Matakuliah : E1052 / Penelitian China Perantauan
Tahun
: 2007
Penyebab dan Tahapan China Perantauan
pertemuan 3
Chronology of Migration
• 210 BCE, Qin Shi Huang dispatched Xu Fu to sail overseas in search
of elixirs of immortality, accompanied by 3,000 virgin boys and
girls. History is entangled in legend; Xu Fu may have settled in
Japan.
• 661 CE Tang dynasty, Zheng Guo Xi of Nan An, Fujian was buried at a
Philippine island.
• 7-8th century, the Arab recorded large numbers of Tang traders
residing at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and they
had families there.
• 10th century, Arab trader Masuoti recorded in his Golden Ley, in the
year 943, he sailed passed Srivijaya and saw many Chinese people
farming there especially at Palembang. These people migrated to
Nanyang to evade chaos caused by war in Tang Dynasty China.
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10-15th century
• Java:
Zheng He's compatriot Ma Huan recorded in his book (Chinese: zh:瀛涯胜览)
that large numbers of Chinese lived in the Majapahit Empire on Java, especially in
Surabaya (Chinese: 泗水). The place where the Chinese lived was called New
Village (Chinese: 新村), with many originally from Canton, Zhangzhou and
Quanzhou.
• Cambodia:
Envoy of Yuan dynasty, Zhou Daguan (Chinese: 周达观) recorded in his The
Customs of Chenla; Chinese: 真腊风土记), that there were many Chinese,
especially sailors, who lived there, with many intermarrying with local women.
• Siam:
According to the clan chart of family name Lim, Gan, Ng, Khaw, Cheah, many
Chinese traders lived there. Some of the Siamese envoys sent to China were these
people.
• Borneo:
Many Chinese lived there as recorded by Zheng He.
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• 1405 Ming dynasty, Tan Sheng Shou, the Battalion Commander Yang
Xin and others were sent to Java's Old Port (Palembang; 旧港) to
bring the absconder Liang Dao Ming (梁道明) and others to
negotiate pacification. He took his family and fled to live in this
place, where he remained for many years.
Thousands of military personnel and civilians from Guangdong and
Fujian followed him there and chose Dao Ming as their leader.
• 1459 Ming emperor sent Hang Li Po to Malacca along with 500 other
female attendants, many attendants later married officials serving
Mansur Shah as Li Po married the sultan after she accepted
conversion to Islam.
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•
Hai jin (海禁) was a ban on maritime activities during China's Ming Dynasty and again during the
Qing Dynasty. It is commonly referred to as "Sea Ban". Intended to curb piracy, the ban proved
ineffective for that purpose, while imposing huge hardships on coastal communities
Ming policy
• Under the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was the first to propose the policy to ban all
maritime shipping in 1371. The only way that foreigners might visit Ming China was via the tribute
system.
• The policy contained 3 parts.
1. Build a navy of 110,000 to defend coastal provinces
2. Engage Japanese authorities to curtail the raiders
3. Regulate maritime trade to control smuggled goods.
• After extreme pressure from the bureaucracy, by 1550 the ban was lifted.
To facilitate the maritime trade, the Ming government established ambassadors at Ningbo,
Quanzhou and Guangzhou. Each vassal state received about 200 paper passports afterwards.
• Depending on the state of the policy, the earliest possible date is 1368. The latest possible year
which terminated the policy is 1567.
• The Ming government first labeled the Japanese raiders as "dwarf pirates", and soon discovered
many to be renegade Chinese who joined ronin samurais to battle the Ming regime.
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Qing policy
• Zheng Chenggong was a military leader from the Ming government situated in the
coastal region, capable of threatening the Qing.
In 1647, another sea ban was issued to limit foreign trade with severe punishment
imposed.
• In 1655 the "Frontier Shift" was imposed in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu
and Shandong.
It required coastal residents to move in land 30-50 li (est. 15 to 25 kilometers).
All private boats and ships were burned. Small rafts were not allowed at sea.
• In 1684, the ban was stopped, trading was reopened under Kangxi Emperor.
• In 1685 a "Taxation Rule for Sea Trade" was drafted by Yiergetu.
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Controversy
• The purpose of the Ocean Prohibition is unclear and disputed; the only certainty is
that the law prohibited private ships from sailing in the ocean.
• Some have argued that the Hai jin marked a retreat from maritime activities such
as the voyages of Zheng He and was symptomatic of a technological decline and
stagnation that would culminate in China's 19th-century humiliation by Europe.
This view has been popularized by the Chinese film, River Elegy.
• The ban was also seen as a deceptive proposal, since it prevented the rise of any
self-sufficient economies along the coast. Eventually new economies could not be
born, and no power was drawn away from the existing imperial courts, thus
making this ban a political move.
• The law worked a great hardship for coastal dwellers and stimulated rebellions,
piracy and a great wave of overseas migration.
• Traditionally, southeast Asia was the preferred destination for Chinese emigrants
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Waves of immigration
• Often there are different waves of immigration leading to subgroups among
overseas Chinese such as the new and old immigrants in Southeast Asia, North
America, Oceania, Latin America, South Africa and Russia.
In the 19th century, the age of colonialism was at its height and the great Chinese
Diaspora began.
• Many colonies lacked a large pool of laborers.
Meanwhile, in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong in China, there was a labor
surplus due to the relative peace during the Qing dynasty.
The Qing Empire was forced to allow its subjects to work overseas under colonial
powers.
• Many Hokkien chose to work in Southeast Asia with their earlier links starting
from the Ming era, as did the Cantonese.
The city of Taishan in Guangdong province was the source for many of the
economic migrants.
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• For the countries in North America and Australia, great numbers of
laborers were needed in the dangerous tasks of gold mining and
railway construction.
• With famine widespread in Guangdong, this attracted many
Cantonese to work in these countries to improve the living
conditions of their relatives.
• Some overseas Chinese were sold to South America during the
Punti-Hakka Clan Wars in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.
• Many people from the New Territories in Hong Kong emigrated to
the UK (mainly England) and the Netherlands in the post-war period
to earn a better living.
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• From the mid-19th century onward, emigration has been directed primarily to
western countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and
the nations of Western Europe; as well as to Peru where they are called tusán,
Panama, and to a lesser extent to Mexico.
• Many of these emigrants who entered western countries were themselves
overseas Chinese or were from Taiwan or Hong Kong, particularly from the 1950s
to the 1980s, during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of
its citizens.
• In 1984, Britain agreed to transfer the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the PRC;
this triggered another wave of migration to the United Kingdom (mainly England),
Australia, Canada, USA, Latin America and other parts of the world.
• The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 further accelerated the migration.
The wave calmed after the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.
• More recent Chinese presences have developed in Europe, where they number
nearly a million, and in Russia, they number over 600,000, concentrated in
Russia's Far East.
• Chinese who emigrated to Vietnam beginning in the 18th century are referred to
as Hoa.
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Occupations
• The Chinese in Southeast Asian countries have established themselves in
commerce and finance.
• In North America, Europe and Oceania, occupations are diverse and impossible to
generalize; ranging from catering to significant ranks in medicine, the arts, and
academia.
• In recent years, there has been an increase in illegal immigrants coming from
mainland China and other countries into the United Kingdom, some of whom pay
people traffickers (so-called "snakeheads") to smuggle them into many Western
countries.
• Due to historical and cultural reasons, a sizeable proportion originate from Fujian
province in southeast China.
Others are citizens from the Commonwealth countries (mostly former British
colonies), who have been able to obtain tourist or student visas relatively easily
and remain in the UK after their visas have expired.
• Most work in the black economy or are employed as illegal cheap labour, usually
in agriculture. This has been publicised in tragic consequences
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