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Asian diaspora

From Tilcayo Cats, the lean encyclopaedia by Tilcayo Knowledge Systems

The Asian diaspora is the diasporic group of Asian people who live outside of the continent. There are several prominent groups within the Asian diaspora.[1]

Asian diasporas have been noted for having an increasingly transnational relationship with their ancestral homelands,[2][3] especially culturally through the use of digital media.[4][5]

History

Asians have a long history of migrating internally within Asia. Overland trading routes such as the Silk Road, and maritime routes through the Indo-Pacific enabled ancient exchanges. Since the late 19th century, Asian migration has greatly increased because of the impacts of colonialism and globalisation, which enabled new types of migration; for example, European empires' global reach and consolidation paved the way for the Indian indenture system. Increasing border enforcement by modern nation-states has stymied traditional migration flows, however.[6]

Central Asian diaspora

The Central Asian diaspora of the modern era is shaped to a significant extent by the expansion of and displacement caused by the Soviet Union.[7]

East Asian diaspora

Young people have started migrating from East Asia in much larger numbers since the 1990s.[8]

Chinese diaspora

section excerpt Overseas Chinese.[edit]

An Overseas Chinese person is a person of Chinese ancestry or is a person of full or partial Chinese origin who traces their ancestry back to the Greater China but are living and working outside of Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).[9] This term generally applies to both people of Chinese ancestry and citizens abroad.

As of 2026, approximately 40 million ethnic Chinese live abroad.[10]: 61  As of 2023, there were 10.5 million people living outside mainland China who were born in mainland China, corresponding to 0.7 percent of China's population.[11] Overall, China has a low percent of its population living overseas.

History

section excerpt Overseas Chinese § History.[edit]

The Chinese people have a long history of migration to overseas territories, as far back as the 10th century. One of the migrations dates back to the Ming dynasty when Zheng He (1371–1435), a Chinese man of Iranian ancestry, became the envoy of the Ming empire. He sent people – many of them Cantonese and Hokkien – to explore and trade in the South China Sea and in the Indian Ocean. It was during this time that the Malacca Strait and Malacca Sultanate developed as a maritime hub in the newly established Maritime Silk Road.[12]

Early emigration

In the mid-1800s, outbound migration from China increased as a result of the European colonial powers opening up treaty ports.[13]: 137  The British colonization of Hong Kong further created the opportunity for Chinese labor to be exported to plantations and mines.[13]: 137 

During the era of European colonialism, many overseas Chinese were coolie laborers.[13]: 123  Chinese capitalists overseas often functioned as economic and political intermediaries between colonial rulers and colonial populations.[13]: 123 

The area of Taishan, Guangdong Province was the source for many of economic migrants.[14] In the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong in China, there was a surge in emigration as a result of the poverty and village ruin.[15]

San Francisco and California was an early American destination in the mid-1800s because of the California Gold Rush. Many settled in San Francisco forming one of the earliest Chinatowns. For the countries in North America and Australia saw great numbers of Chinese gold diggers finding gold in the gold mining and railway construction. Widespread famine in Guangdong impelled many Cantonese to work in these countries to improve the living conditions of their relatives.

From 1853 until the end of the 19th century, about 18,000 Chinese were brought as indentured workers to the British West Indies, mainly to British Guiana (now Guyana), Trinidad and Jamaica.[16] Their descendants today are found among the current populations of these countries, but also among the migrant communities with Anglo-Caribbean origins residing mainly in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

Some overseas Chinese were sold to South America during the Punti–Hakka Clan Wars (1855–1867) in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.

Research conducted in 2008 by German researchers who wanted to show the correlation between economic development and height, used a small dataset of 159 male labourers from Guangdong who were sent to the Dutch colony of Suriname to illustrate their point. They stated that the Chinese labourers were between 161 to 164 cm in height for males.[17] Their study did not account for factors other than economic conditions and acknowledge the limitations of such a small sample.

The Lanfang Republic in West Kalimantan was established by overseas Chinese.

In 1909, the Qing dynasty established the first Nationality Law of China.[13]: 138  This law granted Chinese citizenship to anyone born to a Chinese parent.[13]: 138  It permitted some dual citizenship.[13]: 138  Among the purposes of the law was an effort by the Qing government to preserve its view of Chinese culture and tradition by positioning itself as a protector of overseas Chinese.[18]: 56 

Prior to this law, the Qing government had refused to recognize the acquired nationalities of Chinese who went abroad.[18]: 56 

Republic of China (1912–1949)

In the first half of the 20th Century, war and revolution accelerated the pace of migration out of China.[13]: 127  The Kuomintang and the Communist Party competed for political support from overseas Chinese.[13]: 127–128 

The military conflicts and economic mayhem under the Beiyang and Nationalist rule pushed increasing numbers of people to migrate, mostly through the coastal regions via the ports of Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan and Shanghai. These migrations are considered to be among the largest in China's history. Many nationals of the Republic of China fled and settled down overseas mainly between 1911 and 1949 before the Nationalist government led by Kuomintang lost the mainland to Communist revolutionaries and relocated. Most of the nationalist and neutral refugees fled mainland China to North America while others fled to Southeast Asia (Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines).

After World War II

Those who fled during 1912–1949 and settled down in Singapore and Malaysia automatically gained citizenship in 1957 and 1963 as these countries gained independence.[19][20] Kuomintang members who settled in Malaysia and Singapore played a major role in the establishment of the Malaysian Chinese Association and their meeting hall at Sun Yat Sen Villa. There was evidence that some intended to reclaim mainland China from the CCP by funding the Kuomintang.[21][22]

After their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, parts of the Nationalist army retreated south and crossed the border into Burma as the People's Liberation Army entered Yunnan.[13]: 65  The United States supported these Nationalist forces because the United States hoped they would harass the People's Republic of China from the southwest, thereby diverting Chinese resources from the Korean War.[13]: 65  The Burmese government protested and international pressure increased.[13]: 65  Beginning in 1953, several rounds of withdrawals of the Nationalist forces and their families were carried out.[13]: 65  In 1960, joint military action by China and Burma expelled the remaining Nationalist forces from Burma, although some went on to settle in the Burma–Thailand borderlands.[13]: 65–66 

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[where?] that overseas Chinese owed primary loyalty to their home nation.[dubious – discuss]From the mid-20th century onward, emigration has been directed primarily to Western countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, The United Kingdom, New Zealand, Argentina and the nations of Western Europe; as well as to Peru, Panama, and to a lesser extent to Mexico. Many of these emigrants who entered Western countries were themselves overseas Chinese, particularly from the 1950s to the 1980s, a period during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of its citizens.

Due to the political dynamics of the Cold War, there was relatively little migration from the People's Republic of China to southeast Asia from the 1950s until the mid-1970s.[13]: 117 Statistics show that between 1949 and 1978, Qingtian, a county in Zhejiang known for its large diasporan communities abroad, only permitted 752 people to go abroad throughout this entire period.[23]In 1984, 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, US, South America, Europe and other parts of the world. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre further accelerated the migration. The wave calmed after Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty in 1997. In addition, many citizens of Hong Kong hold citizenships or have current visas in other countries so if the need arises, they can leave Hong Kong at short notice.[citation needed]

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. In 2014, author Howard French estimated that over one million Chinese have moved in the past 20 years to Africa.[24]

Multiple Chinatowns in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves, as large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York.[25][26][27][28][29] The New York metropolitan area contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017.[30] An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Chinese live in Austria.[31]

More recent Chinese presences have developed in Europe, where they number well over 1 million, and in Russia, they number over 200,000, concentrated in the Russian Far East. Russia's main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok, once closed to foreigners and belonged to China until the late 19th century, as of 2010 bristles with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses. A growing Chinese community in Germany consists of around 76,000 people as of 2010.[32]

Japanese diaspora

section excerpt Japanese diaspora.[edit]

The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (Japanese: 日系, IPA: [ɲikkeː]) or as Nikkeijin (Japanese: 日系人, IPA: [ɲikkeꜜːʑiɴ]), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 15th century to the Philippines,[33][34][35][36] but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji period (1868–1912), when Japanese emigrated to the Philippines[37] and to the Americas.[38][39] There was significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the period of Japanese colonial expansion (1875–1945); however, most of these emigrants repatriated to Japan after the 1945 surrender of Japan ended World War II in Asia.[40]

According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about 5 million Nikkei live in their adopted countries.[41] The largest of these foreign communities are in Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines,[42] China, Canada, and Peru. Descendants of emigrants from the Meiji period still maintain recognizable communities in those countries, forming separate ethnic groups from Japanese people in Japan.[43] The largest of these foreign communities are in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Paraná. There are also significant cohesive Japanese communities in the Philippines, Peru and in the American state of Hawaii. Nevertheless, most emigrant Japanese are largely assimilated outside of Japan.[41]

As of 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported the five countries with the highest number of Japanese expatriates as the United States (416,380), Australia (105,566), China (92,928), Canada (75,316), Thailand (72,113), and United Kingdom (62,270).[44]

Korean diaspora

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South Asian diaspora

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History

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Southeast Asian diaspora

There has been Southeast Asian migration to France since the French Indochina period. Since 1975, there has been a mass resettlement of refugees from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, primarily in France and the United States.[45]

Malaysian diaspora

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Filipino diaspora

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Thai diaspora

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Vietnamese diaspora

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West Asian diaspora

Arab diaspora

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Iranian diaspora

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Jewish diaspora

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Turkish diaspora

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See also

Notes

References

  1. ↑ Parreñas, Rhacel S.; Siu, Lok C.D., eds. (2007-11-30), "Asian Diasporas: New Formations, New Conceptions", Asian Diasporas, Stanford University Press, doi:10.1515/9780804767828, ISBN 978-0-8047-6782-8, S2CID 246220255, retrieved 2023-11-09
  2. ↑ Goh, Robbie B. H.; Wong, Shawn (2004-03-01). Asian Diasporas: Cultures, Indentity, Representation. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-962-209-672-1.
  3. ↑ "Introduction: Theorizing the Asian Diaspora". Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  4. ↑ Cunningham, Stuart; Sinclair, John (2001). Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-1136-1.
  5. ↑ Um, Hae-kyung (2004-11-04). Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts: Translating Traditions. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-78990-9.
  6. ↑ Amrith, Sunil S. (2011-03-07). Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49703-9.
  7. ↑ "Transnationalism and diaspora in Central Asia and the Caucasus". Central Asia and the Caucasus. 10 November 2004. doi:10.4324/9780203495827-6 (inactive 16 July 2025).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  8. ↑ Kim, Youna (2021). "Digital media and East Asian diaspora". Routledge Handbook of Asian Diaspora and Development. pp. 303–314. doi:10.4324/9780429352768-28. ISBN 9780429352768.
  9. ↑ Goodkind, Daniel. "The Chinese Diaspora: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Trends" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-02-20. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  10. ↑ Xu, Guoqi (2026). The Idea of China: A Contested History. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674303997. ISBN 9780674976795. JSTOR jj.33092015.
  11. ↑ "Living outside China has become more like living inside China". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  12. ↑ Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, translated by Wade, Geoff, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, 2005, archived from the original on 4 March 2016, retrieved 18 August 2019
  13. ↑ 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 Han, Enze (2024). The Ripple Effect: China's Complex Presence in Southeast Asia. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-769659-0.
  14. ↑ Pan, Lynn, ed. (1999). "Huaqiao". The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674252101. LCCN 98035466. Archived from the original on 17 March 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  15. ↑ The Story of California From the Earliest Days to the Present, by Henry K. Norton. 7th ed. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1924. Chapter XXIV, pp. 283–296.
  16. ↑ Displacements and Diaspora. Rutgers University Press. 2005. ISBN 9780813536101. JSTOR j.ctt5hj582.
  17. ↑ Baten, Jörg (November 2008). "Anthropometric Trends in Southern China, 1830–1864". Australian Economic History Review. 43 (3): 209–226. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8446.2008.00238.x.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Xu, Guoqi (2026). The Idea of China: A Contested History. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674303997. ISBN 9780674976795. JSTOR jj.33092015.
  19. ↑ Yong, Ching Fatt. "The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya, 1912–1949". University of Hawaii Press. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  20. ↑ Tan, Kah Kee (2013). The Making of an Overseas Chinese Legend. World Scientific Publishing Company. doi:10.1142/8692. ISBN 978-981-4447-89-8.
  21. ↑ Jan Voon, Cham (2002). "Kuomintang's influence on Sarawak Chinese". Sarawak Chinese political thinking : 1911–1963 (master thesis). University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Retrieved 28 August 2012. [permanent dead link]
  22. ↑ Wong, Coleen (10 July 2013). "The KMT Soldiers Who Stayed Behind In China". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  23. ↑ "当代浙南跨国移民活动的变迁". qwgzyj.gqb.gov.cn. Archived from the original on 2024-12-07. Retrieved 2025-12-03.
  24. ↑ French, Howard (November 2014). "China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  25. ↑ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2012 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  26. ↑ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 Supplemental Table 2". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Archived from the original on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  27. ↑ "Berapakah Jumlah Sesungguhnya Populasi Tionghoa di Indonesia?". nationalgeographic.grid.id. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  28. ↑ John Marzulli (9 May 2011). "Malaysian man smuggled illegal Chinese immigrants into Brooklyn using Queen Mary 2: authorities". New York: NY Daily News.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  29. ↑ "Chinese New Year 2012 in Flushing". QueensBuzz.com. 25 January 2012. Archived from the original on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  30. ↑ "Selected Population Profile in the United States 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates New York–Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA Chinese alone". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 27 January 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  31. ↑ "Heimat süßsauer" (PDF). Eu-china.net (in Deutsch). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  32. ↑ "Deutsch-Chinesisches Kulturnetz". De-cn.net (in Deutsch). Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  33. ↑ "Ancient Japanese pottery in Boljoon town". 30 May 2011.
  34. ↑ Manansala, Paul Kekai (5 September 2006). "Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan: Luzon Jars (Glossary)".
  35. ↑ Cole, Fay-Cooper (1912). "Chinese Pottery in the Philippines" (PDF). Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropological Series. 12 (1).
  36. ↑ "Philippines History, Culture, Civilization and Technology, Filipino". asiapacificuniverse.com.
  37. ↑ さや・白石; Shiraishi, Takashi (1993). The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia. SEAP Publications. ISBN 9780877274025.
  38. ↑ Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Japan: Japan-Mexico relations
  39. ↑ Palm, Hugo. "Desafíos que nos acercan," Archived 15 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine El Comercio (Lima, Peru). 12 March 2008.
  40. ↑ Azuma, Eiichiro (2005). "Brief Historical Overview of Japanese Emigration". International Nikkei Research Project. Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (April 2024). "海外日系人数推計" [Estimates of the number of people of Japanese descent living abroad] (PDF) (in 日本語). Retrieved August 29, 2026. Many descendants of Japanese emigrants no longer possess Japanese nationality. For the purposes of these estimates, however, Nikkei includes persons who are of Japanese ancestry and reside overseas on a permanent basis, regardless of whether they hold Japanese nationality. These estimates were compiled by Japanese embassies in each country as of 1 October 2023. In estimating the number of Nikkei residing within their respective jurisdictions, the embassies comprehensively considered national statistics, the number of permanent residents recorded in overseas residence registrations (zairyū todoke), and various other surveys, while also taking into account the distinctive patterns and circumstances of Japanese migration in each country and region.
  42. ↑ Furia, Reiko (1993). "The Japanese Community Abroad: The Case of Prewar Davao in the Philippines". In Saya Shiraishi; Takashi Shiraishi (eds.). The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University Publications. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-87727-402-5. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  43. ↑ Shoji, Rafael (2005). "Book Review" (PDF). Journal of Global Buddhism 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  44. ↑ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. "海外在留邦人数調査統計" [Statistics from the Survey of Japanese Nationals Overseas] (in 日本語). Retrieved August 29, 2026.
  45. ↑ "Diasporic identities: Southeast Asian incorporation experiences in Europe and America. The post-refugee generations | Sciences Po CERI". sciencespo.fr. 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2024-10-11.

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