Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2015, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (4): 159-.

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Longstanding Cultural Impact on Population Migration in Chinese History#br#

LI Nan   

  • Online:2015-07-20 Published:2015-07-20
  • Contact: LI Nan, Department of Economic History, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. E-mail: li.nan@mail.sufe.edu.cn
  • About author:LI Nan, Department of Economic History, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
  • Supported by:
    This study was supported by the Project of Innovation Team of Shanghai University of Finance and Economic (No. 2014110309) and 2014 Shanghai Pujiang Project Grant(No.14PJC042).

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Abstract: Although social scientists and practitioners have long agreed that culture is an important determinant in the migration of populations, so far there has been no study, which provides empirical evidence of a causal relationship between culture and migration. Two things may have contributed to the lacking of empirical research on the subject. Culture is both a tangle and intangible concept, for which testable measures are difficult to design. Also, cultural change are incremental and subtle, and occur over a huge time. This makes it almost impossible to collect consistent historical data. In an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, this paper examines the impact of long term cultural change on interregional population migration by using generic distance from surnames as a measurable variable for cultural variation. The author compiled a database of the historical migration data in the last 1000 years. The finding indicates that the higher the cultural variation, the lower the migration activities. In other words, homogeneity of culture encourages migration while differences of cultures discourage migration. This finding stands the test of controlling variables such as socioeconomic and geographic elements. This study has established solid empirical evidence on the casual relation between culture and migration. Furthermore it contributes to the understanding of the characteristics and determinants of Chinese internal migration since the tenth century.

Key words: cultural diffusion, cultural difference, population migration