Chinese people in Denmark form one of the smaller and less-studied Chinese diaspora communities of Europe. The earliest Chinese migrants in Denmark are believed to have been 34 men from Guangdong who came to the famous Tivoli Gardens amusement park in as travelling performers on contracts for the summer. Though the initial understanding was that they would return to China after their work had ended, half found other employment at the end of their contracts, and thus chose to settle in Denmark.
By , a total of 43 Chinese are believed to have become immigrants in Denmark; most of these were male, and among them were just four women married to Danish men.
Until the s, immigration from China remained almost non-existent, even as growth in the Danish economy created labour shortages and immigrants from other parts of the world flowed into the country.
Police statistics showed people from mainland China living in Denmark as of , and one researcher estimates perhaps 60 more from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Asylum seekers from the People's Republic of China are not prevalent among Chinese migrants to Denmark, even though Denmark has one of Europe's lowest rejection rates for asylum claims; such migrants prefer other countries in Southern, Central, or Eastern Europe, due to the better opportunities for work there. This contradicts claims that Chinese migrants are attracted by Denmark's generous social welfare benefits.
