Taking a long and broad historical view, Steven B. Miles examines what he describes as a continuous history of Han Chinese migration within and beyond China since the sixteenth century. He finds that up until the nineteenth century, Chinese migration was concurrent with Chinese territorial state migration. By taking issue with the way historians of Chinese migration have, in his view, excluded “internal migration,” Miles argues that the field has overlooked parallels and connections between “internal” and “external” migration.
This seems to be a call for a China-centered approach to the history of Chinese migration and diaspora. Given that Chinese state borders changed over time, it was not clear how migration to Manchuria or Taiwan should be counted. Miles is right in pointing out this problem. In the introduction to Chinese Diasporas, Miles tries to summarize the debates over “diaspora” as a term or label used for Chinese overseas...
