Publisher's Synopsis
More than 25 million Chinese left their homeland from the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century to settle abroad together with their families and descendants. This book describes this massive wave of migration and the smaller ones that occurred in the last three decades of the 20th century. The migrations of recent decades have, however, been different in two respects: they have involved Chinese not only from greater China itself (Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland) but also from Southeast Asia and elsewhere; they have involved those of high educational level. The author looks at these different migrations mainly from the perspective of those who settled in Southeast Asia, but also includes the experiences of those Chinese who have made their home in other parts of Asia, Australasia and North America. This book is both a collection of personal experiences from the Chinese Diaspora and a study of those Chinese who emigrated from the motherland to settle abroad over the past 30 years. Don't Leave Home: Migration and the Chinese is part of a four-book collection by Wang Gungwu, the pre-eminent authority on China and the Chinese diaspora.
