Mission among the Chinese Diaspora – A case study of migration & mission

Enoch Wan. This study is about “overseas Chinese” (huaren) – people of Chinese descent residing outside of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Chinese people began emigrating from China prior to the 14th century and the outflow accelerated in the early 19th century due to a combination of push (population explosion, famines, political instability, etc.) and pull factors (better life and more opportunities abroad).

The pattern of population growth of overseas Chinese (“Chinese diaspora”) has
been steady in the past 50 years, e.g. the statistics provided by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of Taiwan: 1948 – 8.7 million, 1968 – 18+
million, beginning of 1988 – 30 million, at the end of 1998 – 34 million (not including Hong Kong). From a 2002 report entitled “Overseas Chinese,” 1 the distribution of the 34 million of overseas Chinese is as follows: 80% in Asia, 15% North & South Americas, 2.8% in Europe, 1.7% in Oceania, 0.4% in Africa).

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