The introduction surveys the main conceptual approaches that scholars take to study Chinese migration: diaspora, overseas Chinese (and Chinese overseas), ethnic studies, and Sinophone studies. It then describes common explanations for migration, including push and pull factors, migrant networks, and cultures of migration, in the process showing that very particular diasporic trajectories from specific emigrant communities in China to specific destinations both within and outside China constitute “the Chinese diaspora.” Finally, the introduction makes a case for considering internal and external Chinese migration as linked phenomena, and argues that migration was usually part of a broader family strategy for socioeconomic maintenance.