The study is a result of long-term observations and field work among the new community of Chinese immigrants arriving in eastern and central Europe after 1989. The new community is examined from historical perspective (comparison with the Chinese community living in pre-war Czechoslovakia) and in a wider geographical and political context (post-communist central Europe). The author builds on qualitative sociology and social anthropology and uses information from history and theories of migration. The vast majority of data had been obtained through engaged observation and hundreds of non-standardized ethnographic interviews with Chinese migrants between 1992 and 2002. A questionnaire survey was carried out at the end. The specific situation of the Czech Republic’s Chinese community is presented in a comparative perspective and serves as a starting point for an argument against a number of current trends in Chinese migration research.