Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese (華僑 in
Pinyin: Huáqiáo, or 華胞 huábāo, or 僑胞 qiáobāo, or 華" huáyì) are
Chinese people who live outside
China. China, in this usage, usually refer to
Greater China including territory currently administered by the rival governments of the
People's Republic of China (PRC) and the
Republic of China (ROC) as per traditional definitions of the term prior to the
Chinese Civil War, or only to the People's Republic of China by some. In addition, the government of the
Republic of China granted residents of
Hong Kong and
Macau "overseas Chinese status" prior to their respective handover to
Beijing rule, so the definition may be said to loosely extend to them.
Strictly speaking, there are two words in
Chinese for overseas Chinese: huáqiáo (华侨 / 華僑) refers to overseas Chinese who were born in China, while huáyì (华" / 華") refers to any overseas Chinese with a Chinese ancestry. [
1].
It has to be noted that the usage of the term can be relatively fluid geographically. For example, the ethnic Chinese people of
Singapore and
Malaysia are occasionally excluded from the above said definition of "overseas Chinese" in view of their close cultural and social affinity with China, despite the geographical divide of the said societies. This view is very rare, however, as recent researches shown, majority of the ethnic Chinese in both nations have expressed that they are bonded to their nation, rather than to China (both
PRC and
ROC).
Overseas Chinese are not limited to ethnic Han Chinese populations, and may include the diaspora of the entire Chinese nation (
Zhonghua minzu). For example,
ethnic Korean minorities from China who are living in
South Korea today are often included in calculations of overseas Chinese, because these ethnic Koreans also identify themselves as part of the Chinese nation. In
Southeast Asia and particularly in Malaysia and Singapore, the state classifies the
Peranakans as Chinese despite partial assimilation into
Malay culture.
The Chinese people have a long history of migrating overseas. The overseas Chinese of today can be dated back to the
Ming dynasty. When
Zheng He became the envoy of Ming, he sent people to explore and trade in the
South China Sea and
Indian Ocean. Many of them were
Cantonese and
Hokkien. Chinese emigrated to
Vietnam beginning in the
18th Century, and have been identified as the
Hoa, or
Vietnamese Chinese.
A large portion stayed and never returned to China. [
2] Physical evidence such as
Bukit Cina in Malaysia seems to indicate permanent settlements.
In 19th century, the age of
colonialism was at its height and the great
Chinese Diaspora began. Many colonies lacked a large pool of laborers. Meanwhile, in the provinces of
Fujian and
Guangdong in China, there was a labor surplus due to the relative peace in the
Qing dynasty. The Qing government was forced to allow its subjects to work overseas under colony powers. Many Hokkien chose to work in Southeast Asia with their earlier links starting from the
Ming era, as did the Cantonese. For the countries in
North America and
Australia, great numbers of laborers were needed in the dangerous tasks of
gold mining and
railway construction. With famine widespread in Guangdong, this attracted many Cantonese to work in these countries to improve the living conditions of their relatives. Some overseas Chinese were sold to
South America during
Punti-Hakka Clan Wars in the
Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.
With the completion of railways, many overseas Chinese suffered from racial discrimination in
Canada and the
United States of America and they were barred from entering the country.
After World War II, the last years of the
Chinese Civil War increased Chinese suffering. Some educated overseas Chinese did not return to the country as the condition deteriorated.
Many people from the
New Territories in
Hong Kong emigrated to the UK (mainly England) and the Netherlands in the post-war period to earn a better living .
In
1980s, Britain agreed to transfer the sovereignty of
Hong Kong to the PRC; this triggered another wave of migration to the United Kingdom (mainly England), Australia, Canada, United States of America and other lands. The
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 further accelerated the migration. The wave calmed after the transfer of sovereignty in
1997.
There are approximately 34 million overseas Chinese mostly living in
Southeast Asia where they make up a majority of the population of
Singapore and significant minority populations in
Malaysia,
Thailand, the
Philippines,
Indonesia and
Vietnam. The overseas populations in those areas arrived between the
16th and the
19th centuries mostly from the maritime provinces of
Guangdong and
Fujian, followed by
Hainan. There are incidences of earlier emigration in the
10th centuries to
15th centuries in particular to
Malacca and Southeast Asia.
More recent
emigration from the mid-
19th century onward has been directed primarily to western countries such as
United States,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and
Europe, as well as to South America, where they are called
tusán. Many of these emigrants who entered western countries were themselves overseas Chinese or were from Taiwan or Hong Kong, particularly in the 1950s to the 1980s during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of its citizens.
Overseas Chinese vary widely as to their degree of
assimilation, their interactions with the surrounding communities (see
Chinatown), and their relationship with
China. In
Thailand, overseas Chinese have largely intermarried and assimilated with the native community. In
Myanmar, the Chinese rarely intermarry (even amongst different Chinese linguistic groups), but have largely adopted the Burmese culture whilst maintaining Chinese culture affinities.
Indonesia,
Thailand, and
Myanmar are among the countries that do not allow birth names to be registered in Chinese, because Chinese is not an official language in those countries. In
Vietnam, ethnic Chinese are required to have Vietnamized spellings of their names. For example,
Hu Jintao would become "H" Cẩm Đào". Very often, there is no distinct number of the Chinese population in these countries. In western countries, the overseas Chinese generally use romanised versions of their Chinese names, and the use of local first names is also common.
On the other hand, in
Malaysia and
Singapore, overseas Chinese have maintained a distinct communal identity, though the rate and state of being assimilated to the local, in this case a multicultural society, is currently en par with that of other Chinese communities (see
Peranakan). In the Philippines, many younger Overseas Chinese are well assimilated, whereas the older ones tend to be considered as 'foreigners'. More recent overseas Chinese immigrants have been despised by many Filipinos due to incidences of some selling illegal drugs, as well as being high profile smugglers. Chinese have also brought a cultural influence to some other countries such as Vietnam, where many customs have been adopted by native Vietnamese.
Often there are different waves of immigration leading to subgroups among overseas Chinese such as the new and old immigrants in
Cambodia,
Vietnam,
Malaysia,
New Zealand,
Australia,
Indonesia,
Brunei,
Thailand,
Ireland,
Hawaii,
USA,
Cuba,
South Africa,
Canada,
Myanmar,
Russia,
Samoa,
Singapore, and
Philippines.
The Chinese in Southeast Asian countries have often established themselves in commerce and finances. In North America, because of immigration policies, overseas Chinese tend to be found in professional occupations, including significant ranks in medicine and academia. More recent Chinese presences have developed in
Europe, where they number nearly a million, and in
Russia, they number over 600,000, concentrated in Russia's Far East.
Both the
People's Republic of China and the
Republic of China maintain highly complex relationships with overseas Chinese populations. Both maintain cabinet level ministries to deal with overseas Chinese affairs, and many local governments within the PRC have overseas Chinese bureaus. Both the PRC and ROC have some legislative representation for overseas Chinese. In the case of the PRC, some seats in the
National People's Congress are allocated for returned overseas Chinese. In the ROC's
Legislative Yuan, there are eight seats allocated for overseas Chinese. These seats are apportioned to the political parties based on their vote totals on Taiwan, and then the parties assign the seats to overseas Chinese party
loyalists. Most of these members elected to the Legislative Yuan hold dual citizenship, but must renounce their foreign citizenship (at the
American Institute in Taiwan for American citizens) before being sworn in.
During the
1950s and
1960s, the ROC tended to seek the support of overseas Chinese communities through branches of the
Kuomintang based on
Sun Yat-sen's use of
expatriate Chinese communities to raise money for his revolution. During this period, the People's Republic of China tended to view overseas Chinese with suspicion as possible
capitalist infiltrators and tended to value relationships with southeast Asian nations as more important than gaining support of overseas Chinese, and in the
Bandung declaration explicitly stated that overseas Chinese owed primary loyalty to their home nation.
After the
Deng Xiaoping reforms, the attitude of the PRC toward overseas Chinese changed dramatically. Rather than being seen with suspicion, they were seen as people which could aid PRC development via their skills and capital. During the
1980s, the PRC actively attempted to court the support of overseas Chinese by among other things, returning properties that were confiscated after the 1949 revolution. More recently PRC policy has attempted to maintain the support of recently emigrated Chinese, who consist largely of Chinese seeking graduate education in the West.
Overseas Chinese have sometimes played an important role in Chinese politics. Most of the funding for the
Chinese revolution of 1911 came from overseas Chinese, and many overseas Chinese are
overseas for political reasons. Many overseas Chinese are now investing in mainland China providing
financial resources, social and
cultural networks, contacts and opportunities.
| % of local
population | % of Global
Overseas Chinese population |
|---|
| Asia | 51,800,000 (1998) | 0.7% | 81% |
| Indonesia | 7.3 million (2003) | 3.1% | 20.7% |
| Thailand | 7.3 million (2003) | 12% | 20.7% |
| Malaysia | 7 million (2004) | 25% | 19.9% |
| Singapore | 2.7 million (2005) (Source) | 75.6% | 7.6% |
| 2.3 million (2003) | 3% | 6.5% |
| Philippines | 1.5 million (2004) | 2% | 4.3% |
| Myanmar | 1.3 million (2003) | 3% | 3.7% |
| Japan | 175,000 (2003) | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| Cambodia | 150,000 (2003) | 1.2% | 0.4% |
| South Korea | 100,000 (2003) | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Laos | 50,000 (2003) | 1% | 0.1% |
| North Korea | 50,000 (2003) | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| Brunei | 46,300 (1999) (Source) | 15.2% | - |
| Americas | 5,020,000 (1998) | 0.6% | 14.5% |
| United States | 2.4 million (2000) | 0.8% | 6.8% |
| Canada | 1.2 million (2004) | 3.69% | 3.4% |
| Panama | 150,000 | 5% | 0.4% |
| Brazil | 100,000 (2002) | 0.05% | 0.3% |
| Jamaica | 10,000 (2004) | 0.3% | ??? |
| Europe | 945,000 (1998) | 0.1% | 2.6% |
| Russia | 680,000 | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| France | 300,000 | 0.5% | 0.9% |
| United Kingdom | 247,403 (From 2001 census. | 0.4% | 0.7% |
| Republic of Ireland | 135,000 (2006) | 3.0% | ?? |
| Spain | 90,000 (2004) (Unofficial figures show 120,000+) | 0.4% | 0.3% |
| The Netherlands | 80,000 | 1.4% | 0.3% |
| Oceania | 564,000 (1998) | 1.7% | 1.5% |
| Australia | 454,000 (2003) | 2.5% | 1.3% |
| New Zealand | 115,000 (2003) | 2.8% | 0.3% |
| -bgcolor="yellow" | Africa | 126,000 (1998) | 0.02% | 0.4% |
| South Africa | 100,000 (2003) | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Total | 58,175,000 | 0.6% | 100% |
Note that the percentages do not add up due to varying census and estimate dates.
Various sub-ethnic groups include:
Chinese American,
American-born Chinese,
Chinese Argentines,
Chinese Australians,
Bruneian Chinese,
Chinese New Zealander,
Chinese Vietnamese,
Chinese British,
Burmese Chinese,
Chinese Canadian,
Chinese Cayman Islander,
Chinese Cuban,
Chinese Filipino,
Indonesian Chinese,
Irish Chinese,
Israeli Chinese,
Chinese Malaysian,
Chinese Mauritian,
Mongolian Chinese,
Chinese Mozambican,
Chinese Peruvian,
Chinese Puerto Rican,
Chinese Singaporean,
Chinese South African, and
Chinese Thai.
*
List of overseas Chinese*
Chinatown, the article, and
Category:Chinatowns the international category list
*
Chinese Clan Association*
Chinese Migration*Pan, Lynn (1998)
The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas Landmark Books, Singapore ISBN 9183018925
*Chin, Ung Ho. (2000)
The Chinese of South East Asia . London: Minority Rights Group. ISBN 1 897693 28 1
*
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (Chinese-language only)
*
Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, R.O.C.*
Ohio University Study on Distribution of the Overseas Chinese Population*
The Distribution of the Overseas Chinese in the Contemporary World*
Museum of Chinese in the Americas*
CBC Digital Archives - A Tale of Perseverance: Chinese Immigration to Canada*
Chinese in Ireland statistics taken from "Marketing Ireland"*
Chinese Overseas Movement of Advanced Culture, is an NGO which Promotes Mandarin Chinese culture and language ,it also facilitates international co-operation between UK, EU and China
