Reprint, with new introduction, of the 1953 publication of then Colonial Social Science Research Council, which is based on fieldwork done by the author between 1948 and 1949, when Sarawak was a British Crown Colony.  T'ien Ju-K'ang was one of four social anthropologists asked by the British to study the various ethnic groups in Sarawak in order to help the colonial government in its approach to governing the multi-ethnic population.  This study is considered  ground-breaking  for the light it shed on the Chinese in Sarawak.