A Study Of Overseas Migration Bases On Quanzhou Local Genealogies

The Genealogy is a history about the family lineage, and it reflects general situations about an area or a family in politics, economy and ideology. There are about twenty thousand or thirty thousand genealogies in the world now. They are not only numerous but also have abundant contents which are as better as official histories and choreographies. As a part of them, the Quanzhou local genealogies not only have the commonly functions but also register a lot of data about clansmen emigrating . And these are the important bases for investigating the overseas Chinese. This is one of the characteristics of Quanzhou local genealogies.In Quanzhou local genealogies, they reflect many aspects. For example, the history of Quanzhou emigrants, the main ports for emigrating, the occupations of emigrants and their livings abroad, and their miserable sufferings. These historical data show the abundance connotations about overseas Chinese from different ways. The Quanzhou local genealogies offer the original information for overseas Chinese, and they also offset the deficiencies of the official histories.From the Quanzhou history, we can find that the Ming and Qing Dynasty are the important time for Quanzhou people to emigrate. During the beginning of the Seventeen Century and the middle of the Nineteen Century, they were many changes in domestic and international conditions. In this background, there are factors influences the emigration of Quanzhou people. Quanzhou is near the Southeast Asia areas, so more and more Quanzhou people got aboard for making a living. At the same time, the western colonizers came to the East and began to implode the Southeast Asia areas, and they needed more cheap labor force. So the requirement of the western colonizers was the exterior impetus of the emigration of Quanzhou people.There are a lot of data about Chinese migration, so this dissertation chooses an intact genealogy San Xiu Yongchun Jiaji Zhengshi Zupu for case study. It is hope that we can know the different migration fashions of the emigration of Quanzhou people in different periods and different conditions.The emigrants were almost single males in the records of Quanzhou local genealogies. They supported their families through making a living aboard. Because of this special relationship, the emigrants kept the consanguineous relation with their homeland and hometown. They took part in the familial campaigns and offered money. They also participated in the motherland's revolutions.