Why did the Chinese never migrate in large numbers to India and build culturally rich settlements like they did in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US, even though India is a land that is highly regarded in their traditional beliefs?

为什么中国人从来没有像他们去到东南亚、欧洲和美国那样大量移民到印度呢，在他们的传统信仰中，印度可是一块神圣的土地呀？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Jonathan Chong

It was because the Brits never had labour shortages in India as compared to my Malaysia whereby the Malays generally refused to sell their labour to the Brits.

Other than economic migration, there were also political refugees such as refugees of the failed Tai rebellion, Boxer rebellion, etc. Political refugees only need to run to nearest neighbouring countries which is SEA, India is simply too far, mind you there were practically no commercial flights then, refugees need to run on their feet or by ships/boats so SEA is the ideal destinations.

因为英国人在印度从来没有面临过劳动力短缺的问题，但马来西亚人通常拒绝为英国人卖苦力。

除了经济移民，还有政治难民，如太平天国和义和团的难民等。政治难民只需要跑到最近的邻国（也就是东南亚）就安全了，印度太远了，提醒一句，当时可没有什么商业航班，难民只能走路或坐船逃跑，所以东南亚是最理想的目的地。

Just think of major initial migration of Chinese to US, it was to build transcontinental railways and to prospect for gold whereby the Chinese labour were much much cheaper than even the Irish and Italianos. And apparently that the Chinese labourers do not fall sick easily like other European labourers. This was due to the fact that Chinese labourers would drink cheap teas instead dirty waters, drinking tea is not just healthy due to the teas but because the waters would need to be boiled before teas could be made.

想想中国人最早大批移民到美国，就是为了修建横贯大陆的铁路和勘探黄金，中国劳工比爱尔兰和意大利人都要便宜得多。显然，中国劳工不像其他欧洲劳工那样容易生病。这是因为中国劳工喝的是便宜的茶，而不是肮脏的生水，喝茶健康不仅是因为茶叶有益，更因为必须先把水烧开才能泡茶。

HISTORY OF INDIA

Historically, India and China have had limited economic and political ties, which may have discouraged Chinese immigration to India. Also, India and China have distinct cultures and languages, which may have made it more difficult for Chinese immigrants to integrate into Indian society.

This can be the reason too, Chinese migrants may have already established communities in other parts of the world, such as Southeast Asia and North America, which may have made India a less attractive destination for migration.

从历史上看，印度和中国的经济和政治关系有限，可能正是因为这个原因阻碍了中国移民去到印度。此外，印度和中国有不同的文化和语言，中国移民更难融入印度社会。

还有一个原因，中国移民可能已经在东南亚和北美等地建立了社区，所以印度对中国移民而言不是很有吸引力。

Khengchat Ng

Why were the Chinese so successful in spreading across South East Asia?

They did not purposefully intend to be “successful”. It was a combination of two factors : the need for people to develop the region ( pull factor ) and the ongoing disasters in China ( the push factor ). They were initially interested only in making money and then go back. However, the independence of South East Asian countries post World War 2 meant that they could take up citizenships so generously offered to them and stayed on.

为什么中国人能遍布东南亚？

这并非有意为之，两个因素一起促成了这个结果：该地区的发展需求(拉动因素)和中国正在遭受的灾害(推动因素)。中国人最初只对赚钱感兴趣，赚到钱就回中国了。但二战后东南亚国家的独立意味着他们可以轻松获得公民身份并留下来。

They Chinese had the qualities of :

Self reliance and resourceful and hence did not pose a strain on government upon arrival.

They had extensive family and clan connections which allowed them to settle in easily.

By and large they were uninterested in power politics and did not make the colonial powers and later the local people feel threatened.

They are a very adaptable people and adjust themselves to the realities of the localities they settled in.

Until today, the only issues concerning them is they their know how and industriousness leave little pickings for other people.

Of course, it must be asked why the Japanese and Koreans were not attracted to South East Asia.

他们中国人有以下特点：

自力更生，足智多谋，到达之处没有给政府造成压力。

中国人的家族和宗族关系很广，很容易定居下来。

总体上中国人对权力、政治不感兴趣，没有让殖民列强和原住民感到威胁。

中国人适应性很强，能迅速根据当地情况调整融入。

如今中国移民唯一的问题就是他们的知识和勤快几乎让其他人无利可图了。

当然，我们必须提出另一个问题，为什么日本人和韩国人没有被东南亚吸引？

Norman Owen

Related

How do I stop Chinese people to migrate to Southeast Asian countries?

YOU don’t. If you had that kind of power, you wouldn’t be futzing around on Quora with us ordinary folk.

我如何阻止中国人移民到东南亚国家？

如果你真的拥有那样的权力，你就不会在Quora上跟我们这些普通人扯皮了。

The various independent countries in Southeast Asia have the rights, under their laws, to try to prevent the immigration of Chinese people. It’s relatively straightforward - if politically precarious - to deny the entry of citizens of the PRC (China) or ROC (Taiwan). But it sounds as if you’d also like to block the immigration of “ethnic Chinese” who may be citizens of the other nearly 200 countries in the world. Good luck in trying (1) to identify them; and (2) to shape laws that will prevent their entry without totally closing your country off to the rest of the world! But I presume you could try to get each of these countries to change their laws to suit YOUR prejudices.

东南亚的各个独立国家都有权利，根据他们的法律来阻止中国移民。如果政治局势不稳，拒绝中国公民入境是相对直接的做法。但听起来你似乎也想阻止“华裔”移民，中国移民可能已经在世界上其他近200个国家都落脚了。你可以试着(1)辨别他们的身份；(2)制定法律拒绝他们入境，而非完全关闭你们国家和世界各国的联系！祝你好运！

You might want to ask YOURSELF some questions before you go further. Why do you want to do this in the first place? Why do you want to spread hatred of ethnic Chinese on the Internet? What good does that do you? What does that say about the kind of person YOU are? The default answer is: RACIST.

你可以问自己几个问题：你为什么想要这么做？你为什么要在网上散播对华人的仇恨？对你有什么好处？这说明你是什么样的人？我想默认的答案应该就是：种族主义。

Wenhe Lu

Chinese on the whole love living in China and do not want to immigrate to the other nations until there are too many Chinese in a too crowded area. Ancient Chinese population never exceeded 50million, smaller than that of Korea today. Therefore Chinese had no desire to leave home in the past. Besides that , the distance between China proper and India was at least 1000 miles with poor transportation which had not been improved until last century and there was a Himalaya and gorby highland along the way..

总体而言中国人喜欢生活在中国，并不想移民到其他国家。中国历史上的人口从未超过5000万，比今天的朝鲜人口还少。因此，中国人在过去完全没想过背井离乡。此外，中国和印度之间的距离至少有1000英里，交通便利度直到上个世纪交通才有所改善，两国之间还隔着喜马拉雅山和戈尔比高原。

Aozao Zhou

Related

How many Chinese people dream of migrating to India?

Before this century, many Tibans smuggled to India every year

However, with China's increasingly developed economy, fewer and fewer people smuggle to India every year. Now only criminals will consider smuggling in order to escape legal sanctions.

有多少中国人梦想着移民印度？

在本世纪以前，每年都有许多藏人偷渡到印度

但随着中国经济的腾飞，偷渡到印度的人越来越少。现在只有为了逃避法律制裁的罪犯才会考虑偷渡了。

Dr. Balaji Viswanathan

Civilization wise India and China are not next to each other. For instance, here are the boundaries of Ming dynasty — the last major ethnic Chinese led empire. Its cultural center is far from India. The formidable barrier of Tib stands between the two civilizations.

就文明而言，印度和中国彼此独立隔绝。例如，这是明朝的边界—最后一个由汉族人统治的帝国，文化中心离印度很遥远。藏区就是立于两大文明之间的巨大屏障。

If someone had to walk from the heart of the Ming empire into the largest eastern city of India — Calcutta, it would have them cross 5500 km of hard land territory through forests and mountains. Some Chinese still settled in Calcutta, but not a lot.

如果有人要从明代中国的中心地区步行到印度东部最大的城市—加尔各答，需要穿行5500公里，穿过森林和山脉。现在仍有一些中国人在加尔各答定居，但数量不是很多。

On the other hand, places such as Vietnam, Taiwan and Singapore are right next door. You could take a small boat and get to that.

另一方面，越南、中国台湾和新加坡等地紧挨着中国大陆，搭乘小船就可以达到。

While in the last 40 years China has a had substantially large economic growth compared to India, in the long run, there is no big difference in the capability of these 2 civilizations.

虽然在过去40年里，中国的经济增长规模比印度大得多，但从长远来看，这两个文明并没有太大差异。

Sripathi C D

They did not, simply because it would have made no sense. India did not need anyone to settle in the country and teach the populace superior values. India was a culturally rich land, perhaps the most advanced at that period in time, which people from around the world (including the Chinese) visited to imbibe scientific and spiritual knowledge and to trade.

中国人没有移民印度，原因很简单，因为这样做没有任何意义。印度不需要外来人口来印度定居，并向民众传授优越的价值观。印度是一个拥有丰富文化的国家，可能是当时最先进的国家，世界各地的人(包括中国人)都涌入印度学习科学和宗教知识，并开展贸易。

Anand Chandak

Chinese people have been moving to other countries for over 2000 years, especially in the 19th century when many went to Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australia, and Africa for work. But between 1949 and the 1980s, China didn't allow many people to leave. After that, many Chinese people started moving to developed countries like the US.

2000多年来，中国人一直在向其他国家迁移，特别是在19世纪，很多中国人前往东南亚、美洲、澳大利亚和非洲工作。但从1949年到20世纪80年代，中国不允许大批中国人离境。在那之后，许多中国人开始移居美国等发达国家。

In ancient times, Chinese travelers saw India as a special place because of Buddhism. But in the late 19th century, Chinese people started seeing India as less advanced compared to Western countries. Even though some Chinese people in the early 20th century saw India as representing "Eastern civilization", they often compared it to the West rather than seeing it as equal to China.

在古代，，因为佛教的影响，中国游客认为印度很特殊。但在19世纪后期，中国人开始认为印度不如西方国家发达。虽然20世纪初有些中国人将印度视为“东方文明”的代表，但他们也经常会把印度与西方进行比较。

China's main emigration flows have historically been to Southeast Asia due to proxmity and networks. India's large diaspora is concentrated in North America, the Gulf, Africa, and other regions. There has not been large-scale Indian migration to China. China and India have followed different development paths since economic liberalization. India remains more agrarian while China rapidly industrialized. This reduces labor flow incentives between them.

中国历史上的移民*要流向东南亚，因为地理位置相近。印度的大量海外侨民集中在北美、海湾、非洲和其他地区，没有大规模移居中国的记录。改革开放以来，中国和印度走上了不同的发展道路。印度仍以农业为主，而中国快速实现了工业化。这降低了两国之间的劳动力流动。

India has generally sought to restrict foreign migration since independence. Immigration laws and policies have limited options for Chinese to migrate. Chinese often view India as less developed and chaotic compared to China due to infrastructure gaps, poverty, etc. This reduces desirability of migrating. Racial perceptions influence views. Many Chinese see India as culturally and racially distinct from East Asia. Interracial marriages remain rare. Unresolved border disputes and geopolitical rivalry also limit close cultural ties. Restrictive visa policies hamper tourism and exchanges.

自独立以来，印度一直限制外国移民。移民法律和政策限制了中国人的移民选择。由于基础设施差距、贫困等原因，中国人通常认为印度不如中国发达，也比中国乱。这就降低了移民的吸引力。许多中国人认为印度在文化和种族上与东亚都很不同。跨种族婚姻很少。悬而未决的边境争端和地缘政治竞争也限制了密切的文化联系。严格的签证政策更阻碍了旅游和交流。

While China and India have deep historical ties, modern political and economic factors have not been conducive to large-scale migration between the two countries. Removing barriers to exchange would require shifts in racial attitudes, economic incentives, and geopolitical calculations. However, given current tensions and nationalist sentiments, major changes seem unlikely in the near future.

虽然中国和印度有着深厚的历史联系，但现代的政治和经济因素阻碍了两国之间的大规模移民。我们需要改变种族态度、经济激励和地缘政治考量才能消除交流壁垒。不过鉴于目前的紧张局势和民族主义情绪，短期内似乎不太可能出现重大变化。