Overseas Chinese

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  Singapore 3,496,710 [8] Minority populations  Indonesia 7,566,200 [9]  Thailand 7,153,240 [10]  Malaysia 7,070,500 [11]  United States 3,376,031 [12]  Canada 1,612,173 [13]  Peru 1,300,000 [14]  Vietnam 1,263,570 [15]  Philippines 1,146,250 [16]  Burma 1,101,314 [17]  Russia 998,000 [18]  Australia 669,896 [19]  Japan 606,889 [20]  United Kingdom 347,000 [21]  Cambodia 343,855 [22]  France 230,515 [23]  India 189,470 [24]  Laos 185,765 [25]  Brazil 151,649 [26]  New Zealand 147,570 [27]  Italy 144,885 [28]  Netherlands 144,928 [29]  South Korea 137,790 [30]  Panama 135,000 [31]  Spain 124,022 [32]  Angola 100,000 [33]  South Africa 100,000  Jamaica 70,000 [34]  Mauritius 38,000 [35]
Languages
various
Religion
Predominantly Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism with Confucianism. Significant Christian, small other religious minorities.
Related ethnic groups
Chinese people

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) (mainland China) and the Republic of China (ROC) (Taiwan). People of partial Chinese ancestry may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese. A vast majority of the overseas Chinese hail from only three coastal provinces of the mainland viz. Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan^[1]

The term Overseas Chinese is ambiguous and inconsistent 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, although they are not categorized as ethnic Han Chinese. Under this definition, "ethnic minority" overseas Chinese number about 7 million, or about 8.4% of the total overseas population.^[2]

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. [36] 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 ethnically Cantonese, Hokkien or Hakka refer to Overseas Chinese as 唐人 (tángrén), pronounced tòhng yàn in Cantonese, Tn̂g-lâng 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.

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.

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 Russian 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.^[3] An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.^[4]

Russia’s main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok, once closed to foreigners, today is bristling with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses.^[5] 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.^[6][7][8]

Occupations

The Chinese in Southeast Asian countries have established themselves in commerce and finance.^[9] 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.

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, as ethnic Han Chinese comprise approximately 92% of the population.

Discrimination

Overseas Chinese have sometimes experienced hostility and discrimination (see Sinophobia). A major point of friction is the often their tendency to segregate themselves into a subculture. For example, the anti-Chinese Kuala Lumpur Racial Riots of 13 May 1969 and Jakarta Riots of May 1998 were believed to have been motivated by these racially-biased 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.^[10]

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 .

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 .

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.

Assimilation

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. 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 ethnic Chinese intermarried with the natives in order for them to be granted citizenship in the Philippines and for them to escape persecution from the Spanish authorities who distrusted the unmixed Chinese. These Chinese mestizos comprise about 15-20% of the population, they were referred back then as Mestizo de Sangley (lit. mixed race of business) referring to the nature of their main source of income. Chinese mestizos who trace their roots back to Chinese immigrants to the Philippines during the Spanish Colonial Period usually have multiple syllable Chinese surnames that are indigenous to Chinese Filipinos such as Biazon, Cojuangco, Lacson, Ongpin, Quebengco, Tambengco, Tanbonliong, Tantoco, Tuazon, Yuchengco, Dyloco, Dytoc, and Yupangco, among such others. These were originally full Chinese names which were transliterated into Spanish and adopted as surnames. In contrast, more recent immigrants have single syllable Chinese surnames. Many Chinese mestizos (as well as Spanish-Chinese and Tornatras) have also either inherited or took on Spanish or indigenous surnames, such as Martines, Madrigal, or Santos. Chinese culture was well assimilated into the mainstream Filipino culture while at the same time also embracing many aspects of Filipino culture. 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.^[11]

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.

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 are widely spoken, except in Sibu, where Fuzhou dialect is predominant, and in Sandakan, where Cantonese is spoken.

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.

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.^[12][13] Cantonese has historically been the most prevalent variety due to immigrants being mostly from southern China from the 19th century up through the 1980s.^[13][14] However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening up of the PRC.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[15]

Vancouver, British Columbia officially recognizes Chinese as a regional language due to the large number of Chinese people living in Vancouver, particularly the suburb of Richmond, which the majority of residents formed are Chinese.

The Los Angeles area and Santa Clara County have particularly high numbers of Mandarin speakers, partly due to immigration from Taiwan.

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".^[16] However the Nationality Law of the Republic of China, which permits dual citizenship, considers these persons to be citizens of the ROC.

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.

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)[17]	24.5%	12.1%
Singapore	Chinese in Singapore	2.7 million (2005)[18]	75.6%	4.3%
Vietnam	Hoa, Ngái, San Diu	2.3 million (2006)[19]	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%
Peru	Chinese-Peruvian	1.3 million [20]	2.08%	3.4%
Canada	Chinese Canadian, Canadian-born Chinese	1.3 million (2004)	3.69%	3.4%
Brazil	Chinese Brazilian	360,000 (2006)	0.10%	0.4%
Panama	Ethnic Chinese in Panama	150,000	5%	0.4%
Cuba	Chinese Cuban	114,240 [21]	1%	0.3%
Argentina	Asian Argentine	60,000	0.16%	0.1%
Costa Rica	Chinese-Costa Rican	40,000	0,14%	--
Dominican Republic	Asian Dominican	25,000	0.27%	0.1%
Mexico	Chinese Mexican	23,000 (2003)[22]	--	--
Nicaragua	Chinese Nicaraguan	12,000[23]	--	--
Jamaica	Chinese Jamaican	70,000[24]	--	--
Suriname	--	9,400	2%	--
Chile	Chinese Chilean	5,000 to 10,000	--
Trinidad & Tobago	Chinese Trinidadian	3,800	--	--
Guyana	Chinese Guyanese	2,722[25]	--
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)[26]	0.8% 0.7%	1.3% 0.8%
Italy	Chinese in Italy	111,712	0.19%	0.2%
Spain	Chinese people in Spain	124,022 (2008)[27]	0.27%	0.31%
Germany	--	71,639 (2004)[28]	0.1%	0.1%
Netherlands	--	144,928 (2006)[29]	0.7%	0.1%
Ireland	--	16,533 (2006)[30]	0.39%	--
Bulgaria	Chinese people in Bulgaria	5,000,[31] — 10,000[32] estimated up to 100,000[33]	--	--
Romania	Chinese of Romania	2,249	--	--
Serbia	--	Unknown	--	--
Oceania		1,000,000(2003)	1.9%	1.7%
Australia	Chinese Australian	669,896(2006)[34]	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)[35][36]	3 or 4%	--
Samoa	Chinese in Samoa	30,000	--
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%
Angola	Chinese Angolan	100,000	--
Mauritius	Sino-Mauritian	38,000	3%	Unknown
Total	--	39,417,784	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.

See also

• Asian Latin American
• Chinese migration
• Chinatown, the article, and Category:Chinatowns the international category list
• Chinese Clan Association
• List of overseas Chinese
• Anti-Chinese legislation in Indonesia
• Bumiputra
• Hongkonger
• Overseas Chinese banks

References

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

External links

• Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (Chinese)
• 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