Internal Deportation

The threat against Zhou Rui's wife's son-in-law

Internal Deportation

This passage might seem puzzling to you:

你女婿因前兒多喝了點子酒，和人分爭起來，不知怎麼，叫人放了把邪火，說他來歷不明，告到衙門裡，要遞解還鄉。

Your son-in-law, my husband, had a bit too much to drink and got into a fight. And then somebody went and stirred up some trouble against, him, claiming that his background is suspicious. They went as far as to bring a case against him in court, and now they’re talking about having him deported back to his native place.

The truth is that controls on internal migration within China absolutely were a thing during the Qing Dynasty. And the modern Hukou (户口) system, which does have remnants of certain Soviet elements, was also heavily inspired by the old Huji (戶籍) household record system.

While I’m not aware of any comprehensive study of the phenomenon in 18th century China, there are a few bits and pieces that suggest that internal migration was closely controlled, especially among ethnic minority populations.