马来亚独立前后永春会馆职能的演化 The Evolution of Yongchun Associations in Pre- and Post-Independence Malaya

Abstract

永春人为福建社群当中最大的次方言群，总人数达到七十万人，人数甚至超越海南、潮州、广西，以及兴化这些方言群。¹永春会馆为永春移民创建的重要社会组织。各地方的永春移民透过永春会馆把永春同乡凝聚在一起。民国初年，各地永春会馆之间仍缺乏互动，唯在中国永春发生匪祸之后，掀起新、马两地的永春移民展开救乡运动，各地方的永春会馆才有了连系。日本侵华期间，英属马来亚掀起支援祖国抗日救亡运动的热潮，多个地方的永春会馆领导人投入筹赈运动，会馆的凝聚社群的力量达到历史高峰。马来亚独立后，顺应国际政治局势的变化，国内华人社团出现整合潮，全国各地永春属会联合组织了马来亚永春联合会，分散各地的永春社群再度整合在一起。本论文就马来西亚的永春会馆的分布地点、机能的演化进行比较说明，剖析会馆扮演角色的变化，藉此窥探华人会馆在社群扮演角色的变化。

The Yongchun people are the largest sub-group of the Fujian dialect group with a total population of 700,000, surpassing even the populations of other dialect groups such as Hainan, Chaozhou, Guangxi, and Xinghua. Regarding research on Chinese sub-dialect groups in Malaysia, previous individual case studies on the development and changes of the Yongchun community have reported typical findings. Yongchun Associations, established by early Yongchun settlers in various places, have been playing an important role in uniting the community. Prior to Malaya’s independence, there were little interactions between the associations. It was only after Yongchun county became infested with bandits that salvation movement organisations established by the Yongchun settlers in Singapore and Malaya to help the people back home that these associations began to connect. The Japanese aggression in China set off a wave of support for their motherland among the Yongchun people in British Malaya and many leaders of Yong- chun Associations from various places contributed to the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Movement. This period saw the associations demonstrated their ability to unite the Yongchun community at a level never before seen. Amid the changing international political situations after Malaya became independent, many Chinese associations saw the need for further integration. In response, the Yongchun Associations then formed the Malayan Yongchun Federation, thus integrating the Yongchun communities across the country. This article compares and examines the location of the associations as well as the evolution of their functions, followed by analysis on their changing role to investigate the changes in the role of Chinese associations to the community.