Chinese Diasporas
A Social History of Global Migration

A concise and compelling survey of Chinese migration in global history centered on Chinese migrants and their families.

Steven B. Miles (Author)

9781316631812, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 February 2020

278 pages, 10 b/w illus. 5 maps 2 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.45 kg

'Chinese Diasporas is an ambitious effort to recount 500 years of overseas migration, flitting from locales such as Depression Era Chicago to British Malaya from one paragraph to the next.' Selina J. Gao, Canadian Journal of History

Chinese Diasporas provides a concise and compelling new history of internal and external Chinese migration from the sixteenth century to the present day. Steven B. Miles places Chinese migrants and their families at the center of his narrative through a series of engaging case studies taking readers from the heart of Ming China to the global property markets of the twenty-first century. The focus on individual migrants and their descendants reveals the ways in which the 'Chinese diaspora' has consisted of distinct paths of migration from specific emigrant communities to targeted destinations both within China and abroad. This is essential reading for those interested in the history of the Chinese diaspora and the overseas Chinese, and for those interested in the role of migration in the making of the modern world.

Introduction. Framing Chinese migration
1. Early modern patterns, 1500–1740
2. Migration in the prosperous age, 1740–1840
3. The age of mass migration, 1840–1937
4. The Chinese state and the politics of diaspora, 1860s–1940s
5. Disruptions and diasporic communities in the mid-twentieth century
6. The 'floating population' and 'new migrants', 1980s–present
7. Transnational Chinese, 1990s–present
8. Is there a Chinese diaspora?

Subject Areas: Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Asian history [HBJF]