ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to summarize the Chinese migration in its historical context, and to throw light on the overall distribution pattern of overseas Chinese at the present time. It also attempts to generalize the occupational changes of overseas Chinese in the one hundred and fifty years during which large-scale emigration from China has occurred. The distribution pattern of the Chinese abroad can be characterized as tropical, coastal, and urban. The coastal location of overseas Chinese is associated with the general population distribution pattern of continents, especially the Americas. The emigration areas of South China, such as the western part of the Pearl River delta, the Han Valley in eastern Kwangtung, and the hinterland of Amoy, are all rural. But the rapid rate of urban concentration of overseas Chinese can best be illustrated by the Chinese in the United States. The primary occupations of the overseas Chinese are restaurant work, retail trade, agriculture, handicrafts and small industry, and mining.
