| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 歷史學研究所 === 88 === In the history of overseas Chinese, south Fujian is always an important source area of emigrants. The population of the region long had the phenomenon of outer flow. However, the factors that result in the population emigration changed in different periods. The Opium War in 1840 is generally viewed as a key ridge. Before and after 1840, the different emigration phenomena show in different amount of population and Qing government''s policy transformation toward the approval of free overseas emigration. The European colonial business in Southeast Asia after 1570 was the most important factor to Chinese emigration before the Opium war. Since the European''s goal was trade, the meaning of Chinese emigrants to them were the source of market demand and the supply of labor. In addition, the political, economic and social problems in south Fujian itself and its people''s tradition to do trade abroad also provide the dynamics of the emigration movement.
In the study, "Push force" and "Pull force" are two concepts introduced to explain how the emigration from south Fujian formed. In simple words, "Push force" made the south Fujianese choose to abandon their homeland, while "Pull force" attract them to a new settlement in oversea region. In the analysis of Push force, several discussions are included: (1) the population pressure, which was the main problem of south Fujian; (2) the tradition to do trade abroad, which enabled south Fujian people gain emigration information and transportation. (3) Ming and Qing government''s emigration policy, which provided the convenience for south Fujianese to go abroad. (4) Dynasty change, which made those opposed to the new regime move away. In the analysis of Pull force, the main discussion is how the emigrants to select a proper location. Generally, they may consider natural environment, economic reason, and clan or family factors. Moreover, the political environment in area of arrival also had influence on the attitude of local regime to the emigrants. The native and colonial regime both took the welcome attitude when they feel in need of the Chinese emigrants. When the amount of Chinese emigrants were too high to them, they used various means to reduce the Chinese emigrants even the massacre. However, it didn''t deter Chinese people keep immigrating into those regions. From this point, the main pull force of Chinese emigration should be economic factors.
Due to the change of times and the transformation of outer environment, south Fujianese''s emigration also changed. After the period of Ming government''s maritime prohibitions, the main emigration location was Philippines. The important reasons were economic pulls and Spanish''s solicit. In the early period of Qing Dynasty, the main location was Taiwan because of the political reason. After the maritime prohibitions of Qing the main locations included Taiwan, Malaya peninsula and Batavia. The main reasons were the colonist government''s solicit and the increase of population in south Fujian.
|
|---|
