Waves ofChinese emigration have happened throughout history. They include the emigration toSoutheast Asia beginning from the 10th century during theTang dynasty, to theAmericas during the 19th century, particularly during theCalifornia gold rush in the mid-1800s; general emigration initially around the early to mid 20th century which was mainly caused by corruption, starvation, and war due to theWarlord Era, theSecond Sino-Japanese War and theChinese Civil War; and finally elective emigration to various countries. Most emigrants were peasants and manual laborers, although there were also educated individuals who brought their various expertises to their new destinations.
According toKazuo Yawata, a Professor atTokushima Bunri University and researcher atMatsushita Institute of Government and Management, modern Japanese and Koreans largely descend from migrants who arrived around 3,000 years ago after the fall of China’s Shang Dynasty. Recent ancient DNA research, featured in the ongoing exhibition “Ancient DNA: The Path of the Japanese People” at theNational Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo, shows that the main wave of Yayoi ancestors—who brought wet-rice agriculture and the roots of the Japanese language—reached Japan approximately 3,000 years ago, not 2,300–2,400 years ago as previously thought. This significantly older timeline is strongly supported by the Museum's latest DNA studies and is well worth seeing in person.[7]
The Zhou dynasty overthrew the Shang dynasty in 1046 BCE. This conquest marked the beginning of the Zhou rule and the expansion of their territorial control.[8]
Western Zhou: The Zhou people engaged in active military campaigns to expand their territory. As they conquered new regions, there was likely a movement of people to settle and administer these newly acquired lands.[9]
Eastern Zhou period: The Eastern Zhou period is characterized by the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE) and the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). During this time, the exchange of ideas and cultures between different states led to migration of scholars, artisans, and officials.[8]
From theHan dynasty onwards, Chinese military and agricultural colonies (Chinese:屯田) were established at various times in theWestern Regions, which in the early periods were lands largely occupied by an Indo-European people called theTocharians.
Many Chinesemerchants chose to settle down[when?] in the Southeast Asian ports such asChampa,Cambodia,Java, andSumatra, and married the native women. Their children carried on trade.[10][11]
Borneo: Many Chinese lived in Borneo as recorded by Zheng He.
Champa: theDaoyi Zhilüe documents Chinese merchants who went to Cham ports inChampa, marriedCham women, to whom they regularly returned to after trading voyages.[12] A Chinese merchant from Quanzhou, Wang Yuanmao, traded extensively with Champa, and married a Cham princess.[13]
Han Chinese settlers came during theMalacca Sultanate in the early 15th century. The friendlydiplomatic relations between China and Malacca culminated during the reign of SultanMansur Syah, who married the Chinese princessHang Li Po. A senior minister of state and five hundred youths and maids of noble birth accompanied the princess to Malacca.[14] AdmiralZheng He had also brought along 100 bachelors to Malacca.[15] The descendants of these two groups of people, mostly from Fujian province, are called theBaba (men) andNyonya (women).
Ryūkyū Kingdom: Many Chinese moved to Ryukyu to serve the government or engage in business during this period. TheMing dynasty sent fromFujian 36 Chinese families at the request of the Ryukyuan King to manage oceanic dealings in the kingdom in 1392 during theHongwu Emperor's reign. Many Ryukyuan officials were descended from these Chinese immigrants, being born in China or having Chinese grandfathers.[16] They assisted in the Ryukyuans in advancing their technology and diplomatic relations.[17][18][19]
Siam: According to the clan chart of family name Lim, Gan, Ng, Khaw, Cheah, many Chinese traders lived there. They were amongst some of the Siamese envoys sent to China.
In 1405, under theMing dynasty, Tan Sheng Shou, the Battalion Commander Yang Xin (Chinese:杨欣) and others were sent toJava's Old Port (Palembang;旧港) to bring the absconderLiang 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 fromGuangdong andFujian followed him there and chose Dao Ming as their leader.
OnLamu Island off theKenyan coast, localoral tradition maintains that 20 shipwrecked Chinese sailors, possibly part of Zheng's fleet, washed up on shore there hundreds of years ago. Given permission to settle by local tribes after having killed a dangerouspython, theyconverted toIslam and married local women. Now, they are believed to have just six descendants left there; in 2002, DNA tests conducted on one of the women confirmed that she was of Chinese descent. Her daughter, Mwamaka Sharifu, later received a PRC government scholarship to studytraditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China.[20][unreliable source?][21] OnPate Island, Frank Viviano described in a July 2005National Geographic article how ceramic fragments had been found around Lamu which the administrative officer of the local Swahili history museum claimed were of Chinese origin, specifically fromZheng He's voyage to East Africa. The eyes of the Pate people resembled Chinese and Famao and Wei were some of the names among them which were speculated to be of Chinese origin. Their ancestors were said to be fromindigenous women who intermarried with Chinese Ming sailors when they were shipwrecked. Two places on Pate were called "Old Shanga", and "New Shanga", which the Chinese sailors had named. A local guide who claimed descent from the Chinese showed Frank a graveyard made out of coral on the island, indicating that they were the graves of the Chinese sailors, which the author described as "virtually identical", to Chinese Ming dynasty tombs, complete with "half-moon domes" and "terraced entries".[22][better source needed]
According to Melanie Yap and Daniel Leong Man in their bookColour, Confusions and Concessions: the History of Chinese in South Africa, Chu Ssu-pen, aYuan mapmaker, had southern Africa drawn on one of his maps in 1320.[dubious –discuss] Ceramics found in Zimbabwe and South Africa dated back to the era of theSong dynasty in China.[dubious –discuss] Some tribes to Cape Town's north claimed descent from Chinese sailors during the 13th century, their physical appearance is similar to Chinese with paler skin and a Mandarin-sounding tonal language; they call themselvesAwatwa ("abandoned people").[23][better source needed] Most early Chinese ceramics and coins found in Africa are not from Chinese mariners or traders, but were carried by earlier Southeast AsianAustronesian trade ships which established routes to the western Indian Ocean from as early as the 5th century AD and colonizedMadagascar.[24]
When theMing dynasty in China fell, Chinese refugees fled south and extensively settled in the Cham lands and Cambodia.[25] Most of these Chinese were young males, and they took Cham women as wives. Their children identified more with Chinese culture. This migration occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries.[26]
Early European colonial powers in Asia encountered Chinese communities already well-established in various locations. TheKapitan Cina in various places was the representative of such communities towards the colonial authorities.
TheQing conquest of the Ming caused the Fujian refugees ofZhangzhou to resettle on the northern part of the Malay peninsula and Singapore, while those ofAmoy andQuanzhou resettled on the southern part of the peninsula. This group forms the majority of theStraits Chinese who were English-educated. Others moved toTaiwan at this time as well.
In the mid-1800s, outbound migration from China increased as a result of the European colonial powers opening uptreaty ports.[31]: 137 The British colonization of Hong Kong further created the opportunity for Chinese labor to be exported to plantations and mines.[31]: 137
Chinese immigrants, mainly from the controlled ports ofFujian andGuangdong provinces, were attracted by the prospect of work in thetin mines, rubberplantations or the possibility of opening up new farmlands at the beginning of the 19th century until the 1930s inBritish Malaya.
AfterSingapore became the capital of theStraits Settlements in 1832, thefree trade policy attracted many Chinese merchants fromMainland China to trade, and many settled down in Singapore. Because of booming commerce which required a large labor force, the indentured Chinesecoolie trade also appeared in Singapore. Coolies were contracted by traders and brought to Singapore to work. The large influx of coolies into Singapore only stopped afterWilliam Pickering became the Protector of Chinese. In 1914, the coolie trade was abolished and banned in Singapore. These populations form the basis of theChinese Singaporeans.
Peranakans, or those descendants of Chinese in Southeast Asia for many generations who were generally English-educated were typically known in Singapore as "Laokuh" (老客 – Old Guest) or "Straits Chinese". Most of them paid loyalty to theBritish Empire and did not regard themselves as "Huaqiao". From the 19th till the mid-20th century, migrants from China were known as "Sinkuh" (新客 – New Guest). A majority of them were coolies, workers on steamboats, etc. Some of them came to Singapore for work, in search of better living conditions or to escape poverty in China. Many of them also escaped to Singapore due to chaos and wars in China during the first half of the 20th century. They came mostly from theFujian, Guangdong andHainan provinces and, unlike Peranakans, paid loyalty to China and regarded themselves as "Huaqiao".
At the end of the 19th century, the Chinese government realized thatoverseas Chinese could be an asset, a source of foreign investment, and a bridge to overseas knowledge; thus, it encouraged the use of the term "Overseas Chinese" (华侨).[32]
Among the provinces,Guangdong had historically supplied the largest number of emigrants, estimated at 8.2 million in 1957; about 68% of the total overseas Chinese population at that time. Within Guangdong, the main emigrant communities were clustered in eight districts in thePearl River Delta (珠江三角洲): four districts known asSze Yup (四邑; 'four counties'); three counties known asSam Yup (三邑; 'three counties'); and the district ofZhongshan (中山).[33] Because of its limitedarable lands, with much of its terrain either rocky or swampy; Sze Yup was the "pre-eminent sending area" of emigrants during this period.[34] Most of the emigrants from Sze Yup went toNorth America, makingToishanese a dominantvariety of theChinese language spoken inChinatowns in Canada and the United States.
In addition to being a region of major emigration abroad, Siyi (Sze Yup) was a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese, (華僑;Huáqiáo). For example, manytong lau inChikan, Kaiping (Cek Ham,Hoiping inCantonese) anddiaolou (formerly romanized asClock Towers) inSze Yup built in the early 20th century featured Qiaoxiang (僑鄉) architecture, i.e., incorporating architectural features from both the Chinese homeland and overseas.[35]
The first major immigration to America was during theCalifornia gold rush of 1848–1855. Many Chinese, as well as people from other Asian countries, were prevented from moving to the United States as part of theChinese Exclusion Act of 1882.A similar law though less severe in scope was passed in Canada in 1885, imposing ahead tax instead of prohibiting immigration to Canada entirely. However,a 1923 law in Canada prohibited Chinese immigration completely. The Chinese Exclusion Act would only befully repealed in the US in 1965 and in Canadade jure in 1947 but de facto in the 1960s with theopening up of immigration to Canada.
In the first half of the 20th century, war and revolution accelerated the pace of migration out of China.[31]: 127 TheKuomintang and theCommunist Party competed for political support from overseas Chinese.[31]: 127–128
TheKuomintang retreat to Taiwan in 1949 saw an emigration of approximately 2 million mainland Chinese to Taiwan.
Chinatown, Flushing (法拉盛) inQueens,New York City has become the present-day global epicenter receiving Chinese immigration as well as the international control center directing such migration.[38]
Due to the political dynamics of theCold War, there was relatively little migration from the People's Republic of China to southeast Asia from the 1950s until the mid-1970s.[31]: 117
In the early 1960s, about 100,000 people were allowed to enterHong Kong. In the late 1970s, vigilance against illegalmigration to Hong Kong (香港) was again relaxed. Perhaps as many as 200,000 reached Hong Kong in 1979, but in 1980 authorities on both sides resumed concerted efforts to reduce the flow.[citation needed]
More liberalized emigration policies enacted in the 1980s as part of theOpening of China facilitated the legal departure of increasing numbers of Chinese who joined their overseas Chinese relatives and friends. TheFour Modernizations program, which requiredChinese students and scholars, particularlyscientists, to be able to attend foreign education and research institutions, brought about increased contact with the outside world, particularly theindustrialized nations.[citation needed]
In 1983, emigration restrictions were eased as a result in part of thereform and opening up.[citation needed] In 1984, more than 11,500 businessvisas were issued to Chinese citizens, and in 1985, approximately 15,000 Chinese scholars and students were in theUnited States alone. Any student who had the economic resources could apply for permission to study abroad.United States consular offices issued more than 12,500 immigrant visas in 1984, and there were 60,000 Chinese with approved visa petitions in the immigration queue.[citation needed]
The signing of the United States–China Consular Convention in 1983 demonstrated the commitment to more liberal emigration policies.[citation needed] Both sides agreed to permit travel for the purpose of family reunification and to facilitate travel for individuals who claim both Chinese and United States citizenship. However, emigrating from China remained a complicated and lengthy process mainly because many countries were unwilling or unable to accept the large numbers of people who wished to emigrate. Other difficulties included bureaucratic delays and, in some cases, a reluctance on the part of Chinese authorities to issue passports and exit permits to individuals making notable contributions to the modernization effort.[citation needed]
A much smaller wave of Chinese immigration to Singapore came after the 1990s, holding the citizenship of thePeople's Republic of China and mostlyMandarin-speaking Chinese from northern China. The only significant immigration to China has been by theoverseas Chinese, who in the years since 1949 have been offered various enticements to repatriate to theirhomeland.[citation needed]
In the early 2020s, there has been an influx of Chinese migrants using Mexico's northern border to enter America and advance to New York City, termed "ZouXian", translated in English to "walk the line".[45] The People's Republic of China maintains a broad definition of "illegal border crossing" and can prosecute its nationals for illegally crossing the border of other countries.[46] The number of such immigrants declined significantly in 2025 during thesecond presidency of Donald Trump, with only 80 Chinese nationals crossing the border in July 2025.[47]
^Kazuo Yawata,"殷の滅亡による民族移動で日本人と韓国人は生まれた" [The Birth of Japanese and Koreans Through Ethnic Movements Following the Fall of the Yin Dynasty].アゴラ 言論プラットフォーム (in Japanese). 15 May 2025. Retrieved10 December 2025., Citation:
^Wang, Gungwu (1994). "Upgrading the migrant: neither huaqiao nor huaren".Chinese America: History and Perspectives. Chinese Historical Society of America. p. 4.ISBN0-9614198-9-X.In its own way, it [Chinese government] has upgraded its migrants from a ragbag of malcontents, adventurers, and desperately poor laborers to the status of respectable and valued nationals whose loyalty was greatly appreciated.
^Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic (2005).Chinese America: the untold story of America's oldest new community.The New Press.ISBN978-1-56584-962-4.
^abEileen Sullivan (24 November 2023)."Growing Numbers of Chinese Migrants Are Crossing the Southern Border".The New York Times. Retrieved24 November 2023.Most who have come to the United States in the past year were middle-class adults who have headed to New York after being released from custody. New York has been a prime destination for migrants from other nations as well, particularly Venezuelans, who rely on the city's resources, including its shelters. But few of the Chinese migrants are staying in the shelters. Instead, they are going where Chinese citizens have gone for generations: Flushing, Queens. Or to some, the Chinese Manhattan..."New York is a self-sufficient Chinese immigrants community," said the Rev. Mike Chan, the executive director of the Chinese Christian Herald Crusade, a faith-based group in the neighborhood.
^Chen, Alicia (3 August 2025)."Some Chinese Weigh Painful Question: Stay or Flee Under Trump?".The New York Times. Retrieved18 August 2025.China has a broad definition of illegal border crossing, so entering the United States without authorization can be prosecuted as a crime. One of his client's family members, deported back to China late last year, was later convicted.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Country Studies.Federal Research Division.[1]
