Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia

The 20 million Chinese in Southeast Asia constitute almost 80 per cent of the overseas Chinese (outside of China, including Hong Kong, and Taiwan).

Chinese Population Distribution in SE Asia (in 000s)

These sojourners originated mainly from southern China and have come to trade and finally settled in Southeast Asia over a period of a thousand years. Today, the Chinese are a minority ethnic group in each of the SE Asian countries with the exception of Singapore.  They tend to see themselves as people of Chinese descendants who settled in many countries outside China, without necessarily having any bonds to their homeland. 

Despite being a minority group, the Chinese migrants in Southeast Asia have demonstrated their economic strength and business prowess, and usually contributed significantly to their host countries’ GDP.  Some of the prominent Chinese businessmen are featured in our section on Contemporary Personalities.  Local politicians typically deal with the Chinese with calculated caution and have associations with them for political gain.

On the political front, the Chinese migrants traditionally did not exert much influence in their host countries as they are usually minority with a few exceptions like Singapore.  However, the recent years have seen an increasing acceptance of the Chinese among the native indigenous with higher levels of assimilation into the host countries.  Some even rose to great political power, as in the case of Chuan Leek Pai in Thailand.  At a lower level, the Chinese are now able to influence the policies of government through domestic politics; lobbying and supporting certain politicians.  

The Chinese diaspora has also produced a huge interconnected network of guanxi.  This link is now seen as invaluable in various Southeast Asian countries seeking to establish business ties with the booming Chinese market.   

More information on how Chinese migrants settled into their respective host countries and communities, as well as their ways of life, can be found in our Chinatown Series

More Resources on the Chinese Diaspora

• A Geography of Chinese Peoples
• Migration to South East Asia
• The Urban History of the Southeast Asian Coastal Cities - gives insight into the early Chinese settlements
• An observation of the Chinese Diaspora
• The Power of the Chinese Diaspora
• The differential politics of Chineseness
• Migrations of Chineseness
• Who are the Ethnic Chinese? - A Christian perspective by Dr. Samuel Ling
• Changing Policies on Overseas Chinese? An Analysis
• A Survey of business in Asia: The limits of family values
• Civil society and Taiwan's quest for identity
• Information about Hakka - A Chinese tribe with a long history of residing abroad
• Hakka: An Important Element of Chinese Culture - Has many important and interesting facts about the Hakka in Southeast Asia
• Study of Chinese in Europe - A Dutch web site describes the ethnic Chinese population in Europe
• New Asian Emperors: the Overseas Chinese, their Strategies and Competitive Advantages - Book description
• 1492: The Prequel - Very interesting story of Zheng He and his legacyfound in Africa, New York Times Magazine
• Competitive Implications of the Overseas Chinese - Markplus Quarterly, October - December 1998 edition
• Scooping the Global Pay Pool - Overseas Chinese net the most money (February 1999, ASIA INC)
• A new generation of Chinese migrants fans across the globe (06/24/99, Far Eastern Economic Review)
• Cultural Identities in The Chinese Diaspora - by Professor Marie-Paule Ha, 1998
• Emigration Tradition for China Area (06/25/2000, NY Times)

Sources / References:

The Question of Diaspora in International Relations: <A case study of Chinese diaspora in Malaysia and South-East Asia>, Sek Pei LIM (Dissertation, MA In International Relations, University of Sussex)

huaren.org

Compiled by: Willie Hsu

Updated by Yeo Ai Hoon, July 2002