This Element argues that Chinese global migration is best understood as a barometer of global power transitions: each major wave of emigration registers both a reconfiguration of the international order and China's shifting position within it. It shows how migration patterns reflect transformations in the East Asian international system alongside China's domestic political upheavals. It offers an analysis of three major waves of Chinese global migration, each aligned with a transformation in the international order and a domestic rupture: China's forced integration into the European imperial system, the political ruptures of the mid-twentieth century, and the post-reform opening of the People's Republic of China. It examines the varying roles successive Chinese states have played in regulating and responding to population mobility, the lived experiences of migrants, and how the meaning of 'return' has changed over the past two centuries. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
