During our travels in China, we will meet and see a number of “Overseas Chinese” — people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside China.
“China”, in this usage, also usually includes Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This is sometimes referred to as “Greater China”; that is, territory currently administered by both rival governments; the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). People of partial Chinese ancestry also often consider themselves Overseas Chinese. (Source: Wikipedia)
One book I was recently flipping through estimated the number of overseas Chinese to be at least 60 million people.
To help you better understand this group of people and some of the overseas Chinese business professionals on the trip you will meet and/or when you hear them say things like “This century will be our (China’s) century,” read this wonderful, wonderful, wonderul WSJ article, A Return to China: Amid a Tide of Homecomings, A Granddaughter Visits the Land Her Family Left in 1948.
And keep the following quote from this article in mind ….
For Chinese people, the blood that binds us is thicker than any body or water that separates us.
While this quote is warm and fuzzy, it is also bound to have geopolitical consequences (some good; some bad) for both the US and China in the future.
Why are overseas Chinese returning to China? Blood and cultural loyalty? It’s truly “home” for them? To the shock of the West are there now more opportunities for them in China than abroad? Each of these reasons?
In any event, be ready to see and recognize this issue when you come across it in China. Ask them why they have returned to China and see what you can find out.
When we are in the airport in LAX or SFO, that will be a good opportunity (and your very first) to try to meet these folks and try to understand what they think and where they are coming from.
Professor Carr July 22, 2010 Addendum: See these related Wall Street Journal articles, More Chinese Graduates Return Home and Strangers at Home (and be sure to study the interactive map and data that shows where the bulk of the Chinese Diaspora now reside).