Chinatown is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
Overseas Chinese people are people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Overall, China has a low percent of population living overseas.
The Haijin (海禁) or sea ban were a series of related isolationist policies in China restricting private maritime trading and coastal settlement during most of the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. The policy introduced by the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang significantly hampered the growth of China's domestic trade, although the Ming was not able to enforce the policy in full despite official proclamations, and trade continued in forms such as smuggling until the late Ming government opened the port of Yuegang for trade. Initially imposed to deal with Japanese piracy amid the neutralization of Yuan dynasty partisans, the sea ban was completely counterproductive: by the 16th century, piracy and smuggling were endemic and mostly consisted of Chinese who had been dispossessed by the policy. China's foreign trade was limited to irregular and expensive tribute missions, and the military pressure from the Mongols after the disastrous Battle of Tumu led to the scrapping of Zheng He's fleets. Piracy dropped to negligible levels only upon the end of the policy in 1567.
Fujian is a province located in South China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Quanzhou, with other notable cities including the port city of Xiamen and Zhangzhou. Fujian is located on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait as the closest province geographically and culturally to Taiwan. Certain islands such as Kinmen are only approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Xiamen in Fujian.
A tong is a type of organization found among Chinese immigrants predominantly living in the United States, with smaller numbers in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In Chinese, the word tong means "hall" or "gathering place". These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and are often tied to criminal activity. In the 1990s, in most American Chinatowns, clearly marked tong halls could easily be found, many of which have had affiliations with Chinese organized crime.
Coolie is a pejorative term used for low-wage labourers, typically those of Indian or Chinese descent.
Chinese Peruvians, also known as tusán, are Peruvian citizens whose ancestors came from China.
Chinese Burmese, also Sino-Burmese or Tayoke, are Burmese citizens of Han Chinese ethnicity. They are a group of overseas Chinese born or raised in Myanmar (Burma).
The Hoa people, also known as Vietnamese Chinese are the citizens and nationals of Vietnam of full or partial Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese migration into Vietnam dates back millennia but allusions to the contemporary Hoa today mostly refers to people of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to Vietnam during the 18th century, who especially trace their ancestry to various southern Chinese provinces. The Hoa are an ethnic minority group in Vietnam as part of the Chinese community there, and can also be found in other regions such as in the Americas. They may also be called "Chinese-Vietnamese" or "Vietnamese Chinese" by the Vietnamese.
Chinese Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Singaporeans constitute 75.9% of the Singaporean resident population according to the official census, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore.
Nanyang is the Chinese term for the warmer and fertile geographical region along the southern coastal regions of China and beyond, otherwise known as the 'South Sea' or Southeast Asia. The term came into common usage in self-reference to the large ethnic Chinese migrant population in Southeast Asia, and is contrasted with Xiyang, which refers to the Western world, Dongyang, which refers to Japan. The Chinese press regularly uses the term to refer to the region stretching from Yunnan Province to Singapore and from Myanmar (Burma) to Vietnam ; in addition, the term also refers to Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines in the region it encompasses.
The Cantonese people or Yue people, are a Han Chinese subgroup originating from Guangzhou and its satellite cities and towns. In a more general sense "Cantonese people" can refer to any Han Chinese people originating from or residing in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, or it may refer to the inhabitants of Guangdong province alone.
The Chinese diaspora in France consists of people of Chinese origin who were born in or immigrated to France. Chinese form the second largest Asian group in France, with a population of roughly 600,000 as of 2017.
A recognizable community of Chinese people in Korea has existed since the 1880s, and are often known as Hwagyo. Over 90% of early Chinese migrants came from Shandong province on the east coast of China. These ethnic Han Chinese residents in Korea often held Republic of China and Korean citizenship. The Republic of China used to govern the entirety of China, but now only governs Taiwan and a minor part of Fujian province. Due to the conflation of Republic of China citizenship with Taiwanese identity in the modern era, these ethnic Chinese people in Korea or Hwagyo are now usually referred to as "Taiwanese". However, in reality most Hwagyo hold little to no ties with Taiwan.
Immigration to Singapore is the process by which people migrate to Singapore for the purpose of residing there—and where a majority go on to become permanent residents and Singaporean citizens. Singapore is an attractive destination especially in the region as it is a country with a strong currency that offers high living standards, including in education, work, wages and safety as well as an overall far higher quality of life compared to its neighbours. High-net-worth or skilled immigrants worldwide are also attracted to Singapore's low tax rates and ease of doing business.
Fuzhou people, also known as Foochowese, Hokchew, Hokchia, Hokchiu, Fuzhou Shiyi people (福州十邑人), Eastern Min or Mindong are residents of either Fuzhou and Mindong regions and the Gutian and Pingnan counties of Fujian province and Matsu Islands in Taiwan. Fuzhou people are a part of the Min Chinese-speaking group that speaks Eastern Min or specifically Fuzhou dialect. There is also a significant overseas Fuzhou population, particularly distributed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The Bamboo network or the Chinese Commonwealth is used to conceptualize the links between businesses run by Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. It links the Overseas Chinese business community of Southeast Asia, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Myanmar with the economies of Greater China. Overseas Chinese companies in Southeast Asia are usually managed as family businesses in a centralized bureaucratic manner. In an article in The New York Review of Books, Indian critic Pankaj Mishra called it a "largest economic force in Asia outside of Japan".
Yuegang was a seaport situated at the estuary of the Jiulong River in present-day Haicheng town in Zhangzhou, Fujian, China. Known as a smuggling hub since the early Ming dynasty, Yuegang rose to prominence in the 16th century as the Ming government cracked down on other hubs of private maritime trade, deemed illegal at the time due to the isolationist haijin laws. When the prohibitions were lifted in 1567, Yuegang was designated as the port in Fujian from where it is legal to trade overseas. Since then, it flourished as the Chinese terminus of the trans-Pacific trade carried by the Manila galleon through its trade with the Spanish Philippines until it was overshadowed by Xiamen in the 17th century.
Chinese nationals in Singapore refers to Chinese people who are of Chinese nationality residing in Singapore. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the community had a population of 514,110 in 2020, with 65,867 originating from Hong Kong and 21,809 from Macau, the 2 special administrative regions of China. The community of Chinese nationals are the 2nd largest foreign community in Singapore, constituting 18% of the country's foreign-born population.
The Asian diaspora is the diasporic group of Asian people who live outside of the continent. There are several prominent groups within the Asian diaspora.
