Overseas Chinese

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Overseas Chinese
(海外華人/海外华人  or  外籍华人)
Total population

40,000,000 (estimates)

Regions with significant populations
Majority populations
Flag of Singapore Singapore 3,496,710 [8]
Minority populations
Flag of Indonesia Indonesia 7,566,200 [9]
Flag of Thailand Thailand 7,153,240 [10]
Flag of Malaysia Malaysia 7,070,500 [11]
Flag of the United States United States 3,376,031 [12]
Flag of Canada Canada 1,612,173 [13]
Flag of Peru Peru 1,300,000 [14]
Flag of Vietnam Vietnam 1,263,570 [15]
Flag of the Philippines Philippines 1,146,250 [16]
Flag of Burma Burma 1,101,314 [17]
Flag of Russia Russia 998,000 [18]
Flag of Australia Australia 669,896 [19]
Flag of Japan Japan 606,889 [20]
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom 347,000 [21]
Flag of Cambodia Cambodia 343,855 [22]
Flag of France France 230,515 [23]
Flag of India India 189,470 [24]
Flag of Laos Laos 185,765 [25]
Flag of Brazil Brazil 151,649 [26]
Flag of New Zealand New Zealand 147,570 [27]
Flag of Italy Italy 144,885 [28]
Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands 144,928 [29]
Flag of South Africa South Africa 100,000
Languages
various
Religions
Predominantly Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism with Confucianism. Large number of Atheism. Small but significant Christian and Muslim minorities.

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China region, which includes territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC).[dubious ] In addition, the ROC had 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. People of partial Chinese ancestry may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese.

The term Overseas Chinese is ambiguous as to whether it can refer to any of the ethnic groups that live in China (the broadly defined Zhonghua minzu) or whether it refers specifically to the Han Chinese ethnicity, narrowly defined. Korean minorities from China who are living in South Korea today are often included in calculations of overseas Chinese, because ethnic Koreans may also identify themselves as part of the Chinese nation. In Southeast Asia and particularly in Malaysia and Singapore, the state classifies the Peranakan as Chinese despite partial assimilation into Malay culture.

One study on overseas Chinese defines several criteria for identifying non-Han overseas Chinese: there is evidence of descent from groups living within or originating from China, they still retain their culture, self-identify with Chinese culture or acknowledge Chinese origin, and are not indigenous to their current land. Under this definition, minority overseas Chinese number about 7 million, or about 8.4% of the total overseas population.[1]

Contents

[edit] Terminology

The Chinese language has various terms equivalent to the English "Overseas Chinese". Huáqiáo (Simplified:华侨; Traditional:華僑) refers to Chinese citizens residing in countries other than China. Huáyì (Simplified:华裔; Traditional:華裔) refers to ethnic Chinese residing outside of China. [30] Another often-used term is 海外华人 (hǎiwài huárén), a more literal translation of Overseas Chinese; it is often used by the PRC government to refer to people of Chinese ethnicities who live outside the PRC, regardless of citizenship.

Overseas Chinese who are Cantonese, Hokkien (Taiwanese) or Hakka refer to Overseas Chinese as 唐人 (tángrén), pronounced tòhng yàn in Cantonese, tng lang in Hokkien and tong nyin in Hakka. Literally, it means Tang people, a reference to Tang dynasty China when it was ruling China proper. It should be noted that this term is commonly used to refer to people of Chinese descent locally and not necessarily always as a reference to any relations between the Overseas Chinese people of today and the Tang dynasty.[citation needed]

[edit] History

Main article: Chinese emigration

The Chinese people have a long history of migrating overseas. One of the migrations dates 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, and many of them were Cantonese and Hokkien.

[edit] Waves of immigration

There were different waves of immigration which led to subgroups among overseas Chinese such as the new and old immigrants in Southeast Asia, North America, Oceania, Latin America, South Africa and Russia.

In the 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 during the Qing dynasty. The Qing Empire was forced to allow its subjects to work overseas under colonial powers. Many Hokkien chose to work in Southeast Asia with their earlier links starting from the Ming era, as did the Cantonese. The city of Taishan in Guangdong province was the source for many of the economic migrants. 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 the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. 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.

From the mid-19th century onward, emigration has been directed primarily to western countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and the nations of Western Europe; as well as to Peru where they are called tusán, Panama, and to a lesser extent to Mexico. Many of these emigrants who entered western countries were themselves overseas Chinese or were from Taiwan or Hong Kong, particularly from the 1950s to the 1980s, during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of its citizens. 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, USA, Latin America and other parts of the world. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 further accelerated the migration. The wave calmed after the 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 on a short notice. In fact, after the Tiananmen Square incident, the lines for immigration visas increased at every consulate in Hong Kong. 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. Chinese who emigrated to Vietnam beginning in the 18th century are referred to as Hoa.

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. As of August 2007, there were an estimated 750,000 Chinese nationals working or living for extended periods in different African countries.[2]

Russia’s main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok, once closed to foreigners, today is bristling with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses.[3] Experts predict that the Chinese diaspora in Russia will increase to at least 10 million by 2010 and Chinese may become the dominant ethnic group in the Russian Far East region 20 to 30 years from now.[4][5][6]

[edit] Occupations

The Chinese in Southeast Asian countries have established themselves in commerce and finance.[7] In North America, Europe and Oceania, occupations are diverse and impossible to generalize; ranging from catering to significant ranks in medicine, the arts, and academia.

[edit] Overseas Chinese experience

The Chinese usually identify a person by ethnic origin instead of nationality. As long as the person is of Chinese descent, that person is considered Chinese, and if that person lives outside of China, that person is overseas Chinese. The majority of PRC Chinese do not understand the overseas Chinese experience of being a minority[citation needed], as ethnic Han Chinese comprise approximately 92% of the population.

[edit] Discrimination

Overseas Chinese have sometimes experienced hostility and discrimination (see Sinophobia). Whether such treatment is reasonable, is a frequent point of contention between Overseas Chinese and nativist elements of their host societies.[citation needed] A major point of friction is the often disproportionate economic influence of the Overseas Chinese (who dominate almost all the economies of Southeast Asia), and their tendency to segregate themselves into a subculture.[citation needed] For example, the anti-Chinese Jakarta Riots of May 1998 and Kuala Lumpur Racial Riots of 13 May 1969 seem to have been motivated by these perceptions.

Ethnic politics can be found to motivate both sides of the debate. In Malaysia, Overseas Chinese tend to support equal and meritocratic treatment on the expectation that they would not be discriminated against in the resulting competition for government contracts, university places, etc., whereas many "Bumiputra" ("native sons") Malays oppose this on the grounds that their group needs such protections in order to retain their patrimony. The question of to what extent ethnic Malays, Chinese, or others are "native" to Malaysia is a sensitive political one. It is currently a taboo for Chinese politicians to raise the issue of Bumiputra protections in parliament, as this would be deemed ethnic incitement.[8] Nevertheless, Chinese control at least 55 per cent of the Malaysian economy.

In Indonesia, ethnic Chinese are not allowed to educate their children in formal Chinese-medium schools. In some cases other cultural markers (such as Chinese calendars) are banned. Chinese-language signs were banned in Indonesia until 2004. Nevertheless, Chinese control at least 22 percent of the Indonesian economy.

In order to avoid discrimination, some overseas Chinese explicitly identify themselves only by nationality (i.e., the state they are from or resident in).

In Thailand, ethnic Chinese are forced to adopt Thai names. Nevertheless, Chinese control at least 44 per cent of the Thai economy.

Also, Chinese control at least 22 percent of the Vietnamese economy and 11 percent of the Filipino economy.

Many of the overseas Chinese who worked on railways in North America in the 19th century suffered from racial discrimination in Canada and the United States. Although discriminatory laws have been repealed or are no longer enforced today, both countries had at one time introduced statutes that barred Chinese from entering the country, for example the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States or the Canadian Chinese Immigration Act, 1923.

See also: Anti-Chinese legislation in the United States.

[edit] Assimilation

Hakka people in a wedding in East Timor, 2006
Hakka people in a wedding in East Timor, 2006

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 their compatriots. 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, and Myanmar were among the countries that do not allow birth names to be registered in foreign languages, including Chinese. But since 2003, the Indonesian government has allowed overseas Chinese to use their Chinese name or using their Chinese family name on their birth certificate.

Famous Chinese-Japanese model Suzuki Emi
Famous Chinese-Japanese model Suzuki Emi

In Vietnam, Chinese names are pronounced with Sino-Vietnamese readings. For example, 胡锦涛 (pinyin: Hú Jǐntāo) would become "Hồ Cẩm Đào". Very often, there is no distinction between Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese. 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 on 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. The Chinese have also brought a cultural influence to some other countries such as Vietnam, where many Chinese customs have been adopted by native Vietnamese. A large number of Chinese people stayed in Vietnam and never returned to China.[9]

[edit] Language

The usage of Chinese languages by overseas Chinese has been determined by a large number of factors, including their ancestry, their migrant ancestors' "regime of origin", assimilation through generational changes, and official policies of their country of residence.

[edit] Southeast Asia

Within Southeast Asia, the language situation of overseas Chinese vary greatly even amongst neighboring nations. On one hand, ethnic Chinese in Indonesia and Thailand had been subjected to official, and at times draconian, assimilation policies, and as a result many of them are no longer proficient in the Chinese language (particularly Chinese ethnic who lived in Java). Chinese who lived in Sumatra did not give up some of the dialects. Most of the Chinese ethnic in Medan is still able to speak Hokkien within their circle. This is due to the amount of the generation who lived in Indonesia and exposed to the cultural assimilation. Most of the Chinese ethnic who lived in Java have a long generation of forefathers before them (10 generations), where the Chinese ethnic who lived in Sumatra have a relatively short generation of forefathers (4 or 5 generations).

On the other end, Malaysian Chinese speak a wide variety of dialects, their prevalence being concentrated around particular metropolitan centers: the Penang, Klang and Malacca groups are predominantly Hokkien-speaking; the Kuala Lumpur, Seremban & Ipoh group is predominantly Cantonese and Hakka-speaking; whereas in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo), Hakka and Mandarin is widely spoken, except in Sibu, Fuzhou and in Sandakan, Cantonese and Hakka.

In Singapore, a nation with an ethnic Chinese majority population, Mandarin is recognized as one of its official languages, along with Simplified Chinese characters, in contrast to other overseas Chinese communities which almost exclusively used Traditional Chinese characters until the 1990s when PRC nationals began to emigrate in substantial numbers. The official policy in Singapore also has an impact to the neighboring Johor, in the south of Peninsular Malaysia, where Mandarin is predominantly spoken among the Chinese communities there.

[edit] North America

Many overseas Chinese populations in North America speak some variety of spoken Chinese. In the United States and Canada, Chinese is the third most spoken language.[10][11] Cantonese has historically been the most prevalent variety due to immigrants being mostly from southern China from the 19th century up through the 1980s.[11][12] However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening up of the PRC.[12]

In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca.[13] Although Min Chinese is spoken natively by a third of the Chinese population there, it is not used as a lingua franca because speakers of other dialect groups do not learn Min.[13]

[edit] Relationship with China

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.

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.

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. Many overseas Chinese are now investing in mainland China providing financial resources, social and cultural networks, contacts and opportunities.

According to Article 5 of the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China: "Any person born abroad whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. But a person whose parents are both Chinese nationals and have both settled abroad, or one of whose parents is a Chinese national and has settled abroad, and who has acquired foreign nationality at birth shall not have Chinese nationality".[14] However the Nationality Law of the Republic of China (Taiwan), which permits dual citizenship, considers these persons to be citizens of the ROC.

[edit] Current numbers

There are over 40 million overseas Chinese, mostly living in Southeast Asia where they make up a majority of the population of Singapore and significant minority populations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The overseas populations in those areas arrived between the 16th and 19th centuries mostly from the maritime provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, followed by Hainan. There were incidences of earlier emigration from the 10th to 15th centuries in particular to Malacca and Southeast Asia.

[edit] Statistics

Continent/Country Articles about Chinese population Overseas Chinese Population % of local
population
% of Global Overseas
Chinese population
Asia   30,976,784 (2006) 0.8% 78.7%
Thailand Thai Chinese 8.5 million (2006) 14% 11.7%
Indonesia Chinese Indonesian 7.3 million (2003) 3.1% 11.7%
Malaysia Malaysian Chinese, Peranakan 7.0 million (2006)[15] 24.5% 12.1%
Singapore Chinese in Singapore 2.7 million (2005)[16] 75.6% 4.3%
Vietnam Hoa, Ngái, San Diu 2.3 million (2006)[17] 3% 2%-3%
Philippines Chinese Filipino, Tornatras, Sangley 1.5 million (2004) 2% 2.4%
Myanmar Burmese Chinese, Panthay 1.3 million (2003) 3% 2.1%
India Chinese community in Kolkata 186,461 (2005) 0.02% 0.5%
Japan Chinese in Japan 175,000 (2003) 0.1% 0.3%
Cambodia Chinese Cambodian 150,000 (2003) 1.2% 0.2%
South Korea Ethnic Chinese in Korea 85,000 (2003) 0.2% 0.16%
Brunei Ethnic Chinese in Brunei 56,000 (2006) 15% 0.1%
Laos Laotian Chinese 50,000 (2003) 1% 0.1%
North Korea Ethnic Chinese in Korea 50,000 (2003) 0.2% 0.1%
Israel Chinese in Israel 23,000 0.3% 0.1%
Mongolia Han Chinese in Mongolia 11,323 0.4% 0.03%
Americas   6,059,240 (2008) 0.6% 15.4%
United States Chinese American, American-born Chinese 3 million (2005) 1% 6.8%
Canada Chinese Canadian, Canadian-born Chinese 1.3 million (2004) 3.69% 3.4%
Brazil Chinese Brazilian 360,000 (2006) 0.10% 0.4%
Peru Chinese-Peruvian 250,000 2.08% 0.4%
Panama Ethnic Chinese in Panama 150,000 5% 0.4%
Cuba Chinese Cuban 114,240 [18] 1% 0.3%
Argentina Asian Argentine 60,000 0.16% 0.1%
Dominican Republic Asian Dominican 25,000 0.27% 0.1%
Nicaragua Chinese Nicaraguan 12,000[19] -- --
Jamaica Chinese Jamaican Unknown -- --
Suriname -- 9,400 2% --
Trinidad & Tobago Chinese Trinidadian 3,800 -- --
Europe   1,700,000 (2006) 0.2% 4.1%
Russia Chinese people in Russia, Dungan 680,000 0.5% 1.9%
France Chinese French, Sino-Réunionnaise 300,000 0.5% 0.9%
United Kingdom
England
British Chinese 500,000 (2008)
347,000 (2005)[20]
0.8%
0.7%
1.3%
0.8%
Italy Chinese in Italy 111,712 0.19% 0.2%
Spain Chinese people in Spain 99,000 (2006)[21] 0.22% 0.16%
Germany -- 71,639 (2004)[22] 0.1% 0.1%
The Netherlands -- 144,928 (2006)[23] 0.7% 0.1%
Ireland -- 16,533 (2006)[24] 0.39%
Romania Chinese of Romania 2,249 -- --
Oceania   1,000,000(2003) 1.9% 1.7%
Australia Chinese Australian 669,896(2006)[25] 4.8% 1.3%
New Zealand Chinese New Zealander 147,570 (2006) 3.5% 0.3%
Fiji Chinese in Fiji 6,000 (2000) 0.5% 0.01%
Tonga Chinese in Tonga 3,000 to 4,000 (2001)[26][27] 3 or 4% --
Africa   103,000 (2003) 0.02% 0.3%
Cape Verde Chinese in Cape Verde Unknown Unknown Unknown
South Africa South African Chinese 100,000 (2003) 0.2% 0.3%
Mauritius Sino-Mauritian Unknown 3% Unknown
Total -- 39,379,784 0.6% 100%

Statistics compiled using local country statistics or best available estimates. Note that the percentages may not add up due to varying census and estimate dates.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ . ""A Survey of the Study on Huanqiao-Huaren in PRC (1950-2000) —With Reference to the Study on Ethnic Minority Huanqiao-Huaren"".
  2. ^ Chinese flocking in numbers to a new frontier: Africa
  3. ^ Chinese Come To Russia
  4. ^ A Chinese 'Invasion'
  5. ^ Chinese Presence Grows in Russian Far East
  6. ^ Vladivostok's Chinese puzzle
  7. ^ The world's successful diasporas
  8. ^ Race clouds Malaysian birthday festivities
  9. ^ . "The Urban History of the Southeast Asian Coastal Cities".
  10. ^ Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000, U.S. Census Brueau, 2003, <http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf>. Retrieved on 22 February 2008 
  11. ^ a b 2006 Census Profile of Federal Electoral Districts (2003 Representation Order): Language, Mobility and Migration and Immigration and Citizenship, Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2007 
  12. ^ a b Lai, H. Mark (2004). Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions. AltaMira Press. ISBN 0759104581. 
  13. ^ a b García, Ofelia; Fishman, Joshua A. (2002). The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 311017281X. 
  14. ^ Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China - china.org.cn
  15. ^ US Department of State info on Malaysia [1]
  16. ^ Singapore Statistics [2]
  17. ^ [3]: Source from the US Department of State shows (source linked) that as of 2006 there are 2.3 million Chinese in Vietnam. The 1.3 million figure from 1999 excludes Chinese of other nationalities not included in that census, and Chinese population has also increased dramatically since 1999 due simply to large birth rate.
  18. ^ CIA World Factbook. Cuba. 2008. May 15, 2008. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html>.
  19. ^ "Nicaragua: People groups", Joshua Project. Retrieved on 2007-03-26. 
  20. ^ "Population of the UK, by ethnic group, 2001" (Note that in UK usage Asian in this context refer to South Asia). Retrieved on 23 June, 2006.
  21. ^ Instituto Nacional de Estadística: Padrón 2006[4].
  22. ^ Federal Statistical Office Germany [5].
  23. ^ Dutch Census Bureau (excludes ethnic Chinese not from China)[6].
  24. ^ Beyond 20/20 WDS - Table View
  25. ^ 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics [7].
  26. ^ "Tonga announces the expulsion of hundreds of Chinese immigrants", John Braddock, wsws.org, December 18, 2001
  27. ^ "Tonga to expel race-hate victims", Paul Raffaele & Matthew Dearnaley, New Zealand Herald, November 22, 2001

[edit] Further reading

  • Pan, Lynn. The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Landmark Books, Singapore, 1998. ISBN 981-4155-90-X
  • Chin, Ung Ho. The Chinese of South East Asia, London: Minority Rights Group, 2000. ISBN 1-897693-28-1
  • López-Calvo, Ignacio. Imaging the Chinese in Cuban Literature and Culture, Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2008. ISBN 0-8130-3240-7
  • Fitzgerald, John. "Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia", UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007. ISBN 978-0868408-70-5

[edit] External links