w differs little from a province of China proper.
In Indo-China, the Malay Peninsula and throughout the Far East Chinese
are numerous as farmers, labourers and traders; in some places, such
as Singapore, Chinese are among the principal merchants. This
colonizing spirit is probably due more to the enterprise of the people
than to the density of the population. There were Chinese settlements
at places on the east coast of Africa before the 10th century A.D.
Following the discovery of gold in California there was from 1850
onwards a large emigration of Chinese to that state and to other parts
of America. But in 1879 Chinese exclusion acts were passed by the
United States, an example followed by Australia, where Chinese
immigration was also held to be a public danger. Canada also adopted
the policy of excluding Chinese, but not before there had been a
considerable immigration into British Columbia. Two factors, a racial
and an economic, are at work to bring about these measures of
exclusion. As indentured labourers Chinese have been employed in the
West Indies, South America and other places (see COOLIE).

In addition to several million Chinese settlers in Manchuria, and
smaller numbers in Mongolia, Turkestan and Tibet, it was estimated in
1908 that there were over 9,000,000 Chinese resident beyond the
empire. Of these 2,250,000 were in Formosa, which for long formed a
part of the empire, and over 6,000,000 in neighbouring regions of Asia
and in Pacific Islands. In the West Indies (chiefly Cuba) the number
of Chinese was estimated at 100,000, in South America (Brazil, Peru
and Chile) at 72,000, in the United States at 150,000, in Canada at
12,000, and in Australia and New Zealand at 35,000. There are
comparatively few Chinese in Japan (if Formosa be excepted) and Korea.
The number is given in 1908 as 17,000 in Japan and 11,000 in Korea.

_Social Life._

The awakening of the East which has followed the Russo-Japanese War of
1904-5 has affected China also. It is too soon to say how far the influx
of European ideas will be able to modify the immemorial customs and
traditions of perhaps the most conservative people in the world; but the
process has begun, and this fact makes it difficult to give a picture of
Chinese habits and customs which shall be more than historical or
provisional. Moreover, the difficulty of presenting a picture which
shall be true of China as a who