The fate and lives of overseas Chinese have been closely intertwined with China’s political landscape. Following the end of the Second World War and the onset of the Cold War, the contrasting ideologies of the East and West, coupled with public opinion and propaganda in host countries, had profound effects on the overseas Chinese population and their livelihoods. In contrast to the large-scale emigration of Chinese citizens after the Reform and Opening-Up, the movement of Chinese individuals between China and France from 1949 to the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 was relatively infrequent. As a result, academic accounts of the travel history of overseas Chinese during this period tend to be brief, often lacking comprehensive analysis of the political, economic, and cultural dynamics of both Chinese society and the overseas Chinese communities abroad.