Beyond Chinatown: New Chinese Migration and the Global Expansion of China

Mette Thunø (ed)
2007

Chinese migration has changed fundamentally in recent years. It no longer has the exceptional and ambivalent nature of earlier times when virtual slaves dreamed of returning home as rich men to China but instead settled in Chinatowns across the globe. An important factor is that China has changed, transformed by decades of economic liberalization and rapid economic growth. As such, most migrants – both women and men – now leave China for a more promising future and often find ways to bring their families with
them. Chinese migration may be distinct but it is no longer exceptional.
The rise of China in a globalizing world is having a major impact on Chinese migrant communities. Today, China matters – all around the world. Both its insatiable demand for raw materials and its flood of exported manufactures affect everyone; distant corners of the Third World that once had never heard of China now have a thriving Chinese presence. And, suddenly, third-generation Chinese who once could not wait to escape their Chinatown now proudly proclaim their ethnic Chinese identity. Because it opens a new approach to the study of recent Chinese migration, this volume will be of vital interest in the field of both general and Chinese migration studies. But, bringing to life as it does the momentous changes sweeping the Chinese world in all parts of the globe, it will also be of interest to a far wider readership.