Overseas Chinese Archaeology

Abstract

Overseas Chinese archaeology focuses on 22 material remains associated with individuals and 23 communities of Chinese descent living abroad, 24 typically in the context of nineteenth and early 25 twentieth century global population movements. 26 It includes both first generation Chinese 27 immigrants and their naturalized descendants. 28 Studies have been undertaken from a range of theoretical perspectives, and there are currently no dominant research paradigms. To date, research is largely restricted to the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand but could include any country to which Chinese migrated over the past several hundred years or more. Generally excluded are sites not occupied by ethnic Chinese (broadly conceived) but where Chinese-manufactured objects, including coins and export porcelain, have been found. However, the field may encompass the influence of Chinese migrants and material culture on their non-Chinese neighbors and others with whom they interacted. Field projects have explored a range of urban and rural contexts, site types, and features. They include industries such as logging, mining, dam and road construction, charcoal burning, fish canning, shrimp and abalone harvesting and processing, and market gardening, as well as stores, restaurants, laundries, boarding houses, gambling halls, temples, cemeteries, and cooking features, among others (Fig. 1). Sites are typically identified through historical records or the presence of one or more classes of imported Chinese consumer goods, including ceramic table and storage wares, opium paraphernalia, glass pharmaceutical and beverage bottles, coins, and gaming artifacts. Chinese merchants developed large-scale distribution networks for imported foods and other goods that reached even the most remote labor camps (Fig. 2). Consequently, Chinese sites have been comparatively easy to identify archaeologically, although direct C. Smith (ed.