The history of overseas Chinese

The legend of China people living abroad began in the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, but the history can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. In 124 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established exchanges between China and the West. For a long time, envoys and people came and went every year, ranging from hundreds to more than a hundred. Since the Han Dynasty, China people have opened up maritime transportation with Southeast Asia, Indian and Sri Lanka. Because of overseas trade, businessmen and sailors can go to Southeast Asia, and some of them settle down there and become the first generation of overseas immigrants.

During the Tang Dynasty, the number of people living abroad in China increased gradually. Many foreigners call overseas Chinese "Tangren" and overseas Chinese return to China as "Tangshan". In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the coastal residents of China, especially Fujian and Guangdong, were brutally destroyed by the Yuan Army and fled overseas to make a living.

In the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Chinese immigrated to Southeast Asia, and Zheng He embarked on the first maritime expedition in the history of China. Zheng He led a fleet of 200 ships around Nanyang. During the 28 years from 1405 to 1433, Zheng He-7 went to the Western Ocean and led his fleet to more than 30 countries, reaching the east coast of Africa and the ports along the Red Sea as far as possible. Before the Western colonists invaded Southeast Asia, the Chinese who migrated to Southeast Asia from China mainly migrated to Indochina Peninsula and overseas for the need of trade. 16th century, especially17th century, after the western countries invaded all parts of Southeast Asia one after another, as Southeast Asian countries gradually became colonies, Chinese moved to Southeast Asia to become the main source of labor, and followed their relatives and friends who settled overseas to study business or engage in labor services in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese immigrants are called Minh Hng, Hoa and different names according to their arrival time, native place and assimilation degree.

During the industrial revolution in Europe and America, a large number of China people were sold to North America, South America, Oceania, South Africa, Russian and other countries as coolies and engaged in dangerous jobs, such as gold mining and railway engineering. Many of them are contract workers in China, commonly known as "selling piglets". According to records, Chinese workers who were sold to Central American colonies suffered the most, with more than half of the deaths. Many of them were cheated and were not allowed to go home after the contract expired. In this wave of immigrants in the Tang Dynasty, there were not many people with high level of knowledge.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, European colonialism reached its peak, which was also the beginning of the tide of world immigration. At that time, many European and American colonists lacked funds to hire workers. At the same time, Fujian and Guangdong were relatively peaceful during the Kang Yong period, and the people were generally rich. However, after Jiaqing, the population was overpopulated, the cultivated land in Qing Dynasty began to be seriously insufficient, officials became increasingly corrupt, and officials and people became addicted to opium. At this time, the people have accumulated surplus labor, and at this time, European and American countries will be strong. Therefore, the Manchu allowed civilians to go overseas to work as laborers in European and American colonies. Before and after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom subsided in the late Qing Dynasty, the famine among the people increased, the industry was seriously damaged, the poverty level was indescribable, and there were poor people and beggars everywhere. In order to improve their lives, millions of people in Guangdong and Fujian are interested in going abroad to make a living. Many Fujian people choose to study and work in Southeast Asia with their predecessors who settled overseas in the Ming Dynasty, and many Fuzhou people go to Europe, America, Japan, Southeast Asia and other places. There are also many Cantonese people; Taishan in Guangdong has the largest number of immigrants to America, such as Britain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. During the conflict between Turks and tourists in Guangdong Pearl River Delta, some people were sold to Peru, Panama, Mexico and Cuba.