This book tells the remarkable worldwide story of Chinese emigration since the sixteenth century, a process that is integral to the history of state and society in China. Distinguished historian Philip A. Kuhn explores the creative opportunism that has allowed Chinese migrants to adapt to different environments around the world. The various human ecologies they confronted presented Chinese settlers with diverse challenges and opportunities in the colonial and postcolonial states of Southeast Asia, in the settler societies of the Americas and Australasia, and in Europe. And post-revolutionary China today presents fresh opportunities for emigrants to leverage their expatriate status to do business with a homeland eager for their investments, donations, and technologies.