Current historical work on the international tea trade has focused on the Sino-British trade and the impact of capitalism and modern technology on tea production in India and Ceylon. These studies have overlooked the changes that were afoot in the Fujian tea industry and the problems with conducting the trade with the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Using the Fujian-Singapore trade as an illustration and drawing on Chinese-language archival materials, this book looks at the state of tea production in Fujian, the overseas Chinese tea merchants and the fluctuations of the trade during the period of political instability in China, the Sino-Japanese War, decolonisation in Singapore, the period of collectivisation in China and the Cold War.

Jason Lim, PhD (2007) in History and Asian Studies, University of Western Australia, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. His research interest includes the historical interactions between China and Southeast Asia.