Chinese emigration to Europe: combining European and Chinese sources.

"Research into the history of Chinese immigration to Europe has so far basically been conducted on a country-by-country basis and normally restricted to national sources. In order to comprehend early Chinese immigration to Europe, however, a wider approach is necessary with the inclusion of Chinese sources and closer co-operation between Western and Chinese scholars.... This article contains a translation of a chapter in the Qingtian County Gazetteer as an example of the information on immigration that can be found in this kind of Chinese local sources. Finally, the information is discussed and, despite some problems concerning the origin and reliability of the Chinese sources, they are still found to provide European researchers with valuable historical information on the Qingtian phenomenon in European immigration history." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA AND CHI) excerpt