Journeys between Europe and China: My Three-Decade Quest for Chinese Overseas History

Abstract

This is a factual story of an academic journey of three-decades told by the author about how she thrived in her research on Chinese Overseas in Europe. The author was among few academics from prc who went to study in Amsterdam in the mid-1980s. Ill-prepared and bewildered, she received help from Chinese Overseas. The experience marked the beginning of her life-long academic interest in Chinese Overseas. She was trained as a historian at Xiamen University specializing in Chinese in Indonesia for her ma, and she completed her doctoral degree in sociology at the University of Amsterdam specializing in Chinese migrants in Europe. She spent years conducting field work to study Chinese communities in different European countries. She became a Professor at Xiamen University, China, and published many papers and books on Chinese in Europe.