Chinese diasporic communities in the Ming and Qing dynasty

Bowers, Evan

Item

Chinese diasporic communities in the Ming and Qing dynasty

Bowers, Evan

Abstract

How and to what extent did South East Asian Diasporic communities affect trade for China and South East Asia? Furthermore, how did trade function as something the Ming and Qing dynasty would entertain as they were turning increasingly more isolationist? Confucianism and a societal acceptance had a large effect on how the dynasty felt about travel and trade. Since the Early Ming dynasty in 1368, they reinstated trade reforms and emigration restrictions to their citizens. However out of these trade forms and isolationist attitudes, two of the largest trading Diasporas in south East Asia became thriving port towns. Additionally what role did Chinese immigrants play in these socially mixed societies? To what extents was society mobile in the diasporas and when? Lastly how and did Chinese identify in these communities, away from the Celestial Empire, an ideology that promoted sedentary life in China?