Myth and Reality of the Chinese Diaspora

Migration is one of the world's greatest travel sagas of all time.It is safe to assume that right after the first human beings appeared on the earth they began to migrate, moving from place to place in pursuit of big game.The rapidity with which hunting bands occupied all the continents, probably with the exception of Antarctica, in about 50,000 years, attests to this human propensity. 1 No dominant species ever spread so far so fast.In modern times, people have always moved to find land and work, and to flee from war, famine and oppression.The Second World War (1939-1945) displaced nearly forty-five million people.In English usage, the Greek term "diaspora" refers specifically to the dispersion of the Jews from their homeland.There is thus no ambiguity about the term diaspora or dispersion when it is used in relation to the Jewish people. 2 But once it is applied to other religious or ethnic groups, it becomes immediately apparent how difficult it is to find a definition that makes a clear distinction between a migration and a diaspora, or between a minority and a diaspora.3 The term clearly implies the idea of "exile."Thus the term "diaspora" is not used when discussing the presence of descendants of British people in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Canada, and the United States.4 Conversely, and making matters even more complex, there is a widespread tendency to apply the term "diaspora" to the Chinese or Indian communities scattered across the globe when European imperialism was at its height in the second half of the nineteenth century.These people scattered to southeast Asia, the West Indies, the Indian Ocean, eastern and southern Africa, Europe, and the United States.5 It has often been observed that in all the annals of recorded history, there is no chapter more romantic, more inspiring, yet more complex than the 2,500-year-long episode of the Jewish people in exile, begun with the so-called Babylonian Captivity in the sixth century B.C. 6 For the last four centuries, however, the world has observed another more significant migration from the world's most populous country, China.Undisputably this Chinese diaspora is regarded as the most widespread and continuing series of migrations by one nation the world has ever seen.Indeed, the Chinese dispersal across 109 countries of the world is 1 Choi: Myth and Reality of the Chinese Diaspora

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