Chinese migration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map of Chinese Migration during the 1800s - year 1949.

Chinese migration (also known as the Chinese Diaspora) first occurred thousands of years ago, but the mass migration that occurred from the 19th century to 1949 was mainly caused by wars and starvation in mainland China as well as political corruption. Most immigrants were illiterate or poorly educated peasants and coolies (Chinese: 苦力), who were sent to countries such as the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Malaya and other places.

According to Lynn Pan's book Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the Chinese coolie emigration began, after slavery had been abolished throughout the British possessions. Facing a desperate shortage of manpower, European merchants were looking to replace African slaves with indentured labourers from China and India. A British Guiana planter found what he was looking for in the Chinese labourers "...their strong physique, their eagerness to make money, their history of toil from infancy..."

Large numbers of unskilled Chinese were sold as labourers, in the coolie trade, to the colonies overseas in exchange for money to feed their families; this type of trading was known as maai jyu jai (selling piglets : 賣豬仔) by the Chinese, and their lives were extremely miserable. Some tricky labor recruiters promised good pay and good working conditions to get them signed onto three year labor contracts. It was recorded on one pepper estate, 50 coolies hired, only 2 survived in half a year. Most coolies were treated badly and many died in route to South America and South Africa because of bad conditions. Usually, they were cheated out of their wages and were unable to return to China after their contracts expired.

1 Chronology of Migration
- 1.1 10-15th century
2 See also
3 Web References
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Chronology of Migration

210 BCE, Qin Shi Huang dispatched Xu Fu to sail overseas in search of elixirs of immortality, accompanied by 3,000 virgin boys and girls. History is entangled in legend; Xu Fu may have settled in Japan.

661 CE Tang dynasty, Zheng Guo Xi of Nan An, Fujian was buried at a Philippine island.^[1]

7-8th century, the Arabs recorded large numbers of Tang traders residing at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and they had families there.

10th century, Arab trader Masuoti recorded in his Golden Ley, in the year 943, he sailed passed Srivijaya and saw many Chinese people farming there especially at Palembang. These people migrated to Nanyang to evade chaos caused by war in Tang Dynasty China.

[edit] 10-15th century

Java: Zheng He's compatriot Ma Huan recorded in his book (Chinese: 瀛涯胜览) that large numbers of Chinese lived in the Majapahit Empire on Java, especially in Surabaya (Chinese: 泗水). The place where the Chinese lived was called New Village (Chinese: 新村), with many originally from Canton, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.
Cambodia: Envoy of Yuan dynasty, Zhou Daguan (Chinese: 周达观) recorded in his The Customs of Chenla; Chinese: 真腊风土记), that there were many Chinese, especially sailors, who lived there, with many intermarrying with local women.
Siam: According to the clan chart of family name Lim, Gan, Ng, Khaw, Cheah, many Chinese traders lived there. Some of the Siamese envoys sent to China were these people.
Borneo: Many Chinese lived there as recorded by Zheng He.
1405 Ming dynasty, Tan Sheng Shou, the Battalion Commander Yang Xin and others were sent to Java's Old Port (Palembang; Chinese: 旧港) to bring the absconder Liang Dao Ming (Chinese: 梁道明) and others to negotiate pacification. He took his family and fled to live in this place, where he remained for many years. Thousands of military personnel and civilians from Guangdong and Fujian followed him there and chose Dao Ming as their leader.
1459 Ming emperor sent Hang Li Po to Malacca along with 500 other female attendants, many attendants later married officials serving Mansur Shah as Li Po married the sultan after she accepted conversion to Islam.