Those were good times. I only wish they could have had a more lasting influence. The article only lists eight kings and one republic, but I'm sure there were more.

海外华人国王列表：

从14世纪到18世纪，不少华人成为南洋一些国家的国王。最早研究这些历史的是梁启超，他在《中国殖民八大伟人传》一文列举八位华人国王。

将梁启超文及散见其他文献的华人国王列表如下：

元末黄森屏出海到了文莱。明朝洪武八年（1375年），黄森屏之女(或妹妹)嫁给文莱第二苏丹阿合曼。阿合曼死后，黄森屏之女继位成为文莱国王。此后文莱王位由女系继承，凡20代。 明史记载永乐年间，汶萊国王是福建人，可能说的就是黄森屏 。
洪武三十年（1397年），旅居三佛齐的華僑一千多人擁戴廣東南海人梁道明爲三佛齊国王。

爪哇順塔國王陆自立是廣東潮州人，永樂九年遣使貢方物。
萬曆年间，舊港國王王連是廣東人
婆罗洲国是福建人。
清朝雍正年间港口国（今越南境内）国王莫玖（Mok Kui）是广东雷州人。
国王莫玖传位子莫统国王（Mok tong），前后一百多年。
乾隆年间暹罗国王郑昭是广东潮州人。
婆罗洲戴燕国王吴元盛是广东嘉应人。
婆罗洲昆甸国王罗大是广东嘉应人
蘭芳大统制共和國是1770年（清乾隆四十二年）到1885年之间存在于南洋婆罗洲（现印度尼西亚占据称加里曼丹岛）上的华人国家。创立者为广东嘉应人罗芳伯。后来被荷兰人消灭。[1]

此外史记记载，匈奴王室为夏朝末代王子淳维逃到北方的后裔；箕子朝鲜王室为商朝王室后裔，朝鲜各朝始祖都有与中原移民有关联的传说，如王建，李成桂；百济王室为东北扶余人南迁的后裔。

Interesting,I wonder how those countries really worked.Were they like colonies?

Each has its specific history. Some formed because there were a lot of Chinese people there already. Others were where the king ruled over a different ethnicity.

Actually, now that I think about it, the list is limited, because only Overseas Chinese individuals who became king were listed. If we're talking about self-governing Chinese settlements in SEA, then there were definitely other examples, because I know for a fact that Chinese settlements in Indonesia and the Philippines fought the Dutch and the Spaniards.

There were also pirates like Limahong, who almost became king.

And I'm sure you know about Kokang.

Would 鄭經, 東寧王國 count?

It should be counted, because it belongs to the same culture (e.g. Minnan).

This relates to a discussion I had with Boron a while ago. He said that Chinese people are not really a seafaring people. I disagreed, because it depends on which branch of the Chinese nation you're talking about. If you grew up Cantonese, Teochiu, or Hokkien, then you would definitely see yourself as seafaring. (At least this was the refrain I heard while growing up Teochiu.)

I only wish we had established more Chinese kingdoms and republics while we had the chance.

The story of Cheng I Sao is good, too. She was a Cantonese pirate during the Qing Dynasty. Wikipedia says, "The Red Flag Fleet under Ching Shih's rule could not be defeated — not by Qing dynasty Chinese officials, not by the Portuguese navy, not by the British."

I don't think seafaring is that much of deal for Cantonese,Teochew and Hokkien anymore,perhaps in Qing times being a pirate,fishermen or merchant was the only choice you had,but not now. However the worship of Mazu still exists a legacy of my superstitious ancestors(have you ever been to 小琉球,they have over 80 temples in that small area). If Zhengchengonglived longer perhaps the Philippines would be Chinese. The only Chinese pirates I know are Limahong,the Zheng family,Gan Ning(lol dynasty warriors actually sparked my intrest in the Three kingdoms era) and Wang Zhi.

Chinese piracy was big in the Qing Dynasty, but little known these days. I'm starting a book called 華南海盜 by 穆黛安. (You can download it for free from Sina's 共享資料.) It says,

隨著時間的推移，我得以有機會對世界其他地方的海盜活動進行一番粗略觀察。相比之下，就活動範圍、組織結構和延續性而言，其他地方的海盜是難忘中國海盜之項背的。清中期擁有數百上千艘帆船和成千上萬名男人（以及女人）的中國海盜，其数量规模看起來比世界上任何其他地方的海盜都要超出幾倍。

As for modern Cantonese, Teochiu, and Hokkien, of course seafaring has become a lot less important in daily life. But when I was growing up, it existed in the cultural imagination of my family - "Seafaring people" explained why we had the type of seafood we had at dinner, why we had distant relatives in Indonesia and Thailand, stories about women who either waited for their husbands to come back or to bring them over to SEA, etc. I even remember thinking to myself (I must have been quite young back then), "I don't know anything about seafaring. Am I not authentically Teochiu enough?"

I've been thinking a lot of these issues the past few days. I think the mainland education system really cuts us Southern Chinese people off from our cultural roots, because we're given a standardised education based on Mandarin, stripped down to the most common denominator functional in a modern state, which does not relate at all to the cultures of our ancestors (which were quite different from those of North). The highest vision of the people in charge of education is to make us into clones to service their ideal technocratic state.

Plus, the 推普 people even want to ban our regional languages on TV and all public places. This really bothers me in a deep way.

I believe that our Southern Chinese ancestors saw the world in a quite different way than we did. Rather than looking to 中央, their horizon included possibilities and opportunities in distant foreign lands. The idea of an independent Chinese power somewhere in the middle of the ocean came naturally to them. (For instance, 蘭芳共和國.) Chinese pirates in fact bought Western firearms far earlier than the Qing Dynasty.*

*As I learnt recently from Baidu:

郑一嫂很早就向西方借鉴先进的科学技术。红旗帮使用的武器是千方百计弄到手的洋货。一次，跟英国战船交火后，她认真观察对手所遗弹头，发现英国人发射的是最新研制的24磅炮弹，几个月后，她的船队便装备了此种新式大炮。
　　郑一嫂所领导的红旗帮装备之精良跟大清水师相比不可同日而语，因此不仅屡败官军，甚至取得重创葡澳舰队（其中有美国雇佣兵）且把澳门围困得几近断粮的辉煌战绩。面对英国舰船在中国的水域内横冲直闯，郑一嫂还在1809年痛击了广州内河的英国船只，俘获一艘英舰，斩杀数十英国士兵，令英军震惊。