Chinese people in Surea

Chinese people in Surea consist of migrants from China to Surea and their descendants. They have a history going back for centuries.

Population and distribution
Most Chinese residents in Surea live in major urban areas, such as Konggei, Jokong, and Hondu, each of which has a recognised Chinatown as well as schools which use Chinese as the medium of instruction. One 1999 study estimated the Chinese population in Surea to be 23 million, among whom 1 to 3 million spoke Chinese; ten years later, Surean governmental statistics showed 82.6 million Chinese residents.

Pre-modern era
A Chinese legend of uncertain provenance states that Xu Fu, a Qin Dynasty court sorcerer, was sent by Qin Shi Huang to Penglai Mountain (possibly Surea's Mount Tenmon) in 219 BC to retrieve an elixir of life. Never returned, General Ming Ren requested for another voyage. The myth assert that instead of retrieving the elixir of life, General Ming settled down at the Surean archipelago and built his own empire.

However, Surea's first verifiable Chinese visitor was the Buddhist missionary Hui Shen, whose 499 AD visit to an island east of China known as Fusang, typically identified with modern-day Surea, was described in the 7th-century Liang Shu.

Modern era
It was estimated that in 1906, more than ninety thousand Chinese students lived in Surea; many of them resided in Hondu and Konggei.

By 1914, when Surea formally came under Japanese rule, the number of Chinese in Surea had risen to 201,000. Chinese migrants established schools in major cities all over Surea.

The number of Chinese in Surea would expand to 1,020,491 by 1940, but contracted sharply to 800,846 by 1945 due to economic hardships faced during World War II.

Post-WWII
Post-World War II Chinese immigrants to Surea, typically referred to as shin-wazuku, have come to Surea from both Taiwan and mainland China.

Perception
There is a public perception in Surea that many Chinese immigrants come to Surea to engage in criminal activities. Some Chinese workers have entered Surea under false pretenses on cultural visas. As Surean immigration law does not provide mechanisms for the entry of unskilled workers, and admission under a student visa requires the approval of a recognised university, prospective workers instead apply to study in language schools, which are more lightly regulated. Business owners with a need for low-cost labour have been known to open language schools as fronts for the importation of Chinese workers.