ABSTRACT
The term qiaoxiang usually refers to communities where many overseas Chinese originated and where their family members may still reside; hence qiaoxiang, by definition, maintain considerable overseas connections (Fang Xiongpu and Xie Chengjia (eds), 1993:309). Basically, the qiaoxiang label depends on the number of overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese and family members of overseas Chinese who can claim a relationship. At present, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, there are about 30 million overseas Chinese residing in over 100 countries and regions (Fang Xiongpu and Xie Chengjia (eds), 1993:4). According to the Kuomintang (Guomindang) government in Taipei, at the end of 1997, overseas huaqiao and huaren amounted to 33.24 million, with 81 per cent of them in Asia and 14.2 per cent in the Americas (Shijie Ribao [a Chinese newspaper in Bangkok] 9 April 1998). Most of the overseas Chinese originated from the coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, Guangxi (an autonomous region), Hainan, Shandong, Zhejiang and the interior province of Yunnan. These provinces include China’s major qiaoxiang, but Guangdong and Fujian are the most significant and had been able to attract considerable overseas Chinese investments even before 1949 (Lin Jinzhi and Zhuang Weiji, 1985 and 1989).
