Scholars say that Chinese merchants visited Southeast Asia during the reign of the Han emperor Wu (140--86 B.C.). And from ceramic ware unearthed in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, some believe that Chinese immigrants had settled there as early as the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.).
根據學者們的研究，漢武帝時代就有中國人由海路抵達東南亞；再從蘇門答臘、爪哇及婆羅洲出土的陶器，甚至有人相信中國漢代商人、移民已在這些海島定居。