Why are most Chinese overseas Chinese distributed in Southeast Asia?

Southeast Asia is the most concentrated area of overseas Chinese in the world, mainly from the southeast coast of China, especially Guangdong and Fujian provinces. Indonesia is the country with the largest Chinese population in Southeast Asia, about 6 million. China's population accounts for the largest proportion of the total population, accounting for about 76%.

Nowadays, most overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia are descendants of Chinese in Lower Southeast Asia.

During the period when the European powers ruled various regions of Nanyang, they hoped to attract China people to develop it. In addition, there have been several chaos in China, and there has been a wave of immigrants who work for a living. During the late Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, China people went to Southeast Asia to do business (the Maritime Silk Road), to work, and even immigrated to Southeast Asia (the main reason at first was that the Dutch authorities who established and ruled Indonesia came to South China to recruit workers), which was huge. The Natuna Islands were founded by China people.

Nanyang is a deep area called Southeast Asia in Ming and Qing Dynasties (excluding northern Vietnam). ) and its nearby areas dominated by water (one is the coast of Sri Lanka, Maldives and India in South Asia, while the west coast of Arabian Sea belongs to the western ocean; The second is the northern part of Australia east of Indonesia, namely Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, and the third is the western Pacific islands such as Palau Islands east of the Philippines.

The geographical concept of Nanyang mainly refers to the vast areas including the ten ASEAN countries, including the Malay Archipelago, Philippine Archipelago and Indonesian Archipelago, as well as the coastal areas of Indo-China Peninsula and Malay Peninsula. In a broad sense, Nanyang also includes India, Australia, New Zealand and nearby Pacific islands.

In the refugee tide in Lower Nanyang, they came from most provinces in China, but Fujian and Cantonese accounted for the majority (more than 95%), which was related to their geographical and cultural factors. Fujian and Guangdong provinces have twists and turns along the coast, and people learn from the sea, which is unmatched by mainland people; The two provinces are close to Nanyang, which is convenient to travel back and forth, and the road is close and economical, which is more "selective" than going to Latin America and other places. Moreover, at that time, China's national strength was strong, and after thousands of years of accumulation, Southeast Asian countries paid more attention to China. Some young people from Nanyang rocked their boats to the coastal areas of China to tattoo, and those who returned home by boat gave up their seats when they saw the words.

Going to South Asia does not mean migrating. In fact, it includes four aspects: first, official business; Second, go to Southeast Asia to do business (Maritime Silk Road). This kind of activity first appeared and ran through, and its scale was grand; Third, work to make a living. At first, the main motive was the Dutch authorities who established and ruled Indonesia (a small country in that area was defeated by the Netherlands and established a big country, namely Dutch Indonesia, which ruled for nearly 400 years), worried about the local people and came to South China to recruit workers (such as the Netherlands), among which commerce and immigration were prominent, and immigrants were the most conspicuous and the largest.

People who go to Southeast Asia mainly come from Guangdong and Fujian, and their destination is Southeast Asia.

The above is taken from Baidu Encyclopedia.