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Tony Leung

 

Southern "Han"

 

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CANTONESE

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

 

The Cantonese people (廣東人), broadly speaking, are a subgroup of the Han Chinese originating from the present-day Guangdong province in southern China. A narrower definition of Guangdongren based on a sociolinguistics and cultural perspectives specifies only people who speak the Cantonese language as a primary language and excludes groups that do not, such as the Hakka people and Teochew people (a variant of the Min Nan group). This definition will often also include native speakers of Cantonese in nearby Hong Kong and Macau, which were traditionally part of Guangdong prior to European colonisation, and eastern and southern Guangxi, parts of which were part of Guangdong prior to administrative reforms made by the People's Republic of China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Punti subethnic group, and is sometimes known as Guangfuren (廣府人) for this narrower definition. This article mainly focuses on this latter definition.

 

The Punti, a rough transliteration of the Cantonese term for "original locality," refers to the Cantonese-speaking populations of Guangdong province in southern China. They are contrasted with another Han Chinese linguistic group, the Hakka, which settled in the area after the Punti peoples and follow different cultural traditions.

The Mongol conquest of the Song Dynasty pushed even more Han Chinese refugees into the area including the descendants of the Chinese patriotic leader Wen Tianxiang. The "Great Five Clans" — the Hau (候), Tang (鄧), Pang (彭), Liu (廖), and Man (文) — were among the earliest recorded familial settlers of Hong Kong. Despite the immigration and light development of agriculture, the area was still relatively barren and had to rely on salt, pearl and fishery trades.

From 1854 to 1867 there were a series of battles between the Punti and Hakka peoples, concentrated mainly in the County of Xinning (present day the City of Taishan).

 

Hong Kong people (香港人): Most Hong Kong Chinese have ancestral roots from Guangdong Province and the Yangtze River Delta, as these two main Chinese groups inter-mingled. Few Hong Kong Chinese have partial European ancestry.

Han Chinese make up the majority of Hong Kongers, most being from Guangdong from the 1930s to the 1980s. There are also the indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories. Others were formerly from Shanghai, many being successful businessmen who shaped the economics of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong culture is highly Cantonese-influenced. Together with the fact that Cantonese is most commonly used as the language of both everyday and formal conversations, as well as its use in the media and education, other Han Chinese groups in Hong Kong, such as the Hakka, the Hoklo (Hokkien), the Shanghainese, or the Teochew, in particular those who are Hong Kong born or raised, often assimilate into the mainstream Cantonese identity of Hong Kong.

 

 

Guangdong

Guangdong (廣東) is a province on the southern coast of China. The province is also known by an alternative English name, the Canton Province.

"Guang" itself means "expanse" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. "Guangdong" and neighboring Guangxi literally mean "expanse east" and "expanse west". Together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called the "Dual-Guangs" (兩廣). The modern abbreviation 粵/粤 (Yue) is related to the Hundred Yue (百越), a collective name for various peoples that lived in Guangdong and other areas in ancient times.

History of Guangdong: Guangdong was far away from the center of ancient Chinese civilization in the north China plain. It was populated by peoples collectively known as the Hundred Yue, who may have been Kradai and related to the Zhuang people in modern Guangxi.

Chinese administration in the region began with the Qin Dynasty. After establishing the first unified Chinese empire, the Qin expanded southwards and set up Nanhai Commandery at Panyu, near what is now part of Guangzhou. It used to be independent as Nanyue between the fall of Qin and the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. The Han Dynasty administered Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam as Jiao Province. Under the Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, Guangdong was made its own province, the Guang Province, in 226.

As time passed, the demographics of what is now Guangdong slowly shifted to (Han) Chinese-dominance, especially during several periods of massive migration from the north during periods of political turmoil and/or nomadic incursions from the fall of the Han Dynasty onwards. For example, internal strife in northern China following the rebellion of An Lushan resulted in a 75% increase in the population of Guangzhou prefecture between 740s-750s and 800s-810s. As more migrants arrived, the local population was gradually assimilated to Han Chinese culture, or displaced.

Together with Guangxi, Guangdong was made part of Lingnan Circuit (political division Circuit), or Mountain-South Circuit, in 627 during the Tang Dynasty. The Guangdong part of Lingnan Circuit was renamed Guangnan East Circuit guǎng nán dōng lù in 971 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). "Guangnan East" is the source of "Guangdong".

As Mongols from the north engaged in their conquest of China in the 13th century, the Southern Song Dynasty retreated southwards, eventually ending up in today's Guangdong. The Battle of Yamen 1279 in Guangdong marked the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1279).

During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, Guangdong was a part of Jiangxi. Its present name, "Guangdong Province" was given in early Ming Dynasty.

Since the 16th century, Guangdong has had extensive trade links with the rest of the world. European merchants coming northwards via the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea, particularly the Portuguese and British, traded extensively through Guangzhou. Macau, on the southern coast of Guangdong, was the first European settlement in China since 1557. It was the opium trade through Guangzhou that triggered the Opium Wars, opening an era of foreign incursion and intervention in China. In addition to Macau, which was then a Portuguese colony, Hong Kong was ceded to the British, and Kwang-Chou-Wan to the French.

In the 19th century, Guangdong was also the major port of exit for labourers to Southeast Asia and the West, i.e. United States and Canada. As a result, many overseas Chinese communities have their origins in Guangdong. The Cantonese language therefore has proportionately more speakers among overseas Chinese people than mainland Chinese. In the US, there is a large number of Chinese who are descendants of immigrants from the otherwise unremarkable Guangdong region of Taishan (Toisan in Cantonese), who speak a distinctive dialect of Cantonese called Taishanese (or Toishanese).

During the 1850s, the first revolt of the Taiping Rebellion by the Hakka people took place in Guangdong. Because of direct contact with the West, Guangdong was the center of anti-Manchu and anti-imperialist activity. The generally acknowledged founder of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen, was from Guangdong.

Guangdong is also the ancestral home of large numbers of overseas Chinese. Most of the railroad laborers in Canada, Western United States and Panama in the 19th century came from Guangdong. Emigration in recent years has slowed with economic prosperity, but this province is still a major source of immigrants to North America and elsewhere in the world.

The majority of the province's population is Han Chinese. There is a small Yao population in the north. Other smaller minority groups include She, Miao, Li, and Zhuang.

Within the Han Chinese, the largest group in Guangdong are the Cantonese people. Two other major groups are the Hakka people in Meizhou and the Teochew people in Chaozhou.

 

Guangdong : China's Promised Land by Brian Hook (Editor)

 

 

 

 

Cantonese Society in a Time of Change by Goran Aijmer, Virgil K. Ho

 

 

 

 

The Rural Economy of Guangdong, 1870-1937: A Study of the Agrarian Crisis and Its Origins in Southernmost China by Alfred H. Lin, A. Lin

 

 

 

Archaeological Finds from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Periods in Guangdong by Chinese University of Hong Kong Staf

 

 

 

 

Guangzhou

Guangzhou (廣州) is the capital and a sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China. The city is also known by an alternative English name, Canton. It is a port on the Pearl River, navigable to the South China Sea, and is located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Hong Kong.

History: The first known city built at the site of Guangzhou was Panyu (蕃禺, later simplified to 番禺; Poon Yu in Cantonese) founded in 214 BC. The city has been continuously occupied since that time. Panyu was expanded when it became the capital of the Nanyue Kingdom (南越) in 206 BC.

Recent archaeological founding of her palace suggests that the city might have traded frequently with foreigners by the sea routes. The foreign trade continued through every following dynasty and the city remains a major international trading port to this day.

The Han Dynasty annexed Nanyue in 111 BC, and Panyu became a provincial capital and remains so until this day. In 226 AD, the city however became the seat of the Guang Prefecture (廣州; Guangzhou). Therefore, "Guangzhou" was the name of the prefecture, not of the city. However, people grew accustomed to calling the city Guangzhou, instead of Panyu.

Although the Chinese name of Guangzhou replaced Panyu as the name of the walled city, Panyu was still the name of the area surrounding the walled city until the end of Qing era.

Arab and Persian pirates sacked Guangzhou (known to them as Sin-Kalan) in AD 758, according to a local Guangzhou government report on October 30, 758, which corresponded to the day of Guisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the Qianyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, a celebrated poet called Su Shi (Shisu) visited Guangzhou's Baozhuangyan Temple and wrote the inscription "Liu Rong" (Six Banyan Trees) because of the six banyan trees he saw there. It has since been called the Temple of the 6 Banyan Trees.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive to the city by sea, establishing a monopoly on the external trade out of its harbor by 1511. They were later expelled from their settlements in Guangzhou (in Portuguese Cantão), but instead granted use of Macau as a trade base with the city in 1557. They would keep a near monopoly of foreign trade in the region until the arrival of the Dutch in the early seventeenth century.

After China claimed control of Taiwan in 1683, the Qing government became open to encouraging foreign trade. Guangzhou quickly emerged as one of the most adaptable ports for negotiating commerce and before long, many foreign ships were going there to procure cargos.

Portuguese in Macau, Spanish in Manila, and Armenians and Muslims from India were already actively trading in the port by the 1690s, when the French and English British East India Company's ships began frequenting the port through the Canton System.

Other companies were soon to follow: the Ostend General India company in 1717; Dutch East India Company in 1729; the first Danish ship in 1731, which was followed by a Danish Asiatic Company ship in 1734; the Swedish East India Company in 1732; followed by an occasional Prussian and Trieste Company ship; the Americans in 1784; and the first ships from Australia in 1788.

By the middle of the 18th century, Guangzhou had emerged as one of the world's great trading ports under the Thirteen Factories, which was a distinction it maintained until the outbreak of the Opium Wars in 1839 and the opening of other ports in China in 1842. The privilege during this period made Guangzhou one of the top 3 cities in the world.

Guangzhou's monopoly on English trade ended with the Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842 to end the First Opium War between Britain and China. The treaty opened four new treaty ports, allowing British merchants to trade in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai in addition to Guangzhou.

 

Heaven is High and the Emperor Far Away: Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton by Valery M. Garrett

 

 

 

The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700-1845 by Paul A. Van Dyke

 

 

 

 

Painting of the factories in 1780 with flags of Denmark, Spain, US, Sweden, Britain, Holland

Thirteen Factories ( 十三行) is an area of Guangzhou, China where the first foreign trade was allowed in the 18th century since Hai jin. It is also referred to as the "Thirteen Hongs" or the "Canton Factories".

Factories were "foreigners quarters" outside the city walls in Guangzhou. These were business markets, not actual factories where goods were manufactured. The name came from the foreign agent term of "factors", who maintained offices or factories. Chinese citizens often referred to the factories as "Barbarian Houses".

In 1684, the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing allowed foreigners to trade with China in four cities, including Guangzhou. In 1686, Westerners were allowed to also live in the area of the factories in Canton, at the head of the Pearl River. In 1757, the Emperor Qianlong limited Westerners to the port of Canton, and no other area.

In 1793, attempts were made by King George III who sent representative Lord George Macartney to request that ports in northern China be opened to trade. Emperor Qianlong denied the request.

The Thirteen Factories gradually lost importance after the First Opium War, a conflict after China banned the import of British opium. The Qing court was defeated by Great Britain and forced to open five ports to foreigners and to cede Hong Kong to Great Britain. The Thirteen Factories was no longer the sole place for foreigners to trade and live in China.

The Hongs in Hong Kong that became major economic powerhouses beginning in the 1890s are usually credited to the British and other overseas merchants. Despite the origin of the name "Hong", the factories did not play a role in Hong Kong's economy in the 20th century.

The Western factors were allowed to occupy two- or three-story buildings, set back one hundred yards from the river. Each factory contained 3 or 4 houses. The warehouses occupied the first floors and elegant apartments were on the second and third floors of the houses. The square in front of the factories was fenced and reserved for foreigners. The streets immediately adjoining the factories were named Thirteen Factory Street, Old China Street, and Hog Lane. These streets were filled with retail stores selling a wide variety of Chinese goods.

The following are the structures of factory buildings and streets that make up the thirteen factories area. The list is in the order of which they are lined up. The names of the hong-merchants are Howqua, Mowqua, Puankhequa, Goqua, Fatqua, Kingqua, Sunshing, Mingqua, Saoqua and Punboqua.

The emperor appointed an official called the hoppo, to take charge and collect taxes from the goods traded. The position also overlook whether the trades went accordingly. The hoppo was responsible for merchant relations on behalf of the Qing court. It was an important position since merchants were not allowed to communicate with the emperor directly.

Foreigners were also not allowed to learn Chinese by rule at the time. Though the British did have Robert Morrison as the translator. The four linguist representing the Chinese side include Atom, Achow, Atung and Akang.

 

 

Canton Porcelain (Collecting 17th-19th Century "BALLAST WARE" Chinese Canton Porcelain by Lorena Overstreet Allen)

Canton porcelains are Chinese ceramic wares made for export in the 18th to the 20th centuries. The wares were made, glazed and fired at Jingdezhen but decorated with enamels at Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China prior to export by sea through that port. Canton Famille rose in the 19th century was typically decorated with alternate panels of figures and birds, flowers and insects, predominantly in pink and green.

Famille jaune, noire, rose, verte are terms used to classify Chinese porcelain by its colour palette. Famille rose (also known as fencai or ruan cai, meaning 'soft colours', and later as yang cai, meaning 'foreign colours') was introduced during the reign of Kangxi (1654-1722), possibly around 1720. It used mainly pink or purple and remained popular throughout the 18th and the 19th centuries.

Famille rose enamel ware allows a greater range of colour and tone than was previously possible, enabling the depiction of more complex images, including flowers, figures and insects. It is made by drawing a sketch on the shaped clay, which is then covered with ‘glassy white’ (bo li bai), an opaque white enamel (lead arsenate), and painted in detail with the mixture of pigment and oil, before firing.

Blue & White: Chinese Porcelain Around the World by John Carswell

 

 

 

China for America: Export Porcelain of the 18th and 19th Centuries by Jonathan A. Goldstein

 

 

 

The Canton Famille Rose Porcelains: Chinese Export Porcelain in the 19th Century by John Quentin Feller

 

 

 

 

Taishan

Taishan (台山) is a coastal county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. The city is located in the Pearl River Delta, southwest of Jiangmen (to which it administratively belongs) and 140 kilometers west of Hong Kong, with a population of approximately 1 million. It contains 95 islands and islets, including the largest island in Guangdong, Shangchuan Island. It is one of four county-level cities in an area known as Sze Yup (四邑, four counties).

Because it is estimated that over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese." As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.

Taishanese speak the Taishan dialect of Chinese. Before the 1980s, Taishanese was the predominant Chinese language spoken throughout North America's Chinatowns. It is the de facto language of Taishan.

 

Eighth Promise: An American Son's Tribute to His Toisanese Mother by William Poy Lee

 

 

 

 

Foshan

Foshan (佛山) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong provinceThe town of Foshan is many centuries old. It is famous for its porcelain industry. Now it is the third largest city in Guangdong.

Foshan has many sights, including Chinese temples and other examples of Chinese architecture. The old Zu temple in Foshan houses the city's guardian, where it has stood for hundreds of years. The temple still stands after enduring many wars and the Cultural Revolution. Much of its original architecture is still intact. The temple is now used to stage the traditional Canton opera at night.

Besides the Zu temple, another example of traditional Chinese buildings is the Liang Yuan. It is one of the four famous Yuan, or private estates, in Guangdong. It epitomizes the building style of the Ming-Qing dynasties, with delicate craftsmanship throughout the building, and a compact yet elegantly designed garden. It is very well preserved, with most of its original artifacts displayed in-house. Very near to this site is a group of preserved buildings that date back to the Qing dynasty. Although they are now private houses, permits to visit some of these buildings can be obtained from the Tourist Bureau. These buildings all display the very classic building style of that era, which is the abandonment of the large and ostensible garden and space in favour to small yet multi-stories houses that is practical when there is little space.

Another potential tourist site in Foshan is the old porcelain furnace in Shi Wan. It is said to have been in operation since the Tang dynasty, and the fire inside was never gone out. It is still producing some of the chinaware that made Foshan famous. Surrounding that site are many workshops of the local artists.

The countryside surrounding Foshan city retains much of its traditional south Chinese rural characteristics.

 

Shiwan animal figurine, Museum de Arte de Macau

Shiwan Ware was from kilns located in the Guangdong provincial city of Foshan. Area ceramic production experienced a long history by the late Ming period 1500s when ceramic artisans from perhaps Dehua and Jingdezhen relocated to the Shiwan area and expanded local production into a vigorous export related industry. Shiwan wares provide a contrast with more conservatively rendered Dehua efforts. Clay for the ware was provided not only from area preserves, but also from distant locations that could be variously mixed to provide a variety of textures and desired ceramic outcomes. The range could extend from a porcelain, that could rival Dehua in purity, to a rough stoneware. Shiwan ware was widely exported. Its glazing techniques directly influenced Japanese Shiga wares and others.

* History and Development of the Chinese Ceramic Captial - Shiwan, China by Sam Chan

Gathering of Earthly Gods: Shiwan Wares from the Collections of the International Shiwan Ceramics Association by Yanfang Huang

 

 

 

 

Lingnan

Lingnan (嶺南) is a geographic area referring to lands in the south of China's "Five Ranges" which are Tayu, Qitian, Dupang, Mengzhu, Yuecheng. The region covers the Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces of modern China.

The area was inhabited by the Hundred Yue tribes and the motherland of ancient Nanyue. At that time, Lingnan was considered as a barbarian land and it had loose contact with the Zhongyuan region, which was the cultural cradle of Chinese culture. In the 2nd century BC, the region was absorbed into the Middle Kingdom, and its development had been boosted since the Ancient Meiguan Road (梅關古道) was paved.

Lingnan culture (嶺南文化) refers to the culture of Guangdong and the nearby provinces in southeastern China. It is the subject of research at institutions such as the Center for Lingnan Culture. It is typically contrasted with Zhongyuan culture, that of China's northern plains (Zhongyuan).

Old-fashioned shops in Wan Chai are typical examples of Lingnan architecture, comparable to those found in Guangzhou and Taipei. Attached to the second storey from the pavement, numerous pillars were built in front of the stores.

Lingnan architecture is concentrated at Xiguan. Built at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Baomo Garden is located at Zini Village near Shawan town of Panyu and is a fine example of classical Lingnan architecture. Once inside, exotic buildings, gardens, hills, lakes and bridges are found - a place that reveals interplay between nature's art and man-made art in forms of sculptures and edifices, which boast intricate clay, porcelain, brick, wood and stone carving. Chen Clan Temple is another representative of Lingnan architecture. The Temple was built in the sixteenth year (1890) of Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and served as an academy for Chen families in 72 counties of the Guangdong Province. It comprises all sorts of folk architectural and decorative arts, and is famous for its "Three Carvings" (stone, wood and brick carvings), "Three sculptures" (ceramic sculpture, clay sculpture and colorful sculpture) and "One cast" (cast iron). Therefore, it is called the best of all the clan temples in neighbourhood.

Today, some building elements of Lingnan architecture are adapted in constructions of commercial districts in Guangzhou. In streets like Beijinglu Commercial Street, Zhongshan Wulu Road and Hui Fulu Road, old-fashioned shops of Lingnan architecture are found in heaps. Attached to the second storey from the pavement, numerous pillars were built in front of the stores. Similar building styles are still common in some torn-down areas both in Hong Kong and Taipei.

 

Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt : Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China by Robert B. Marks, Donald Worster (Editor) , Alfred W. Crosby (Editor)

 

 

 

Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China by David Faure

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl River

Map of the Pearl River (by Kmusser)

The Pearl River or Zhu Jiang, (珠江) or less commonly, the "Guangdong (a.k.a. Canton) River" (Yue Jiang) (粵江), is China's third longest river (2,200 km, after the Yangtze River and the Yellow River), and second largest by volume (after the Yangtze). Located in the south, it flows into the South China Sea between Hong Kong and Macau. Its lower reach forms the Pearl River Delta.

The Pearl River is named after a sandy or stony island in the middle of the river called "Sea Pearl" (海珠). This island is now in the bank, due to the river's change of course.

It is formed by convergence of the Xi Jiang ("the West River"), the Bei Jiang ("the North River"), and the Dong Jiang ("the East River") . The river flows through the majority of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou Provinces, and parts of Hunan and Jiangxi, forming the 409,480 km² Pearl River Basin (珠江流域).

Settlements

• Guangzhou
• Dongguan
• Hong Kong
• Macau
• Shenzhen
• Zhuhai
• Zhongshan

 

Pearl River Delta

Map of the Pearl River Delta (by Croquant)

The Pearl River Delta ( 珠江三角洲) in southern People's Republic of China is the low-lying areas alongside the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Since economic liberalisation was adopted by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the delta has become one of the leading economic regions and a major manufacturing center of China. The Chinese government hopes that the manufacturing in Guangdong, combined with the financial and service economy and traditional western influence in Hong Kong, will create an economic gateway attracting foreign capital throughout mainland China.

The PRD covers nine prefectures of the province of Guangdong, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing, and the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau.

 

The Pan-Pearl River Delta: An Emerging Regional Economy in a Globalizing China by Y.M. Yeung, Shen Jianfa

 

 

 

Down to Earth: The Territorial Bond in South China by David Faure (Editor), Helen F. Siu (Editor)

 

 

 

Cultural Heritage Management in China: Preserving the Cities of the Pearl River Delta by Du Cros/ Lee, Yok-Shiu F. Lee (Editor)

 

 

 

 

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Cantonese Language

Map of Sinitic Languages by Gohu1er

Cantonese (廣東話), also known as Yuè, is a primary branch of Chinese. The name "Cantonese" is also commonly used in a narrower sense for the Standard Cantonese, which is the prestige dialect of Cantonese in the broader sense.

The issue of whether Cantonese in the broader sense should be regarded as a language in its own right or as a dialect of a Chinese language is controversial. Like the other primary branches of Chinese, Cantonese is considered to be a dialect of a single Chinese language for ethnic and cultural reasons, but it is also considered a language in its own right because it is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese. Yue Cantonese is in turn not a single language based on mutual intelligibility; speakers of Standard Cantonese cannot understand Taishanese, for example. See varieties of Chinese.

The exact number of Cantonese speakers is unknown due to a lack of statistics and census data. The areas with the highest concentration of speakers are Guangdong, some parts of Guangxi in southern mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, with Cantonese-speaking minorities in Southeast Asia, Canada, and the United States.

There are four major dialect groups of Cantonese:

• Cantonese proper, or Yuehai 粵海, which includes the Canton dialect spoken in Guangzhou 廣州, Hong Kong 香港 and Macau 澳門 as well as the dialects of Zhongshan 中山, and Dongguan 東莞
• Sìyì (四邑, sei yap), exemplified by Taishan dialect 台山, which was ubiquitous in American Chinatowns before ca 1970
• Gaoyang dialect, spoken in Yangjiang 陽江
• Guinan (桂南, from Southern Guangxi) spoken widely in Guangxi 廣西.

In Hainan 海南 Province, two unclassified dialects are spoken which may be closely related to Cantonese, the Mai dialect and the Danzhou dialect. The name "Cantonese" generally refers to the Yuehai dialect.

Relationship Between Cantonese and Taishanese: Taishanese is often regarded as similar to mainstream Cantonese (Guangzhou dialect, de facto standard-by-use of the whole Cantonese language), although mainstream Cantonese speakers are generally unable to understand Taishanese or only with great difficulty. The phonology of Taishanese bears some resemblance to mainstream Cantonese, but pronunciation and vocabulary differ, sometimes greatly. Because mainstream Cantonese is one of the lingua francas of Guangdong, virtually all Taishanese speakers also understand mainstream Cantonese.

In Guangdong, mainstream Cantonese functions as a lingua franca, and speakers of other languages/dialects (such as Chaozhou Minnan, Hakka) more often than not also speak mainstream Cantonese. Today, since Mandarin Putonghua is the standardized language and the only legally-allowed language taught in schools throughout most part of People's Republic of China (except minority areas), residents of Taishan can speak Mandarin as well. Although Chinese government have been making great effort to popularize Putonghua by administration means, there are nearly no local Taishan people who speak Mandarin in their daily life. Most people take Mandarin as a foreign language, while Guangzhou dialect as the standard-by-use of their native language.

 

 

History of the Cantonese Language

Qin and Han: In ancient China, Guangdong was called Nanyue, and very few Han people lived there. Therefore, the Chinese language was not widely spoken there at that time. However, in the Qin Dynasty Chinese troops moved south and conquered the Baiyue territories, and thousands of Han people began settling in the Lingnan area. This migration led to the Chinese language being spoken in the Lingnan area. After Zhào Tuó was made the Duke of Nanyue by the Han Dynasty and given authority over the Nanyue region, many Han people entered the area and lived together with the Nanyue population, consequently affecting the livelihood of the Nanyue people as well as stimulating the spread of the Chinese language. Although Han Chinese settlements and their influences soon dominated, some indigenous Nanyue population did not escape from the region. Today, the degree of interaction between Han Chinese and the indigenous population remains vague due to the lack of historical records.

Sui: In the Sui Dynasty, Zhongyuan was in a period of war and discontent, and many people moved southwards to avoid war, forming the first mass migration of Han people into the South. As the population in the Lingnan area dramatically rose, the Chinese language in the south developed significantly. Thus, the Cantonese language began to develop more significant differences with central Chinese.

Tang: As the Han population in the Guangdong area continued to rise during the Tang Dynasty, some indigenous people living in the south had been culturally assimilated by the Han population, while others moved to other regions (such as Guangxi), developing their own dialects. At the time, Cantonese was affected by central Chinese and became more standardized, but it further developed a more independent language structure, vocabulary, and grammar.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing: In the Song Dynasty, the differences between central Chinese and Cantonese became more significant, and the languages became more independent of one another. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Cantonese evolved still further, developing its own characteristics.

Mid to Late Qing: In the late Qing, the dynasty had gone through a period of maritime ban under the Hai jin. Guangzhou remained one of the only cities that allowed trading with foreign countries, since the trade chamber of commerce was established there. Therefore, some foreigners learned Cantonese and some Imperial government officials spoke Cantonese, making the language very popular in Cantonese-speaking Guangzhou. Also, the European control of Macau and Hong Kong had increased the exposure of Cantonese to the world.

20th Century: In the Cantonese-speaking region of mainland China, Mandarin is used for official purposes while Cantonese is used more informal situations.

In Hong Kong, Hong Kong Cantonese is the main and dominant form of spoken Chinese and is used in education, the government, public life, the media and entertainment (e.g. Hong Kong cinema), and in business dealings with Cantonese-speaking overseas Chinese communities.

Nowadays, due to Putonghua (Mandarin) being the medium of education on the mainland, many youngsters in the Cantonese speaking region in mainland China do not know specific historical and scientific vocabularies in Cantonese but do know social, cultural, entertainment, commercial, trading, and all other vocabularies. Cantonese is widely spoken and learned by overseas Chinese of Guangdong and Hong Kong origin.

The popularity of Cantonese-language media and entertainment from Hong Kong has led to a wide and frequent exposure of Cantonese to large portions of China and the rest of Asia. Cantopop and the Hong Kong film industry are prominent examples of modern Cantonese language media.

 

 

Zhou -- Qin -- Ba (巴國) / Shu (蜀國) --Shu Yu -- Cantonese

Zhou -- Qin -- Jiao Zhou -- Cantonese

 

 

 

Ba (巴) was an ancient state in eastern Sichuan, China. Its original capital was Zhi (Fuling), Chongqing. Ba was conquered by Qin in 316 BC. The modern ethnic minority Tujia people trace their origins back to the Ba people.

Municipality of Chongqing

Chongqing (重慶) is the largest and most populous of the People's Republic of China's four provincial-level municipalities, and the only one in the less densely populated western region of China.

Chongqing is said to be the semi-mythical State of Ba that the Ba people supposedly established during the eleventh century BC. By 316 BC, however, it had been overrun by the State of Qin. The Qin emperor ordered a new city to be constructed, which was called Jiang (江州) and Chu Prefecture (楚州).

Chongqing was subsequently renamed in 581 AD (Sui Dynasty) and 1102, to Yu Prefecture (渝州) and then Gong Prefecture (恭州). It received its current name in 1189, after Prince Zhao Dun of the Southern Song Dynasty described his crowning as king and then Emperor Guangzong as a "double/repeated happy celebration" (雙重喜慶). Hence, Yu Prefecture became Chongqing subprefecture to mark the occasion.

In 1362, (Yuan Dynasty), Ming Yuzhen, a peasant rebelling leader, established the Daxia Kingdom (大夏) at Chongqing for a short time.

In 1621 (Ming Dynasty), another short-lived kingdom of Daliang (大梁) was established by She Chongming (奢崇明) in Chongqing as its capital.

Between 1627-1645, with the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Chongqing, together with Sichuan, were captured by the Revolts who overthrew the Ming Dynasty across the nation. Later during the Qing Dynasty, immigration to Chongqing and Sichuan took place with the support of Qing emperor.

In 1891, Chongqing became the first inland commerce port open to foreigners.

 

The Tujia (土家族), with a total population of over 8 million, is the 6th largest ethnic minority in People's Republic of China. They live in Wuling Range, straddling the common borders of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou Provinces, and Chongqing Municipality. Their endonym Bizika means "native dwellers" in the Tujia language.

Although there are different accounts of their origins, the Tujia may trace their history back over twelve centuries, and possibly beyond, to the ancient Ba people who occupied the area around modern-day Chongqing some 2,500 years ago. The Ba Kingdom reached the zenith of its power between 600 BC and 400 BC but was destroyed by the Qin in 316 BC. After being referred to by a long succession of different names in ancient documents, they appear in historical records as the Tujia from about 1300s onwards.

The Tujia tusi chieftains reached the zenith of their power under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when they were accorded comparatively high status by the imperial court. They achieved this through their reputation as providers of fierce, highly-disciplined fighting men, who were employed by the emperor to suppress revolts by other minorities. On numerous occasions, they also helped defend China against outside invaders, such as Japanese pirates who ravaged the coast during the 16th century.

The Manchus conquered China in 1644 and established the Qing Dynasty. Ever suspicious of local rulers, the Qing emperors always tried to replace Chinese officials with Manchu officials wherever they could. In the early 1700s, the Qing court finally felt secure enough to establish direct control over minority areas as well. This process, known as gaituguiliu (literally 'replace the local [ruler], return to mainstream [central rule]'), was carried out throughout south-west China gradually and, in general, peacefully. The court adopted a carrot-and-stick approach of lavish pensions for compliant chieftains, coupled with a huge show of military force on the borders of their territories.

Most of the Tujia areas returned to central control during the period 1728-1735. Whilst the Tujia peasantry probably preferred the measured rule of Qing officials to the arbitrary despotism of the Tujia chieftains whom they had replaced, many resented the attempts of the Qing court to impose Chinese culture and customs on them. With the weakening of central Qing rule, numerous large-scale uprisings occurred. The Taiping Rebellion affected the area badly, and western imperialist aggression caused great economic hardship as cheap foreign goods flooded the region, with local products being bought up at rock-bottom prices.

Ba, often described as a loose confederation or a collection of chiefdoms, consisted of several loosely-affiliated independent clans who recognised a king. The Ba clans were highly diverse, being composed of multiple ethnicities. Archaeological evidence shows that the Ba people relied primarily on fishing and hunting, with low levels of agriculture (no evidence of irrigation).

Ba may have aided the founders of the Zhou Dynasty in its overthrow of the Shang Dynasty at the Battle of Muye; however, Ba's first definitive appearance in recorded history occurred in 703 BC; the Zuo Zhuan recorded that Ba took part in a joint military operation with Chu against Deng.

Ba territory originally included areas in the Han River valley; the ascendance of Chu pushed Ba westwards and further into the Sichuan basin. Chu expansion forced Ba to move its capital several times. According to Chang Qu, capitals or administrative centers of Ba included Jiangzhou (Chongqing), Dianjiang (Hechuan), and Pingdu (Fengdu), with its final capital at Langzhong (閬中). During the Warring States Period, Qin, Chu and Shu, all more powerful states, shared a common border with Ba.

Although Chu sometimes encroached on Ba territory, Ba shared a complex relationship with Chu, with strong trade and marriage ties. Chu also employed many Ba mercenaries as soldiers in its own army. This practice sometimes caused problems for Chu; in one instance, Ba mercenaries employed by Chu rebelled and besieged the Chu capital in 676 or 675 BC.

Ba and Zu allied with Qin in Qin's invasion of Shu. After the successful invasion, Qin immediately conquered its two allies and captured the last Ba king. Ba was then converted into a Qin commandery. Unlike its management of Shu, Qin allowed the Ba elite to retain direct rule and did not force large -scale migrations of Qin people into Ba territory. The Ba elite would later be marginalized through a policy of divide and rule.

The tiger was an important part of Ba mythology, with the white tiger being held in highest esteem. Artifacts from Ba archaeological sites often employ tiger motifs. Other distinctive features of Ba culture include its distinctive curved blades, boat-shaped coffin burials and Ba-style bronze drums (chunyu 錞于), which were used to communicate in battle.

Warfare played an important role in Ba society. The Ba people were famous for their war songs and dances. Their warriors were often employed as mercenaries by other states, and weapons were prevalent in Ba grave goods.

Ba and Shu developed their own writing systems, found on bronzeware. There are three scripts. One pictographic script was unique to Ba, and two (possibly phonetic) scripts were found at Ba and Shu sites. All three scripts remain undecipherable today.

 

Shu (蜀) was an ancient state in what is now Sichuan, China. Shu derived its power from the Chengdu Plain, with its territory primarily in the central and western Sichuan basin, as well as in the upper Han River valley. Shu was conquered by Qin in 316 BC. Its capital was at Chengdu.

City of Chengdu

Chengdu (成都), located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan province. More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of Jinsha (金沙) established itself in this region. The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is called Tianfuzhi guo (天府之国) in Chinese, which literally means "the country of heaven", or more often seen translated as "the Land of Abundance".

In the early 4th century BC, the 9th Kaiming king of the ancient Shu moved his capital to the city's current location from today's nearby Pixian. He was said to have been inspired by the ancient story of King Tai of Zhou, Grandfather of King Wu of Zhou, moving his capital. History recorded King Tai of Zhou's move as "it took a year to become a town; it took three years to become a capital". Following this, king of Shu named the new city as "Cheng Du", which means "become a capital" (In Chinese, the word "cheng" means "become", "du" means "capital"). There are, however, several versions of why the capital was moved to Chengdu, and more recent theories of the name's origin point to it as stemming from, or referring to, earlier non-Han inhabitants and/or their languages.

Shu is first mentioned in history as an alliance member with Zhou in overthrowing the Shang Dynasty, taking part in the Battle of Muye. In the archaeological record, post-Muye Shu showed a culture with advanced military technology equivalent to that of the Zhou states; however, Shu military technology stagnated for the next several centuries, mirrored by its lack of mention in recorded history.

Legend states that Shu was ruled at one time by the mythical king, Duyu (杜宇), and his descendants. Shu was later ruled by the Kaiming (開明) kings. During the later half of the Spring and Autumn Period, Shu culture increasingly borrowed from Chu and Ba cultures; for example, Shu copied the practice of boat coffin burials from Ba. The archaeological evidence also shows that Shu interacted with the cultures to the south in Yunnan and Guizhou.

During the Warring States Period, Qin and Chu increasingly encroached on the Han river valley. Clashes with Shu inevitably began to arise; Shu fought Qin in 387 BC and Chu in 377 BC.

Archaeological evidence shows that several gallery roads from Qin to Shu were built during the Warring States Period over extremely difficult terrain, the Qinling Mountains and the Daba Mountains. Although legend attributes the building of the first gallery road, the Stone Cattle Road (石牛道), to the last Kaiming king (being tricked by Qin), the roads were probably built by Qin to prepare for its invasion of the Sichuan basin.

Qin took advantage of a dispute between the last Kaiming king and his brother, the Marquis of Zu, to invade Shu. The Marquis of Zu had allied with Ba in attacking Shu. In response, the Kaiming king invaded Zu and sent the Marquis of Zu into exile in Qin. The Marquis of Zu then appealed to King Huiwen of Qin to invade Shu.

At this critical juncture, King Huiwen's two primary advisors, Zhang Yi and Sima Cuo, held opposing views on invading Shu. Zhang Yi believed that Qin was close to winning control over the Central Plain, arguing instead for an attack on Qin's traditional nemesis, Han. On the other hand, Sima Cuo argued that invading Shu would greatly increase the agricultural wealth of Qin, tipping the balance of power in Qin's favor. King Huiwen agreed with Sima Cuo and sent his two advisors to lead the invasion of Shu. Qin defeated Shu and killed the last Kaiming king.

Qin turned Shu into a commandery and applied a strict process for integrating Shu into Qin. Qin sent officials to rule directly in Shu and actively encouraged migration of people from Qin into Shu. Although Qin tried to placate the populace by retaining the Kaiming rulers as the Marquis of Shu, Shu would rebel many times against Qin; in turn, Qin would respond by reinvading or suppressing Shu.

When King Huiwen died in 311 BC, a Qin official in Shu, Chen Zhuang, led a rebellion against Qin. Sima Cuo, Zhang Yi and Gan Mao led Qin forces into Shu and suppressed the rebellion. In 301 BC, Marquis Hui of Shu, a Kaiming descendant, rebelled. Sima Cuo led Qin forces into Shu and suppressed the rebellion. Marquis Hui's replacement, Marquis Wan, also rebelled against Qin. This time, the Qin governor in Shu, Zhang Ruo, suppressed the rebellion. After the last rebellion, the Kaiming descendants were permanently removed from actual power.

After securing its control over Shu, Qin used Shu as a place of exile, a practice later followed by the Han Dynasty.

 

 

Sanxingdui bronze heads with gold foil masks

Sanxingdui (三星堆; literally "three stars mound") is the name of an archaeological site in China, now believed to be the site of an ancient Chinese city. The previously unknown Bronze Age culture was re-discovered in 1987 when archaeologists excavated remarkable artifacts, that radiocarbon dating dated as being from the 12th-11th centuries BC. Leaving behind nothing in the historical record, not even in myth, the unknown culture that produced these artifacts is now known as the Sanxingdui Culture. A museum housing the artifacts is located near the city of Guanghan.

The Sanxingdui archaeological site is located about 40 kilometers northeast of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, 10 kilometers east of the city of Guanghan, but 50km from the city of treasures

In 1929, a farmer unearthed a large stash of jade relics while digging a well, many of which found their way through the years into the hands of private collectors. Generations of Chinese archaeologists searched the area without success until 1986, when workers accidentally found sacrificial pits containing thousands of gold, bronze, jade, and pottery artifacts that had been broken (perhaps ritually disfigured), burned, and carefully buried. Researchers were astonished to find an artistic style that was completely unknown in the history of Chinese art, whose baseline had been the history and artefacts of the Yellow River civilization(s).

This ancient culture had remarkably advanced bronze casting technology which was acquired by adding lead to the usual combination of copper and tin creating a stronger substance that could create substantially larger and heavier objects; for instance, the world's oldest life-size standing human statue (260 cm. high, 180 kilograms), and a bronze tree with birds, flowers, and ornaments (396 cm.), which some have identified as renderings of the fusang tree of Chinese mythology. The most striking finds were large bronze masks and bronze heads (some with gold foil masks) represented with angular human features and exaggerated oblique eyes, some with protruding eye pupils and large upper ears. Based upon the design of these heads, archeologists believe they were mounted on wooden supports or totems, perhaps dressed in clothing. Other bronze artefacts include birds with eagle-like bills, tigers, a large snake, zoomorphic masks, bells, and what appears to be a bronze spoked wheel but is more likely to be decoration from an ancient shield. Apart from bronze, Sanxingdui finds included jade artifacts consistent with earlier Chinese neolithic cultures, such as cong and zhang.

The Sanxingdui Culture was a mysterious civilization in southern China, which was in the kingdom of Shu during the period of the Shang Dynasty. Although they developed a different method of bronze-making from the Shang, their culture was never recorded by Chinese historians. Sanxingdui culture is thought to be divided into several phases. The first one may have been independent, while the later phases merged with Ba, Chu, and other cultures.

Besides Sanxingdui, other archeological discoveries in Sichuan, including the Baodun (寶墩) and Jinsha (金沙) cultures, all indicate that civilizations in southern China go back at least 5,000 years. Such evidence of independent cultures in different regions of China defies the traditional theory that the Yellow River was the sole "cradle of Chinese civilization."

 

Ancient Sichuan : Treasures from a Lost Civilization by Robert Bagley (Editor)

 

 

 

 

Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China by Pamela Kyle Crossley (Editor), Helen F. Siu (Editor), Donald S. Sutton (Editor)

 

 

 

 

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Che People

Che people (輋民 or 輋族) is a branch of Yao people found in the Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces of China. They are also known as She people outside of these areas.

History: Che people are the earliest known settlers in Guangdong. They originally settled along the shallow shore for easier fishing during the Neolithic era. After an influx of Yue people moved south during the Warring States Period in northern China, there was serious competition for resources between the two peoples.

From the time of the Qin dynasty, waves of migrants from northern China had a serious impact on the Che people. Because they had superior tools and technology, the migrants were able to occupy better land for farming. Some Che people were forced to relocate into the hilly areas in the Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.

Following relocation, the Che people farmed on hillsides. After burning the grass on the slope, rice seeds were cast on the burnt grasses and harvested following a growth season. Some Che people also participated in salt production and trade. Salt was obtained through the evaporation of pools of salt water.

There were many conflicts between Han Chinese and the Che people. Che salt producers on Lantau Island in Hong Kong had attacked the city of Canton in a revolt during the Song dynasty.

Language: Che people speak the Hmong-Mien languages. With the assimilation of other ethnic groups Che people have gradually lost their mother tongue and now speak other languages such as Hakka.

Place Names: After thousands of years of conflict and assimilation with the Han Chinese and Yue peoples, the specific identity of the Che people in coastal Guangdong has virtually disappeared. However, evidence can be found in place names:

 

She People

The She (畲) people are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

They are the largest minority in the Fujian province. They are also present in the provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangdong.

The She language is a Hmong-Mien language. Most of the She today speak Chinese dialects, like Hakka. Those who retain their own language - approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong province - call themselves Ho Ne "mountain people" (活聂 huóniè).

 

 

Yao People

The Yao nationality (瑤族; Vietnamese: người Dao) is a government classification for various minorities in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where they reside in the mountainous terrain of the southwest and south. They also form one of the 54 ethnic groups officially recognized by Vietnam. In the last census, they numbered 2,637,421 in China, and roughly 470,000 in Vietnam.

Origins of the Yao can be traced back 2000 years ago starting in Northern China.

From the 15th to 19th century, the Yao migrated into Thailand, Vietnam and the highlands of Laos. The migration was agitated by the opium trade and as the result of revolts in Southern China during this period.

During the Laotian Civil War, Yao tribes of Laos had a good relationship with U.S. forces and were dubbed to be an “efficient friendly force.” This relationship caused the Laotian government to target Yao tribal groups for revenge once the war was over. This triggered further immigration into Thailand, where the tribes would be put into camps along the Thailand-Laos border.

Culture: Marriage is traditionally arranged by go-betweens who represent the boy's family to the girl's parents. If the union is acceptable, a bride-price is negotiated, typically ranging from three to ten silver bars, worth about US$100 each, a partial artifact from the opium trade. The wedding takes place in two installments, first at the bride's house, followed by a procession to the groom's house where a second ceremony occurs.

Groups and Languages

There are several distinct groups within the Yao nationality, and they speak several different languages, from different language families:

• Miao-Yao languages
  • The Mien speak Mienic languages (勉語) , including:
    • Mian-Jin languages
      • Iu Mien, 818,685 speakers (383,000 in China, 350,000 in Vietnam, 40,000 in Thailand, 20,250 in Laos, 70,000 in the United States)
      • Kim Mun (also known as Lanten), more than 300,000 Yao people
      • Biao Mon, 20,000 speakers
    • Dzao Min, 60,000 speakers
    • Biao-Jiao Mien, 43,000 speakers
  • Miao or Hmong languages
    • Bunu, 258,000 speakers
    • Wunai Bunu, 18,442 speakers
    • Younuo Bunu, 9,716 speakers
    • Jiongnai Bunu, 1,078 speakers also known as the 'Flowery Blue Yao'
    • Some linguists group the above languages - with a total of more than 287,000 speakers - together as dialects of a single Bunu language (Bùnǔyǔ 布努语).
• Kradai languages
  • Lakkia (Lājiāyǔ 拉珈語/拉珈语), 12,000 speakers
• Chinese
  • about 500,000 Yao speak Chinese dialects

In addition to China, populations of Yao also live in Northern Vietnam (where they are called Dao), Northern Laos, and Burma. There are around 60,000 Yao in Northern Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes. The lowland-living Lanten of Laos, who speak Kim Mun, and the highland-living Iu Mien of Laos are two different Yao groups. There are also many Yao living in the United States, mainly refugees from the highlands of Laos who speak the Iu Mien language. The Iu Mien do not call themselves "Yao". Not all "Yao" are Iu Mien.

A group of 61,000 people on the island of Hainan speak the Yao language Kim Mun, but see themselves as Miao (Hmong), and they are also officially categorized as Miao by the Chinese Government. 139,000 speakers of Kim Mun live in other parts of China (Yunnan and Guangxi), and 174,500 live in Laos and Vietnam.

 

Other Chinas: The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging by Ralph Litzinger

 

 

 

 

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Yue Peoples

Yue (traditional: 越 or 鉞; also seen as Yueh or Yuet) refers to ancient semi-Sinicized or non-Sinicized peoples of southern China, originally those along the eastern coastline of present-day Zhejiang province. In archaic Chinese, a number of characters (越,粵,鉞) were often used interchangeably to represent the same meaning.

 

Origins and Ancient Usage

In ancient times, the northern Han Chinese referred to the peoples to their south collectively as the Yue. Historian Luo Xianglin has suggested that these peoples shared a common ancestry with the Xia Dynasty. There is little evidence, however, that the Yue peoples held any common identity. Historical texts often refer to the Hundred Yue tribes (百越. There is little evidence, however, that the Yue peoples held any common identity. The "Treatise of Geography" in Han Shu notes: "In the seven or eight thousand li from Jiaozhi to Kuaiji (modern southern Jiangsu or northern Zhejiang) the Hundred Yue are everywhere, each with their own clans." Just as the term Celt was used by the Greeks to describe what they perceived to be a broad cultural group, so the term Yue was a culturally relative term for the ancient Chinese. Also like "Celt", Yue is now used in a number of different ways.

Ethnolinguists have suggested that the pronunciaton of Yue may be related to a type of hemp produced in what is now Zhejiang. The character itself is related to the character for "ceremonial axe" (鉞), usually considered a symbol of royal or imperial authority. A number of stone axes have been found in the area of Hangzhou, and there is evidence that the ceremonial axe was a southern invention.

Ancient texts mention a number of Yue peoples. Most of these names survived into early imperial times and can be roughly construed as cultural groupings:

 

Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Cantonese Yale	Vietnamese	Notes
雒越	Luòyuè	Lokyuht	Lạc Việt	Sea Bird Yue
閩越	Mǐnyuè	Mànyuht	Mân Việt	River Yue
西甌	Xī'ōu	Sāi'āu	Tây Âu	West Valley Yue
甌越	Ōuyuè	Āuyuht	Âu Việt	(East) Valley Yue
滇越,盔越	Diānyuè, Kuīyuè	Dīnyuht, Kwaīyuht	Điền Việt, Khôi Việt	Heavenly Yue, Basin Yue
東越	Dōngyuè	Dōngyuht	Đông Việt	Eastern Yue
於越	Yūyuè	Yūyuht	Ư Việt	Major Yue
揚越	Yángyuè	Yèungyuht	Dương Việt	Ocean Yue
幹越	Gānyuè	Gonyuht	Cán Việt	Main Yue
山越	Shānyuè	Saānyuht	Sơn Việt	Mountain Yue
夜郎	Yèláng	Yehlòng	Dạ Lang	Night Yue
句吳	Gōuwú	Geui'ngh	Câu Ngô
南越	Nányuè	Naàhmyuht	Nam Việt	Southern Yue

 

Sinification and Displacement

From the Ninth century BC, two northern Yue peoples, the Gou-Wu and Yu-Yue, were increasingly influenced by their Chinese neighbours to their north. These two states were based in the areas of what is now southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang respectively. Their aristocratic elite learned the written Chinese language and adopted Chinese political institutions and military technology. Traditional accounts attribute the cultural change to the Grand Earl of Wu (吳太伯), a Zhou prince who had fled to the south. The marshy lands of the south gave Gou-Wu and Yu-Yue unique characteristics. They did not engage in extensive agrarian agriculture, relying instead more heavily on aquaculture. Water transport was paramount in the south, so the two states became advanced in shipbuilding and developed riverine warfare technology. They were also known for their fine swords.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the two states, now called Wu and Yue, were becoming increasingly involved in Chinese politics. In 512 BC, Wu launched a large expedition against the large state of Chu, based in the Middle Yangtze River. A similar campaign in 506 succeeded in sacking the Chu capital Ying. Also in that year, war broke out between Wu and Yue and continued with breaks for the next three decades. In 473 BC, the Yue king Goujian finally conquered Wu and was acknowledged by the northern states of Qi and Jin. In 333 BC, Yue was in turn conquered by Chu. The Kings of the state of Yue, and therefore its succesor state Minyue also claimed to be descended from Yu the Great of the chinese Xia dynasty. According to Sima Qian, Wu was founded by Wu Taibo, a brother of zhou wu wang, the King of the chinese Zhou dynasty.

After the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang, it became incorporated into the Chinese empire. The Qin armies also advanced south along the Xiang River to modern Guangdong and set up commanderies along the main communication routes. Throughout the Han Dynasty period two groups of Yue were identified, that of the Nan-Yue in the far south, who lived mainly in the area of what is now Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam; and that of the Min-Yue who lay to the southeast, centred on the Min River in modern Fujian. The Kings of Minyue claimed to be descended from Yu the Great of the chinese Xia dynasty.

Sinification of these peoples was brought about by a combination of imperial military power, regular settlement and Chinese refugees. The difficulty of logistics and the malarial climate in the south made the displacement and eventual sinification of the Yue peoples a slow process. When the Chinese came into contact with local Yue peoples, they often wrested control of territory from them or subjugated them by force. When a serious rebellion broke out in 40 AD by the Trung Sisters in what is now modern Vietnam, a force of some 10,000 imperial troops was dispatched under General Ma Yuan. Between 100 and 184 no less than seven outbreaks of violence took place, often calling for strong defensive action by the Chinese.

As Chinese migrants gradually increased, the Yue were gradually forced into poorer land on the hills and in the mountains. Unlike the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, such as the Xiongnu or the Xianbei, however, the Yue peoples never posed any serious threat to Chinese expansion or control. Sometimes they staged small scale raids or attacks on Chinese settlements - termed "rebellions" by traditional historians. The Chinese for their part regarded them as being highly uncivilised and prone to fight one another.

While most Yue peoples were eventually sinicized, the Kam-Tai (Daic): Zhuang, Buyi, Dai, Sui (Shui), Kam (Dong), Hlai (Li), Mulam, Maonan, Ong-Be (Lingao), Thai, Lao, Shan, and Vietnamese peoples retained their ethnic identities. Some of these peoples also have their own nation-states today. In particular, the Vietnamese people broke free from Chinese rule in the 10th century and have their own state to this day.

Legacy

The fall of the Han Dynasty and the succeeding period of division sped up the process of sinification. Periods of instability and war in northern China, such as the Northern and Southern Dynasties and during the Song Dynasty led to mass migrations of Chinese. Intermarriage and cross-cultural dialogue has led to a mixture of Chinese and non-Chinese peoples in the south. By the Tang Dynasty, the term "Yue" had largely become a regional designation rather than a cultural one A state in modern Zhejiang province during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, for example, called itself "Wu-Yue". Likewise, the "Viet" in "Vietnam" (literally, "Viet South") is a cognate of the "Yue".

The impact of Yue culture on Chinese culture has not been determined authoritatively but it is clear that it is significant. The languages of the ancient states of Wu and Yue form the basis the modern Wu language and to some extent the Min languages of Fujian. Linguistic anthropologists have also determined that a number of Chinese words can be traced to ancient Yue words. An example is the word "jiang" (江), meaning river. To some extent, some remnants of the Yue peoples and their culture can also be seen in some minority groups of China and the Vietnamese people retain the identity.

 

Modern Usage

In modern Chinese, the characters of "越" and "粵" (both yuè) are differentiated. The former is used to refer to the original territory of the Yue Kingdom, the area of what is now northern Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, and Shanghai, especially the areas around Shaoxing and Ningbo. The opera of Zhejiang, for example, is called "Yue Opera" (yueju, 越劇). The first character "越" is also associated with Vietnam. The second character "粵" (yuè) is associated with the southern province of Guangdong. Popularly called "Cantonese", both the standard form and regional dialects of the Cantonese language(Yue language) are spoken in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and in many Cantonese communities around the world.

 

 

Âu Việt

The Âu Việt (甌越; Chinese: Ōu Yuè) were a conglomeration of upland tribes living in what is today the mountainous region of northernmost Vietnam, western Guangdong, and southern Guangxi, China, since at least the 3rd century BC. Its capital was located in what is today the Cao Bang Province of northeastern Vietnam.

The Âu Việt were also referred to as Tây Âu (西甌; Chinese: Xī Ōu; Tây meaning "western"), and were considered to be one of the Hundred Yue tribes. They had short hair and tattoos, and blackened their teeth. They are considered to have been the ancestors of the upland Tai-speaking minority groups in Vietnam such as the Nung and Tay, as well as the closely related Zhuang people of Guangxi.

The Âu Việt traded with the Lạc Việt, the inhabitants of the state of Văn Lang, which was located in the lowland plains to Âu Việt's south, in what is today the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam, until 258 BC or 257 BC, when Thục Phán, the leader of the alliance of Âu Việt tribes, invaded Văn Lang and defeated the last Hùng Vương. He united the two kingdoms, naming the new nation "Âu Lạc," and proclaiming himself king An Dương Vương.

 

 

Au Lac

Au Lac (甌雒/甌駱) is the name of a kingdom considered as an ancestor to the Vietnamese people, existing from 258 BC or 257 BC to 207 BC, with its capital at Cổ Loa (about 35 km north of present-day Hanoi).

The country was created by Thục Phán, who served as its only monarch, ruling under the title An Dương Vương and creating the Thục Dynasty by uniting the mountainous Âu Việt region (comprising what is today northernmost Vietnam and parts of southern China) with the more southerly Lạc Việt (located in the Red River Delta of what is today northern Vietnam). The kingdom was later conquered by a Qin Dynasty army led by Zhao Tuo (Vietnamese: Triệu Đà), and incorporated into what would eventually become the kingdom of Nanyue (Vietnamese: Nam Việt).

 

An Duong Vuong

An Duong Vuong (安陽王; literally "Peaceful Sun King") is the ruling title of Thục Phán (蜀泮), who presided over the ancient kingdom of Âu Lạc as its only Thục Dynasty monarch from 257 to 207 BC, after defeating the state of Văn Lang and uniting the two tribes of Âu Việt and Lạc Việt. His longevity, said to have been approximately 100 years, is quite disputed.

Historical Accounts: According to old historical records Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and Khâm Định Việt Sử Thông Giám Cương Mục, Thục Phán was a prince of the Chinese state of Shu, sent by his father first to explore the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan and second to move their people to modern day northern Vietnam during the invasion of the Qin Dynasty.

However, modern Vietnamese scholars claim that "Thục Phán" was a native Austro-Asiatic name which meant "God of crossbow", and that he was an ancient Vietnamese.

Regardless, Vietnamese people consider Au Lac to have been an independent Vietnamese state without the reservations that surround the more disputed issue of Trieu Da and his kingdom of Nam Viet.

Thục Phán apparently came upon the Âu Việt (甌越) territory (modern-day northernmost Vietnam, western Guangdong, and southern Guangxi province, with its capital in what is today the Cao Bang Province). After assembling an army, he defeated King Hùng Vương (雄王) XVIII, the last ruler of the Hồng Bàng Dynasty, around 257 BC. He proclaimed himself An Dương Vương (安陽王), "King An Dương". He then renamed his newly acquired state from Văn Lang to Âu Lạc (甌雒/甌駱) and established the new capital at Phong Khê in the present-day Phú Thọ Province in North Vietnam. Cổ Loa Thành (Co Loa Citadel), the spiral-shaped fortress/barricade which he also built, lies approximately ten miles north of that new capital.

Thục Phán and Âu Lạc’s Administration: There is not much recorded and or written about how the new Âu Lạc was administered and organized. Historians admit there are a lot of writings about other Vietnamese National dynasties such as the Lê, Lý, Trần, Hồ, etc. but not for the period of 257 to 207 BC, which was under Thục Phán's rule. Nonetheless, based on Thục Phán's accomplishments, he is assumed to have been an astute, intelligent, and significant figure. Certainly he was a talented general who knew how to exploit the confusion and turmoil in China during that period, not only to grab a piece of land for himself but also to secure his state's prosperity and survival. Around that same time, circa 260 - 250 BC, when Thục Phán ascended the throne, various states were fighting for control of China. Eventually, the Qin state rose to power and unified China under Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Upon Qin Shi Huang's ascension to the throne, he descended into Legalist practices. Hoping to prevent potential civil unrest and rebellions, he ordered the burning of millions of books, other significant official documents from previously conquered warring states, and forced thousands of intellectual officials to be buried alive. Qin Shi Huang also ordered the beginning of the construction of the Great Wall, and around the same time, further south, An Dương Vương had begun the construction of a spiral-shaped fortress called Cổ Loa Thành to fend off future northern invasions and attacks.

 

 

Nanyue

Nanyue (南越) was an ancient kingdom that consisted of parts of the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and much of modern northern Vietnam. The kingdom was established by the Chinese general Zhao Tuo (趙佗) of the Qin dynasty who assimilated the customs of the Yue peoples and central China in his territory. Its capital was named Panyu (番禺), in today's Guangzhou, China. In Vietnam, the name Triệu Dynasty (based on the Vietnamese pronunciation of the surname Zhào) is used to refer to the lineage of kings of Nanyue, and by extension the era of Nanyue rule.

The Triệu Dynasty is the name given in Vietnam to the lineage of kings of the kingdom of Nam Việt (Nanyue), which ruled over parts of southern China and northern Vietnam, and, in some contexts, by extension the era of Nanyue rule, or even the kingdom itself. It is regarded by some as the first dynasty to rule what is now Vietnam. There are, however, many unresolved questions about this era.

There are two major views on the categorization of the dynasty.

1) Zhao Tuo (趙佗; Triệu Đà in Vietnamese) was a Chinese general of the Qin Dynasty, who made himself the king of Nanyue (Nam Việt), established in the area of Lingnan (嶺南), which today comprises Guangdong, Guangxi, and other nearby areas of southern mainland China. He conquered the state of Âu Lạc, a country named by Thục Phán An Dương Vương. It is well known that he severed all ties with China, forsook Chinese culture and dismissed and even killed all Chinese employees appointed by the central government. He favored local Viet customs.

2) Historians who consider Triệu Đà to have been Vietnamese do so on the basis that his seizure of Âu Lạc and his independent rule of it were an act of defiance of the Western Han Dynasty, because he severed all ties with China and killed all Chinese employees appointed by the central government and favored local Viet customs. The Triệu Dynasty ended when the Han seized and occupied Nam Việt after the fall of Triệu Dương Vương (Triệu Đà's great-grandson) in 111 BC. According to this view of history, the First Chinese domination commenced in 111 BC and lasted until the revolt of the Trưng sisters (or Hai Bà Trưng) which occurred around 40 AD.

 

History

The history of Nanyue was written in Records of the Grand Historian by Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, between 109 BC to 91 BC.

After the first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang united China by conquering all six kingdoms in 219 BC, he ordered his generals to conquer the regions of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi. The conquest was completed in 214 BC. A new administrative unit, Nanhai Commandery (南海郡) was formed to rule the area corresponding approximately to present-day Guangdong. Zhao Tuo was appointed to manage a Longchuan (龍川), a strategic place in the military. He asked Qin Shi Huang to send 500 thousand people from Central China to Nanhai to assimilate the culture of Central China and Yue.

Establishment: After the death of Qin Shi Huang, a wave of anti-Qin riots swept across central China and the Qin Dynasty soon capitulated. In 208 BC, the head of Nanhai Commandery, Ren Xiao (任囂), appointed Zhao Tuo to succeed his position and suggested that Zhao establish a country in the south and take advantage of the mountainous boundary with northern China. Zhao soon reinforced the defences in the mountain passes north and replaced the Qin officials with his own followers. In 203 BC, he conquered another two commanderies, Guilin (桂林郡, approximately Guangxi) and Xiang "Elephant" (象郡, approximately Yunnan, north and central Vietnam), at the south of the mountain. The new kingdom of Nanyue was born, with Pānyú as the capital; Zhao Tuo declared himself Wu Wang (武王, lit. martial king) of Nanyue.

Liu Bang, after years of war with his rivals, established the Han dynasty and reunified Central China in 202 BC. Liu and his successors adopted a policy of peace to give his empire time to regenerate. In 211 BC, the emperor Liu sent Lu Jia (陸賈) to Nanyue to appoint Zhao Tuo as the King of Nanyue. Trade relations were established at the border between Nanyue and the Han kingdom of Changsha. Although formally a Han subject state, Nanyue retained a large measure of effective autonomy.

After the death of Liu Bang in 195 BC, the government was put in the hands of his wife, Empress Lu Zhi, who served as empress dowager over their son Emperor Hui of Han and then Emperor Hui's sons Liu Gong and Liu Hong. Zhao Tuo believed that Wu Chen (吳臣), the Prince of Changsha, had made false accusations against him to get Empress Dowager Lu to block the trade between the states and to prepare to conquer the Nanyue to merge into his principality of Changsha. In revenge, he then declared himself the emperor of Nanyue and attacked the principality of Changsha. Lu sent general Zao (灶) to punish Zhao Tuo. The hot and humid weather made soldiers fall ill and the army unable to go south of the mountains. The army withdrew. With the military success, Zhao Tuo took in the surrounding states of Minyue (閩越) in the east and Ouluo (甌雒) in the west as subject kingdoms. The empress dowager then killed some of Zhao's clan members within Han territory and damaged his ancestors' tombs.

In 179 BC, Liu Heng ascended the Emperor of Han. He reversed the policy of the empress. He ordered officials to visit the family town Zhending (真定), garrison the town and make offerings to his ancestors regularly. His prime minister Chen Ping (陳平) suggested sending Lu Jia to Nanyue as they were familiar with each other. Zhao Tuo felt surprised on Lu's arrival. He then withdrew his title of emperor and Nanyue became Han's subject state.

Zhao Mo (趙眜), formally Wen Di (文帝), was the second ruler of the kingdom of Nanyue (Nam Việt), and the grandson of Zhao Tuo (who had outlived his sons). Wen ruled from 137 BC, but progressively fell under the influence of the Han emperor Han Wudi. He died in 122 BC, and the kingdom as a province by Han Wudi in 111 BC.

The tomb of Wen was discovered in 1983, 20 meters under Elephant Hill in Guangzhou on a construction site for a hotel, and has been excavated. The tomb measures 10.85 meter in length and 12.43 meters in width. It is divided in 7 parts, with a front chamber, east and west wing rooms, the main coffin chamber, east and west side rooms, and a back storage chamber. The tomb has yielded more than 1000 burial artifacts, and a chariot, gold and silver vessels, musical instruments, and human sacrifices were found (15 courtiers were buried alive with him to serve him in death). It is also the only tomb of the early Western Han Dynasty that has murals on its walls.

The tomb also yielded the oldest imperial seal discovered in a Chinese tomb: the seal, with the name "Zhaomo", declared the royal corpse to be “Emperor Wen", indicating that he considered himself equal in rank to the Han ruler.

Alongside Chinese artifacts, pieces from the steppes, and Iranian and Hellenistic Central Asian regions have been found: a Persian silver box found in the tomb is the earliest imported product found to date in China.

A jade suit was found in the tomb. The red silk thread used to bind the 2,291 jade plates represented Zhao Mo's immersion into Nam Viet culture. It is exhibited in the local Museum of the Tomb of the King of Southern Yue in Western Han Dynasty.

* 南越王墓

Zhao Yingqi: Zhao Yingqi returned to Nanyue and succeeded the king. He married a woman of family Jiu (樛) from Handan and born a son Zhao Xing (趙興) when he was in Chang'an. He asked the Emperor to appoint Jiu as his queen and Zhao Xing his crown prince. He sent his second son to Chang'an. Zhao Yingqi died with posthumous name Ming Wang (明王).

Zhao Xing: Zhao Xing succeeded Zhao Yingqi as king. As the king was young, the king's mother Jiu took control of the kingdom. In 113 BC, the Emperor sent Anguo Shaoji (安國少季) to Nanyue ask the king and the king's mother to visit the Emperor. Anguo Shaoji was in fact Jiu's lover when she was in Chang'an. They renewed their affair which made the subjects mistrust the king's mother. To secure their positions, the king and his mother wanted Nanyue to be a kingdom within the Han Empire. The king, his mother, and Anguo Shaoji tried to persuade Lu Jia (呂嘉) and other ministers to follow. Lu Jia stood and left. The king's mother tried to kill him but stopped by the king.

Lu Jia refused to meet the king and planned to revolt. As he knew the king had no intention to kill him, the plan was not carried out for months.

Zhao Jiande: The minister Lu Jia revolted and killed the king and the king's mother. He named Zhao Jiande (趙建德), the eldest son of Zhao Yingqi, to be the king of Nanyue. In autumn 112 BC the emperor sent a navy of a hundred thousand strong to attack Nanyue. In winter 111 BC the capital Panyu fell and many surrendered. Lu Jia and Zhao Jiande fled out to sea but were captured soon. Nanyue was officially incorporated into Han.

 

Archaeological Findings

A bronze seal inscribed "Seal for Captain of Tu Pho County" was uncovered at Thanh Hoa in northern Vietnam during the 1930s. Owing to the similarity to seals found at the tomb of the second king of Nam Viet, this bronze seal is recognized as an official seal of the Nam Viet Kingdom.

Some artifacts for instance, that belonged to the Dong Son culture of northern Vietnam were found as burial goods in the tomb of the second king of Nam Viet, discovered in Guangzhou.

 

Đông Sơn Culture

Drum from Sông Đà, Vietnam. Dong Son II culture. Mid-1st millennium BC. Bronze

The Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric Bronze Age culture that was centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. Its influence flourished to other parts of Southeast Asia, including the Indo-Malayan Archipelago from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.

The Dong Son people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping buffaloes and pigs, fishing and sailing with long dug-out canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, as can be seen in the famous Dong Son drums, which have been found widely in Southeast Asia and southern China.

The Dong Son culture is linked to the Tibeto-Burman culture, the Dai culture in Yunnan and Laos, the Mon-Khmer cultures and the culture associated with the Plain of Jars in Laos. Similar artifacts have been found in Cambodia along the Mekong River dating back to the 4th millennium B.C. Dong Son influence is seen throughout South-East Asia, from the moko drum of Alor, Indonesia (suspected of originating with Dong Son bronze drums) to the design of keris knife.

To the south of the Dong Son culture was the proto-Cham Sa Huynh culture.

Origins: The theory based on the assumption that bronze casting in eastern Asia originated in northern China; however, this idea has been discredited by archaeological discoveries in north-eastern Thailand in the 1970s. In the words of one scholar, "Bronze casting began in Southeast Asia and was later borrowed by the Chinese, not vice versa as the Chinese scholars have always claimed".

This interpretation is supported by the work of modern Vietnamese archaeologists. They have found that the earliest bronze drums of Dong Son are closely related in basic structural features and in decorative design to the pottery of the Phung Nguyen culture. It is still uncertain whether the bronze drums were made for religious ceremonies, to rally men for war, or for another secular activity. The various discerning images and arrow points engraved on the drums has raised speculation that the drums may have been used as a local seasonal calendar. Furthermore, the recurring images of a figure holding a scroll of paper and the finding of these dated papers at various sites may point to the Dong Son as the first peoples who began the paper making process.

The bronze drums were made in significant proportions in Vietnam and parts of Southern China and were then traded to the south and west to places such as Java and the Bali islands. Thus it became valued by people with very different cultures. The Dong Son bronze drums exhibit the advanced techniques and the great skill in the lost-wax casting of large objects, the Co Loa drum would have required the smelting of between 1 and 7 tons of copper ore and the use of up to 10 large castings crucibles at one time. Most scholars agree the Dong Son drums display an artistic level reaching perfection that few cultures of the time could rival.

Expansion of the Dong Son Culture: The discovery in the late XVII century of large, elaborately incised drums in mainland and island Southeast Asia first alerted Western scholars to the existence in the region of distinctive early bronze-working cultures. Ranging in height from a few inches to over six feet, up to four feet in diameter, and often of considerable weight, such drums are the most widely dispersed products of the Dong Son culture. Examples produced in Vietnam, in addition to works made locally, have been found in South China, throughout mainland Southeast Asia, and in Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Irian Jaya. The function of these drums, often found in burials, remains unclear: they may have been used in warfare or as part of funerary or other ceremonial rites. Models of the drums, produced in bronze or clay, were made to be included in burials. This small bronze example has the rounded top, curved middle, and splayed base often found in drums from Vietnam. The central loop and the four small frogs on the tympanum are characteristic features of examples produced from the III century B.C. to the I century A.D. The starburst pattern in the center of the tympanum, a standard motif on Dong Son drums, is surrounded by a row of linked concentric circles and crosshatching. These designs are repeated around the side of the top section and just above the base. On the center of the drum, four stylized scenes showing warriors. Many bronze drums of the Dong Son period have been reported in South and Southwest China, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. In Vietnam, approximately 140 drums were discovered in many locations throughout Vietnam from the high land region of the north to the plains of the south and as far as to the Phu Quoc island, in the Gulf of Thailand.

 

Vietnam

Nam (Nan) means "south" and thus the term Nam Viet (Nan Yue) means "Southern Viet (Yue)" Nam Viet is the modern Vietnamese notation. Nan Yue the modern Chinese. In historical studies "Nam Viet (Nan Yue)" is used in this way as either a geographical or a historic concept.

The people of Vietnam regained independence and broke away from China in 938 AD after their victory at the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. They formed their own kingdom and called it Đại Việt (The Great Việt Kingdom). This kingdom grew stronger; it expanded south and conquered the Champa kingdom (in central Vietnam) and most of the Khmer empire (in present-day southern Vietnam), forcing the Khmer to migrate. In 1800s, Nguyen Anh, a Vietnamese Emperor, wanted to change his kingdom's name from Dai Viet to Nam Viet, however there wasn't an agreement politically. The Kinh people (a subset of the Yue/Yuet/Viet peoples) form the modern majority ethnic group of Vietnam.

 

 

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistoric society, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifacts.

Origins: The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial. It is possible that bronzing was invented independently in the Maykop culture (It is known mainly from its inhumation practices, which were typically in a pit, sometimes stone-lined, topped with a kurgan or tumulus) in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BC, which would make them the makers of the oldest known bronze; but others date the same Maykop artifacts to the mid 3rd millennium BC.

Map of the Altai mountain range, a mountain range in central Asia where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together

Central Asia: The Altai Mountains in what is now southern Russia and northern China have been identified as the point of origin of a cultural enigma termed the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon. It is conjectured that climatic problems in this region around the start of the second millennium BC created ecological, economic and political changes which triggered a rapid and massive migration of peoples westward into northeast Europe and eastward into southeast China, Vietnam and Thailand across a frontier of some 4,000 miles. This migration took place in just five to six generations and led to peoples from Finland in the west to Thailand in the east employing the same metal working technology and, in some areas, horse breeding and riding. It is further conjectured that this phenomenon may have been the medium through which the Uralic group of languages spread across Europe and Asia, ultimately producing 39 modern languages including Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Lappish.

China: The earliest bronze artifacts are found in the Majiayao culture site (in the upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai between 3100 and 2700 BC), and from then on the society gradually grew into the Bronze Age

Bronze metallurgy in China originated in what is referred to as the Erlitou (also Erh-li-t’ou) period, which some historians argue places it within the range of dates controlled by the Shang dynasty. Others believe the Erlitou sites belong to the preceding Xia (also Hsia) dynasty. The U.S. National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the “period between about 2000 BC and 771 BC,” a period that begins with Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western Zhou rule. Though this provides a concise frame of reference, it overlooks the continued importance of bronze in Chinese metallurgy and culture. Since this is significantly later than the discovery of bronze in Mesopotamia, bronze technology could have been imported rather than discovered independently in China.

Southeast Asia: Dating back to the Neolithic Age,the first bronze drums, called the Dong Son drums have been uncovered in and around the Red River Delta regions of Vietnam and Southern China. These relate to the prehistoric Dong Son Culture of Vietnam

In Ban Chiang, Thailand, (Southeast Asia) bronze artifacts have been discovered dating to 2100 BC.

In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artefacts. Dating is still currently broad (3500–500 BC).

Korean Peninsula: The Middle Mumun pottery period culture of the southern Korean Peninsula gradually adopted bronze production (c. 700–600 BC) after a period when Liaoning-style bronze daggers and other bronze artifacts were exchanged as far as the interior part of the Southern Peninsula (c. 900–700 BC). The bronze daggers lent prestige and authority to the personages who wielded and were buried with them in high-status megalithic burials at south-coastal centres such as the Igeum-dong site. Bronze was an important element in ceremonies and as for mortuary offerings until 100.

 

 

百越

百越又稱為百越族，是居於現今中國南方和古代越人有關之各個不同族群的總稱。文獻上也稱之為百粵、粵，其分佈甚廣，內部「各有種姓」，雜處於現今中國南方各地。在中國歷史上，整個廣大的江南之地，即所謂「交趾至會稽七八千里」，在秦漢以前都是百越族的居住地，他們所使用的古越語，與中國北方所使用的古漢語也相差極大，彼此不能通話。他們是南島語族的始祖

然而「越」實為他稱，該古代民族具體較實際名稱為澳泰，英文名稱為Daic。

越即粵，古代粵、越通用。越族就是生活在長江以南的一個古老的民族。夏朝稱「于越」；商朝稱「蠻越」或「南越」；周朝稱「揚越」、「荊越」；戰國稱「百越」。宋朝人羅泌的《路史》說：「越常、駱越，甌越、甌皚，且甌、西甌，供人，目深、摧夫、禽人、蒼吾、越區、桂國、損子、產里、海癸、九菌、稽余、北帶、仆句、區吳，是渭百越。」（摘自黃現璠撰《試論百越和百濮的異同》一文）。

現在居住在中國南方屬於壯侗語系和苗瑤語系的各個民族，不論是在語言上，或者是在文化習俗上，都與古代的百越族有一定程度的淵源關係。此外，也有某些學者認為，在現今中南半島的一些民族，比如說泰國的泰族、寮國的佬族、緬甸的撣族、越南的京族和芒族、甚至屬於南島民族的台灣原住民，也都和百越族有相當程度的密切關聯。

起源: 根據有關文獻的記載，早在商、 周時期，就有被稱之為「越」的古民族（古代中國人泛稱東南方蠻族為「越」，北方蠻族為「胡」），生活在現今中國的東南及南部地區（王東 2003，3）。春秋晚期至戰國前期，越族曾在今江浙一帶建立強大的越國，共傳8代，歷160多年，與當時中原國家會盟，雄視江淮地區，號稱「霸主」（請參見「勾踐」條目；陳國強 2000）。有學者根據《史記》「越王勾踐世家」的描述，認為越族是夏禹的後代。不過，研究百越族的中國學者宋蜀華認為：「勾踐的祖父夫鐔以上至夏少康庶子無餘，世系不清楚；夏少康經商至周敬王共60餘代，兩者世系相差近1000年，把越王勾踐說成是夏少康的後裔，實難信服」（引自龔佩華 nd）。此外，宋蜀華也認為夏文化和越文化截然不同，因為：「夏人活動地區從未發現過『印紋陶文化』，而『印紋陶』流行地區也從未發現過『二里頭文化』.

根據目前考古學的證據，距今7000年的浙江「河姆渡文化」遺址，很可能就是古越族所創造出來的文化。河姆渡遺址發現了稻穀、稻草和稻殼的堆積，是當時世界發現最早的稻作文化，後來在黃河流域的裴李崗遺址、賈湖遺址和長江中游流域的彭頭山遺址等地發現了更早的稻作文化。此外，現在的考古學家也普遍認爲，廣泛分佈於中國南方各地的以幾何印紋陶爲主要特徵的文化遺存，可能也是由古越族所創造出來的。最近數十年來的考古發掘表明：這種以幾何印紋陶爲主要特徵的文化遺存，在時間上從4000多年前的新石器時代晚期開始，一直延續到商周秦漢時期，在空間上則遍佈於中國東南地區及嶺南一帶（

歷史: 和「古越族」相關的最早文字記錄涉及「于越」，于越是春秋時期之越國的前身，最晚在商朝的時候就已經存在，雖然沒有參加武王伐紂，但至少曾經北上當周成王的賓客。該國傳至勾踐 (500 B.C.)的時候，他試著向北擴張，曾經沿著江蘇的海岸北上膠州灣。古越族和漢族早期的關係主要在貿易，越人以象牙、玳瑁、翠毛、犀角、玉桂和香木等奢侈品，以交換北方的絲帛和手工產品(鍾倫納 2004)。

古越族在經過漫長的歷史演變之後，到了戰國時代，已分化成衆多的支系。故而，從這個時候開始，文獻中便出現了「百越」這一個新的稱謂。戰國後期，除了有百越這個名稱以外，還有「揚越」的名稱，即揚州地區的越族。揚州包括今淮南、長江下游和嶺南的東部地區，有時又包括整個嶺南地區。所以揚越實際也是戰國以來至秦漢對越人的另一種泛稱(王東 2003，3；陳國強 2000)。

秦漢時，相關史籍則泛稱中國南方的民族為「越族」，史稱「北方胡、南方越」。由於歷史的發展和變化，至遲在漢朝初期，百越族已經逐漸形成幾個較強盛而明顯的部分，即「東甌」(東海)、「閩越」、「南越」、「西甌」、以及「雒越」(駱越)。東甌在現今浙江省南部的溫州一帶；閩越在今福建省福州一帶；南越在今廣東省境，後來又發展到廣西以及以南地區；西甌則大概分佈在今廣東西部、廣西南部及以南地區；駱(雒)越主要分佈在現今的越南北部。這些部分都形成了當時該地的政治中心，比如說閩越第一代君主無諸、東海第一代君主騶搖、以及南越王趙佗，都曾經叱吒風雲過一段不算短的時間(陳國強 2000)。

越族所建立的這些政治中心，後來都被漢武帝征服，改為漢朝的郡縣。此後，百越這個名稱就不見於史載，越族之名也十分罕見(陳國強 2000)。

文化特點: 百越族有自己的民族語言和生活、文化特點。百越語為黏著型，不同於漢語的單音成義，故百越語譯成漢語時一字常譯為兩字，如愛為「憐職」，熱為「煦蝦」。有人認為越語與今壯侗語系的語言十分接近。

百越族的生活、風俗習慣也有特點，主要是：水稻種植,著貫頭衣,鑿齒; 斷髮紋身；契臂為盟；多食蛇蛤海產；巢居,干欄式建築；善使舟及水戰；以及善鑄銅器，如青銅劍、銅鐸(大鈴),銅鼓,獵頭,食人等。

文化影響: 雖然在今天已經找不到一個名字叫做「百越族」的民族或族群，不過，百越文化事實上卻透過種種不同的方式，在很多不同民族的文化裡面留下了種種痕跡。以下是一些比較值得加以探討的議題。

對世界貢獻:

• 發明水稻種植。
• 發明茶。
• '發明獨木舟

對於當今某些民族語言的影響: 現有的一些語言學研究均指出，在百越族被漢化以後，其所使用的很多字詞，卻依舊遺留在不少民族現在的語彙當中，比如說屬於侗壯語系和苗瑤語系的中國某些少數民族，被歸為漢語方言的一些南方方言，甚至包括印尼、馬來西亞、夏威夷、紐西蘭等地的南島民族，其語言中都可以找到屬於古越語的「同源字」(盧溢棋 1997)。比如說古越語的「蜘蛛」(lakwa)一詞，就可以在鶴佬語(發音為laaqiaa)、客家話(發音為lakia)、畲語(發音為laukhoe)、馬來/印尼語(發音為lawa、lawa-lawa、labah-labah)、夏威夷語(發音為lanalana、nananana)以及紐西蘭毛利人的拉巴怒伊語(Rapanui)(發音為nanai)等語言當中找到類似的發音(Hoklo.org nd)。 日本語的字眼很多來自南島語族。

對於當今某些民族之習俗的影響: 所謂的「洗骨葬」，或稱「二次葬」，在中國長江以南各地，比如說江蘇、浙江、福建、廣東、台灣的漢人，以及很多少數民族，比如說壯族、藏族，都有這種習俗。事實上，一直到現在，台灣的河洛人和客家人也都還採用這種喪葬儀式，在土葬數年後開棺取骨，然後將全副骨骼一一置入一稱為「金鬥」的陶甕當中。直到馬達加斯加也有此習俗。

這種洗骨葬的習俗，事實上並不是漢族所固有的，而是環太平洋原始民族中普遍分佈的一種文化特質，廣及中國大陸、東南和東北亞洲、南太平洋諸島、以及南北美洲。根據台灣中央研究院民族學學者凌純聲的研究，整個洗骨文化圈裏諸民族所採行的洗骨文化，基本上均為來自相同起源的一個文化習俗，而這個習俗最早的起源地，正是百越族所分佈的華南地區。倭人的水稻種植，斷髮紋身，與生活習慣與百越人出奇相似。

 

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* Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphism among Five Asian Populations by S. Harihara, et al.

Five Asian Populations of which Samples Were Analyzed in this Study

 

Phylogenetic Tree Based on Genetic Distances for Five Asian Populations

Summary: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms were detected using 13 restriction enzymes on the total DNA obtained from blood samples of five Asian populations: Japanese and Ainu of northern Japan, Korean, Negrito (Aeta) of the Philippines, and Vedda of Sri Lanka. Of a total of 28 restriction-enzyme morphs detected, eight had not been reported previously. By combining the morphs, we were able to classify mtDNAs of 243 individuals into 20 mtDNA types. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum parsimony and genetic distance methods both showed that the Japanese, Ainu, and Korean populations were closely related to each other. Aeta was found to show a relatively close relationship to these three populations, confirming the conclusion from previous studies of blood markers. In contrast, Vedda was quite different from the other four populations.

 

 

* The GM Genetic Polymorphism in Taiwan Aborigines: New data revealing remarkable differentiation patterns
by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, et al.

Multidimensional Scaling Analysis among 63 Populations from Southeast Asia Excluding all Sino-Tibetans but the Southern Chinese (grouped)

Guangzhou (Guangdong) cluster with Aetas, Java, Malay, Miao, Banggai

Minnan (Taiwan) clusters with Aetas, Nanchang (Jiangzi) and mixed (*)

The ‘mixed’ sample is composed of individuals from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan. ST-SC: Sino-Tibetan, Southern Chinese (Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Yue); AA: Austroasiatic; KA: Tai-Kadai; AN-EF: Extra-Formosan Austronesian; AN-TW: Autronesian from Taiwan; HM: Hmong-Mien.

 

Aeta

(Image from The Peopling of the Philippines by Robert Lindsay)

The Aeta (pronounced as “eye-ta,”), Agta or Ayta are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Luzon, Philippines. They are considered to be Negritos, who are dark to very dark brown skinned and tend to have features such as a small stature, small frame, curly hair, small nose, and dark brown eyes. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.

The history of the Aeta continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines, who, contrary to their sea-faring Austronesian neighbors, arrived through land bridges that linked the country with the Asian mainland about 30,000 years ago.

The life expectancy at birth of the Aeta is just 16.5 years, with only a third of children surviving to adulthood at 15 years – at which point life expectancy is still only 27.3 years. Young women reach full adult height (average 140 cm) at age 12 or 13.

 

Negrito

The term Negrito refers to several ethnic groups in isolated parts of Southeast Asia. Their current populations include the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and at least 25 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, the Mani of Thailand and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands of the Indian Ocean.

Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature, natural afro-hair texture, and dark skin; however, their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans at most loci studied thus far (except for MCR1, which codes for dark skin). They have also been shown to have separated early from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from an early migration out of Africa, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans

Etymology: The term "Negrito" is the Spanish diminutive of Negro, i.e. "little black person", referring to their small stature, and was coined by early European explorers who assumed that the Negritos were recent arrivals from Africa. Occasionally, some Negrito are referred to as pygmies, bundling them with peoples of similar physical stature in Central Africa, and likewise, the term Negrito was previously occasionally used to refer to African Pygmies.

Sometimes the term "Negroid" will be used when referring to these groups, especially to their superficial physical features, such as their hair texture and skin color.

According to James J.Y. Liu, a professor of comparative literature, the Chinese term Kun-lun (崑崙) means Negrito

Origins: Being among the least-known of all living human groups, the origins of the Negrito people is a much debated topic. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people. They are likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia. Alternatively, some scientists claim they are merely a group of Australo-Melanesians who have undergone island dwarfing over thousands of years, reducing their food intake in order to cope with limited resources and adapt to a tropical rainforest environment. Anthropologist Jared Diamond in his bestselling book, Guns, Germs, and Steel suggests that the Negritos are possible ancestors of the Aboriginal Australians and Papuans of New Guinea.

A number of features would seem to suggest a common origin for the Negritos and African pygmies, especially in the Andamanese Islanders who have been isolated from incoming waves of Asiatic and Indo-Aryan peoples. (No other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups.) These features include short stature, very dark skin, woolly hair, scant body hair and occasional steatopygia (a high degree of fat accumulation in and around the buttocks). The claim that Andamanese pygmoids more closely resemble Africans than Asians in their cranial morphology in a 1973 study added some weight to this theory before genetic studies pointed to a closer relationship with Asians. Other more recent studies have shown closer craniometric affinities to Egyptians and Europeans than to Sub Saharan populations such as that of African Pygmies. Walter Neves' study of the Lagoa Santa people had the incidental correlation of showing Andamanese as classifying closer to Egyptians and Europeans than any Sub Saharan population. Multiple studies also show that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians (Australoid). Further evidence for Asian ancestry is in craniometric markers such as sundadonty, shared by Asian and Negrito populations.

It has been suggested that the craniometric similarities to Asians could merely indicate a level of interbreeding between Negritos and later waves of people arriving from the Asian mainland. This hypothesis is not supported by genetic evidence that has shown the level of isolation populations such as the Andamanese have had. Some studies have suggested that each group should be considered separately however as the genetic evidence refutes the notion of a specific shared ancestry between the "Negrito" groups of the Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula, and Philippines.

While earlier studies such as that of WW Howell allied Andamanese craniometrically with Africans they did not have recourse to genetic studies. Later genetic and craniometric (mentioned earlier) studies have found more genetic affinities with Asians and Polynesians. A study on blood groups and proteins in the 1950s suggested that the Andamanese were more closely related to Oceanic peoples than Africans. Genetic studies on Philippine Negritos, based on polymorphic blood enzymes and antigens, showed they were similar to surrounding Asian populations.

Genetic testing places all the Onge and all but two of the Great Andamanese in the mtDNA Haplogroup M, found in East Africa, East Asia, and South Asia, suggesting that the Negritos are at least partly descended from a migration originating in eastern Africa as much as 60,000 years ago. This migration is hypothesized to have followed a coastal route through India and into Southeast Asia, which is sometimes referred to as the Great Coastal Migration. Analysis of mtDNA coding sites indicated that these Andamanese fall into a subgroup of M not previously identified in human populations in Africa and Asia. These findings suggest an early split from the population of African migrants whose descendants would eventually populate the entire habitable world. In this sense, Negritos may provide a hint as to the appearance of early modern humans.

Haplogroup M is found in high frequencies along the southern coastal regions of Pakistan and India and it has the greatest diversity in India, indicating that it is here where the mutation may have occurred. 60% of the Indian population belong to Haplogroup M. The indigenous people of the Andaman Islands also belong to the M lineage. The Andamanese are thought to be offshoots of some of the earliest inhabitants in Asia because of their long isolation from mainland Asia. They are evidence of the coastal route of early settlers that extends from India along the coasts of Thailand and Indonesia all the way to Papua New Guinea. Since M is found in high frequencies in highlanders from New Guinea as well, and both the Andamanese and New Guineans have dark skin and Afro-textured hair, some scientists believe they are all part of the same wave of migrants who departed across the Red Sea ~60,000 years ago. Notably, the findings of Harding et. al. (2000, p 1355) show that, at least with regard to dark skin color, the haplotype background of Papua New Guineans at MC1R (one of a number of genes involved in melanin production) is identical to that of Africans (barring a single silent mutation). Thus, although these groups are distinct from Africans at other loci (due to drift, bottlenecks, etc), it is evident that selection for the dark skin color trait likely continued (at least at MC1R) following the exodus. This would support the hypothesis that suggests that the original migrants from Africa resembled pre-exodus Africans (at least in skin color), and that the present day remnants of this ancient phenotype can be seen among contemporary Africans, Andamanese and New Guineans. Others suggest that their physical resemblance to Africans could be the result of convergent evolution.

From Saudi Arabia to India the proportion of haplogroup M increases eastwards: in eastern India, M outnumbers N by a ratio of 3:1. However, crossing over into East Asia, Haplogroup N reappears as the dominant lineage. M is predominant in South East Asia but amongst Indigenous Australians N reemerges as the more common lineage. This discontinuous distribution of Haplogroup N from Europe to Australia has confounded scientists attempting to trace migratory routes. However, it is well known that such distributions can be explained by way of founder's effect and its accompanying bottlenecking, which result in irregular distributions in genetic patterning due to what amounts to random sampling from a relatively small initial population (i.e. those who migrated out of Africa).

* Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population by Kumarasamy Thangaraj, et al.

* The Peopling of the Philippines by Robert Lindsay

 

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* Genetic 'Map' of Asia's Diversity: An international scientific effort has revealed the genetics behind Asia's diversity by BBC News

Excerpt: The Human Genome Organisation's (HUGO) Pan-Asian SNP Consortium carried out a study of almost 2,000 people across the continent.

Their findings support the hypothesis that Asia was populated primarily through a single migration event from the south.

The researchers described their findings in the journal Science.

They found genetic similarities between populations throughout Asia and an increase in genetic diversity from northern to southern latitudes.

The team screened genetic samples from 73 Asian populations for more than 50,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

 

 

* STR Polymorphisms of the Henan Population and Investigation of the Central Plains Han Origin of Chaoshanese by Li-Na Xu, et al.

Neighbor-joining tree constructed from Nei’s genetic distance based on the allelic frequencies of CODIS STR loci in 25 Chinese Han populations

 

 

* Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphisms in Guangdong Han Chinese by Feng Chen, et al.

Abstract: Previous investigations on Chinese mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation revealed that the matrilineal gene pool of southern Han Chinese is rather complex, with much higher genetic diversity and more basal/ancient lineages than the northern Hans. The extreme case is Guangdong Han populations, among which pronounced (matrilineal) differentiation has been observed, indicative of complex demography of the region. To get more insights into the maternal makeup of southern Han Chinese, mtDNA variation of a total of 106 individuals sampled from Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, was analyzed in this study. With the aid of the information from control-region hypervariable segments I and II (HVS-I and -II) as well as some necessary coding-region segments, the phylogenetic status of all mtDNAs under examination were determined according to the reconstructed East Asian mtDNA tree. In this way, the mtDNAs have been classified into various haplogroups or sub-haplogroups. The southern-prevalent haplogroups, such as R9 (20.8%), B (17.9%), M7b (14.2%), show relatively high distribution frequencies in Dongguan Hans; whereas the frequencies of Northern-prevalent haplogroups (with the exception of D) are quite low: C (1.9%), G2 (1.9%) and Z (1.9%), indicating the southern-origin of Dongguan Hans.

 

Dongguan (東莞) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province. An important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the south, and the Pearl River to the west.

 

 

* Genetic Relationship of Chinese Ethnic Populations Revealed by mtDNA Sequence Diversity by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

Unrooted NJ Tree

 

 

* Phylogeographic Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA in Han Chinese by Yong-Gang Yao, et al. (2002)

PC Map of the mtDNA Data (with respect to the basal haplogroup profiles) of 13 Regional Han Samples

(Taiwan-1 clusters with Yunnan, Guangzhou/Guangdong/ and Hong Kong)

 

Zhanjiang, Guangdong

Zhanjiang (湛江; French: Fort-Bayard) is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province, in southeast China.

Zhanjiang is located to the southwest of the city of Guangzhou on an inlet of the South China Sea. It is located on the eastern coast of the Leizhou Peninsula. The dialect of Leizhou is not Cantonese (Yue) but a dialect of Min Nan.

Zhanjiang was a small fishing port when it was occupied by the French in 1898. The next year, the French forced the Chinese to lease Zhanjiang to them for 99 years as the territory of Kwang-Chou-Wan. The French wanted to develop the port, which they called Fort Bayard, to serve southern China, in parts of which France had exclusive rights to railway and mineral development. Their efforts, however, were hindered by the poverty of the surrounding land. The French retained control of the region until 1943, when the Japanese occupied the area during World War II. At the end of the war the region returned briefly under French rule before being formally returned to China in 1946 by the general De Gaulle, then French head of state.

Until the introduction of Pinyin spelling, it was often known in the west as "Tsamkong" due to the Cantonese pronunciation of the name.

 

 

* The GM Genetic Polymorphism in Taiwan Aborigines: New data revealing remarkable differentiation patterns
by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, et al.

Excerpt: The MDS (characterized by a very good stress value of 0.041) segregates four Northern and Central Han populations at the top, the Minnan from Taiwan in a central position, and the Southern Han from Guangzhou, the eight Austronesian populations from Taiwan and the extra-Formosan Yami at the bottom. The four Northern and Central Han populations are genetically linked to each other according to a pattern recalling their relative geographic position. The Minnan are genetically intermediate between the Northern and the Southern Han but are very distant from both groups and significantly differentiated from all populations. Within the last group, we observe three clusters of genetically related populations: the Atayal, Taroko and Tsou; the Pazeh, Siraya, Bunun and Puyuma; and the Ami and Yami. In addition, we find that the Southern Han from Guangzhou are genetically very close to the Taroko, Atayal and Tsou, from whom they are not differentiated significantly according to the permutation statistical test (dotted lines). Genetic relationships are also suggested between the Taroko and both the Siraya and Bunun, and between the Puyuma and the Ami according both to the permutation test and to their relative position in the MDS.

Multidimensional Scaling Analysis among 15 Populations from Taiwan and
China Based on the Frequencies of GM ± 23 Sub-haplotypes

Solid lines link populations that are undifferentiated at the 5% level according to an exact test of population differentiation. Dotted lines link populations that are undifferentiated at the 5% level according to a permutation test on pairwise Fst’s, but not to the exact test. Final stress = 0.041 (excellent). White circles: Sino-Tibetans; triangles: Austronesians from Taiwan; black circle: Extra-Formosan Austronesians.

 

Multidimensional Scaling Analysis among 63 Populations from Southeast Asia
Excluding all Sino-Tibetans but the Southern Chinese (grouped)

The ‘mixed’ sample is composed of individuals from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan. ST-SC: Sino-Tibetan, Southern Chinese (Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Yue); AA: Austroasiatic; KA: Tai-Kadai; AN-EF: Extra-Formosan Austronesian; AN-TW: Autronesian from Taiwan; HM: Hmong-Mien.

 

 

* Extreme mtDNA Homogeneity in Continental Asian Populations by Hiroki Oota, et al.

Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Finns - Kirghiz Lowlander - British - Kazakh - Turks - Basques - Sardinian

Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Finns - Indian - Ainu - Aboriginal Australian - Anatolia Turks - Borneo

Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Korean - Philippines - Uighurs - Changsha - Taiwanese (aborigines) - Vietnamese - Vanuata - Indonesian - PNG

Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Xi'an - Tottori (Japanese) - Kirghiz Highlander - Mongolian - Ngoebe - Altai of Siberia - Amerind - Argentina - Siberians

 

 

Ancient DNA from Linzi (Yixi), Shandong Peninsula

Map of Shandong Peninsula

Qi State: Qi (齊國) was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province.

Qi was founded around 1046 B.C. as one of the many states of the Zhou Dynasty. The first ruler appointed for Qi is Jiang Shang, the most powerful official during that time. The Jiang family (姜) ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family (田) in 384 BC. In 221 BC, Qi was the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the State of Qin, the final obstacle which allowed the Qin Dynasty to consolidate the first centralized and imperial empire over China.

Lord Huan of Qi (齊桓公, died 643 BC) was the best-known ruler of the state of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period. His personal name was Jiāng Xiǎobái (姜小白) . Lord Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong (管仲, given name Yíwú, 夷吾), the famous thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, reform the economic system and develop relations with other states, After scores of years, Qi became the strongest state for its economic and military strength, and was named as the "state with one thousand chariots" and the "head of the five strongest states". The culture and education undertakings were rather developed in Qi. Both poetry and music were of high level. Linzi District remained its capital for as long as 638 years, and was the biggest city in the orient.

The Silk Road, prosperous through the Han (漢朝; 206 BC–220 AD) and Tang Dynasties (唐朝; 618 AD–907 AD) is the famous passageway in China's history for economic and cultural exchange between East and West. As a result of textual research, Shandong area, with Zibo as its center, was the major place of silk supply at that time, and was one of the origins of the "Silk Road".

Shandong is the second most populous province of China, after Henan, with a population of almost 92 million. Over 99% of Shandong's population is Han Chinese. Minority groups include the Hui and the Manchus. Shandong is also known as having highest average height of any Chinese province.

 

* Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-year-old Human Population in China-and Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population by H. Oota, et al. (1999)

Abstract: We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site (approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1, 298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan."

 

* Genetic Structure of a 2,500-Year-Old Human Population in China and Its Spatiotemporal Changes by Li Wang, et al. (2000)

Abstract: To examine temporal changes in population genetic structure, we compared the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of three populations that lived in the same location, Linzi, China, in different periods: 2,500 years ago (the Spring–Autumn era), 2,000 years ago (the Han era), and the present day. Two indices were used to compare the genetic differences: the frequency distributions of the radiating haplotype groups and the genetic distances among the populations. The results indicate that the genetic backgrounds of the three populations are distinct from each other. Inconsistent with the geographical distribution, the 2,500-year-old Linzi population showed greater genetic similarity to present-day European populations than to present-day east Asian populations. The 2,000-year-old Linzi population had features that were intermediate between the present-day European/2,500-year-old Linzi populations and the present-day east Asian populations.

Result: The smallest genetic distance for the present-day Linzi population was that from the Mongols, followed by those from mainland Japanese and Koreans. Surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,000-year-old Linzi population were from the present-day central Asian populations: the Kirghiz (Sary-Tash), followed by the Kazakh and the Uighurs. Even more surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,500-year-old Linzi population were from the Turkish, Icelander, and Finnish, rather than from the east Asian populations.

 

* Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of China: A Caveat About Inferences Drawn from Ancient DNA by Yong-Gang Yao, et al. (2003)

Abstract: The decipherment of the meager information provided by short fragments of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is notoriously difficult but is regarded as a most promising way toward reconstructing the past from the genetic perspective. By haplogroup-specific hypervariable segment (HVS) motif search and matching or near-matching with available modern data sets, most of the ancient mtDNAs can be tentatively assigned to haplogroups, which are often subcontinent specific. Further typing for mtDNA haplogroup-diagnostic coding region polymorphisms, however, is indispensable for establishing the geographic/genetic affinities of ancient samples with less ambiguity. In the present study, we sequenced a fragment (982 bp) of the mtDNA control region in 76 Han individuals from Taian, Shandong, China, and we combined these data with previously reported samples from Zibo and Qingdao, Shandong. The reanalysis of two previously published ancient mtDNA population data sets from Linzi (same province) then indicates that the ancient populations had features in common with the modern populations from south China rather than any specific affinity to the European mtDNA pool. Our results highlight that ancient mtDNA data obtained under different sampling schemes and subject to potential contamination can easily create the impression of drastic spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of a regional population during the past few thousand years if inappropriate methods of data analysis are employed.

 

* Reanalysis of Eurasian Population History: Ancient DNA Evidence of Population Affinities by C.C. Bennett, F.A. Kaestle (2006)

Abstract: Mitochondrial hypervariable region I genetic data from ancient populations at two sites in Asia-Linzi in Shandong (northern China) and Egyin Gol in Mongolia-were reanalyzed to detect population affinities. Data from 51 modern populations were used to generate distance measures (F^sub ST^'s) to the two ancient populations. The tests first analyzed relationships at the regional level and then compiled the top regional matches for an overall comparison to the two probe populations. The reanalysis showed that the Egyin Gol and Linzi populations have clear distinctions in genetic affinity. The Egyin Gol population as a whole appears to bear close affinities with modern populations of northern East Asia. The Linzi population seems to have some genetic affinities with the West, as suggested by the original analysis, although the original attribution of "European-like" seems to be misleading. We suggest that the Linzi individuals are potentially related to early Iranians, who are thought to have been widespread in parts of Central Eurasia and the steppe regions in the first millennium B.C., although some significant admixture between a number of populations of varying origin cannot be ruled out. We also examine the effect of sequence length on this type of genetic data analysis and discuss the results of previous studies on the Linzi sample.

Results:

Table 4 contains the comparisons of the Linzi and Egyin Gol samples to East and Central Asia .... The top half of the Linzi list is dominated by Southeast Asians, southern Chinese, and Central Asians. The lower half is dominated by northern Asians (save for the lowland Kirghiz and Akha). It is not clear how and why both Southeast Asians (and southern Chinese) and Central Asians are similar to the Linzi population, although this is only a relative comparison within the region. However, there is some debate over the nature of ancient East Asian genetic history, so possibly there are issues here that have yet to be illuminated ....

Table 5 is the total comparison of modern populations to Linzi and Egyin Gol from a composite of the top matches from each region, .... As for the Linzi individuals, they seem to be most highly related to Near Easterners (Turks, Iranians, and Iraqis), Armenians, and Eastern Europeans (Slavs, Hungarians), although others, such as Catalans and Iraqis, are mixed in. The Icelanders are twelfth on this list. The high placement of the Vietnamese may be an anomaly, error, or some element of ancient genetic history that is not clear ....

 

* Video: Schythians or Huns?

 

Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.

The Iranian languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes.

By the 1st millennium BC, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Saka and Scythian tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang.

Countries which are geographically fully located within the Balkan peninsula:  Albania,  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,  Greece,  Kosovo, Macedonia,  Montenegro. Countries which are partially located in the peninsula: Serbia, Croatia,  Slovenia, Romania,  Turkey.

The division of Proto-Iranian into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan and Old Persian, the two oldest known Iranian languages.

 

 

* Neighbor-Joining Tree from Genetic Link Between Chaoshan and Other Chinese Han Populations: Evidence from HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequency distribution by Sheng-Ping Hu, et al.

Neighbor-Joining Tree

Neighbor-joining tree constructed by Nei’s genetic distance based on the HLA-A and -B allele frequencies of Chaoshan and the other nine Chinese Han populations. Chaoshan clusters closely with the Mainland Minnan and the Mainland Hakka. All southern China-related groups in general cluster together and are separated from the China North group with the China Middle standing in between.

 

Chaoshan

Chaozhou

Shantou

Jieyang

Together, Chaozhou and the nearby cities of Shantou and Jieyang in Guangdong are called Chaoshan (潮汕)

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

* HLA Class I (A, B, C) and Class II (DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, DPB1) Alleles and Haplotypes in the Han from Southern China by Trachtenberg E, et al.

Abstract: In this study, polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide prode (SSOP) typing results for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I (A, B, and C) and class II (DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, and DPB1) loci in 264 individuals of the Han ethnic group from the Canton region of southern China are presented. The data are examined at the allele, genotype, and haplotype level. Common alleles at each of the loci are in keeping with those observed in similar populations, while the high-resolution typing methods used give additional details about allele frequency distributions not shown in previous studies. Twenty distinct alleles are seen at HLA-A in this population. The locus is dominated by the A*1101 allele, which is found here at a frequency of 0.266. The next three most common alleles, A*2402, A*3303, and A*0203, are each seen at frequencies of greater than 10%, and together, these four alleles account for roughly two-thirds of the total for HLA-A in this population. Fifty alleles are observed for HLA-B, 21 of which are singleton copies. The most common HLA-B alleles are B*4001 (f= 0.144), B*4601 (f= 0.119), B*5801 (f= 0.089), B*1301 (f= 0.068), B*1502 (f= 0.073), and B*3802 (f= 0.070). At the HLA-C locus, there are a total of 20 alleles. Four alleles (Cw*0702, Cw*0102, Cw*0801, and Cw*0304) are found at frequencies of greater than 10%, and together, these alleles comprise over 60% of the total. Overall, the class II loci are somewhat less diverse than class I. Twenty-eight distinct alleles are seen at DRB1, and the most common three, DRB1*0901, *1202, and *1501, are each seen at frequencies of greater than 10%. The DR4 lineage also shows extensive expansion in this population, with seven subtypes, representing one quarter of the diversity at this locus. Eight alleles are observed at DQA1; DQA1*0301 and 0102 are the most common alleles, with frequencies over 20%. The DQB1 locus is dominated by four alleles of the 03 lineage, which make up nearly half of the total. The two most common DQB1 alleles in this population are DQB1*0301 (f= 0.242) and DQB1*0303 (f= 0.15). Eighteen alleles are observed at DPB1; DPB1*0501 is the most common allele, with a frequency of 37%. The class I allele frequency distributions, expressed in terms of Watterson's (homozygosity) F-statistic, are all within expectations under neutrality, while there is evidence for balancing selection at DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1. Departures from Hardy-Weinberg expectations are observed for HLA-C and DRB1 in this population. Strong individual haplotypic associations are seen for all pairs of loci, and many of these occur at frequencies greater than 5%. In the class I region, several examples of HLA-B and -C loci in complete or near complete linkage disequilibrium (LD) are present, and the two most common, B*4601-Cw*0102 and B*5801-Cw*0302 account for more than 20% of the B-C haplotypes. Similarly, at class II, nearly all of the most common DR-DQ haplotypes are in nearly complete LD. The most common DRB1-DQB1 haplotypes are DRB1*0901-DQB1*0303 (f= 0.144) and DRB1*1202-DQB1*0301 (f= 0.131). The most common four locus class I and class II combined haplotypes are A*3303-B*5801-DRB1*0301-DPB1*0401 (f= 0.028) and A*0207-B*4601-DRB1*0901-DPB1*0501 (f= 0.026). The presentation of complete DNA typing for the class I loci and haplotype analysis in a large sample such as this can provide insights into the population history of the region and give useful data for HLA matching in transplantation and disease association studies in the Chinese population.

 

 

HLA-A11

HLA-A11 (A11) is an HLA-A serotype. A11 is more common in eastern Asia particularly along the coastal regions of China.

 

 

HLA-A24

A*2402 has one of the highest "A" frequencies identified for a number of peoples, including Papua New Guineans, Indigenous Taiwanese (Eastern Tribals), Yupik and Greenland Eskimos. It is common over much of Southeastern Asia. In Eurasia it is least common in Ireland, and A24 is relatively uncommon in Africa except North Africa and Kenya.

Associated Disease

A24 has a secondary risk factor for myasthenia gravis, Buerger's disease.

A*2402 is a secondary risk factor, alters type 1 diabetes risk, and allele associated with thymoma-induced myasthenia gravis

 

HLA A*2402 frequencies

Study population	Freq.  (%)
Taiwan Paiwan	86.3
Taiwan Tsou	78.4
Taiwan Rukai	76.0
Papua New Guinea Goroka	74.4
PNG Karimui Plateau	74.4
Taiwan Puyuma	64.0
Taiwan Ami	62.8
PNG Wanigela	62.7
Taiwan Atayal	61.8
Taiwan Tao	54.0
PNG Wosera	51.3
Taiwan Siraya	47.1
Taiwan Taroko	44.5
Taiwan Pazeh	33.6
Japan Okinawa Ryukuan	33.5
American Samoa	33.0
Japan (5)	32.7
Philippines Ivatan	32.0
PNG New Britain Rabaul	31.6
Australia Indig. Yuendumu	29.8
Australia Indig. Groote E…	29.3
China Tibetans	27.2
Japan Ainu Hokkaido	24.0
Australia Indig. Cape Yor…	22.3
Ch. Guangdong Meizhou Han	22.2
Russia Tuva (2)	21.5
Singapore Chinese Han	21.5
India North Hindus	20.2
Mongolia Buriat	20.0
China Inner Mongolia	19.6
Taiwan Minnan (1)	18.6
China South Han	17.2

 

 

HLA-A2 (A2)

A*02 is globally common, but A*0201 is at high frequencies in Northern Asia and North America. A2 is the most diverse serotype, showing diversity in Eastern Africa and Southwest Asia. While the frequency of A*0201 in Northern Asia is high, its diversity is limited to A*0201 the less common Asian variants A*0203, A*0206.

 

HLA A*0203 frequencies

Study population	Freq.  (%)
China Guangxi Maonan	17.6
China Yunnan Lisu	15.2
Thailand Northeast	12.2
China South Han	10.8
China Guangzhou	9.8
Singapore Javanese Indone…	9.0
China Yunnan Nu	8.2
Thailand	7.7
Taiwan Minnan pop 1	6.4
Taiwan Puyuma	6.0
Taiwan Siraya	5.9
Singapore Riau Malay	5.2
India Khandesh Pawra	5.0
India West Bhils	5.0
Taiwan Pazeh	4.5
India Mumbai Marathas	3.7
Taiwan Hakka	3.6
China North Han	2.4
Sri Lanka Colombo Sinhale…	2.4
China Qinghai Hui	2.3
Taiwan Saisiat	1.0

 

 

HLA-A33

A33 shows two different distributions that can be discriminated by subtyping capability of SSP-PCR: A*3301 and A*3303.

Certain alleles confound population histories. At the top of that list is A*3303. This allele appears to jump, literally, out of West Africa into South Asia. The point of origin is Africa, most likely central or western Africa given the low levels in East Africa (although much of East Africa is undersampled). In certain tested populations of the Middle East the level of A*3303 is either very low, or non-existent. Within East Africa Sudan appears to be the highest at around 2%. The frequency of A*3303 begins to rise in eastern Arabia (Oman, UAE) and then markedly rise in the Brahui and Balochi of Pakistan.

 

Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is an Arab country in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

The name we call the country by today, Oman, is believed to originate from the Arab tribes who migrated to its territory from the Uman region of Yemen. Many tribes settled in Oman making a living by fishing, herding or stock breeding and many present day Omani families are able to trace their ancestral routes to other parts of Arabia.

From the 6th century BC to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD, Oman was controlled and/or influenced by three Persian dynasties, the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids. Achaemenids in the 6th century BC controlled and influenced the Oman peninsula. This was most likely exerted from a coastal center such as Sohar. By about 250 B.C. the Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons in Oman. In the third century A.D. the Sasanids succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later

 

The United Arab Emirates, most earliest known human occupation for which there is significant evidence dated from the Neolithic period, 5500 BC. Even at this early stage, there is proof of interaction with the outside world, especially with civilisations to the north. These contacts persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, commencing around 3000BC. Foreign trade, the recurring motif in the history of this strategic region, seems to have flourished also in later periods, facilitated by domestication of the camel at the end of the second millennium BC.

By the first century AD overland caravan traffic between Syria and cities in southern Iraq, followed by seaborne travel to the important port of Omana (perhaps present-day Umm al-Qaiwain) and thence to India was an alternative to the Red Sea route used by the Romans. Pearls had been exploited in the area for millennia but at this time the trade reached new heights. Seafaring was also a mainstay and major fairs were held at Dibba, bringing merchants from as far as China.

 

The Baloch (بلوچ) is an ethnic group that inhabits the region of Balochistan in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Southwest Asia, including parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The Baloch speak Balochi, an Iranian language. They mainly inhabit mountainous terrains, which have allowed them to maintain a distinct cultural identity and resist domination by neighbouring rulers. Some 60 percent of the total Baloch population live in Pakistan. About 25 percent inhabit the contiguous region of southeastern Iran. In Pakistan the Balochi people are divided into two groups, the Sulaimani and the Makrani, separated from each other by a compact block of Brahui tribes.

There are different viewpoints about the origins of the Balochs, including Arabs, Turks, Iranis, and Italians who migrated to Balochistan with Alexander The Great and did not return back.

L. M. Dames says that Balochs are ancestral Irani, who migrated from the southern coastline of the Caspian Sea. L. W. Oshanen, a well-known anthropologist of the Soviet Union, has supported Dames' theory. The northern and southern Baloch, however, consider themselves of Arab descent, and Aleppo their first homeland. There is no doubt that Baloch tribes, particularly Bugti, and Rind, joined the Balochis during wars in Baloch regions, so there were many Arabs in that area at the time. To this viewpoint that Balochis are Arabs, Rai Bahadur Hetoraam also agrees and identifies them as descendants of Hazrat Ameer Hamza, uncle of Hazrat Muhammad.

 

The Brahui people or Brohi people (Brahui: بروہی) are a Dravidian ethnic group of about 2.2 million people with the majority found in Kalat, Pakistan, but also found in smaller numbers in neighboring Afghanistan, India, and Iran. They are closely linked to the Baloch with whom they have substantially intermingled and whose cultural traits they have absorbed. Linguistically they were believed to be a remnant of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization. The Brahui language, also called Bravi, has been theorized as the remnant of a North Dravidian language. Due to its isolation from the other Dravidian tongues it has considerable Balochi vocabulary and counting begins with Balochi numbers. There is no distinct indigenous script for Brahui; like Balochi it is written in Perso-Arabic alphabet. Brahui is spoken in the following areas: Merv area of Turkmenistan, Sindh, Zahedan and Zabol in Iranian Balochistan, southern parts of Afghanistan, Pakistani Balochistan and with the bulk in the Jhalawan region.

 

HLA A*3303 Frequencies

Population	(%)
Cameroon Baka	25.0
Cameroon Sawa	23.1
India West Bhils	18.0
Pakistan Burusho	17.9
South Korea (3)	16.3
India West Parsis	14.0
Singapore Thai	13.3
India Mumbai Marathas	13.0
Japan	12.8
Pakistan Baloch	12.7
China South Han	11.5
Singapore Riau Malay	10.9
Singapore Chinese	10.1
Hong Kong Chinese	10.0
Chaoshan	9.8
Mali Bandiagara	9.4
China Inner Mongolia	9.3
Singapore Chinese Han	9.3
Singapore Javan	9.0
India North Hindus	8.7
Guinea Bissau	8.5
Taiwan Minnan	8.3
Taiwan Hakka	8.2

 

 

A33-B58-DR3-DQ2: One haplotype stands out, the A33-B58-DR3-DQ2 haplotype which is found in West Africa, in Sudan, and Pakistan, scattered along West Indias coast, the Turkic republics and appears to have recently introgressed into Korea (post-Yayoi period of Japan) and China. So recent arrival into Asia that the level of HLA DR3-DQ2 (see celiac disease) in Korea is 2.9%. Korea is the major recent source of Japanese genes, by the Yayoi period that lasted from 3000 to 1600 years ago approximately 3/4ths of Japanese genetic makeup is attributed to this migration. And yet there is trace DR3-DQ2 in the Japanese, none in the Ainu nor many other indigeonous Siberian groups.

 

HLA DR3-DQ2 is not spread evenly in the among humans. It is has a substantially higher frequency in the western world, except indigenous Native American. It is virtually absent in some Asian populations. It current world distribution suggest that it spread from Africa with a wave that spread late in human evolution which reached central Asia more recently, a possibility is that it spread with agrarian cultures that migrated from Africa.

DR3-DQ2 probably originated from Central or West Africa. DQ2.5cis haplotype is the second highest frequency haplotype in the Aka (N. Congo) and several other surrounding groups it is virtually absent in the !Kung. DQ2.5 primarily spread to the northwest and appears to have spread late in global spread of anatomically modern humans. The !Kung and Austronesians are reasonable marker populations earliest (eatward) spread out of Africa and those that spread rapidly, since the ancestors of the !Kung appear to have come from East Africa and share many Cw_B types in common with Austronesians and Northern Eurasians. DQ2.5 is at low frequencies in both of these populations, and it did not spread to Japan or the New World in pre-Columbian times. There is the possibility it spread to Arabia, but through stepwise expansion of small groups was lost from the DQ genetic repertoire.

DQ2.5 appears to be derived from DQ2.2 by gene recombination. One haplotype DQA1*0501:DQB1*0202 can be found in Africa suggesting DQB1*0201 evolved from DQB1*0202. The regions of Africa where DQ2.5 is at its highest frequencies indicate potential sources for western European haplotypes (e.g. bedoin) but also indicate recent dispersion making precise evolution difficult to interpret. Other evidence for a west African origin/expansion is seen with the probable origin of DQA1*0501 from DQA1*0505, which is at relatively high frequencies in west-central Africa.

 

A33-Cw3-B58-DR3-DQ2: Within eastern Asia A*3303 is in linkage dissiquilbrium with on haplotype in particular, the specific genetic makeup is:

A*3303 : C*0302 : B*5801 : DRB1*0301 : DQA1*0501 : DQB1*0201

It is interesting that the Cw allele in the Pakistani population is the same as the allele in the east Asian population C*0302. 8.3 of 11.1% of the A33-B58 in the Baloch Pakistani can is linked to DR3 and presumbably DQ2.5 (There are few exceptions outside of Africa). This extends a haplotype the forms a semi-circle around the Indian subcontinent indicating a subsantive and relatively recent genetic relationship. The parsis of Pakistan lack A33-B58, as with groups to the far west of Pakistan. The A33-B58-DR3-DQ2 haplotype appears to have originated in whole from West Africa, with current possibilities for Sudan or Northern Ethiopia as points of exit from Africa and a migration by the Indian ocean to the western side of the Indus River.

HLA A*33-B58 Frequencies

Population	freq (%)
Chinese (Thailand)	12.6
Baloch (Pakistan)	11.1
Chaoshan (China)	8.1
Chinese (Singapore)	5.5
Burusho (Pakistan)	4.6
Hui	4.0
Mongolian	3.7
Kalash (Pakistan)	3.6
Korea	3.5
Yaku	3.2
Panthan (Pakistan)	3.0
Tribals (India)	3.0
Baloch (SE Iran)	2.9
Brahui (Pakistan)	2.9
Southern Han	2.8
Thais	2.5
Vietnamese	2.3

 

 

Silk Road

The southern route is mainly a single route running from China through northern India, the Turkestan–Khorasan region, Mesopotamia, and into Anatolia, with southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. It starts out south through the Sichuan Basin in China. Crossing the high mountains into northeast India, probably via the Ancient tea route, it continues west along the Brahmaputra and Ganges river plains, possibly joining the Grand Trunk Road west of Varanasi. Then it passes through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route briefly near Merv. From there it follows a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, and land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa.

Another branch road traveled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.

Sea Routes: As much as fourteen hundred years ago, during China's Eastern Han Dynasty, a sea route, although not part of the formal Silk Route, led from the mouth of the Red River near modern Hanoi, through the Malacca Straits to Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India, and then on to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea kingdom of Axum and eventual Roman ports. From ports on the Red Sea goods, including silks, were transported overland to the Nile and then to Alexandria from where they were shipped to Rome, Constantinople and other Mediterranean ports.

Another branch of these sea routes led down the East African coast called "Azania" by the Greeks and Romans in the 1st century AD as described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (and, very probably, 澤散 Zesan in the 3rd century by the Chinese), at least as far as the port known to the Romans as "Rhapta," which was probably located in the delta of the Rufiji River in modern Tanzania.

The Silk Road extends from southern China to present day Brunei, Thailand, Malacca, Ceylon, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran and Iraq. In Europe it extends from Israel, Lebanon (Collectively, the Levant), Egypt, and Italy (Historically Venice) in the Mediterranean Sea to other European ports or caravan routes such as the great Hanseatic League fairs via the Spanish road and other Alpine routes.

This water route in some sources is called the Indian Ocean Maritime System.

 

 

HLA-B13

 

HLA B*1301 Frequencies

Population	freq (%)
Australian Aborigine Cape York Peninsula	27.0
Taiwan Bunun	26.7
Australian Aborigine Groote Eylandt	23.3
Taiwan Thao	21.7
Taiwan Tsou	17.6
India Khandesh Pawra	12.0
China South Han	8.2
New Caledonia	7.7
Philippines Ivatan	6.0
Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands Goroka	5.7
Singapore Riau Malay	5.4
China North Han	4.8
Thailand	4.1
India West Coast Parsis	3.0
India North Hindus	2.9
Jordan Amman	2.1
South Korea (3)	2.1
China Inner Mongolia	2.0
Japan Central	1.5
India Andhra Pradesh Golla	1.4
India North Delhi	1.1

 

 

HLA-B15

HLA-B15 (B15) is a broad antigen can be subdivided into several split antigens that are often used in characterization. These are B62, B63, B70, B71, B72, B75, B76, B77. B*15 is the largest allele grouping for any known human autosomal locus, idenitified as of August 2008 there are more than 150 alleles and ~140 amino acid sequence variants from those gene products. Some of these alleles are discussed below. Other alleles, such as B*46 evolved from B*15. One reason for the diversity of this group is that B15 is among a group of alleles enriched in the original humans that left Africa and dispersed across East Asia and Australia. As people traveled east the frequency of many alleles dropped or disappeared from migrants. However B*15 persisted, expanded and diversified. The wide range and complex environment selected for new alleles and promoted their expansion. B*46 for example is not found in Africa, and appears to have evolved and spread in East Asia, to several 100 million bearers worldwide.

HLA-B15 allele *1502 is associated with severe skin condition caused by allopurinol drug sensitivity in East Asians.

 

HLA B*1502 Frequencies

Population	freq (%)
Philippines Ivatan	22.0
Taiwan Puyuma	18.0
China Guangxi Maonan	14.8
China Yunnan Lisu	12.3
Taiwan Tao	12.0
Singapore Chinese Han	11.6
China Guangzhou	11.0
Hong Kong Chinese	10.2
China Yunnan Nu	9.0
Singapore Riau Malay	8.4
Singapore Javanese Indonesians	8.2
Thailand (3)	8.2
China South Han	7.1
Singapore Thai	6.1
India Khandesh Pawra	6.0
Taiwan Minnan pop 1	5.9
Singapore Chinese	5.7
India West Bhils	4.0
Taiwan Pazeh	3.6
China Guangdong Meizhou Han	3.5
China Qinghai Hui	2.7
Taiwan Hakka	2.7
Shijiazhuang Tianjian Han	2.4
China North Han	1.9
India Mumbai Marathas	1.9
India North Delhi	1.6
China Beijing	1.5
China Inner Mongolia	1.5
American Samoa	1.0
India North Hindus	1.0
Taiwan Siraya	1.0
Taiwan Tsou	1.0

 

HLA-B46

HLA-B46 (B46) is an HLA-B serotype. The serotype identifies the gene products of HLA-B*4601 allele. B*4601 resulted from a rare, interlocus, gene conversion between B62, probably B*1501, and a HLA-C allele. B*4601 is the most common HLA-B allele that does not have an origin within Africa, and estimated 400 million people in Eastern Asia carry a B46 allele. When found B*4601 segregates with only 2 HLA-Cw alleles, A limited number of HLA-A and HLA-DRB1 alleles suggesting that the allele recently expanded from a limited sized group within SE Asia. Extremely low frequencies outside of Eastern Asia are indicators of a recent expansion of B46 from a recently small population. The frequency distribution suggests the ancestral B46 population was in SE China, or, potentially Burma (Myanmar or Laos, untested). B46 in asia correlates with wet-rice farming. The exceptions are notable, it has been found in the Nivkhi on north-eastern Sakalin Island, the Ainu, and the Nivkhi-related (genetically) Tlinglet population of Alaska at trace levels. (For terminology help see: HLA-serotype tutorial)

 

HLA B*4601 frequencies

Population	freq (%)
Buyei (China)	21.6
Miao (China)	18.4
Han (2) (Yunnan, China)	17.9
Thai (in Singapore)	17.2
Southern Chinese (in Taiwan)	17.2
Chinese (in Hong Kong)	16.3
Hakka (2) (Taiwan)	15.6
Guangzhou (China)	15.5
Northeastern Thailand	15.1
Minnan (Avg 1 & 2) (Taiwan)	15.0
Middle' Chinese (in Taiwan)	15.0
Hakka (Taiwan)	13.6
Wuhan (China)	13.5
Maonan (Guangxi , China)	13.4
Chinese (in Singapore)	13.4
Vietnamese	13.2
Southern Han (China)	11.5
Shanghai (China)	11.2
Meizhou Han (Guangdong, China)	10.0
Shijiazhuang Tianjian Han (Beijing)	9.6
Guangzhou Han (China)	9.4
Nu (Yunnan, China)	9.0
Northern Chinese (in Taiwan)	8.6
Pazeh (Taiwan)	8.2
Aichi (Japan)	7.6
Lisu (Yunnan, China)	7.2
Beijing (China)	6.8
Naxi (Yunnan, China)	6.1
Hui (Qinghai, China)	5.9
Northern Han (China)	5.7
Japan (3)	5.0
Hyogo (Japan)	4.7
South Korea (3)	4.4
Man (Harbin City, China)	4.1
Siraya (Taiwan)	3.9
Central Japan	3.6
Timorese	2.6
Inner Mongolia (China)	2.0
Javanese (in Singapore)	2.0
Oold (Mongolia)	1.9
Nivkhi (Sakhalin I, Russia) sland	1.9
Thao (Taiwan)	1.7
Riau Malay (in Singapore)	1.5
Tuva (2) (Russia)	1.4
Tibetan (China)	1.3
Khalkh (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)	1.2
Ainu (Hokkaidō, Japan)	1.0
Okinawa (in Hawaii, USA)	1.0
Indigenous (Taiwan)	0.9
Khalkha (Mongolia)	0.5
Brahui (Pakistan)	0.5
Linqu County (Shandong, China)	3.3

 

HLA-B*4601 Abundance

Dark Red = 7% or greater,
Red = 3 to 7%
Orange = 1 to 3%
Green = O to 1%
Black = regions not typed

A2-Cw11(1)-B46: This haplotype is unique in several regards, first and most importantly the B46 serotype is not from Africa, this distinguishes it from every other known B serotype. It is the result of a recombination event between B62(B*1501) and an HLA-C allele within Asia. This event happened recently as there is only one major allele and minor alleles are at trace frequencies. There has been some recombination between this haplotype, A24 and A11 bearing alleles, probably in a local (or tribal population). B46 is found wherever Asian wet-rice farming peoples have traveled and is found at low frequencies in non-farming indigenous groups. The one exception is the Ninhvet of Siberia and the Eastern Tlinglet of Alaska. This B46 contribution appears to have been recent. Because of the numbers of people represented by the sample groups, and its relative high frequency in those group A2-B46 is one of the most frequent, if not the most frequent A-B haplotype in the world, even though it is absent from the indigenous populations of most peoples in the world.

The most common haplotype, and probably the ancestral haplotype given its distribution from the Ninhivet to Indonesia is:

A*0207 : C*0102 : B*4601 : DRB1*0901 : DQA1*0302 : DQB1*0303

A different haplotype that is more common in Korea and Japan is

A*0207 : C*0102 : B*4601 : DRB1*0803 : DQA1*0103 : DQB1*0601

B46, or a closely linked allele may have been under positive selection in rice farmers of Asia.

 

 

HLA-B58 (B58)

HLA-B*5801 is involved in allopurinol sensitive drug induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Allopurinol is a frequent cause of severe cutaneous adverse reactions, including drug-hypersensitivity syndrome, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, and toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN). The association with allopurinol sensitivity in JSJ/TEN was extremely strong in Asia, and somewhat less associated in Europeans.

In East Asians the carbamazepine and phenytoin induced syndrome is strongly associated with (B*1502 allele of HLA-B). A study in Europe suggested that the gene-marker is only relevant for East Asians. Based on the Asian findings similar studies in Europe were performed, sixty-one percent of allopurinol-induced SJS/TEN carried the HLA-B58 (B*5801 allele - Phenotype frequency in Europeans is typically 3%), indicating that while the risk alleles differ between ethnicities, the HLA-B locus is strongly associated or closely linked to a strongly associated gene.

 

HLA B*5801 Frequencies

Population	freq (%)
India Khandesh Pawra	15.0
Taiwan Hakka	10.9
India West Bhils	9.0
China South Han	8.9
China Inner Mongolia	8.8
India North Delhi	8.8
Thailand Northeast	8.4
Thailand	7.7
India Mumbai Marathas	7.4
India Andhra Pradesh Golla	7.2
India New Delhi	6.8
Oman	6.8
Russia Tuva (2)	6.7
South Korea (3)	6.5
Taiwan Siraya	5.9
India North Hindus	5.8
Singapore Riau Malay	5.0
Saudi Arabia Guraiat and Hail	4.6
Iran Baloch	4.0
Taiwan Pazeh	3.6
India West Coast Parsis	3.0
China North Han	2.9
China Yunnan Nu	1.9
China Tibet Autonomous Region Tibetans	1.6
Jordan Amman	1.4

 

 

HLA-B38

The B*3801 allele is more common in Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Europe, while the B*3802 allele is more common in the Far East.

HLA B*3802 Frequencies

Population	freq (%)
Taiwan Tao	11.0
China Guangxi Maonan	8.3
China South Han	7.1
Singapore Javan. Indonesians	7.1
Singapore Chinese Han	6.4
Taiwan Minnan pop 1	6.4
China Guangzhou	6.0
Philippines Ivatan	6.0
Hong Kong Chinese	5.4
Singapore Chinese	4.7
Singapore Riau Malay	4.5
China Guangzhou Han	4.3
India West Bhils	4.0
Taiwan Hakka	3.6
Singapore Thai	3.5
Taiwan Siraya	2.9
Taiwan Pazeh	1.8
India Mumbai Marathas	1.2
South Korea pop 3	1.1
Taiwan Puyuma	1.0
Taiwan Saisiat	1.0
China Beijing	0.8

 

 

HLA-DR12

HLA-DR12(DR12) is a HLA-DR serotype.

There are only 2 common allels for DRB1*12, *1201 and *1202. *1202 is more common on the West Pacific Rim and particularly Indochina and the South Pacific.

Disease Associations

DR12 is associated with vulval lichen sclerosus, and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis.

DRB1*1201 is associated with iritis in juvenile arthritis, primary antiphospholipid syndrome, tiopronin intolerance in rheumatoid arthritis, adult chronic articular Still's disease.

DRB1*1202 is found to be increased in narcolepsy associated sudden death syndrome in the Thai population, and narcolepsy in the Japanese population.

 

Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China. The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries.

Historically, the countries of Mainland Southeast Asia received cultural influence from China and India, but to varying degrees. Some Southeast Asian cultures, such as that of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are influenced mainly by the culture of India with a smaller influence from the culture of China. Others, such as the culture of Vietnam, received a much larger influence from China, with only minor cultural influences from India, largely via the Champa civilization that Vietnam conquered during its southward expansion.

Indochina comprises the territory of the following countries:

• in strict sense, only the former colonial French Indochina:
  • Cambodia
  • Laos
  • Vietnam
• in the wider sense, better described as Mainland Southeast Asia, it also includes:
  • Peninsular Malaysia (comprising the southern end of the Malay peninsula but none of the Malay islands)
  • Myanmar (formerly Burma and part of British India until 1937)
  • Singapore (also considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia if the man-made Johor-Singapore Causeway is not taken into account)
  • Thailand (formerly Siam)

 

 

* HLA-DR and -DQB1 DNA polymorphisms in a Vietnamese Kinh population from Hanoi by A. Vu-Trieu, et al.

Abstract: SUMMARY: We report here the DNA polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific oligonucleotide (PCR-SSO) typing of the HLA-DR B1, B3, B4, B5 and DQB1 loci for a sample of 103 Vietnamese Kinh from Hanoi, and compare their allele and haplotype frequencies to other East Asiatic and Oceanian populations studied during the 11th and 12th International HLA Workshops. The Kinh exhibit some very high-frequency alleles both at DRB1 (1202, which has been confirmed by DNA sequencing, and 0901) and DQB1 (0301, 03032, 0501) loci, which make them one of the most homogeneous population tested so far for HLA class II in East Asia. Three haplotypes account for almost 50% of the total haplotype frequencies in the Vietnamese. The most frequent haplotype is HLA-DRB1*1202-DRB3*0301-DQB1*0301 (28%), which is also predominant in Southern Chinese, Micronesians and Javanese. On the other hand, DRB1*1201(frequent in the Pacific) is virtually absent in the Vietnamese. The second most frequent haplotype is DRB1*0901-DRB4*01011-DQB1*03032 (14%), which is also commonly observed in Chinese populations from different origins, but with a different accessory chain (DRB4*0301) in most ethnic groups. Genetic distances computed for a set of Asiatic and Oceanian populations tested for DRB1 and DQB1 and their significance indicate that the Vietnamese are close to the Thai, and to the Chinese from different locations. These results, which are in agreement with archaeological and linguistic evidence, contribute to a better understanding of the origin of the Vietnamese population, which has until now not been clear.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

* Intergenic DNA Sequences from the Human X Chromosome Reveal High Rates of Global Gene Flow by Murray P Cox, et al.

Geographic Representation of Population Migration Rates Nm

 

 

HLA-B59

HLA-B59 (B59) is a hybrid between B*55 and B*51. B59 is more common in Japan, Korea, N. China and Mongolia.

 

HLA B*5901 Frequencies

Population	Freq (%)
Okinawan (USA Hawaii)	6.3
Japan (2)	2.7
Tarialan Khoton (Mongolia)	2.4
South Korea (3)	2.1
Gipuscoa Basque (Spain)	2.0
Japan Central	1.8
Casablanca (Morocco)	1.8
Hyogo (Japan)	1.6
N. Korean (Harbin,China)	1.0
Manchu (Harbin, China)	0.6
Naxi (Yunnan, China)	0.6
Girona (Catalonia,Spain)	0.6
Inner Mongolia (China)	0.5
Khalkha (Mongolia)	0.5
Shanghai (China)	0.3
Essen (German )	0.3
Southern Han (China)	0.2
Shij. Tian. (Beijing, China)	0.1
Hakka (Taiwan)	0.1

 

 

HLA-B67

HLA-B67 (B67) is an HLA-B serotype. The serotype identifies the more common HLA-B*67 gene products. B67 is region specific recombinant haplotype formed by the gene conversion of B*39, an allele common along the Northwest Pacific Rim (Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Coastal Siberia), and B7, B22, or B27.

 

HLA B*6701 Frequencies

Population	Freq (%)
Osaka Region (Japan)	2.6
Hakka (Taiwan)	1.8
Japan (5)	1.7
Harbin Man (China)	1.7
Beijing (China)	1.5
Linqu (Shandong, China)	1.1
Siraya (Taiwan)	1.0
Portugal South	1.0
Oold (Mongolia)	1.0
American Samoa	1.0
Pazeh (Taiwan)	0.9
South Korea (3)	0.9
N. Korean (Harbin,China)	0.8
Arratia Basque (Spain)	0.6
Tarialan Khoton (Mongolia)	0.6
Shanghai (China)	0.6
Yunnan Han (China)	0.5
Turkey	0.4
Southern Han (China)	0.4
Tuva (Russia)	0.3
Chinese (Hong Kong , China)	0.1

 

 

* Genetic Landscape of Eurasia Viewed from Large Allele Frequency Differences by Hui Li, et al.

Genetic Structure of Eurasian Populations

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

海禁

Hai jin (海禁 literally "ocean forbidden") was a ban on maritime activities during China's Ming Dynasty and again during the Qing Dynasty. It is commonly referred to as "Sea Ban". Intended to curb piracy, the ban proved ineffective for that purpose, while imposing huge hardships on coastal communities and legitimate sea traders.

Ming Policy: Under the Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Emperor was the first to propose the policy to ban all maritime shipping in 1371. The only way that foreigners might visit Ming China was via the tribute system. The policy contained 3 parts.

1. Build a navy of 110,000 to defend coastal provinces
2. Engage Japanese authorities to curtail the raiders
3. Regulate maritime trade to control smuggled goods.

After extreme pressure from the bureaucracy, by 1550 the ban was lifted. To facilitate the maritime trade, the Ming government established ambassadors at Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou. Each vassal state received about 200 paper passports afterwards.

Depending on the state of the policy, the earliest possible date is 1368. The latest possible year which terminated the policy is 1567.

Qing Policy: Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) was a military leader from the Ming government situated in the coastal region, capable of threatening the Qing. In 1647, another sea ban was issued to limit foreign trade with severe punishment imposed. In 1655 the "Frontier Shift" was imposed in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong. It required coastal residents to move in land 30-50 li (est. 15 to 25 kilometers). All private boats and ships were burned. Small rafts were not allowed at sea. In 1684, the ban was stopped, trading was reopened under Kangxi Emperor. In 1685 a "Taxation Rule for Sea Trade" was drafted by Yiergetu.

《南明史》History of South Ming:

• On the second month of the first year(1661) of Kangxi, Qing court issued the emperor's decree: The sea shore inhabitants will be ordered to move inland 50 Li (里; translation: mile), to curb their links with Taiwan rebels Koxinga. Soldiers then moved in and set up boundary,in just three days, all houses were destroyed to the ground, all inhabitants were evacuated.
  
• On the second year(1662) of Kangxi, Hua Official came to patrol the border, people were moved one more time.
  
• On the Spring month of the third year(1663) of Kangxi, the inhabitants of five counties:Punyu, Xunde, Xinhui, Dongguan, Xiansan were moved again.
  
• The initial borderline was considered to be too close to the sea; subsequently it was moved inland thee times; only then the position of the borderline was settled.

Pirates: The Ming government first labeled the Japanese raiders as "dwarf pirates", and soon discovered many to be renegade Chinese who joined ronin samurai to battle the Ming regime. By the early 17th century, virtually all pirates on China's coast were various Chinese ethnicities such as the Han, though they continued labeled as wokou.

Forced relocation of coaster population

"From 1652 onwards, the Qing court began ordering populations along the entire southern coast to be forcibly relocated inland, to stop them from giving aid and comfort to the enemy through trade. Faced with an enemy in inaccessible areas along the coast, the Qing chose to take the non-state spaces of the littoral to their logical extreme by creating a sanitary cordon of walls and watchtowers between the people and the sea. All coastal navigation and trade was banned, but the effect of the prohibitions and relocations was simply to make the Zheng base in Xiamen an even bigger centre for smuggling trade, with relocated communities now engaging in overland smuggling to Xiamen in order to sustain themselves."

Controversy: The purpose of the Ocean Prohibition is unclear and disputed; the only certainty is that the law prohibited private ships from sailing in the ocean.

Some have argued that the Hai jin marked a retreat from maritime activities such as the voyages of Zheng He and was symptomatic of a technological decline and stagnation that would culminate in China's 19th-century humiliation by Europe. This view has been popularized by the Chinese film, River Elegy.

The ban was also seen as a deceptive proposal, since it prevented the rise of any self-sufficient economies along the coast. Eventually new economies could not be born, and no power was drawn away from the existing imperial courts, thus making this ban a political move.

The law worked a great hardship for coastal dwellers and stimulated rebellions, piracy and a great wave of overseas migration. Traditionally, southeast Asia was the preferred destination for Chinese emigrants.

 

 

The Cantonese King of Palembang

Map of Liang Dao Ming's Old Port Palembang.

Liang Dao Ming (梁道明) was a 14th century Cantonese Ming abscondee (he is also a king of Palembang) inhabiting Palembang, Srivijaya. According to Ming record, he had thousands of followers and a sizable military troop in Palembang.

The Cantonese King of Palembang: During the declining of Srivijaya kingdom (around 1365-1400s), the Majapahit squashed down the Sumatran rebellions and conquered the thousand years kingdom, left only the area of Southern Sumatra in chaos and desolation. The capital of Srivijaya was in a shambles, Cantonese headman Liang Dao Ming established a base there and later he was pushed by his rebellion military followers to be the king of the region (Palembang), and so they named the new kingdom as Old Port (旧港). The name Old Port was named when majority of Chinese Muslims from Ming China, and also from Palembang, migrated to Surabaya’s New Village. Meantime, other group leaders from Ming China, Zhang Lian occupied West Java and Ling Dao Qian took Pattani, and it was at this very chaotic period, the last prince of Srivijaya fled to Temasek (see Parameswara).

Liang Returns Home: The Kingdom of Old Port and Majapahit fought over the territory of the region, in within a decade or more, thousands of fleeing Ming armies, from Canton and Hokkien (Fujian), joined Liang in the battle. As the military powers of Old Port expand, in year 1406, the Ming emperor sent Liang’s fellow countryman, the censor Tan Sheng Shou, Yang Xin and others to negotiate pacification. Finally Liang, his partner Zheng Ba Ke and gangs decided to return home for peace tribute.

Pirates of the Old Port: Year 1407, admiral Zheng He on his second voyage returned back from Africa, he was attacked by pirates of Old Port Palembang, the pirate leader was Tan Chor Ee (陈祖義 Chen Zu Yi), a criminal from Teochew. Tan eventually failed and was captured alive, thanks to the help of Shi Jin Qing who sent a report in advance. Tan was brought back to Nanjing, Ming China for decapitation. In that same year, Shi Jin Qing sent his envoy to Ming imperial for tribute, the Ming emperor awarded him Xuan Wei Shi (宣慰使), a special title for his effort and granted him coronal cincture. Shi Jin Qing (施進卿), a Chinese Muslim of Hui family became the chieftan of the Old Port region and permanent resident there.

 

 

Chinese Emigration

Chinese emigration (also known as the Chinese Diaspora) first occurred thousands of years ago, but the mass emigration that occurred from the 19th century to 1949 was mainly caused by wars and starvation in mainland China as well as political corruption. Most immigrants were illiterate, poorly educated peasants and manual labourers, historically called coolies (苦力, translated: Hard Labour), who were sent to countries such as the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Malaya and other places.

According to Lynn Pan's book Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the Chinese coolie emigration began, after slavery had been abolished throughout the British possessions. Facing a desperate shortage of manpower, European merchants were looking to replace African slaves with indentured labourers from China and India. A British Guiana planter found what he was looking for in the Chinese labourers "...their strong physique, their eagerness to make money, their history of toil from infancy..."

Large numbers of unskilled Chinese were sold as labourers, in the coolie trade, to the colonies overseas in exchange for money to feed their families; this type of trading was known as maai jyu jai (selling piglets : 賣豬仔) by the Chinese, and their lives were extremely miserable. Some tricky labor recruiters promised good pay and good working conditions to get them signed onto three year labor contracts. It was recorded on one pepper estate, 50 coolies hired, only 2 survived in half a year. Most coolies were treated badly and many died in route to South America and South Africa because of bad conditions. Usually, they were cheated out of their wages and were unable to return to China after their contracts expired.

Chronology of Historical Emigration:

• 210 BC, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) dispatched Xu Fu (徐福) to sail overseas in search of elixirs of immortality, accompanied by 3,000 virgin boys and girls. History is entangled in legend.
• 661 AD Tang dynasty, Zheng Guo Xi of Nan An, Fujian was buried at a Philippine island.
• 7-8th century, the Arabs recorded large numbers of Tang traders residing at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and they had families there.
• 10th century, Arab trader Masuoti recorded in his Golden Ley, in the year 943, he sailed passed Srivijaya and saw many Chinese people farming there especially at Palembang. These people migrated to Nanyang (南洋) to evade chaos caused by war in Tang Dynasty China.

10-15th Century:

• Java: Zheng He's (鄭和) compatriot Ma Huan (马欢) recorded in his book (瀛涯胜览) that large numbers of Chinese lived in the Majapahit Empire on Java, especially in Surabaya (泗水). The place where the Chinese lived was called New Village (新村), with many originally from Canton, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.
• Cambodia: Envoy of Yuan dynasty, Zhou Daguan (周达观) recorded in his The Customs of Chenla (真腊风土记), that there were many Chinese, especially sailors, who lived there, with many intermarrying with local women.
• Siam: According to the clan chart of family name Lim, Gan, Ng, Khaw, Cheah, many Chinese traders lived there. Some of the Siamese envoys sent to China were these people.
• Borneo: Many Chinese lived there as recorded by Zheng He.
• 1405 Ming dynasty, Tan Sheng Shou, the Battalion Commander Yang Xin (杨欣) and others were sent to Java's Old Port (Palembang; 旧港) to bring the absconder Liang Dao Ming (梁道明) and others to negotiate pacification. He took his family and fled to live in this place, where he remained for many years. Thousands of military personnel and civilians from Guangdong and Fujian followed him there and chose Dao Ming as their leader.
• 1459 Ming emperor sent Hang Li Po (汉丽宝) to Malacca along with 500 other female attendants, many attendants later married officials serving Mansur Shah as Li Po married the sultan after she accepted conversion to Islam.

Map of Chinese Migration during the 1800s - year 1949

20th Century, Modern Emigration: Through most of China's history, strict controls prevented large numbers of people from leaving the country. In modern times, however, periodically some have been allowed to leave for various reasons. For example, in the early 1960s, about 100,000 people were allowed to enter Hong Kong. In the late 1970s, vigilance against illegal migration to Hong Kong was again relaxed somewhat. Perhaps as many as 200,000 reached Hong Kong in 1979, but in 1980 authorities on both sides resumed concerted efforts to reduce the flow.

More liberalized emigration policies enacted in the 1980s facilitated the legal departure of increasing numbers of Chinese who joined their overseas Chinese relatives and friends. The Four Modernizations program, which required access of Chinese students and scholars, particularly scientists, to foreign education and research institutions, brought about increased contact with the outside world, particularly the industrialized nations. Thus, as China moved toward the twenty-first century, the diverse resources and immense population that it had committed to a comprehensive process of modernization became ever more important.

In 1983, emigration restrictions were eased as a result in part of the economic open-door policy. In 1984, more than 11,500 business visas were issued to Chinese citizens, and in 1985, approximately 15,000 Chinese scholars and students were in the United States alone. Any student who had the economic resources, from whatever source, could apply for permission to study abroad. United States consular offices issued more than 12,500 immigrant visas in 1984, and there were 60,000 Chinese with approved visa petitions in the immigration queue.

Export of labor to foreign countries also increased. The Soviet Union, Iraq, and the Federal Republic of Germany requested 500,000 workers, and as of 1986, China sent 50,000. The signing of the United States-China Consular Convention in 1983 demonstrated the commitment to more liberal emigration policies. The two sides agreed to permit travel for the purpose of family reunification and to facilitate travel for individuals who claim both Chinese and United States citizenship. Emigrating from China remained a complicated and lengthy process, however, mainly because many countries were unwilling or unable to accept the large numbers of people who wished to emigrate. Other difficulties included bureaucratic delays and in some cases a reluctance on the part of Chinese authorities to issue passports and exit permits to individuals making notable contributions to the modernization effort.

The only significant immigration to China has been by the overseas Chinese, who in the years since 1949 have been offered various enticements to return to their homeland. Several million may have done so since 1949. The largest influx came in 1978-79, when about 160,000 to 250,000 ethnic Chinese refugees fled Vietnam for southern China, as relations between the two countries worsened. Many of these refugees were reportedly settled in state farms on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

 

 

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China (PRC) (mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau) and the Republic of China (ROC)(Taiwan). People of partial Chinese ancestry may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese. A vast majority of the overseas Chinese hail from only three coastal provinces of the mainland viz. Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan.

The term Overseas Chinese is ambiguous and inconsistent as to whether it can refer to any of the ethnic groups that live in China (the broadly defined Zhonghua minzu) or whether it refers specifically to the Han Chinese ethnicity, narrowly defined. In Southeast Asia and particularly in Malaysia and Singapore, the state classifies the Peranakan as Chinese despite partial assimilation into Malay culture.

One study on overseas Chinese defines several criteria for identifying non-Han overseas Chinese: there is evidence of descent from groups living within or originating from China, they still retain their culture, self-identify with Chinese culture or acknowledge Chinese origin, although they are not categorized as ethnic Han Chinese. Under this definition, "ethnic minority".

Terminology: The Chinese language has various terms equivalent to the English "Overseas Chinese". Huáqiáo (華僑) refers to Chinese citizens residing in countries other than China. Huáyì (華裔) refers to ethnic Chinese residing outside of China. Another often-used term is 海外华人 (hǎiwài huárén), a more literal translation of Overseas Chinese; it is often used by the PRC government to refer to people of Chinese ethnicities who live outside the PRC, regardless of citizenship.

Overseas Chinese who are ethnically Cantonese, Hokkien or Hakka refer to Overseas Chinese as 唐人 (tángrén), pronounced tòhng yàn in Cantonese, Tn̂g-lâng in Hokkien and tong nyin in Hakka. Literally, it means Tang people, a reference to Tang dynasty when it was ruling China proper.

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty, with its capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the most populous city in the world at the time, is regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization—equal to or surpassing that of the earlier Han Dynasty—as well as a golden age of cosmopolitan culture.

Seaports and Maritime Trade During the Tang Dynasty: Chinese envoys had been sailing through the Indian Ocean to India since the 2nd century BC, yet it was during the Tang Dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, into Persia, Mesopotamia (sailing up the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq), Arabia, Egypt, Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in East Africa. From the same Quraysh tribe of Muhammad, Sa'd ibn Abi-Waqqas sailed from Ethiopia to China during the reign of Emperor Gaozu. He later traveled back to China with a copy of the Quran, establishing China's first mosque, the Mosque of Remembrance, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. To this day he is still buried in a Muslim cemetery at Guangzhou.

During the Tang Dynasty, thousands of foreigners came and lived in numerous Chinese cities for trade and commercial ties with China, including Persians, Arabs, Hindu Indians, Malays, Sinhalese, Khmers, Chams, Jews and Nestorian Christians of the Near East, and many others. In 748, the Buddhist monk Jian Zhen described Guangzhou as a bustling mercantile center where many large and impressive foreign ships came to dock. He wrote that "many big ships came from Borneo, Persia, Qunglun (Indonesia/Java)...with...spices, pearls, and jade piled up mountain high", as written in the Yue Jue Shu (Lost Records of the State of Yue). After Arab and Persian pirates burned and looted Guangzhou in 758, the Tang government reacted by shutting the port down for roughly five decades, as foreign vessels docked at Hanoi instead. However, when the port reopened it continued to thrive. In 851 the Arab merchant Suleiman al-Tajir observed the manufacturing of Chinese porcelain in Guangzhou and admired its transparent quality. He also provided a description of Guangzhou's mosque, its granaries, its local government administration, some of its written records, the treatment of travellers, along with the use of ceramics, rice-wine, and tea. However, in another bloody episode at Guangzhou in 879, the Chinese rebel Huang Chao sacked the city, and purportedly slaughtered thousands of native Chinese, along with foreign Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the process. Huang's rebellion was eventually suppressed in 884.

Vessels from Korean Silla, Balhae and Hizen Province of Japan were all involved in the Yellow Sea trade, which Silla dominated. After Silla and Japan reopened renewed hostilities in the late 7th century, most Japanese maritime merchants chose to set sail from Nagasaki towards the mouth of the Huai River, the Yangzi River, and even as far south as the Hangzhou Bay in order to avoid Korean ships in the Yellow Sea. In order to sail back to Japan in 838, the Japanese embassy to China procured nine ships and sixty Korean sailors from the Korean wards of Chuzhou and Lianshui cities along the Huai River. It is also known that Chinese trade ships traveling to Japan set sail from the various ports along the coasts Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

The Chinese engaged in large-scale production for overseas export by at least the time of the Tang. This was proven by the discovery of a silt-preserved shipwrecked Arab dhow in the Gaspar Strait near Belitung, which had 63,000 pieces of Tang gold, silver, and ceramics (including a Changsha bowl inscribed with a date: "16th day of the seventh month of the second year of the Baoli reign", or 826 AD, roughly confirmed by radiocarbon dating of star anise at the wreck). Beginning in 785, the Chinese began to call regularly at Sufala on the East African coast in order to cut out Arab middlemen, with various contemporary Chinese sources giving detailed descriptions of trade in Africa. The official and geographer Jia Dan (730–805) wrote of two common sea trade routes in his day: one from the coast of the Bohai Sea towards Korea and another from Guangzhou through Malacca towards the Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and India, the eastern and northern shores of the Arabian Sea to the Euphrates River. In 863 the Chinese author Duan Chengshi (d. 863) provided a detailed description of the slave trade, ivory trade, and ambergris trade in a country called Bobali, which historians suggest was Berbera in Somalia. In Fustat (old Cairo), Egypt, the fame of Chinese ceramics there led to an enormous demand for Chinese goods; hence Chinese often traveled there (this continued into later periods such as Fatimid Egypt). From this time period, the Arab merchant Shulama once wrote of his admiration for Chinese seafaring junks, but noted that their draft was too deep for them to enter the Euphrates River, which forced them to ferry passengers and cargo in small boats. Shulama also noted that Chinese ships were often very large, with capacities up to 600-700 passengers.

Waves of Immigration of Overseas Chinese: There were different waves of immigration which led to subgroups among overseas Chinese such as the new and old immigrants in Southeast Asia, North America, Oceania, Latin America, South Africa and Russia.

In the 19th century, the age of colonialism was at its height and the great Chinese Diaspora began. Many colonies lacked a large pool of laborers. Meanwhile, in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong in China, there was a labor surplus. The Qing Empire was forced to allow its subjects to work overseas under colonial powers. Many Hokkien chose to work in Southeast Asia with their earlier links starting from the Ming era, as did the Cantonese. The city of Taishan in Guangdong province was the source for many of the economic migrants. For the countries in North America and Australia, great numbers of laborers were needed in the dangerous tasks of gold mining and railway construction. With famine widespread in Guangdong, this attracted many Cantonese to work in these countries to improve the living conditions of their relatives. Some overseas Chinese were sold to South America during the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. Many people from the New Territories in Hong Kong emigrated to the UK (mainly England) and the Netherlands in the post-war period to earn a better living.

From the mid-19th century onward, emigration has been directed primarily to western countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and the nations of Western Europe; as well as to Peru where they are called tusán, Panama, and to a lesser extent to Mexico. Many of these emigrants who entered western countries were themselves overseas Chinese or were from Taiwan or Hong Kong, particularly from the 1950s to the 1980s, during which the PRC placed severe restrictions on the movement of its citizens. In 1984, Britain agreed to transfer the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the PRC; this triggered another wave of migration to the United Kingdom (mainly England), Australia, Canada, USA, Latin America and other parts of the world. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 further accelerated the migration. The wave calmed after the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. In addition, many citizens of Hong Kong hold citizenships or have current visas in other countries so if the need arises, they can leave Hong Kong on a short notice. In fact, after the Tiananmen Square incident, the lines for immigration visas increased at every consulate in Hong Kong. More recent Chinese presences have developed in Europe, where they number nearly a million, and in Russia, they number over 600,000, concentrated in Russian Far East. Chinese who emigrated to Vietnam beginning in the 18th century are referred to as Hoa.

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. As of August 2007, there were an estimated 750,000 Chinese nationals working or living for extended periods in different African countries. An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

Russia’s main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok, once closed to foreigners, today is bristling with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses. Experts predict that the Chinese diaspora in Russia will increase to at least 10 million by 2010 and Chinese may become the dominant ethnic group in the Russian Far East region 20 to 30 years from now.

Southeast Asia: Within Southeast Asia, the language situation of overseas Chinese vary greatly even amongst neighboring nations. On one hand, ethnic Chinese in Indonesia and Thailand had been subjected to official, and at times draconian, assimilation policies, and as a result many of them are no longer proficient in the Chinese language (particularly Chinese ethnic who lived in Java). Chinese who lived in Sumatra did not give up some of the dialects. Most of the Chinese ethnic in Medan is still able to speak Hokkien within their circle. This is due to the amount of the generation who lived in Indonesia and exposed to the cultural assimilation. Most of the Chinese ethnic who lived in Java have a long generation of forefathers before them (10 generations), where the Chinese ethnic who lived in Sumatra have a relatively short generation of forefathers (4 or 5 generations).

On the other end, Malaysian Chinese speak a wide variety of dialects, their prevalence being concentrated around particular metropolitan centers: the Penang, Klang and Malacca groups are predominantly Hokkien-speaking; the Kuala Lumpur, Seremban & Ipoh group is predominantly Cantonese and Hakka-speaking; whereas in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo), Hakka and Mandarin are widely spoken, except in Sibu, where Fuzhou dialect is predominant, and in Sandakan, where Cantonese is spoken.

In Singapore, a nation with an ethnic Chinese majority population, Mandarin is recognized as one of its official languages, along with Simplified Chinese characters, in contrast to other overseas Chinese communities which almost exclusively used Traditional Chinese characters until the 1990s when PRC nationals began to emigrate in substantial numbers. The official policy in Singapore also has an impact to the neighboring Johor, in the south of Peninsular Malaysia, where Mandarin is predominantly spoken among the Chinese communities there.

North America: Many overseas Chinese populations in North America speak some variety of spoken Chinese. In the United States and Canada, Chinese is the third most spoken language. Cantonese has historically been the most prevalent variety due to immigrants being mostly from southern China from the 19th century up through the 1980s. However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening up of the PRC.

In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca. Although Min Chinese is spoken natively by a third of the Chinese population there, it is not used as a lingua franca because speakers of other dialect groups do not learn Min.

Vancouver, British Columbia officially recognizes Chinese as a regional language due to the large number of Chinese people living in Vancouver, particularly the suburb of Richmond, which the majority of residents formed are Chinese.

The Los Angeles area and Santa Clara County have particularly high numbers of Mandarin speakers, partly due to immigration from Taiwan.

* Chinese American History

* History of Chinese Immigration to Canada

 

New Asian Emperors : The Overseas Chinese, Their Strategies and Competitive Advantages by George T. Haley, Chin Tiong Tan, Usha C. V. Haley

 

 

 

The Chinese Overseas: From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy by Gungwu Wang

 

 

 

Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese by Priscilla Wegars (Editor)

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Filipinos

Most of the Chinese in the Philippines trace their ancestry to the southern part of Fujian province. The Lan-nang variant of Min Nan, also known as Hokkien or Lán-lâng-oē (咱人話; "our people's language"), is the lingua franca of the Chinese-Filipino community. The rest are descendants of migrants from Guangdong, Hong Kong, or Taiwan. The other Chinese dialects that can be heard in the Chinese-Filipino communities are Mandarin Chinese (which is taught in Chinese schools in the Philippines and spoken in varying degrees of fluency by Chinese Filipinos), Taiwanese (which is mutually intelligible with the Quanzhou and Xiamen dialects), and Cantonese. The vast majority of the Chinese in the Philippines, however, are fluent in English as well as Tagalog, and for those residing outside of Metro Manila, the local language of the region, like Ilokano, Cebuano (Cebu, Davao, Iligan, and Zamboanga), and Chabacano. Mandarin Chinese used to be the medium of instruction in Chinese schools prior to the Filipinization policy of Former President Ferdinand Marcos. Partly as a result of Marcos' measures, Tagalog and English are gradually supplanting Chinese (Minnan and Mandarin) as the preferred medium of communication among the younger generation.

Presence of peoples from the Chinese mainland in the Philippines has been evident since during the Ice Age, when a land bridge enabled many people from southern China to settle in the Philippines. But they are not to be confused for the later Sinitic-speaking peoples (ethnic Chinese) who came long after the land bridge submerged. These ethnic Chinese sailed down and frequently interacted with the indigenous tribes as evidenced by a collection of priceless Chinese artifacts found in the Philippines, dating back right up to the 10th century. Prehistoric evidence attest to the fact that many datus and rajahs (indigenous rulers) in the Philippines were of mixed Filipino and Chinese ancestry. They formed the group which is to be called Principalia during the Spanish period, and were given privileges by the Spanish colonial authorities.

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted many Chinese male immigrants from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish occupation. The Spanish authorities restricted the activities of the Chinese immigrants and confined them to the Parían near Intramuros. With low chances of employment and prohibited from owning land, most of them engaged in retail trades or acted as skilled artisans to the Spanish colonial authorities. Many of the Chinese who arrived during the Spanish period were Cantonese, who worked as stevedores and porters, but there were also Fujianese, who entered the retail trades. The Chinese revolted fourteen times, against Spanish abuses, but their revolts were quickly put down by joint forces of the indigenous Filipinos, Mexicans, and the Spaniards. Deeply distrustful of the Chinese immigrants, the Spaniards conducted a total of six massacres against the them, two of which were successful. Fearful of a reprisal from China, Spanish authorities sent envoys to China explain their actions but were surprised to learn that the Chinese rulers were markedly indifferent to the plight of the Chinese immigrants. As it were, the Chinese rulers at the time forbade their Chinese subjects from emigrating and made the crime of leaving China punishable by death upon their return. To the Chinese rulers, those who had abandoned their homeland to settle in foreign lands were considered traitors who ceased to be Chinese. In addition, the Spanish authorities decided to segregate the Chinese immigrants into two groups: Parían (unconverted) and Binondo (converted). The massacres and expulsions targeted the unconverted while sparing the converted Chinese. To avoid this grim fate, most Chinese male immigrants converted to Catholicism, intermarried with indigenous women, and adopted Hispanized names and customs. The children of unions between indigenous Filipinos and Chinese were called Mestizos de Sangley or Chinese mestizos, while those between Spaniards and Chinese were called Tornatrás and were classified as blanco or white, together with the mixed-race Spanish mestizos and pure-blooded Spanish Filipinos. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area. However, they eventually spread all over the islands, and became traders, moneylenders and landowners.

During the American Colonial Period, the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was also put into effect in the Philippines. Nevertheless, the Chinese were able to settle in the Philippines, despite strict American law enforcement. During World War II, the Japanese massacred many unmixed Chinese. Following World War II and the fall of the Chinese mainland to communism, many Chinese migrated from Fujian province in China to the Philippines. This group formed the bulk of the current population of Chinese Filipinos.

 

 

Cantonese in Singapore

The Cantonese make up 15% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Unlike the Hokkien, Teochew and the Hainanese, the Cantonese speak a language belonging to the Yue family. The Cantonese community is also further sub-divided into several dialect groups. Yue Hai is considered to be the purest form of Cantonese because of its close proximity with Guangzhou. Other variants include Luoguang, Seiyap and Gouyeung. The Gwainaam variant is largely based in Guangxi and shares close affinity with Pinghua.

The Cantonese mainly worked as goldsmiths, tailors and restaurateurs during the early and mid 20th century, and their businesses predominated the shophouses along Temple Street, Pagoda Street, and Mosque Street.

Cantonese women from the Samsui district (三水区), worked in construction sites, and contributed greatly towards the development of Singapore. These Samsui women left their families behind in China and came to Singapore to work in construction sites for a living during the early 20th century. They were noted for their distinctive navy blue outfits and bright red headgear, which were meant for protecting their hair as they worked. The headgear was first worn by Wang Chao Yun (王朝云 字子霞), a concubine of Su Dongpo, in the Hakka Fui Chiu district of Guangdong province and it eventually became the traditional headgear of Hakkas. Cantonese women who worked alongside female Hakka labourers adopted the use of the headgear.

Cantonese women from the Seiyap (四邑) district in Jiangmen prefecture wore black headgear similar to the Samsui women. Seiyap women who wore black headgear mainly worked in shipyards at the old harbour along Singapore river as well as at Keppel Harbour.

Today Chinatown is known among Singaporeans for having a large number of Cantonese people.

 

 

Chinese Peruvian

A Chinese Peruvian, also known as tusán, a loanword from 土生 ("local born"), is a person of Chinese ancestry born in Peru, or who has made Peru his or her adopted homeland.

Most Chinese Peruvians are multilingual. In addition to Spanish, Quechua, and English, many of them speak one or more Chinese dialects that may include Cantonese, Hakka, Mandarin, and Taiwanese. Since the first Chinese immigrants came from Macau, some of them also speak Portuguese. In Peru, Asian Peruvians are estimated at 3% of the population, but one source places the number of citizens with some Chinese ancestry at 4.2 million, which equates to 15% of the country's total population.

History: Chinese immigrants in the 19th century, who took a four-month trip from Macau (then a Portuguese territory), settled Peru as contract laborers or "coolies". Other Chinese coolies from Guangdong followed. One hundred thousand Chinese contract laborers, almost all male, were sent mostly to the sugar plantations from 1849 to 1874, for the termination of slavery and continuous labor for the coastal guano mines and especially for the coastal plantations where they became a major labor force until the end of the century. While the coolies were believed to be reduced to virtual slaves, they also represented a historical transition from slave to free labor.

Another group of Chinese settlers came after the founding of Sun Yat-sen's republic in 1912, World War II, and the establishment of Communist rule in 1949.

Recent Chinese immigrants settled in Peru from Hong Kong and, again, Macau because of fear of their return to Communist rule in 1997 and 1999, while others have come from other places in mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian Chinese communities, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Many Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Malaysians came to Peru after anti-Chinese riots and massacres in those countries the 1960s, 1970s, and late 1990s. These recent Chinese immigrants make Peru the home of the largest ethnic Chinese community in Latin America.

Emigration: Many Chinese Peruvians left Peru in the 1960s and 1970s to escape the dictatorial government of Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado, worsening poverty, and earthquake. Most of them headed to the United States, where they were called Chinese Americans or Peruvian Americans of Chinese descent, while others went to Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia, or New Zealand.

Prominent Chinese Peruvian

• Juan Pablo Chang Navarro-Lévano (1930 - 1967) communist student leader and guerrilla, died alongside Che Guevara

Role in the Economy: After their contracts ended, many of them adopted the last name of their patrons (one of the reasons that many Chinese Peruvians carry Spanish last names). Some freed coolies (and later immigrants) established many small businesses. These included chifas (Chinese-Peruvian restaurants - the word is derived from chī fàn, or "eat meal" in Mandarin). Calle Capón, Lima's Chinatown, also known as Barrio Chino de Lima, became one of the Western Hemisphere's earliest Chinatowns. The Chinese coolies married Peruvian women, and many Chinese Peruvians today are of mixed Chinese, Spanish, and African or Native American descent. Chinese Peruvians also assisted in the building of railroad and development of the Amazon Rainforest, where they tapped rubber trees, washed gold, cultivated rice, and traded with the Indians. They even became the largest foreign colony in the Amazon capital of Iquitos by the end of the century.

 

Chifa

A Chifa dish called "Airport"

Chifa is a term used in Peru to refer to a style of food produced by the fusion of creole Limean food with Chinese food brought by Chinese immigrants mainly from the province of Canton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is also used to define a restaurant where this type of food is served. Chifa has become one of the most popular types of food in Peru and has achieved international fame. The term chifa probably comes from the mandarin 酒饭 jiǔfàn which means food and drink. However, the jiǔfàn is highly speculative and disputed. A more plausible origin of the name "chifa" seems to be a corruption of the Mandarin phrase "chi fan" (吃饭, eat rice, eat meal) which is supported by a similar corruption, "chaofa" in the Peruvian colloquial language, which should actually be "chao fan" (炒饭, fried rice) in mandarin. Despite the fact that the founding element of the Andean Chinese community has been Cantonese, Mandarin words were used in the creation of the name "chifa" (as Mandarin "chi" in Cantonese is either "heg", "sek" or "yag", a far cry from the chosen pronunciation). The similar type of overseas Cantonese cuisine is called Chop suey in North American, a culinary term nonexistent in China proper. This means overseas Cantonese cuisine, called "Chifa" and "Chopsuey" variably, lacked a common name when it was first invented.

Nowadays, chifa has evolved enormously and has acquired its own personality forming part of the Gastronomy of Peru.

Peruvian chifa is very different than Chinese food that is found in other parts of the world. Its integration or fusion with creole Peruvian food has given a unique taste to its varied dishes. As a result of this it is known known as having an exquisite flavor unmatched and internationally recognized as one of the best gastronomies in the world.

Chifa in Peru in enjoyed by all socio-economic levels, as evident by the ability to find Chifas directed towards those with a more ample budget and seeking a more refined atmosphere whereas chifas de barrio are directed towards a different social strata and do not have the same level of atmosphere and are directed towards consumers accustomed to the type of food which they serve. Currently, in the city of Lima there are over 6,000 chifa restaurants.

Typical Chifa Dishes:

• Chaufa Rice (Fried Rice)
• Fried Noodles
• Fried Soy
• Wantan
• Wantan Soup
• Kam Lu Wantan
• Chijaukai chicken
• Tipa Kay Chicken (A variant based on cuy known as Tipa Cuy)
• Airport (A more recent typical dish popular in the low and mid class chifas of Lima)

 

 

Chinese Cuban

Chinese immigration to Cuba started in 1847 when Cantonese contract workers were brought to work in the sugar fields. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers were brought in from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan during the following decades to replace and / or work alongside African slaves. After completing 8-year contracts or otherwise obtaining their freedom, some Chinese immigrants settled permanently in Cuba, although most longed for repatriation to their homeland. Havana's Chinatown (known as Barrio Chino de La Habana) is one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in Latin America. Some 5,000 immigrants from the U.S. came to Cuba during the late 1800s to escape the discrimination present at the time. A small wave of Chinese immigrants also arrived during the early 20th century to escape the political chaos in China.

The Chinese tended to concentrate heavily in urban areas, especially in the Havana Chinatown. Many used the money they accumulated as indentured laborers to open small grocery stores or restaurants. Generations of Chinese-Cubans married into the larger Spanish, mulatto and Afro-Cuban populations. Today almost all Chinese-Cubans have African, Spanish, and Chinese ancestry. Many of them have Spanish surnames.

Some Chinese fought in Cuba's Ten Year's War. Chinese Cubans, including some Chinese-Americans from California, joined the Spanish-American War in 1898 to achieve independence from Spain, but a few Chinese, who were loyal to Spain, left Cuba and went to Spain. Racial acceptance and assimilation would come much later.

When the new revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the economic and political situation changed. Many Chinese grocery store owners, having had their properties expropriated by the new government, left Cuba. Most of these settled in the United States, particularly nearby Florida, where they and their U.S.-born children are called Chinese-Americans or Cuban-Americans of Chinese descent, while a relatively few to nearby Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries, and also to U.S.-ruled territory of Puerto Rico, where they are called Chinese Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Puerto Ricans of Chinese descent, or Cuban-Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese refugees to United States include people whose ancestors came to Cuba 10 years before the Cuban Revolution and those from the United States. These Chinese American refugees, whose ancestors had come from California, were happy to be back in the United States. As a result of this exodus, the number of pure Chinese dropped sharply in Havana’s Barrio Chino. The places they migrated to had a unique Chinese culture and a popularity of Chinese Cuban restaurants.

The Chinese Cubans fought in the Cuban war of independence on the side of those seeking independence from Spain. A memorial consisting of a broken column memorializes Chinese participation in the war of independence at the corners of L and Linea in Havana.

The Barrio Chino de La Habana today is now not the largest Chinatown in Latin America. Most Chinese Cubans live outside Barrio Chino. Some of the Chinese stayed after the start of Castro's rule. Younger generations are working in a larger variety of jobs. There are many song composers and entering show-business: actors, actresses, singers, and models.

Several community groups, especially Chinatown Promotional Group (Spanish: Grupo Promotor del Barrio Chino), worked to revive Barrio Chino and the faded Chinese culture. Chinese Language and Arts School (Escuela de la Lengua y Artes China) opened in 1993 and has grown since then, helping Chinese Cubans to strengthen their knowledge of the Chinese language. Today, Chinese Cubans tend to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and a mixture of Chinese and Spanish, in addition to Spanish and English. They also promoted small businesses, like beauty parlors, mechanical shops, restaurants, and small groceries, provided to them to create a view of Barrio Chino. Havana’s Barrio Chino also experienced buildings of Chinese architecture and museum with backgrounds about China. As a result, the Chinese Cuban community has gained visibility.

The influence of the Chinese migration to Cuba is thoroughly reflected in the novel The Island of Eternal Love by Cuban-American author Daína Chaviano. Originally published in Spain as La isla de los amores infinitos (Grijalbo-Random House 2006), it has been sold to 23 languages. The plot covers 150 years of history, beginning in the 1840s through the 1990s.

The Island of Eternal Love by Diana Chaviano

 

 

Hoa

Hoa refers to a minority in Vietnam consisting of persons considered to be ethnic chinese or Han Chinese. They are often referred to as either Chinese Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese, Sino-Vietnamese, or ethnic Chinese in/from Vietnam by the Vietnamese populace, Overseas Vietnamese, and other ethnic Chinese. The Vietnamese government's classification of the Hoa excludes two other groups of Chinese-speaking peoples, the San Diu ('mountain Chinese') and the Ngai.

According to the 1999 Vietnamese census, with 1.1% of the population, the Hoa are the 6th-largest ethnic group in Vietnam.

Language: The people who escaped from Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) China to Vietnam declared themselves as the Minh-huong (明鄉) which means the people of the Ming Dynasty. The Hoa are descended from early settlers from the Guangdong province who arrived in Vietnam from the 18th to 20th centuries. The final group of mainland China migrants came during the 1940s. A large proportion of Hoa who are living outside of Vietnam speak Cantonese as their mother tongue, albeit in a Vietnamese accent. The second largest group of Hoa tend to speak Teochew (Chaozhou), but may also speak Cantonese as a lingua franca, again usually in a Vietnamese accent. The younger generation of Hoa in Vietnam tends to speak both Vietnamese and Cantonese.

The intermarriage between the Hoa and the majority Kinh ethnic groups is the highest compared to other minorities in Vietnam.

They are predominantly urban dwellers. A few Hoa live in small settlements in the northern highlands near the Chinese frontier, where they are also known as ngai. In 1955, North Vietnam and China agreed that the Hoa should be integrated gradually into Vietnamese society and should have Vietnamese citizenship conferred on them.

Occupations: Before 1975 the northern Hoa were mainly rice farmers, fishermen, and coal miners, except for those residing in cities and provincial towns. In the South, the French colonizers had allowed the Cholon Hoa to be the trading middleman. Subsequently, they became dominant in commerce and manufacturing. According to an official source, at the end of 1974 the Hoa controlled more than 80 % of the food, textile, chemical, metallurgy, engineering, and electrical industries, 100 % of wholesale trade, more than 50 % of retail trade, and 90 % of export-import trade. Dominance over the economy enabled the Hoa to "manipulate prices" of rice and other scarce goods. This particular source further observed that the Hoa community constituted "a state within a state," inasmuch as they had built "a closed world based on blood relations, strict internal discipline, and a network of sects, each with its own chief, to avoid the indigenous administration's direct interference." It was noted by Hanoi in 1983 that as many as 60 % of "the former bourgeoisie" of the south were of Hoa origin.

Nowaday, due to these efforts, the Hoa take a small part in the economic of Vietnam.

Population: As of 2006, the Hoa became the largest ethnic minority in Vietnam, with figures of 2.3 million.

In mid-1975, when North and South Vietnam were unified, the combined Hoa communities of the North and South numbered approximately 1.3 million, and all but 200,000 resided in the South, most of them in the Saigon metropolitan area, especially in the Cholon district (Chinatown). Beginning in 1975, the Hoa bore the brunt of socialist transformation in the South.

An announcement on March 24 outlawed all wholesale trade and large business activities, which forced around 30,000 businesses to close down overnight, followed up by another that banned all private trade. Further government policies forced former owners to become farmers in the countryside or join the armed forces and fight at the Vietnam-Cambodia border, and confiscated all old and foreign currencies, as well as any Vietnamese currency in excess of the US value of $250 for urban households and $150 by rural households. While such measures were targeted at all bourgeois elements, such measures hurt ethnic Hoa the hardest and resulted in the takeover of Hoa properties in and around major cities. Hoa communities offered widespread resistance and clashes left the streets of Cholon "full of corpses".

These measures, combined with external tensions stemming from Vietnam's dispute with Cambodia and China in 1978 and 1979 caused an exodus of as the majority of the Hoa, of whom more than 170,000 fled overland into the province of Guangxi, China, from the North and the remainder fled by boat from the South. China received a daily influx of 4-5,000 refugees, while Southeast Asian countries saw a wave of 5,000 boat people arriving at their shores each month. China sent unarmed ships to help evacuate the refugees, but encountered diplomatic problems as the Vietnamese government denied that the Hoa suffered persecution and later refused to issue exit permits after as many as 250,000 Hoa had applied for repatriation. In an attempt to stem the refugee flow, avert Vietnamese accusations that Beijing was coercing its citizens to emigrate, and encourage Vietnam to change its policies towards ethnic Hoa, China closed off its land border in 1978. This led to a jump in the number of boat people, with as many as 100,000 arriving in other countries by the end of 1978. However, the Vietnamese government by now not only encouraged the exodus, but took the opportunity to profit from it by imposing a price of five to ten taels of gold or an equivalent of US $1,500 to $3,000 per person wishing to leave the country. The Vietnamese military also forcibly drove the thousands of border refugees across the China-Vietnam land border, causing numerous border incidents and armed clashes, while blaming these movements on China by accusing them of using saboteurs to force Vietnamese citizens into China. This new influx brought the number of refugees in China to around 200,000.

The size of the exodus increased during and after the war. The monthly number of boat people arriving in Southeast Asia increased to 11,000 during the first quarter of 1979, 28,000 by April, and 55,000 in June, while more than 90,000 fled by boat to China. In addition, the Vietnamese military also began expelling ethnic Hoa from Vietnam-occupied Kampuchea, leading to over 43,000 refugees of mostly Hoa descent fleeing overland to Thailand By now, Vietnam was openly confiscating the properties and extorting money from fleeing refugees. In April 1979 alone, Hoa outside of Vietnam had remitted a total of US $242 million (an amount equivalent to half the total value of Vietnam's 1978 exports) through Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City to help their friends or family pay their way out of Vietnam. By June, money from refugees had replaced the coal industry as Vietnam's largest source of foreign exchange and was expected to reach as much as 3 billion in US dollars. By 1980, the refugee population in China reached 260,000, and the number of surviving boat people refugees in Southeast Asia reached 400,000. (An estimated 50% to 70% of boat people perished at sea.) By the end of 1980, the majority of the Hoa had fled from Vietnam. In addition to ethnic Hoa, an estimated 30,000 ethnic Vietnamese refugees fled to China.

Immigration to Other Countries: Today, there are many Hoa communities in Australia, Canada, France, and the United States, where they have been instrumental in breathing new life into old existing Chinatowns. For example, the established Chinatowns of Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, and Paris have a Vietnamese atmosphere due to the large presence of Hoa people. Some of these communities also have associations for transplanted Hoa refugees such as the l'Association des Résidents en France d'origine indochinoise in Paris.

The Vietnamese poulation in China now number up to 300,000, and live mostly in 194 refugee settlements mostly in the provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Hainan, Jiangxi, and Guangxi. Most (85%+) have achieved economic independence, but the remainder still live below the poverty line in rural areas. While they have most of the same rights as Chinese nationals, including employment, education, housing, property ownership, pensions, and health care, they had not been granted citizenship and continued to be regarded by the government as refugees. Their refugee status allowed them to receive UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) assistance and aid until the early twenty-first century. In 2007, the Chinese government began drafting legislation to grant full Chinese citizenship to Indochinese refugees, including the ethnic Hoa which make up the majority, living within its borders.

There is also a sizable Hoa refugee population - many of whom speak Cantonese - in Hong Kong, but they have experienced discrimination in housing and employment.

In the United States, the Hoa have also started businesses in prominent Vietnamese communities called Little Saigon near Los Angeles and San Jose, including those in the states of California, Texas, and Washington. They own a large share of businesses especially catering to the local Vietnamese population.

Hoa Concentrations in Vietnam:

• Ho Chi Minh City: Cho Lon
• Da Lat
• Tra Vinh province

 

 

Cantonese in Singapore

The Cantonese make up 15% of the Chinese Singaporean population. Unlike the Hokkien, Teochew and the Hainanese, the Cantonese speak a language belonging to the Yue family. The Cantonese community is also further sub-divided into several dialect groups. Yue Hai is considered to be the purest form of Cantonese because of its close proximity with Guangzhou. Other variants include Luoguang, Seiyap and Gouyeung. The Gwainaam variant is largely based in Guangxi and shares close affinity with Pinghua. As with the Hokkiens and Teochews, some Cantonese also share Taoist beliefs.

The Cantonese mainly worked as goldsmiths, tailors and restaurateurs during the early and mid 20th century, and their businesses predominated the shophouses along Temple Street, Pagoda Street, and Mosque Street.

Cantonese women from the Samsui district (三水区), worked in construction sites, and contributed greatly towards the development of Singapore. These Samsui women left their families behind in China and came to Singapore to work in construction sites for a living during the early 20th century. They were noted for their distinctive navy blue outfits and bright red headgear, which were meant for protecting their hair as they worked. The headgear was first worn by Wang Chao Yun (王朝云 字子霞), a concubine of Su Dongpo, in the Hakka Fui Chiu district of Guangdong province and it eventually became the traditional headgear of Hakkas. Cantonese women who worked alongside female Hakka labourers adopted the use of the headgear.

Cantonese women from the Seiyap (四邑) district in Jiangmen prefecture wore black headgear similar to the Samsui women. Seiyap women who wore black headgear mainly worked in shipyards at the old harbour along Singapore river as well as at Keppel Harbour.

Today Chinatown (Singapore) is known among Singaporeans for having a large number of Cantonese people.

The term Samsui women broadly refers to a group of Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore between the 1920s and the 1940s in search of construction and industrial jobs. Their hard work contributed to Singapore's development, both as a colony and as a nation.

The Samsui women came from Sanshui of Guangdong (Canton) Province in China, in addition to Shunde and Dongguan. Most Samsui women are Cantonese (90%) but there are Hakka (10%) as well.

In Chinese, these women are referred to as 紅頭巾, which translates as "red bandana", a reference to the trademark red cloth hats that they wore.

Coming to Singapore as cheap labourers, Samsui women worked mainly in the construction industry and other industries that required hard labour. They also worked as domestic servants. They had a reputation of rejecting jobs involving drug (particularly opium) peddling, prostitution, or other vices, even if that meant they sometimes had to live in poverty.

Before arriving in Singapore, most Samsui women took vows never to marry, although there are exceptions. They lived in cramped conditions with other Samsui women, helping out each other and forming tightly united cliques.

Samsui women also remained in touch with their relatives back home in China, communicating with them frequently through letters. Occasionally, they would send money to them.

Working as menial labourers, Samsui women seldom earned enough money for a financially worry-free retirement. Some managed to save enough to return to their homeland to retire, while others had just enough for a final trip back home to visit their relatives and pay homage to their ancestors before they died. Many became too old to travel, and were unable to return to China.

There are less than a hundred Samsui women left in Singapore today, all of them in their 80s and 90s. Organizations exist to raise awareness of these women's achievements and contributions to Singapore's development, and their current state. Some of these organization also strive to provide free travel for the women back to China to visit their relatives before they die.

 

 

Famous Pirates

Chow Yun-Fat as Captain Sao Feng of the South China Seas in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Captain Sao Feng (嘯風; literally "Howling Wind") is a fictional character introduced in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He is played by Chow Yun-Fat. Sao Feng is the Pirate Lord of the South China Sea and his character is based on the legendary Chinese pirate, Cheung Po Tsai.

Cheung Po Tsai (張保仔; literally means "Cheung Po the Kid") was a 19th century Chinese pirate. A famous pirate in Hong Kong, he was a fisherman's son who lived in Xinhui of Jiangmen (Guangdong Province) but was kidnapped by the pirate Cheng I and his wife Ching Shih when he was 15. According to legend he became the pirate and his wife's lover. However he was adopted by the kidnappers as their son. After Cheng I died, Ching Shih had a love affair with her adopted son and soon married him, having already made him her lieutenant. Cheung Po later took over the pirating business from his adopted parents.

Cheung Po Tsai was active along the Guangdong coastal area during the Qing Dynasty. His followers are said to have reached 50,000 and his fleet said to have possessed 600 ships.His piracy mate was Cai Qian and them reinforcement each other, but Cai Qia early than him destroyed by Qing, it made Cheung decided to surrender. Cheung Po capitulated to the Chinese government in 1810 and became a captain in the Qing imperial navy,his rank was navy colonel and appointed in Penghu, there was far away Hong Kong. He spent rest of his life in a very comfortable government position.

Several places in Hong Kong are linked to Cheung Po Tsai:

Ching Shih (c. 1785 – 1844) ( 鄭氏; "widow of Zheng"), also known as Zheng Yi Sao (鄭一嫂; "wife of Zheng Yi"), was a prominent female pirate in middle Qing China.

Ching Shih successfully engaged in illicit activities throughout her life, and therefore little is known about her early life, including her birth name and precise date of birth. In 1801, she was working as a prostitute on one of Canton's floating brothels, and later that year she married Zheng Yi, the notorious Chinese pirate.

Zheng Yi belonged to a family of successful pirates who traced their criminal origins back to the mid-Seventeenth century. Following his marriage to Ching Shih, Zheng Yi used military assertion and his family's reputation to gather a coalition of competing Cantonese pirate fleets into an alliance. By 1804, this coalition was a formidable force, and one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China.

In 1807, Zheng Yi died, and Ching Shih maneuvered her way into his leadership position. The fleet under her command established hegemony over many coastal villages, in some cases even imposing levies and taxes on settlements. According to Robert Antony, Ching Shih "robbed towns, markets, and villages, from Macau to Canton."

She ended her career in 1810, accepting an amnesty offer from the Chinese government. She kept her loot, married her lieutenant and adoptive son Cheung Po Tsai, and opened a gambling house.

She died in 1844, at the age of 59.

The 2007 movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End depicts a "Mistress Ching" as one of the nine pirate lords. This character seems likely to have been inspired by Ching Shih, even though the film is set over a century before she lived.

 

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Cantonese Culture

Cantonese language opera exists in the form of Cantonese opera, which uses a theatrical form of Cantonese singing and rhyming patterns in its performances. The Cantonese opera tradition may date back as far as the Southern Song Dynasty in the 13th century.

Due to its political and economic status of being outside the direct control of the PRC, Hong Kong has been an active (and primary) producer of Cantonese language entertainment. Cantopop, Cantonese language pop music, enjoys a multinational fanbase, and the major center of the Cantonese music industry is in Hong Kong. Well-known Cantopop artistes include Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng, and Coco Lee. Many of these well known stars are Cantoneses, and from the families of other internal Chinese immigrants. Hong Kong's Cantonese-language cinema is a thriving industry that enjoys international fame. One of the world's largest motion picture industries, recent films such as Kung Fu Hustle and Infernal Affairs have generated acclaim worldwide.

Cantonese cuisine is one of the most famous types of Chinese cuisine, popular both within and outside China and is characterized by its variety of cooking methods, freshness and use of seafood. Dim sum is equally famous for its variety of small servings.

 

Cantonese Opera : Performance as Creative Process by John C. Reynolds

 

 

 

 

Gems from the South: Traditional Crafts of Guangdong Province by Susan Lam and Ruan Huaduan

 

 

 

Daughters of the Canton Delta: Marriage Patterns and Economic Strategies in South China, 1860-1930 by Janice Stockard

 

 

 

Paintings by Guangdong Artists by Art Museum Staff

 

 

 

 

 

Cantonese Cuisine

Cantonese (Yue) cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in Southern China, or specifically from Guangzhou (Canton). Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best known outside China; most "Chinese restaurants" in Western countries serve Cantonese cuisine and dishes based on it. Its prominence outside China is due to its palatability to Westerners and the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. In China, too, it enjoys great prestige among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine, and Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country.

Traditional Dishes: A number of dishes have been a part of the Cantonese cuisine collection since the earliest territorial establishments of Guangdong province. While many of these are on the menus of typical Cantonese restaurants, some are more commonly found among Chinese homes due to their simplicity. Home-made Cantonese dishes are usually served with plain white rice.

• Chinese steamed eggs (蒸水蛋)
• Congee with century egg (皮蛋粥)
• Cantonese fried rice (炒饭)
• Sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉)
• Steamed spare ribs (pai gwhut) with fermented black beans and chili pepper (豉椒排骨)
• Stir-fried vegetables with meat (e.g. chicken, duck, pork, beef, or intestines) (青菜炒肉片)
• Steamed frog legs on lotus leaf (荷葉蒸田雞)
• Steamed ground pork and salted duck egg meatballs (咸蛋蒸肉饼)
• Blanched vegetables with oyster sauce (油菜)
• Stir fried water convolvulus with shredded chili and fermented tofu (椒丝腐乳通菜)

Noodle Dishes: A number of noodle dishes are part of the Cantonese cuisine. These are commonly available at dai pai dong or dim sum side menus.

Includes:

• Wonton noodle (雲吞麵)
• Chinese noodles with fish balls, beef balls, or fish slices
• Beef chow fun (乾炒牛河)
• Shahe fen (沙河粉)
• Lo mein (撈麵)
• Pan-fried crispy noodles (炒麵)

Siu Mei: Siu mei is essentially the Chinese rotisserie style of cooking. Unlike most other Cantonese dishes, Siu mei consists only of meat, with no vegetables. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor that is usually enhanced by a flavorful sauce, a different sauce is used for each meat.

• Char siu (叉烧)
• Roasted duck (燒鴨, siu ngap)
• Roasted goose (燒鵝, siu ngo)
• Roasted pig (燒肉)

Siu Laap: Just about all the Cantonese-style cooked meat including siu mei, lou mei and preserved meat can be mixed together under the generic name (燒臘, Siu laap). Siu laap also includes foods such as:

• White cut chicken (白切雞)
• Orange cuttlefish (鹵水墨魚)
• Poached duck in master stock (滷水鴨)
• Soy sauce chicken (豉油雞, si yau gai)

Dessert: After a night meal or dish, Cantonese restaurants usually offer tong sui, or sweet soups [literally meaning sugar water]. Many of the varieties are shared between Cantonese and other Chinese cuisines. Some desserts are more traditional, while others are more recent with local chef creativity. Higher end restaurants usually offer their own blend and customization of desserts.

• Red bean soup (紅豆沙)
• Black sesame soup (芝麻糊)
• Sai mai lo (西米露)
• Sweet potato soup (番薯糖水)
• Mung bean soup (綠豆沙)
• Dau fu fa (豆腐花)
• Guilinggao (龟苓膏)
• Sweet Chinese pastry (糕點)
• Coconut bar (椰汁糕)
• Shaved Ice (刨冰)
• Steamed egg custard (燉蛋)
• Steamed milk custard (燉奶)

 

Chinese Cuisine : Cantonese Style by Lee-Hwa Lin (Editor) , Veronica Lim (Translator)

 

 

 

 

Chop suey

Chop suey ('mixed pieces') is an American-Chinese dish consisting of meats (often chicken, fish, beef, shrimp or pork), cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. It is typically served with rice but can become the Chinese-American form of chow mein with the addition of deep-fried noodles.

Chop suey is part of American Chinese cuisine, Canadian Chinese cuisine, and Indian Chinese cuisine. Filipinos also have their own version of chop suey. The typical Filipino-Chinese variation includes wood ear (also known as tenga ng daga in Tagalog; lit. ear of the rat), carrots and chayote along with the cabbage. Some may even include bell peppers and/or cauliflower.

Origin: Chop suey is widely believed to have been invented in America by Chinese immigrants, but in fact it appears to originate in Taishan, a district of Guangdong Province which was the home of most of the early Chinese immigrants; the Hong Kong doctor Li Shu-fan reported that he knew it in Taishan in the 1890's.

Nonetheless, there are various colorful stories about its origin, which Davidson (1999) characterizes as "culinary mythology": Some say it was invented by Chinese immigrant cooks working on the United States Transcontinental railway in the 19th century. Others say that it was invented during Qing Dynasty premier Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896 by his chef, who tried to create a dish suitable for both Chinese and American palates: when reporters asked what food the premier was eating, his cook found it difficult to explain the dishes, and replied "mixed pieces". Chop suey first appears in an American publication as early as 1898. In his popular book, The Gangs of New York (1927), Herbert Asbury attributes the Americanized version of the term to a San Francisco dishwasher, calling it a bastardized version of the Cantonese phrase tsap sui, meaning "odds and ends", "miscellaneous pieces", or more simply "hash".

Outside of Taishan, the name "chop suey" or "shap sui in Cantonese, and "za sui", when used in Mandarin, has the somewhat different meaning of cooked animal offal or entrails. For example, in the classic novel Journey to the West (c. 1590), Sun Wukong tells a lion-monster in chapter 75: "When I passed through Guangzhou (Canton), I bought a pot for cooking za sui - so I'll savour your liver, entrails, and lungs."

During his exile in the United States, Liang Qichao, a Guangdong native, wrote in 1903 that there existed in the United States a food item called chop suey which was popularly served by Chinese restaurateurs, but which local Chinese people did not eat. The term "za sui" (杂碎) is found in newer Chinese-English dictionaries with both meanings listed - cooked entrails, and chop suey in the Western sense.

This dual meaning has meant that some Chinese restaurants in English-speaking countries label mixed entrails as "chop suey" on their English menus.

Varieties: Chop suey may be prepared in a variety of styles, such as chicken, beef, pork, king prawn, plain and special. Plain, or vegetable chop suey, is often one of the few traditional Chinese American take-out dishes offered without meat at many restaurants. Chop suey can also be translated as "left overs".

 

 

Dim Sum

Dim sum (literally meaning "touch the heart") is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day. Dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. Yum cha (literally "tea drinking") is the term used to describe the dining session, especially in contemporary Cantonese. Chinese families in particular typically like to gather at Chinese restaurants for dim sum on special occasions such as Mother’s Day or Chinese New Year.

History: Travellers on the ancient Silk Road needed a place to take a nap, so teahouses were established along the roadside. Rural farmers, exhausted after working hard in the fields, would also go to teahouses for a relaxing afternoon of tea. At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacks and the tradition of dim sum evolved.

In Hong Kong, and most cities and towns in Guangdong province, many Chinese restaurants start serving as early as five in the morning. It is a tradition for the elderly to gather to eat dim sum after morning exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers. For many southerners in China, yum cha is treated as a weekend family day. Consistent with this tradition, dim sum restaurants typically only serve dim sum until the afternoon (right around the time of a traditional Western 3 o'clock coffee break); other kinds of Cantonese cuisine are served in the evening. Nowadays, various dim sum items are sold as take-out for students and office workers on the go.

Drinking Tea: The drinking of tea is as important to dim sum as the food. A popular tea which is said to aid in digestion is bolay (pu erh), which is a strong, fermented tea. Chrysanthemum, oolong and green tea can be served as well.

It is customary to pour tea for others during dim sum before filling one's own cup. A custom unique to the Cantonese is to thank the person pouring the tea by tapping the bent index and middle fingers together on the table, which symbolises 'bowing' to them.

This is said to be analogous to the ritual of bowing to someone in appreciation. The origin of this gesture is described anecdotally: an unidentified Emperor went to yum cha with his friends, outside the palace; not wanting to attract attention to himself, the Emperor was disguised. While at yum cha, the Emperor poured his companion some tea, which was a great honour. The companion, not wanting to give away the Emperor's identity in public by bowing, instead tapped his index and middle finger on the table as sign of appreciation.

Cuisine: Traditional dim sum includes various types of steamed buns such as cha siu baau, dumplings and rice noodle rolls (cheong fun), which contain a range of ingredients, including beef, chicken, pork, prawns and vegetarian options. Many dim sum restaurants also offer plates of steamed green vegetables, roasted meats, congee porridge and other soups. Dessert dim sum is also available and many places offer the customary egg tart. Having a meal in a Chinese teahouse or a dim sum restaurant is known as yum cha (飲茶), literally "drinking tea", as tea is typically served with dim sum.

Dim sum can be cooked by steaming and frying, among other methods. The serving sizes are usually small and normally served as three or four pieces in one dish. It is customary to order family style, sharing dishes among all members of the dining party. Because of the small portions, people can try a wide variety of food.

Dim sum dishes can be ordered from a menu or sometimes the food is wheeled around on a trolley by servers. Traditionally, the cost of the meal is calculated based on the number, size, and sometimes color of the dishes left on the patron's table (more below). Some modern dim sum restaurants record the dishes on a bill at the table. Not only is this tidier, it also prevents patrons from cheating by concealing or stealing the plates. Servers in some restaurants use distinct stamps so that sales statistics for each server can be recorded.

Dishes:

Sweets:

• Egg tart (蛋撻 dan tat): composed of a base made from either a flaky puff pastry type dough or a type of non-flaky cookie dough with an egg custard filling, which is then baked. Some high class restaurants put bird's nest on top of the custard. In other places egg tarts can be made of a crust and a filling of egg whites and some where it is a crust with egg yolks. Some egg tarts now have flavors such as taro, coffee, and other flavors. There are also different kinds of crust. There is also a flaky crisp outer crust with layers and layers of crunchy crumbs.
• Jin deui or Matuan (煎堆 or 麻糰): Especially popular at Chinese New Year, a chewy dough filled with red bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and deep fried.
• Dou fu fa (豆腐花): A dessert consisting of silky tofu served with a sweet ginger-flavored syrup.
• Mango pudding (芒果布甸 mong guo bo din): A sweet, rich mango-flavoured pudding usually with large chunks of fresh mango; often served with a topping of evaporated milk.
• Sweet cream buns (奶皇包 naai5 wong4 baau1): Steamed buns with milk custard filling.
• Malay Steamed Sponge Cake (馬拉糕 ma5 lai1 gou1): A very soft steamed sponge cake flavoured with molasses.
• Longan Tofu: almond-flavoured tofu served with longans, usually cold.

 

Dim Sum : A Pocket Guide by Kit Shan Li

 

 

 

 

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Notable Cantonese People

 

Bruce Lee

Bruce Jun Fan Lee (李振藩; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do combat form. He was widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the twentieth century and a cultural icon.

His father, Lee Hoi-Chuen (李海泉), was Chinese, and his Catholic mother, Grace (何愛瑜), was of German and Chinese ancestry. Lee Hoi-Chuen was a Hong Kong Cantonese opera singer with the Cantonese Opera Company and film actor.

 

Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan is an actor, action choreographer, film director, producer, martial artist, comedian, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer from Hong Kong.

Chan is one of the best-known names worldwide in the areas of kung fu and action films. In his films, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts.