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The early 21st century has witnessed a dramatic change in the international migration of Chinese people, regarding their number, their major destinations, and their activities abroad. Within a short time Europe, which for more than a century had been a traditional host region of out-bound Chinese, but with comparatively small and profile-stable diasporas, became a major hot-spot, displaying high dynamics in size and composition. Our multi-disciplinary volume focuses on this hitherto scantly explored development, based on several research projects about Chinese communities in different European countries.
It is certain that in the future global economic development will further encourage the movement of Chinese seeking economic, social and cultural opportunities in new places which makes the presented research results highly timely. Therefore, this book is expected to become a valuable resource to all those interested in this timely subject and/or having to deal with it in their professional life.
The volume is subdivided into four parts: an introductory overview of the history of Chinese migration to Europe, with a broader focus on the late 20th and early 21st century; a comprehensive section on the career context of expatriate Chinese; a study on the role of heritage language learning for the second generation of Chinese emigrants; and a wide-ranging part on cultural identity, including cultural memory embodied in letters, and the strengths of festivities and media.
The contributors to this book are Jieping Fan, Yi Fu, Eline Joosten, Beatrice Knerr,
Yuan Li, Yue Liu, Philip Long, Rhodri Thomas, Liwang Xu, Taoyu Yang, Jun Sun,
Jing Zhao, Xi Zhao, Hong Zhang, Kaikai Zhang, Qianqian Zhong.

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