The Last Half Century Of Chinese Overseas

The papers collected in this anthology look at Chinese overseas, residing in five continents in the half century after the Second World War, from many new perspectives. Some papers raise questions about the Chinese diaspora in broad conceptual terms, and inquire into the meaning of being Chinese outside China. Other papers examine life in local communities, analysing how historical and contemporary circumstances affect their lives and the ways they negotiate their identity in the host country. In-depth case studies further bring out the complexity of the subject by identifying the range of variables, including the social, economic, political and cultural characteristics of the places of origin and destinations, as well as emigration and immigration policies, which affect the patterns of migration and the nature of settlement in any place at any time. This is especially highlighted in chapters using a comparative approach. With scholars from different disciplines, using different types of data, methodologies and theoretical tools, the richness of the subject matter becomes apparent. This volume will no doubt go a long way both to broaden and deepen our understanding of the Chinese overseas, and, by showing the many possibilities for further investigation, to strengthen Chinese overseas as a field of study.

The twelve chapters included in this book address various issues related to Chinese migration, indigenization and exchange with special reference to the era of globalization. As the waves of Chinese migration started in the last century, the emphasis, not surprisingly, is placed on the ?migrant states? rather than ?indigenous states?. Nevertheless, many chapters are also concerned with issues of ?settling down? and ?becoming part of the local scenes?. However, the settling/integrating process has been interrupted by a globalizing world, new Chinese migration and the rise of China at the end of 20th century.

In this book, distinguished historian Philip A. Kuhn tells the remarkable five-century story of Chinese emigration as an integral part of China's modern history. Although emigration has a much longer past, its "modern" phase dates from the sixteenth century, when European colonialists began to collaborate with Chinese emigrants to develop a worldwide trading system. The author explores both internal and external migration, complementary parts of a far-reaching process of adaptation that enabled Chinese families to deal with their changing social environments. Skills and institutions developed in the course of internal migration were creatively modified to serve the needs of emigrants in foreign lands. As emigrants, Chinese inevitably found themselves "among others." The various human ecologies in which they lived have faced Chinese settlers with a diversity of challenges and opportunities in the colonial and postcolonial states of Southeast Asia, in the settler societies of the Americas and Australasia, and in Europe. Kuhn traces their experiences worldwide alongside those of the "others" among whom they settled: the colonial elites, indigenous peoples, and rival immigrant groups that have profited from their Chinese minorities but also have envied, feared, and sometimes persecuted them. A rich selection of primary sources allows these protagonists a personal voice to express their hopes, sorrows, and worldviews. The post-Mao era offers emigrants new opportunities to leverage their expatriate status to do business with a Chinese nation eager for their investments, donations, and technologies. The resulting "new migration," the author argues, is but the latest phase of a centuries-old process by which Chinese have sought livelihoods away from home.

Provides information on the origins of Chinese emigration, the lives of emigrant Chinese, relations with China and host countries, and related matters, and offers detailed profiles of the Chinese communities in Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Pacific, and other areas.

More than 25 million Chinese left their homeland from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century to settle abroad together with their families and descendants. This book describes this massive wave of migration and the smaller ones that occurred in the last three decades of the 20th century. The migrations of recent decades have, however, been different in two respects: they have involved Chinese not only from greater China itself (Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland) but also from Southeast Asia and elsewhere; they have involved those of high educational level. The author looks at these different migrations mainly from the perspective of those who settled in Southeast Asia, but also includes the experiences of those Chinese who have made their home in other parts of Asia, Australasia and North America. This book is both a collection of personal experiences from the Chinese Diaspora and a study of those Chinese who emigrated from the motherland to settle abroad over the past 30 years. Don't Leave Home: Migration and the Chinese is part of a four-book collection by Wang Gungwu, the pre-eminent authority on China and the Chinese diaspora.

This interdisciplinary collection of essays offers a window onto the overseas Indian and Chinese communities in Asia. Contributors discuss the interactive role of the cultural and religious ‘other’, the diasporic absorption of local beliefs and customs, and the practical business networks and operational mechanisms unique to these communities. Growing out of an international workshop organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong, this volume explores material, cultural and imaginative features of the immigrant communities and brings together these two important communities within a comparative framework.

This, the first major study of Chinese women in Australia, is all about global journeys and perspectives. It is also a story of the various stories that connect Australia to the pathways of women of Chinese ancestory. Ryan interrogates issues of ethnicity, gender and identity to present the diversity of the women's lives.