ABSTRACT
Around eighty percent of the estimated 25–30 million overseas Chinese in 140 countries around the world live in the countries that comprise Southeast Asia. (Wang 2005: 4) This large number is due to Southeast Asia’s proximity to China, with outmigration from its southern coastal areas commencing around the 16th century at a time when the region’s polities gradually became colonised or determined politically by European powers. The ratio of overseas Chinese to other ethnic populations in the region’s nations has remained more or less constant through ensuing settlement, trade and social relations.
