Steven B. Miles is a professor in the Department of History at Washington University in St. Louis, and editor-in-chief of the journal, Late Imperial China. He is the author of The Sea of Learning: Mobility and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou (Harvard University Asia Center, 2006), Upriver Journeys: Diaspora and Empire in Southern China, 1570-1850 (Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), and Chinese Diasporas: A Social History of Global Migration (Cambridge University Press, 2020). He is also creator and custodian of the database, “Cantonese Migrant Networks: Stone Inscriptions from the West River Basin” (http://digital.wustl.edu/westriver)

Chinese Diasporas provides a concise and compelling new history of internal and external Chinese migration from the sixteenth century to the present day. Steven Miles places Chinese migrants and their families at the center of his narrative through a series of engaging case studies taking readers from the heart of Ming China to the global property markets of the twenty-first century. The focus on individual migrants and their descendants reveals the ways in which the “Chinese diaspora” has consisted of distinct paths of migration from specific emigrant communities to targeted destinations both within China and abroad. This is essential reading for those interested in the history of the Chinese diaspora and the overseas Chinese, and for those interested in the role of migration in the making of the modern world.

- Introduces concepts and debates in migration history

- Compelling case studies focus on individual migrants and their descendants

- Provides an integrated history of internal and external Chinese migration