Kong Feili's academic research.

Since the mid-1990s, Kong Feili has taken the history of overseas Chinese immigration as a new research focus. The research on the history of overseas immigrants enables him to integrate the history of China with the history of the world, examine the history of China and China from a broader perspective, and explore the complex relationship, identity, historical and practical experience of overseas Chinese and their motherland, as well as the social structure and cultural mentality of Chinese society. He believes that the history of overseas Chinese is a part of China's modern history. Studying overseas Chinese can help us understand the process of China people emigrating overseas, why they left the country to emigrate, and how they experienced and made a fortune overseas. Either you succeed or you fail. Also, why do other ethnic groups sometimes bully Chinese? What are the historical reasons? What is the relationship between overseas Chinese and local residents and the government? How do these relationships affect their future? There are many contents, involving anthropology, economics, politics, sociology, religion, ethnology, international relations and so on. All these topics are part of the study of overseas Chinese.

1993- 1994, Kong Feili opened a course for overseas Chinese at Harvard. Kong Feili thinks that China culture has formed several valuable characteristics for China immigrants, one is family system, the other is commercialization, and the early commercialization history of China is closely related to the immigration history. Another feature is the maintenance of China culture overseas, which is also a very common phenomenon. China emigrated overseas, and the integration process was actually very slow. China people have successfully integrated into Thailand, but many Chinese families in Thailand still keep their original China surnames, and their personal behaviors and beliefs are very China, with strong China traditional cultural characteristics.

Kong Feili believes that to understand the history of overseas immigration, we must take China's long history of domestic immigration as the basic background, and the history of overseas immigration is only a special case of the whole immigration process. Kong Feili attaches great importance to the connection between the history of overseas Chinese immigrants and the history of China, and the history of overseas immigrants is rooted in China. This is a basic starting point and position for Kong Feili to study the history of overseas Chinese immigrants.

Kong Feili vividly compared China to a school for overseas immigrants. His so-called "immigrant schools" refer to some famous commercial cities along the southeast coast of China, such as Xiamen and Guangzhou. Kong Feili regards them as "transit points" for overseas immigrants. What overseas immigrants get in this "immigration school" in China is "historical capital", that is, historical experience gained in a specific historical period, rather than "cultural capital"

In the study of China's social history and political history, Kong Feili has always attached great importance to the position and role of gentlemen-social elites in society. On the issue of overseas immigration history, he still pays attention to the role of social elites. Of course, among the special groups of overseas Chinese society, social elites are no longer prestigious literati and gentlemen, but Chinese businessmen from various dialect groups and geographical groups. Kong Feili believes that there are two main ways for overseas Chinese elites to gain recognition for their leadership. First, by emphasizing the "motherland" consciousness, it transcends the boundaries of dialects and regional groups. Second, through donations to charity and education. The authorities conferred various titles on them. The result of overseas Chinese social elites' pursuit of identity authentication is the rise of Pan-China Movement.

Kong Feili profoundly summed up the dual consequences of the Pan-China Movement. On the positive side, the Pan-China Movement has created a number of outstanding Chinese leaders with community and even regional influence, such as Chen Jiageng. On the negative side, however, the Pan-China Movement paid a heavy price. As a symbol of nation-state rather than social and cultural identity, "Motherland" has marginalized Chinese in Singapore, a multi-racial country called by its leaders, and other Southeast Asian countries. In Southeast Asia, the term "overseas Chinese" is still sensitive, and their political, economic and cultural ties with the motherland are often used as an excuse for anti-China movements.