In France, the addition of “China and the Chinese Diaspora” to history and geography syllabuses for the CAPES and Agrégation courses has opened the way for the prompt publication of books aimed at non-specialists. The widening of the proposed subject-matter has led most of these studies—of very unequal craftsmanship—to concentrate on the geographical aspects of China and to deal only peripherally with the question of the “Chinese of the Diaspora”; this strengthens the impression that the subj..

Guerassimoff, Eric

Pina-Guerassimoff, Carine

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 China Perspectives 
50 | november- december 2003
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Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora chinoise,
géographie d’une migration
Paris, Ophrys, 2000, 176 p.
Eric Guerassimoff et Carine Pina-Guerassimoff
Édition électronique
URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/783
ISSN : 1996-4617
Éditeur
Centre d'étude français sur la Chine contemporaine
Édition imprimée
Date de publication : 1 décembre 2003
ISSN : 2070-3449
 
Référence électronique
Eric Guerassimoff et Carine Pina-Guerassimoff, « Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora chinoise,
géographie d’une migration », China Perspectives [En ligne], 50 | november- december 2003, mis en
ligne le 20 avril 2007, consulté le 28 octobre 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/
chinaperspectives/783 
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Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora
chinoise, géographie d’une
migration
Paris, Ophrys, 2000, 176 p.
Eric Guerassimoff et Carine Pina-Guerassimoff
NOTE DE L’ÉDITEUR
Translated from the French original by Philip Liddell
1 In France, the addition of “China and the Chinese Diaspora” to history and geography
syllabuses for the CAPES and Agrégation courses has opened the way for the prompt
publication of books aimed at non-specialists. The widening of the proposed subject-
matter has led most of these studies—of very unequal craftsmanship—to concentrate
on the geographical aspects of China and to deal only peripherally with the question of
the “Chinese of the Diaspora”; this strengthens the impression that the subject matter
is too wide and that the question itself, as initially set, has been misunderstood. While
most of  these publications have been reviewed,  one of  them has passed—unjustly—
almost unnoticed, by non-specialists at any rate.
2 Emmanuel  Ma Mung is  a  geographer;  he  is  the  Director  of  Research at  the  Centre
national  de  la  recherche  scientifique  (CNRS)  and  the  Director  of  the  Migrinter
Laboratory.  The book he  has  written is  both a  generalised presentation of  Chinese
migration  and  a  highly  topical  reflection  on  the  process  whereby  it  has  been
transformed into the diaspora. The book, divided into eight parts and three chapters,
has  the  immediate  merit  of  offering  an  overall  picture,  in  space  and  time,  of  the
Chinese migrations, taking into account both the original homeland (mainland China)
and the areas where migrants first arrived or where they re-emigrated from. In this
regard, Ma Mung’s study completes and updates the only generalised work of reference
Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora chinoise, géographie d’une migration
China Perspectives, 50 | november- december 2003
1
so far available in France: the Que sais-je volume (PUF) by Pierre Trolliet, La Diaspora
chinoise. 
3 The first part, “Chinese International Migrations”, starts with a very brief history of
Chinese migration, reminding us of the diachronic significance of the phenomenon.
The writer  goes on to place the present-day movements of  Chinese people (and/or
people  of  Chinese origin)  within the general  context,  on a  complex and worldwide
scale, of international migration. He also recalls (p. 22) that the dynamic of Chinese
migratory flows rests primarily on networks or trafficking organisations, as with the
Qingtian  migrations  into  Europe.  Emphasising  the  complex  status (political,
administrative  and  cultural)  of  those  grouped  together  under  the  term  “overseas
Chinese”, he adopts the (debatable) categorisations of “overseas Chinese” (huaqiao and
huaren) suggested by Wang Gungwu1.
4 Regrettably,  however,  the writer subscribes to a hypothesis  according to which the
various groups “share more and more between them so that the distinctions tend to
become  blurred;  and  their  connections,  mainly  trading  links  at  the  start,  become
diversified at all levels and increasingly overlapping” (p. 29). One would not deny that
connections do exist, but their general application as called for by Professor Wang is at
present  no  more  than  a  working  hypothesis,  one  with  little  corroboration  from
empirical studies. The chapter closes with a swift presentation of the “new categories
of  migrants”,  including  the  skilled  migrants,  and  with  a  description  of  the  illegal
methods  of  leaving  one  country  and  entering  another  as  practised  by  a  growing
number  of  Chinese  people  from the  People’s  Republic.  The  second chapter  gives  a
general outline of the main places of origin of Chinese migrants in China and South-
East Asia, along with Peking’s policy on emigrant communities since 1978.
5 In the second part of the book, “The Chinese Diaspora across the World”, the writer
gives a  survey of  present condition of  Chinese communities  in their  host  countries
(South-East  Asia,  North  and  South  America,  Europe,  archipelagos,  and  Africa).  The
author  rightly  stresses  the  difficulties  encountered  in  calculating  the  number  of
“overseas Chinese”. In addition to the weaknesses of national statistical services,  in
trying to assess nationality and levels of assimilation, researchers find themselves up
against  the complexity  and diversity  of  administrative  and cultural  status  affecting
people of Chinese origin. A significant number no longer see themselves specifically as
“overseas Chinese” (huaqiao) and are unwilling to be counted as such. They have quite
often been settled in their host countries for several generations; and they claim the
status of nationals and of full members of their local communities. In South-East Asia,
they have often been pushed into this position by local governments that deny, for
political reasons, the existence of such categories. These difficulties explain why the
only world population count is still today that of Poston (1994)2. The second part ends
with a detailed chapter devoted to the Chinese presence in Europe. The space given to
Italy, Spain and the countries of the former communist bloc underlines the present-day
importance of Europe as destination for new Chinese migrants. It is a pity, even so, that
the maps offered, notably the one for France (1990), should be so out-of-date. Since the
book was published, several national and European monographs have completed the
data used by the author, confirming the significance of this destination3.
6 The book’s originality becomes more evident in the third part, “The Organisation of the
Chinese Diaspora”. According to Ma Mung, the Chinese diaspora is structured around
an  entrepreneurial  centre:  its  activities,  he  says,  are  “strongly  connected”  to  an
Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora chinoise, géographie d’une migration
China Perspectives, 50 | november- december 2003
2
“economic organisation in which the dimension of identity is predominant” (p. 117).
The empirical data used by the author are drawn mainly from surveys carried out in
France on the activities of Chinese enterprises (chapter 7). He describes the economic
organisation as “consistent”, this being shown by the significance of the links between
businesses,  these  being  of  fundamentally  ethnic  character  (p.  119).  The  lack  of
comparisons tends,  nevertheless,  to  restrict  the possibility  of  generalising from the
French case. The chapter ends with a presentation of the spatial layout of the Chinese
businesses, mainly in the Paris region.
7 The  writer  pursues  his  argument  by  speculating,  in  chapter  8,  on  what  it  is  that
qualifies  the  Chinese  migration as  a  diaspora.  He  postulates  that  the  diaspora  (the
dispersal  of  a  society  into  a  multiplicity  of  places)  presents  two  morphological
characters: the multipolarity of the migration and the interpolarity of the connections.
It maintains its consistence thanks to a particular conception of extra-territoriality,
“that is to say a particular form of self-representation in space” (p. 147). This space, he
asserts, is fantasised; it is imaginary; it is utopian. It emerges from the consciousness
that the diaspora has of its own dispersal with, as the main consequence, a reticular
vision of the relationships and spaces in which human support predominates. Culture
and society become a “territory” of unification.
8 The author adds that the diaspora also has a particular connection in time and space,
by constituting a particular memory/history: “This genealogy, through the continuity
it creates between individuals living in different countries by offering them a common
origin, serves as the basis for forming a transnational ethnic identity (p. 158).” Lastly,
he asserts that the spatial dispersal of the diaspora is used as a resource, particularly by
forming transnational trading networks.  Few examples,  regrettably,  are provided in
support of this theoretical, yet attractive, framework, which seems still to be awaiting
empirical studies that might provide a better balance for its constituent elements. But
it is no doubt an additional merit of this slim volume for Agrégation students that it sets
out prospects for future research.
NOTES
1. Wang Gungwu, China and the Overseas Chinese, Singapore, Times Academic Press, 1991.
2. Poston D., Mao X. M., Yu M. Y., “The Global Distribution of the Overseas Chinese
around 1990”, Population and Development Review, Vol. 20, No. 23.
3. Guerassimoff, Carine dir., “Les nouvelles migrations chinoises en Europe au début du
XXIe siècle”, Migrations-Société, Paris, CIEMI, vol. 15, n° 89, September-October 2003.
Michel Foucher dir., Asies nouvelles, Editions Belin, (cartography with commentaries),
pp. 383-386.
Emmanuel Ma Mung, La Diaspora chinoise, géographie d’une migration
China Perspectives, 50 | november- december 2003
3


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