of Chinese Philoso phy and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. National Development and Investment Act, Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Ch.120, 1974. National Gazette. 1983. (Amendment 90) General Price Order, Papua New Guinea Government Circular. National Investment Priorities Schedule: A guide to investment in Papua New Guinea. n.d. Port Moresby: Wantok Publishers. National Statistics Office. 1982. 1980 National Population Census (Papua New Guinea). Pre-release: Summary of Final Figures. Port Moresby: National Statistics Office. Needham, J. 1969. The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West. London: Allan and Unwin. Nelson, H. 1982. Taiin Belon g Masta. Sydney: ABC. Newbury, C. 1982. 'Ho's Tarahu: Le Credit et le Commerce en Oceanie Orientale vers la Fin de XlXieme Siecle', J.Soc. Oceanist (38:7415), 225-40. 340

Oinohundro, 3. 1981. Chinese Merchant Families in ilollo. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.

Omohundro, 3. 1983. 'Social Networks and Business Success for the Philippine Chinese' in (eds.) L.Y.C. Lim -. and L.A.P. Gosling, The Chinese in South East Asia. Singapore: Maruzen Asia. Orain, N. 1976. Colonial Town to Melanesian Cit y : Port Moresby 1884-1974. Canberra ANU Press. Ortner, S. 1987. 'Theory in Anthropology. Three Years Later: A Response to Papers.' presented for AES session 'Sherry Ortner and Theory' in Anthropology AAA Meetings 1987. Paine, R. 1969. 'In Search of Friendship: An Exploratory Analysis in "Middle-Class" Culture', Man, Vol.4.No.4. Parry, 3. 1974. 'Egalitarian Values in a Hierarchical Society', South Asia Review. Vol.7.No.2. 1986. 'The Gift, The Indian Gift, and the "Indian Gift"', (N.S.) 21, 453-73. Pasternak, P. 1983. Guests in the Dra gon: Social Demography in a Chinese District 1895-1946. New York: Columbia University Press. Potter, J.M. 1968. Cap italism and the Chinese Peasant: Social and Economic Chan ge in a Hon g Kong Village. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Purcell, V. 1965. The Chinese in South East Asia. London: Oxford University Press. Raiffa, H. 1982. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Reed, S. 1943. The Makin g of Modern New Guinea: With Stecial Reference to Culture Contact in the Mandated Territory. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. Robinson, N. n.d. 'The Experiences of the Chinese Community in Lae during the Second World War'. University of Papua New Guinea, New Guinea Collection - unpublished manuscript. Ross, J.A. 1979. 'Language and the Mobilization of Ethnic Identity' in (eds.) H.Giles and B. Saint-Jacques Language and Ethnic Relations. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 341

Rowley, C. 1958. The Australians in German New Guinea. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Ryan, P. (ed.) 1972. The Encvcloaedia of Pa pua New Guinea, 3 Vols. Melbourne University in association with University of Papua New Guinea. Sa-Onoy, M.P. 1980. The Chinese in Ne gros. Bacolod City, Philippines: Bacolod Ace Printers Inc. Sack, P. & D.Clark. 1980. German New Guinea. Canberra: ANU Press. Sahira, Y. 1970. Commerce and Societ y in Sun g China. University of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies. Sahlins, N. 1974. Stone Ae Economies. London: Tavistock Publications. Salisbury, R.F. 1970. Vunamami: Economic Transformation in a Traditional Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Schutz, A. 1962. 'Symbol, Reality and Society' in Collected Papers, 1:294. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Scott, J. and C. Griff. 1984. Directors of Industr y : The British Corporate Network 1904-76. Cambridge: Polity. Sedgwick, C. 1985. 'Persistence, Change and Innovation: The Social Organisation of the New Zealand Chinese' Corn. Fain. Studies, Vo.XVI,No.2. Seeto, W. 1971. 'A History of the Chinese Peoples of Papua and New Guinea'. University of Papua New Guinea, New Guinea Collection - unpublished manuscript. Serrie, H. 1985. 'The Familial and the Familiar Consistency and Variation in Chinese Culture with Reference to the HSU Attributes'. J. Coin. Fam. Studies, Vol.XVI,No.2. Sinimel, G. 1978. The Philoso phy of Money . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1984. On Women. Sexuality and Love. New Haven: Yale University Press. Siu, R. 1979. The Craft of Power. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Skinner, G.W. 1957. Chinese Society in Thailand. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 342

Souter, G. 1963. New Guinea: The Last Unknown. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Stephen, D. 1972. A Histor y of Political Parties in Papua New Guinea. Melbourne: Lansdowne. Strathern, A. 1983. 'The Kula in Comparative Perspective.' in (eds.) J. Leach and E. Leach The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchan g e. Cambridge: -. Cambridge University Press. Strathern, N. 1985. 'Knowing Power and Being Equivocal' in (ed.) R.Fardon Power and Knowledge: Anthropological and Sociolo g ical Approaches. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. Strauss, A. 1978. Negotiation: Varieties. Contents. Processes and Social Order. London: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Sun Tzu. 1963. The Art of War (trans. S.B. Griffith). London: Oxford University Press. Sureshi Sirvastva and Associates. 1986. Executive Power: How Executives Influence People and Organizations. London: Jossey-Bass Publications. Tam, S. 1972. 'A Guide to the Setting Up of an Urban Trade Store' PNG Chinese Association: Port Moresby, unpublished. Tan, G. 1963. The Chinese of Sukabuini: A Stud y in Social and Cultural Accommodation. Ithaca: Cornell University Monograph Series. Th4den van Velzen, H.U.E. 1973. 'Coalitions and Network Analysis' in (ed.) J Boissevain and J C Mitchell, Network Analysis: Studies in Human Interaction, pp.219-250. The Hague: Mouton. Thompson, R. 1951/2. 'An Inquiry into the Social Conditions of the Mixed Blood Population of Papua and New Guinea' Port Moresby. Unpublished Manuscript. Tylor, E.B. 1874. (original 1871) Primitive Culture: Researches into the Develo pment of Mythology. Reli g ion, Lan gua g es, Art and Custom (2 vols.) Boston: Estes and Lauriat. Valentine, C. 1961. Masks and Men in a Melanesian Society: The Valuku or Tubuan of the Lakalai of New Britain. University of Kansas Publications. Van den Berghe, P. 1981. The Ethnic Phenomena. New York: El sevier.

343

Van Gulik, R. 1961. Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Stud y of Chinese Sex and Societ y from circa 1500BC till 1644AD. Leiden: E.J.Brill. Wang, S. 1985. 'On the Household and Family in Chinese Society' in (eds.) J. Hsleh and Y.Chuang, 'jg Chinese Famil y and Its Ritual Behavior. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academic Sinica. Ward, B. 1972. A Small Factor y in Hon g Kong : Some Aspects of its Internal Organization in Economic Or ganization in Chinese Societ y . ed. W.E.Willinott. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Weber, M. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and The S p irit of Cap italism. London: Allen and Unwin. Weightmen, G. 1985. 'The Philippine Chinese: From Aliens to Cultural Minority'. J.Com . Fam. Studies, vol.XVI, No.2. Weller, R. 1987. Unities and Diversities in the Chinese Relig ion. Basingstoke: Macmillan. White, N. and P. White. 1983. 'Evaluating the Immigrant Presence.' Ethnic and Radical Studies, 6:13. Whittaker, J. et al. 1975. Documents and Readin gs in New Guinea History : Prehistory to 1889. Melbourne: Jacaranda Press. Wickberg, E. 1965. The Chinese in Phili pp ine Life: 18501898. New Haven,: Yale University Press. Wilkinson, H.P. 1926. The Famil y in Classical China. London: Macmillan & Co. Willinott, D. 1960. The Chinese at Semaran g . Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Wilison, M. (Forthcoming). 'The Trader's Voice: PNG-Chinese Effects on the 1987 Elections.' in (ed.) M. Oliver Elections. Wilson, R. 1970.Learnin g to be Chinese. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Wilson, R. 1973. 'Shame and Behavior in Chinese Society' in Asian Profile, 1 (December). Wilson, R., A. Wilson and 5. Greenblatt. 1979. Value Change in Chinese Societ y . New York: Praeger Press. Wilson, R. and A. Pusey. 1982. 'Achievement motivation and small business relationship patterns in Chinese Society' in S. L. Greenblatt, R.W. Wilson, A.A. Wilson (eds.) Value Chane in Chinese Society . New York: Praeger Press. 344

Wolf, A. 1985 'Chinese Family Size: A Myth Revitalized' in (eds.) J. Hsleh and Y. Chuang The Chinese Family and its Ritual Behavior. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academica Sinica. Wolf, E. 1966. 'Kinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relations in Complex Societies.' in M. Banton (ed.) -. The Social Anthro p olo gy of Com p lex Societies. London: Tavistock. ASA, Monograph No.4. Wolf, N. 1972. Women and the Famil y in Rural Taiwan. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Wolf, M. and R. Witke (eds.) 1975. Women in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Wong, B. 1965. 'Family, Kinship and Ethnic Identity of the Chinese in New York City With Comparative Remarks on the Chinese in Lima, Peru and Mila, Philippines.' J.Com.Fam.Studies, Vol.XVI, No.2. 1977. 'Elites and Ethnic Boundary Maintainance: A Study of the Roles of Elites in Chinatown, New York City.' Urban Anthro pology , Vol.6, No.1, pp.122. Wong, J. 1963. The Distribution and Role of the Chinese in Fi j i. MA Thesis in Geography. University of Sydney. Woolford, D. 1976. Pa pua New Guinea: Initiation and Independence. University of Queensland Press. Wright, M. 1965. If I Die: Coastwatchin g and Guerilla Warfare Behind Ja panese Lines. Melbourne: Lansdown. Wu, D. 1970. 'Chinese in New Guinea: A Preliminary Report. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnolo gy , Academica Sinica (Taipei). 30: 357-416. 1974. An Ethnic Minorit y : The Ada ptation of Chinese in Pa pua New Guinea. PhD Thesis, Canberra: Australian National University. 1974. 'To Kill Three Birds With One Stone: The Rotating Credit Association of the PNG-Chinese.' American Ethnolo g ist, 1(3) :565-84. 1975. 'Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship and Kinship Transformation: An Example for Papua New Guinea.' Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, 39:85-105. 1977. 'Ethnicity and Adaptation: Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship in Papua New Guinea.' Southeast Journal of Social Sciences, 5(l-2):85-95. 345

Wu, D. 1977a. 'Chinese as an Intrusive Language in the New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study' in (ed.) S.A.Wurn, Lan gua g e, Culture, Societ y and the Modern World Fascicle, Vol.2. pp.1047-1055. Canberra: Australian National University. 1978. 'The Chinese in New Guinea:The Adaptation of an Immigrant Population.' in (eds.) K Watson, Gegeo and S Lee Seaton Ada ptation and Symbolism: Essa y s on Social Or g anization. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii. 1982. The Chinese in Pap ua New Guinea. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Wurn, S. 1985. 'The Status of New Guinea Pidgin (NeoMelanesian) and Attitudes Towards It' in (eds.) N.Wolfson and J.Manes, Lan guage of Inequality . New York: Mouton Publishers. Yang, N. 1969. Chinese Social Structure. Taiwan: The National Book Co. Yarwood, A. 1967. Asian Immi gration to Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Yee, S. 1976. The Chinese in the Pacific. Suva: South Pacific Social Sciences Association. Yen, C. 1985. Coolies and Mandarins: China's Protection of Overseas Chinese Durin g the Late Ch'in g Period (1851-1911). Singapore: Singapore University Press. Yong, C. 1977. The New Gold Mountain: The Chinese in Australia. 1901-1921. Richmond, South Australia: Rapheal Art Pty. Ltd. Yum, J. and G. Wang. 1983. 'Inter-ethnic Perception and the Communication Behavior of Five Ethnic Groups in Hawaii', International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 7: 285-308.

346