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Shanghai

 

 

Southern "Han"

 

 

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SHANGHAINESE

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Shanghaier people (上海人) refers to the people who are from Shanghai, China, who can speak Shanghainese, the dialect. With the prosperity of Shanghai, more and more migrants have been moving to Shanghai for school and work which also creates "New Shanghaier". "New Shanghaier" are also contributing to the development of Shanghai. There is also a significant minority of Shanghainese people living in Sydney, Australia particularly in the suburbs of Ashfield and Burwood. As well as that, many Shanghainese have moved to New York City and settled in various suburbs. In Hong Kong a lot of rich people are from Shanghai origin. They or their ancestors fled from the communists in 1949 with all their belongings and money. A lot of TVB actors are originally from Shanghai. Such as Tracy Ip, Niki Chow as Natalie Tong.

Most registered Shanghainese residents are descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, regions that generally also speak Wu Chinese. The many migrants coming to Shanghai from inland China have raised tensions in the past decade, often they do not speak the local dialect and therefore use Mandarin as a lingua franca. Rising crime rates, littering, harassive panhandling, and an overloading of the basic infrastructure (mainly public transportation and public schools) associated with the rise of these migrant populations (over 3 million new migrants in 2003 alone) have been generating some ill will from the Shanghainese. Efforts have been made by the local Shanghai municipal government to provide adequate welfare for the migrant populations in Shanghai, while also being cautious not to further increase the burdens of the native-born population

 

Jiujiang Road, Shanghai, late 1920s

 

Shanghainese people in Hong Kong have played an important role in Hong Kong since 1949. Following the Communist rule in China, many Chinese businessmen from Shanghai fled to Hong Kong. Some brought their business to Hong Kong and helped shaped the business power of the territory. A few prominent business people and actors are from Shanghai. Former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee-hwa hails from Shanghai, as was for Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan and former Chief Justice Yang Ti-liang.

 

 

上海人

從上海簡短的城市歷史來看，而現代上海人的概念存在時間僅百年左右。上海人通常講上海話，上海話屬於江南吳語的一種。由於現代上海地區的三分之二是最近的兩千年才逐漸成陸，而其餘早先成陸的地區也飽受海侵與洪水，幾度荒無人煙，所以如今上海的居民追根搠源，基本上都是不同時期的移民，其中絕大部分是來自於鄰近的江南地區。

來源與形成: 上海地區的上古居民是吳越人的一支。吳越人是周朝以來分佈在長江以南吳國（今江蘇、江西）和越國（今浙江、福建、廣東）等地的一個族群，西周時期太伯奔吳建立吳國，後又先後被越國、楚國征服，楚國時為春申君的封地，因而上海又簡稱「申」。在晉朝的衣冠南渡、兩宋之間等時期，都曾有中原人大規模移民江南。在南宋時，設立了上海鎮，元朝時設立了上海縣，近代以來逐漸成為一個大都市。

廣義上，在上海市的行政區域內定居或出生的人都稱為上海人。但是實際上，市區和郊縣的情況存在著一些區別。上海因第一次鴉片戰爭開埠形成重要的國際性都市，繼而從江蘇省分離出來，最後設立一級行政區（直轄市）的這段歷史只有一百多年。今天上海市的各郊區縣都是在中華人民共和國成立後的1950年代開始，才逐漸從江蘇省劃歸上海市的。

根據這一區別，上海人可以分別討論。一是市區上海人，即原來的城市戶口民眾，一是郊區上海人，即主要是原來的農村戶口民眾。市區上海人主要是由過去的移民形成的，人口成分變動大。郊區的上海人則基本是原本隸屬於江蘇的太倉州人或松江府人，人口變動較小。

在上海郊區，通常稱上海市區為上海。因此，可以將狹義的「上海人」定義為市區上海人。

優秀的上海人: 上海開埠後，各地的精英移民來到上海。上海有「冒險家樂園」之稱，很多近代的上海名人並不出生於上海，如魯迅（紹興）、周璇（常州），但上海以海納百川的氣度，吸引這些新移民新移民和上海本地居民共同成就了上海的都市輝煌。 全球智商調查表明上海人平均智商109，低於世界第一的猶太人110[來源:世界各地人的智商 ——英國曼薩協會05年公布]。在體育方面，上海人也取得了突出的成績，如田徑的劉翔。NBA球員姚明等。

本地人: 上海人中所說的「本地人」，是指在1843年上海開埠以前，就已經定居上海地區的原住居民。 有意思的是，由於口音有不同、居住地偏僻、經濟地位較低等原因，歷史上最早到達上海的「本地人」，反而常常不被認同為是標準的「上海人」，而常被市區上海人以「本地人」一詞明確區分。這個概念類似於「土著人」，或者台灣的「原住民」或者美國的「印第安人」。

老移民: 上海開埠後，移民的數量遠遠超過世居於此的本地人，他們來自於中國各地，但是其中來自江蘇、浙江兩省者佔到80%以上，佔據絕對優勢。這些移民大致上又可以分為兩大部分：一部分來自浙江省和江蘇南部的吳語區，其中一般又按照清代府屬細分為寧波人、紹興人、蘇州人等，他們構成了上海市中心城區居民的主體，其中尤以寧波籍為最多；另一部分來自江蘇北部的江淮官話區，被前者稱為江北人，傳統上大多聚居於市區北部的閘北、楊浦、普陀等區。來自以上各地區的移民數量均為數甚多，各自約在數十萬至百萬人以上不等。總體而言，來自吳語區移民經濟社會地位高於江淮官話區移民，傳統上優越感較強，後者常感受到歧視。

來自其他各省的移民數量相對較少，其中較為重要者系來自廣東省的移民，人數約有數萬。

上海大規模的移民最初源於太平天國戰爭時期。1860年代初太平軍大規模進攻蘇杭地區，造成大批難民躲入有外國勢力保護的租界，直接造就了租界的繁榮，並為日後源源不斷地吸引移民奠定了基礎。

中華人民共和國成立以後直到1990年前後的數十年間，上海市的人口遷出量甚大，而流入量大為減少，現代上海人的群體逐漸穩定下來。今日上海市中心城區居住的大都是這些移民。

新移民: 自中華人民共和國進行改革開放，特別是1990年代上海開發浦東以來，中國乃至世界各地的新移民紛紛來到上海工作、生活。他（她）們中定居下來的被稱為「新上海人」。對新上海人而言，老移民無疑可以歸入本地人的行列了。但有些老移民認為：只有真正受過上海文化熏陶，講上海話，擁有上海人精神的才算的上上海人。 一些老移民攻擊新移民中有很多低素質外地人不僅破壞上海環境，以廉價勞力爭奪上海人崗位，行為舉止不文明，穿著骯髒土氣不得體。而一些新移民認為這是上海人對他們的歧視。雙方在網路和現實生活中出現一些互相攻擊的現象。

新老移民的衝突，基本存在於民間，在網路較為激烈。這種衝突一般被官方媒體刻意忽視淡化。

比較著名的衝突地點，如上海本地論壇「寬頻山」中，以「硬碟」或「yp」作為外地人的貶稱（因關於外地人的討論被論壇屏蔽，而「西部數據」這個硬碟廠商的縮寫和外地人拼音首字母相同）。

媒體上公開的衝突事件：「圓潤離開事件」——2009年12月23日，上海電台動感101《音樂早餐》主持人曉君用上海方言聊天，收到一位聲稱「討厭上海話和上海人」的聽眾的攻擊簡訊後，在直播節目中直接做出回應——「請你以一種，團成一個團的姿勢，然後，慢慢地比較圓潤的方式，離開這座讓你討厭的城市，或者離開你討厭的人的周圍。」 這個委婉說「滾」事件引發了廣泛的社會爭議。

移居外地的上海人: 1937年中日戰爭爆發後，有不少上海人隨政府西遷重慶等地，或移居香港。抗戰初期，從上海內遷的工廠多達152家。這些移民在戰後絕大多數又返回上海。

1949年，有眾多的上海人離開大陸，移居香港、台灣或美國等地。許多在美國的上海人住在紐約附近，而上海人最初移居香港則以北角較集中，當時北角稱為「小上海」。

1949年以後，也有大批上海人陸續隨工廠內遷。

1980年代以後，又有不少上海人移居海外。在澳洲的上海人有不少住在雪梨附近的艾士菲（Ashfield）和寶活市（Burwood），艾士菲的利物浦街兩旁有許多上海人開的店鋪，被當地華人稱為「小上海」。

 

 

Most registered Shanghainese residents are descendants of immigrants from the two adjacent provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang who moved to Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Jiangsu

 

Zhejiang

.

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Shanghai Dialect

Shanghainese (上海話) is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai, and the surrounding region. It is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese dialects such as Standard Mandarin, or even other subbranches of the Wu language group.

Shanghainese is the representative dialect of Northern Wu; it contains vocabulary and expressions from the entire Northern Wu area (southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang). With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single coherent form of Wu Chinese. In Western sources, the term "Shanghainese" often refers to all Wu dialects and not specifically the particular Wu dialect spoken in Shanghai. The total number of Wu speakers is over 80 million, the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin.

Shanghainese is rich in consonants and pure vowels. Like other northern Wu dialects, the Shanghai dialect has voiced initials(although technically these are slack voiced, adding a slightly breathy quality to a following vowel). Neither Mandarin nor Cantonese has voiced initials. The Shanghainese tonal system is significantly different from other Chinese languages. Shanghainese is a language with two live tonal contrasts (high and low), while Mandarin and Cantonese are contour tonal languages.

Intelligibility and Variations: Shanghainese is not mutually intelligible with any dialect of Mandarin. It is around 50% intelligible (with 28.9% lexical similarity with the Mandarin heard in Beijing) with standard Mandarin. This roughly corresponds to the lexical similarity between German and French.

Shanghainese is part of the larger Wu subgroup of Chinese. It is similar, to a certain degree, to the language heard in neighbouring Kunshan, Suzhou, and Ningbo. People mingling between these areas do not need to code-switch to Mandarin when they speak to each other. However, there are noticeable tonal and phonological changes which do not impede intelligibility. As the dialect continuum of Wu continues to further distances, however, significant changes occur in phonology and lexicon to the point where it is no longer possible to converse intelligibly. The majority of Shanghainese speakers find that by Wuxi, differences become significant and the Wuxi dialect would take weeks to months for a Shanghainese speaker to fully "pick up". Similarly, Hangzhou dialect is understood by most Shanghainese speakers, but it is considered "rougher" and does not have as much flow in comparison. The language evolved in and around Taizhou, Zhejiang, by which point it becomes difficult for a Shanghainese speaker to comprehend. Wenzhou dialect, spoken in southern Zhejiang province, although considered part of the Wu subgroup of languages, is not at all intelligible with Shanghainese.

 

 

Wu Language

Map of Wu-speaking Region

Wú (吳方言; also吳語) is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language. It is spoken in most of Zhejiang province, the municipality of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province, as well as smaller parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian provinces. Major Wu dialects include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Yongkang, and Quzhou. The traditional prestige dialect of Wu is the Suzhou dialect, though due to its large population, the Shanghai dialect is today sometimes considered the prestige dialect.

As of 1991, there are at least 77 million speakers of Wu Chinese, making it the second most populous Chinese language after Mandarin, which has 800 million speakers, and the 10th most populous language in the world.

Among speakers of other Chinese languages, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is even a special term used to describe these qualities of Wu speech (吳儂軟語). The actual source of this impression is harder to place. It is likely a combination of many factors. Among speakers of Wu, for example, Shanghainese is considered softer and mellower than the variant spoken in Ningbo, although some Wu speakers still insist that old standard Suzhou dialect is more pleasant and beautiful than the dialects of Shanghai and Ningbo.

Like other varieties of Chinese, there is debate as to whether Wu is a language or a dialect. By the standard of mutual intelligibility, Wu is a separate language; however, socially it is considered to be a regional form of the Chinese language. See Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute. In terms of written communication, there is a great but not complete degree of mutual intelligibility between Wu and Mandarin within the People's Republic of China.

History of the Wu Language: The modern Wu language can be traced back to the ancient Wu and Yue peoples centred around what is now southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The Japanese Go-on pronunciation of Chinese characters (obtained from the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period) is from the same region of China where Wu is spoken today.

"Go-on" (呉音) are one of the different readings of Japanese kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan prior to the importation (by the Kenzuishi envoy to the Sui dynasty and monks studying abroad) of "kan-on" (漢音, lit. "Han sound") readings from Chang'an during the Nara period. Like kan-on readings, they are said to display the characteristics of Middle Chinese.

Introduced to Japan during the 5th and 6th centuries, when China was divided into separate Northern and Southern Dynasties, it is thought that go-on readings were imported either directly from the Southern dynasty, or through the Korean peninsula. This explanation is based mainly on historical reasoning: there was an influx of other foreign thought from China and Korea to Japan at that time, including both Buddhist and Confucianist thought.

Go-on readings are used particularly often in Buddhist terms and legal terms, especially those of the Nara and Heian periods. When kan-on readings were introduced to Japan, their go-on equivalents did not disappear, and even today, go-on and kan-on readings continue to be used together. Go-on readings were also used for the Chinese characters of the ancient Japanese syllabary used in the Kojiki.

Like most other branches of Chinese, Wu descends from Middle Chinese. Although Wu represents the earliest split from the rest of these branches, and thus keeps many ancient characteristics, it was influenced by northern Chinese (Mandarin) throughout its development. This was due to its geographical closeness to north China and also to the high rate of education in this region. During the time between Ming Dynasty and early Republican era, the main characteristics of modern Wu were formed. The Suzhou dialect became the most influential, and many dialectologists use it in citing examples of Wu.

After the Taiping Revolution at the end of Qing dynasty, in which the Wu-speaking region was devasated by war, Shanghai was inundated with migrants from other parts of the Wu-speaking. This greately affected the dialect of Shanghai, bringing, for example, influence from the Ningbo dialect to a dialect which, at least within the walled city of Shanghai, was almost identical to the Suzhou dialect. As a result of the population boom, in the first half of the 20th century, Shanghainese became almost a regional lingua franca within the region, to some extent eclipsing the status of the Suzhou dialect.

After the founding of People's Republic of China, the strong promotion of Mandarin in the Wu-speaking region influenced the development of the language. Wu was gradually excluded from most modern media and schools. Public organisations are required to use Mandarin. With the influx of a migrant non Wu-speaking population and the near total conversion of public media and organizations to exclusive use of Mandarin, as well as the radical Mandarin promotion measures, the development of the Wu dialects was greatly hampered. It became common in the region to encounter children who grew up with Mandarin as their mother tongue, with little or no fluency in Wu at all.

Many people have noticed this trend and thus call for the protection of this language. More and more TV programs in Wu appear although they are mostly comedies rather than formal programs.

Roughly speaking, modern Wu is a leftover of the Chinese dialects – see language tree starting from 1500 BC with Wu's position relative to other dialects.

 

Zhou -- Chu (楚國) -- Wu (吳國) -- Wu -- Wu -- Wu --Wu -- Wu (Shanghai)

Zhou -- Chu -- Wu -- Wu -- Wu -- Wu -- Hui -- Hui (Anjui)

 

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* The Genetic Characteristic of HLA-DRB1 Locus in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han Population and a Comparison of Its Frequency Distribution With that of Other Populations by M. L. Feng, et al.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the genetic polymorphism of HLA-DRB1 locus in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population and analyze the characteristic of the allele frequency distribution in comparison with that of other populations. METHODS: The technique of polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) and reverse polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific oligonucleotide probe (PCR-SSOP) was adopted in genotyping a sample of 626 unrelated healthy individuals collected from a Chinese Han population in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area. HLA-DRB1*0101-1001, DRB3, DRB4 and DRB5 were detected. The allele frequency of HLA-DRB1 was calculated, and the allele frequency distribution of HLA-DRB1 in this population was compared with the results from other populations. RESULTS: HLA-DRB1*0101, 0301, 0701, 09012, 1001, 1201, 1202, 1301/02, 1303/04, 1401/04/05, 1402/03/1305, 1501/02, 16021 and 04xx, 08xx were detected in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population. The common HLA-DRB1*allele included 09012(17.97%), 04xx(12.53%), 1202(11.42%) and 1501/02(11.02%). The polymorphism information content is 0.9024, and expected heterozygosity is 0.9634 in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population. CONCLUSION: The HLA-DRB1 distribution of Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population shares some genetic characteristic with other Han populations, but it exhibits its own characteristic, suggesting the intermediate state of this population between the southern and northern Han populations. The polymorphism of HLA-DRB1 of Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population is the most abundant one in this study.

 

 

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

Abstract: To characterize the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in Han Chinese from several provinces of China, we have sequenced the two hypervariable segments of the control region and the segment spanning nucleotide positions 10171–10659 of the coding region, and we have identified a number of specific coding-region mutations by direct sequencing or restriction-fragment–length–polymorphism tests. This allows us to define new haplogroups (clades of the mtDNA phylogeny) and to dissect the Han mtDNA pool on a phylogenetic basis, which is a prerequisite for any fine-grained phylogeographic analysis, the interpretation of ancient mtDNA, or future complete mtDNA sequencing efforts. Some of the haplogroups under study differ considerably in frequencies across different provinces. The southernmost provinces show more pronounced contrasts in their regional Han mtDNA pools than the central and northern provinces. These and other features of the geographical distribution of the mtDNA haplogroups observed in the Han Chinese make an initial Paleolithic colonization from south to north plausible but would suggest subsequent migration events in China that mainly proceeded from north to south and east to west. Lumping together all regional Han mtDNA pools into one fictive general mtDNA pool or choosing one or two regional Han populations to represent all Han Chinese is inappropriate for prehistoric considerations as well as for forensic purposes or medical disease studies.

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

(Taiwan-2 clusters with Xinjiang, Shanghai and Wuhan)

 

 

Xinjiang or "Ice Jecen" in Manchu, literally means "New Frontier", a name given during the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. It is home to several distinct ethnic groups of various religious traditions, however, the majority of the region's total population are adherents of Islam. Among ethnic groups who are of the Muslim faith, most notable are Muslim Turkic peoples including the Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Salars, and the Kazakhs; there are also Muslim Iranian peoples including Tajiks and the Sarikolis/Wakhis (often conflated as Tajiks); and Muslim Sino-Tibetan peoples such as the Hui. Other PRC ethnic groups in the region include Han Chinese, Mongols, Russians, Xibes, and Manchus.

According to JP Mallory, the Chinese sources describe the existence of "white people with long hair" or the Bai people in the Shan Hai Jing, who lived beyond their northwestern border.

The very well preserved Tarim mummies with Caucasoid features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the Ürümqi Museum and dated to the 3rd century BC, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. Various nomadic tribes, such as the Yuezhi were part of the large migration of Indo-European speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia (possibly as far as Gansu) at that time. The Ordos culture situated at northern China east of the Yuezhi, are another example.

Nomadic cultures such as the Yuezhi are documented in the area of Xinjiang where the first known reference to the Yuezhi was made in 645 BC by the Chinese Guan Zhong in his Guanzi 管子(Guanzi Essays: 73: 78: 80: 81) . He described the Yuzhi 禺氏, or Niuzhi 牛氏, as a people from the north-west who supplied jade to the Chinese from the nearby mountains of Yuzhi 禺氏 at Gansu. The supply of jade from the Tarim Basin from ancient times is indeed well documented archaeologically: "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from Khotan in modern Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BC the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." (Liu (2001), pp. 267-268).

The nomadic tribes of the Yuezhi are also documented in detail in Chinese historical accounts, in particular the 2nd-1st century BC "Records of the Great Historian", or Shiji, by Sima Qian, which state that they "were flourishing" but regularly in conflict with the neighbouring tribe of the Xiongnu to the northeast. According to these accounts:

The Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the Qilian or Heavenly Mountains (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang, but after they were defeated by the Xiongnu they moved far away to the west, beyond Dayuan, where they attacked and conquered the people of Daxia (Bactria) and set up the court of their king on the northern bank of the Gui [= Oxus] River. A small number of their people who were unable to make the journey west sought refuge among the Qiang (羌族; an old, once strong and populous people whose offspring include the Tibetans and many minorities in southwestern China) barbarians in the Southern Mountains, where they are known as the Lesser Yuezhi.

The Qiang people (羌族) are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 200,000 living in northwestern Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the population, but they are commonly believed to be an old, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced to the Shang Dynasty and whose offspring include the modern Tibetans, some portion of the Han Chinese and many minority ethnic groups in southwestern China.

In ancient China, Qiang was usually used as a generic term for the non-Huaxia peoples in the northwest. These peoples were frequently at war with the inhabitants of the Yellow River valley, the ancestors of ethnic Hans. Not until the rise of the state of Qin under Duke Mu was the Qiang expansion effectively checked.

The structure of the graph 羌 also reflects this view. It was composed of two elements: 人 (man) and 羊 (sheep), suggesting a sheep-herding people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and Wei-Jin periods (221-419), Qiang were widely distributed along the mountainous fringes of the northern and eastern Tibetan Plateau, from the Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山) in Xinjiang province, and eastern Qinghai area, to southern Gansu, western Sichuan, and northern Yunnan.

Later, the Chinese restricted the term Qiang min 羌民 (Qiang people registered with the Chinese government) to refer to sinicized non-Han living in the Min River valley in Sichuan and used the term Fan Qiang 番羌 (barbarian Qiang) to refer to less sinicized non-Han tribes living in the vicinity.

From the linguistic point of view, all modern Qiang people speak one of two Qiang languages, which are members of the Qiangic sub-family of Tibeto-Burman. However, dialects are so different that communication between different Qiang groups is often in Chinese. Lacking a script of their own, the Qiangs also use Chinese characters.

At the legendary time when the Qiang people moved into Sichuan from Tibet, they placed white stones on every hilltop and crossroads , for they did not want to forget the route leading back to their original homeland. These piles of white stones also acts as a token of their affection for their homeland and the people they left behind at the same time.

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* HLA-DR and -DQ Genotyping by PCR-SSO in Shanghai Chinese by Fu Qing Wang, et al.

Abstract: This study is to investigate HLA haplotypes in Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population based on 166 families by serological and molecular biological HLA typing methods and to analyze the distribution characteristic of HLA haplotypes. The results showed that allele frequencies of more than 10% for HLA antigens were A2, A11, A24, B13, B46, B60, DRB1 *04, DRB1 *08, DRB1* 09, DRB1 * 12 and DRB1 * 15. In the analysis of HLA haplotypes, 128 kinds of A-B haplotypes and 182 kinds of B-DRB1 haplotypes were found, comprising 19.28% (128/664) and 27.41%(182/664) of total theoretical haplotypes, respectively. 18 kinds of A-B haplotypes and 23 kinds of B-DRB1 haplotypes occurred at frequencies of more than 0.5% (linkage disequilibrium value, delta > 0) .351 kinds of A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were found, comprising 52.86% (351/664) of total theoretical haplotypes, and 8 kinds of A-B-DRB1 haplotypes occurred at frequencies of more than 0.5% (delta > 0). The common A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were A30-B13-DRB1 * 07 (4.22%), A2-B46-DRB1 * 09 (3.77%), A33-B58-DRB1 * 17 (3.01%), A33-B58-DRB1 * 13.1 (1.81%) and A11-B75-DRB1 * 12 (1.51%). The HLA haplotype distribution of Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Han population has its own genetic characteristics, so it suggests this population is between southern and northern Han population. The HLA polymorphism of Chinese Han population is more abundant in East Asian populations.

 

 

A2-Cw11(1)-B46

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-B*4601 Abundance

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

 

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

 

 

A33-Cw7-B58-DR13-DQ6

Within eastern Asia A*3303 is in linkage dissiquilbrium with on haplotype in particular, the specific genetic makeup is:

A*3303 : C*0701 : B*5801 : DRB1*1302 : DQA1*0102 : DQB1*0609

This haplotype is composed of genes most frequent in parts of western Africa. This includes the A*3303, B*5801, DRB1*1302, and DQB1*0609. The DRB1*0609 haplotype in nodal in east/central Africa in the Ugandan, Rwanda, Congo, Cameroon whereas the allele is at low frequencies in Western Europe, and its distribution is also consistent with a migration from east Africa direct to the Lower Indus River.

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.

 

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
Inner Mongolian	2.2
Miao	2.1
Oman	1.6
Sindhi (Pakistan)	1.5
Manchu	1.2

 

 

History of Domestication and Cultivation of Rice

Based on one chloroplast and two nuclear gene regions, Londo et al. (2006) conclude that Oryza sativa rice was domesticated at least twice—indica in eastern India, Myanmar and Thailand; and japonica in southern China—though they concede that there is archaeological and genetic evidence for a single domestication of rice in the lowlands of China.

Because the functional allele for non-shattering—the critical indicator of domestication in grains—as well as five other single nucleotide polymorphisms, is identical in both indica and japonica, Vaughan et al. (2008) determined that there was a single domestication event for Oryza sativa in the region of the Yangtze river valley.

Yangtze River

Continental East Asia: Rice appears to have been used by the Early Neolithic populations of Lijiacun and Yunchanyan. Evidence of possible rice cultivation in China from ca. 11,500 BP has been found, however it is still questioned whether the rice was indeed being cultivated, or instead being gathered as wild rice. Bruce Smith, an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who has written on the origins of agriculture, says that evidence has been mounting that the Yangtze was probably the site of the earliest rice cultivation.

Zhao (1998) argues that collection of wild rice in the Late Pleistocene had, by 6400 BC, led to the use of primarily domesticated rice. Morphological studies of rice phytoliths from the Diaotonghuan archaeological site clearly show the transition from the collection of wild rice to the cultivation of domesticated rice. The large number of wild rice phytoliths at the Diaotonghuan level dating from 12,000-11,000 BP indicates that wild rice collection was part of the local means of subsistence. Changes in the morphology of Diaotonghuan phytoliths dating from 10,000-8,000 BP show that rice had by this time been domesticated. Analysis of Chinese rice residues from Pengtoushan (彭頭山文化) which were C14 (carbon dating) dated to 8200-7800 BC show that rice had been domesticated by this time.

In 1998, Crawford & Shen reported that the earliest of 14 AMS or radiocarbon dates on rice from at least nine Early to Middle Neolithic sides is no older than 7000 BC, that rice from the Hemudu (河姆渡文化) and Luojiajiao sites indicates that rice domestication likely began before 5000 BC, but that most sites in China from which rice remains have been recovered are younger than 5000 BC.

Map of the Ganges River

South Asia: Wild Oryza rice appeared in the Belan and Ganges valley regions of northern India as early as 4530 BC and 5440 BC respectively, although many believe it may have appeared earlier.

Denis J. Murphy (2007) further details the spread of cultivated rice from India into South-east Asia:

Several wild cereals, including rice, grew in the Vindhyan Hills, and rice cultivation, at sites such as Chopani-Mando and Mahagara, may have been underway as early as 7000 BP. The relative isolation of this area and the early development of rice farming imply that it was developed indigenously.

Chopani-Mando and Mahagara are located on the upper reaches of the Ganges drainage system and it is likely that migrants from this area spread rice farming down the Ganges valley into the fertile plains of Bengal, and beyond into south-east Asia.

Rice was cultivated in the Indus Valley Civilization. Agricultural activity during the second millennium BC included rice cultivation in the Kashmir and Harrappan regions. Mixed farming was the basis of Indus valley economy.

Punjab is the largest producer and consumer of rice in India.

Korean Peninsula and Japanese Archipelago: Mainstream archaeological evidence derived from palaeoethnobotanical investigations indicate that dry-land rice was introduced to Korea and Japan some time between 3500 and 1200 BC. The cultivation of rice in Korea and Japan during that time occurred on a small-scale, fields were impermanent plots, and evidence shows that in some cases domesticated and wild grains were planted together. The technological, subsistence, and social impact of rice and grain cultivation is not evident in archaeological data until after 1500 BC. For example, intensive wet-paddy rice agriculture was introduced into Korea shortly before or during the Middle Mumun Pottery Period (c. 850–550 BC) and reached Japan by the Final Jōmon or Initial Yayoi circa 300 BC.

In 2003, Korean archaeologists alleged that they discovered burnt grains of domesticated rice in Soro-ri, Korea, which dated to 13,000 BC. These predate the oldest grains in China, which were dated to 10,000 BC, and potentially challenge the mainstream explanation that domesticated rice originated in China. The findings were received by academia with strong skepticism, and the results and their publicizing has been cited as being driven by a combination of nationalist and regional interests.

Southeast Asia: Rice is the staple for all classes in contemporary South East Asia, from Myanmar to Indonesia. In Indonesia, evidence of wild Oryza rice on the island of Sulawesi dates from 3000 BC. The evidence for the earliest cultivation, however, comes from eighth century stone inscriptions from Java, which show kings levied taxes in rice. Divisions of labor between men, women, and animals that are still in place in Indonesian rice cultivation, can be seen carved into the ninth-century Prambanan temples in Central Java. In the sixteenth century, Europeans visiting the Indonesian islands saw rice as a new prestige food served to the aristocracy during ceremonies and feasts. Rice production in Indonesian history is linked to the development of iron tools and the domestication of water buffalo for cultivation of fields and manure for fertilizer. Once covered in dense forest, much of the Indonesian landscape has been gradually cleared for permanent fields and settlements as rice cultivation developed over the last fifteen hundred years

In the Philippines, the greatest evidence of rice cultivation since ancient times can be found in the Cordillera Mountain Range of Luzon in the provinces of Apayao, Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao. The Banaue Rice Terraces (Tagalog: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banaue) are 2,000 to 3,000-year old terraces that were carved into the mountains by ancestors of the Batad indigenous people. It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1,500 meters (5000 ft) above sea level and cover 10,360 square kilometers (about 4,000 square miles) of mountainside. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces. It is said that if the steps are put end to end it would encircle half the globe. The Rice Terraces (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) are commonly referred to by Filipinos as the "Eighth Wonder of the World".

Evidence of wet rice cultivation as early as 2200 BC has been discovered at both Ban Chiang and Ban Prasat in Thailand.

Ban Chiang pottery

Ban Chiang (Thai: แหล่งโบราณคดีบ้านเชียง) is an archeological site located in Nong Han district, Udon Thani Province, Thailand. It has been on the UNESCO world heritage list since 1992.

During the first formal scientific excavation in 1967, several skeletons, together with bronze grave gifts, were unearthed. Rice fragments have also been found, leading to the belief that the Bronze Age settlers were probably farmers. The site's oldest graves do not include bronze artifacts and are therefore from a Neolithic culture; the most recent graves date to the Iron Age.

The first datings of the artifacts using the thermoluminescence technique resulted in a range from 4420 BC to 3400 BC, which would have made the site the earliest Bronze Age culture in the world. However, with the 1974/75 excavation, sufficient material became available for radiocarbon dating, which resulted in more recent dates—the earliest grave was about 2100 BC, the latest about AD 200. Bronze making began circa 2000 BC, as evidenced by crucibles and bronze fragments. Bronze objects include bracelets, rings, anklets, wires and rods, spearheads, axes and adzes, hooks, blades, and little bells.

* Specialised Vocabularies, Genes and Homelands: The new linguistic palaeontology by George van Driem

 

First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies by Peter Bellwood

 

 

 

 

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* 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-A1

HLA-A1 (A1) is a human leukocyte antigen serotype within HLA-A "A" serotype group. This group currently is dominated by A*0101. A1 and A*01 are almost synonymous in meaning. A1 is more common in Europe than elsewhere, it is part of a long haplotype that appears to have been frequent in the ancient peoples of Northwestern Europe. A1 is a frequent component of the AH8.1 haplotype.

A1 serotype positivity is roughly linked to a large number of inflammatory diseases and conditions believed to have immune system involvement. Because of its linkage within the AH8.1 haplotype many studies showed association with A1 or A1, B8 only later to show the association drift toward the class II region gene alleles, DR3 and DQ2.5. While it is not clear what role A1 has in infectious disease, some linkage with infection rates in HIV remain associated within the A1 region of the haplotype.

A1-B Haplotypes

• A1-B8 Western Irish, N. Irish, Scottish, Wales, NW England, Scandinavia, Yugoslavia, Russia,....
• A1-B7 Armenia, Austria, NW Europe (regional recombinant between A1-B8 and A2/A3-B7)
• A1-B13 Uralic
• A1-B35 (Albania, Belgium, Italy, Greece, France - Eastern mediterranian in origin)
• A1-B37 Yakuts, Tribal-India, Iyers-India, Mongolian, Indian, Orochon, Romanian, Yugoslavia, Korean, Albania, French, German, Manchu
• A1-B51 Yugoslavia, Germany, Iberia, Italy
• A1-B52 Bharghavas-India, Tribal-India, Italy, Iberia, France
• A1-B57
• A1-B58

 

HLA A*0101 Frequencies

Study population	Freq.  (%)
Ireland South	25.0
England Lancaster	21.5
Wales	21.1
Spain Basque Arratia Vall…	19.2
Scotland Orkney	17.0
Belgium	15.5
Italy North (1)	15.4
Israeli Jews	15.2
France South East	15.0
German Essen	14.4
Russia Arkhangelsk Pomors	14.0
Nador Metalsa (Berber)	13.7
Sweden Stockholm	13.6
Spain Basque Gipuzkoa Pro…	13.5
Pakistan Sindhi	13.3
Serbia	13.2
Portugal Centre	13.0
Czech Republic	12.7
India Andhra Pradesh Goll…	12.5
Israel Gaza Palestinians	12.4
India Mumbai Marathas	12.3
Tunisia	12.3
Romanian	12.2
Russia Northwest	11.9
Spain Eastern Andalusia	11.4
Macedonia (4)	11.3
Turkey (I)	10.9
Spain North Cantabrian	10.8
Greece North	10.0
Croatia	9.7
Finland	8.9
Saudi Arabia	8.7
Spain Catalonia Girona	8.6
Pakistan Karachi Parsi	8.3
Mongolia Khalkha	8.0
Jordan Amman	7.9
Spain North Cabuernigo	7.6
Bulgaria	7.3
Russia Chuvash	7.3
Oman	7.2
Singapore Javanese Indone…	7.0
Georgia Tibilisi Kurds	6.7
Georgia Tibilisi Georgian…	5.7
Georgia Svaneti Svans	5.6
China Qinghai Hui	5.5
Australian Aborigine Cape…	5.3
Russia Murmansk Saomi	4.0
Spain Pas Valley	3.8
Singapore Riau Malay	3.2
Russia Nenets	3.1
Thailand	2.8
India Jalpaiguri Toto	2.5
China Shanghai	2.4

 

 

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

 

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HLA-A69

HLA-A69 (A69) is a human leukocyte antigen serotype within HLA-A serotype group. This group currently is dominated by A*6901. A69 and A*69 are almost synonymous in meaning. A69 is a split antigen of the broad antigen serotype A28. A69 is a sister serotype of A68.

A69 is more common in Levant. A69 (A*6901) is a derivative of the A*6801 allele that has undergone gene conversion with A*02. The recombination took place no more than 330,000 years ago.

Levant

Distribution of A69 places nodal center in the Levant, but high levels in West Africa. The model of human genetic origin places first migrations from Eastern Africa. However in many east African populations the frequency of A69 is zero. A more consistent model of A69 distribution is either a subsequent migration from West Africa, supported by A36 and HLA DR3-DQ2. The higher levels in the Gaza Palestinians supports this hypothesis.

A69 may be associated with sarcoidosis.

 

HLA A*6901 Frequencies

Population	Freq (%)
Palestinian (Gaza)	4.8
Druse-Arab (Israel)	3.0
Bulgaria	1.8
Jew (Israel)	1.2
Tunis (Tunisia)	1.1
Bergamo (Italy)	1.1
N. Delhi (India)	1.1
Amman (Jordon)	1.0
Sardinia (Italy)	1.0
Central Portugal	1.0
Shanghai (China)	0.7
Girona (Catalon, Spain)	0.6
Baloch (Iran)	0.6
Greece	0.6
Czech	0.5
SE France	0.4
N. Greece	0.3
Romania	0.3
U. Arab Emerates	0.25

 

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Shanghaiing

The 19th century clipper ships in the China trade required a great deal of labor to operate.

The American term shanghaied refers to the practice of conscripting men as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence. Those engaged in this form of kidnapping were known as crimps. Until 1915 unfree labor was widely used aboard American merchant ships. The related term press gang refers specifically to impressment practices in Great Britain's Royal Navy.

Shanghaing predominantly took place in the Northwest United States

The verb "to shanghai" joined the lexicon with "crimping" and "sailor thieves" in the 1850s. The most widely accepted theory of the word's origin is that it comes from the Chinese city of Shanghai, a common destination of the ships with abducted crews. The term has since expanded to mean "kidnapped" or "induced to do something by means of fraud."

The Shanghai Tunnels, less commonly known as the Portland Underground, are a group of passages running underneath Old Town/Chinatown down to the central downtown section of Portland, Oregon, United States. The tunnels connected the basements of many downtown hotels and bars, to the waterfront of the Willamette River. They were built to move goods from the ships docked on the Willamette to the basement storage areas.

In 1990, Bill Naito was quoted in The Oregonian that the tunnels are underneath "Northwest Couch, Davis and Everett streets."

According to a popular legend, from the 1850s to the early 20th century, they were used to kidnap or "shanghai" unsuspecting laborers and sell them as slaves to waiting ships at the waterfront. According to folklore/oral history, as many as 1500 people per year were shanghaied out of Portland through the tunnels. Victims were drugged or knocked out, taken through one of the trap doors (or deadfalls), and held in a prison cell while they waited to be shipped off. According to the legend this is what earned Portland the reputation as the most dangerous port on the American West Coast, in the early 1900s, and gave it the nicknames "Unheavenly City" and "Forbidden City." Later, during Prohibition, the tunnels were inhabited by bars that literally went underground to sell alcohol.

Historians have stated that although the tunnels exist and the practice of "Shanghaiing" was sometimes practiced in Portland and elsewhere, there is no evidence that the tunnels were used for this (and no evidence for Portland being a center for this kind of practice).

Today tours of the tunnels are available through the local tourist vendors.

 

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Notable Shanghainese People

 

Wong Kar-wai

Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) is an award winning Hong Kong filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized films.

Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland and speaking only Mandarin and Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother.

He made his directing debut in 1988 with As Tears Go By, also produced by Alan Tang. A crime melodrama of the kind then hugely popular, it heavily borrowed from Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1974), but already displayed one of Wong's principal trademarks in its atmospheric and sometimes expressionistic color palette. It is his only box office hit to date.

His next film, Days of Being Wild (1991), produced by Alan Tang, a drama about aimless youth set in the early 1960s, established his trademark form: elliptically plotted mood pieces, with lush visuals and music, about the burden of memory on melancholy, misfit characters. Days was a box office failure but now regularly tops Hong Kong critics' polls of the best local films ever made. It has been described as a sort of Cantonese Rebel Without a Cause.

He also established his own independent production company, called Jet Tone Films Ltd. in English. His partner in the company is Jeffrey Lau, a director and producer who tends to work closer to the populist vein of mainstream Hong Kong film.

Wong went on to direct several more feature films in the 1990s produced by Jet Tone, which allowed him to work at his own pace. Among these were Chungking Express (1994), which follows the lives of two love-struck cops in Hong Kong and the mysterious women they meet and fall in love with. Originally intended to be a distraction piece for him to get his mind off of the heavily delayed Ashes of Time, it ended up being one of his most popular films, if not the most popular. Fallen Angels (1995), was originally intended to be the third act of Chungking Express, but when the tone didn't fit with the other two parts, he cut it out and made it a standalone movie instead; it is seen as a semi-sequel to Chungking Express as is a neo-noir film about on a disillusioned killer trying to overcome the affections of his partner, a strange drifter looking for her ex-boyfriend, and a mute trying to get the world's attention in his own ways, all set against a sordid and surreal urban nightscape.

Wong's fourth movie, Ashes of Time (1994), released between Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, applied his approach to a star-studded wuxia (martial arts swordplay) story; the desert shoot in Mainland China dragged on for over a year and resulted in one of contemporary Hong Kong cinema's most notorious commercial disasters.

His first major international recognition was at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize for Happy Together (1997). A film that "uses gorgeous, saturated images set to an eclectic soundtrack of tango by Argentinian maestro Astor Piazolla, Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso and Frank Zappa instrumentals to chronicle the stormy affair of a gay couple living as expatriates in Buenos Aires."

Despite his background as a scriptwriter, one of Wong's trademarks as a director is that he works largely through improvisation and experimentation involving the actors and crew rather than adhering to a fixed screenplay. This has been a frequent source of trouble for his actors, his financial backers and many other people connected with his films, including sometimes himself.

The filming of In the Mood for Love (2000) had to be shifted from Beijing to Macau after the China Film Bureau demanded to see the completed script. This was all in all a minor setback in the "very complicated evolution" of the project which goes as far back as 1997. It was Wong's intention to make two films, one of which would be titled Beijing Summer, the plot unclear at the time, but eventually taking form in Macau. Here Wong planned to call it Three Stories About Food, but saw it better to settle for only one story, A Story About Food, that centers on a writer. Together with scenes shot in Bangkok and Angkor Wat, the filming took as long as 15 months. This was an especially arduous time for lead actress Maggie Cheung whose hair and makeup reportedly took a daily five hours, and who appeared in a different cheongsam in each scene. She famously compared the lengthy shoot to a cold she couldn't get rid of. Working without deadlines, the film's upcoming premier at Cannes nonetheless put some pressure on Wong to finish editing. Intending to name the film Secrets he was dissuaded by Cannes, and finally named it In the Mood for Love after Bryan Ferry's cover of the song "I'm in the Mood for Love" he was listening to.

Wong's 2046 (2004), a film about capturing lost memories, was the third chapter of a shared story that began with Days of Being Wild and continued with In the Mood for Love. Infamous for long drawn out shoots without any real regards to deadlines, a running joke amongst the crew was that he would finish in the year 2046.

In 2006, he became the first Chinese director to preside the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

Wong Kar-wai's first full English-language film, My Blueberry Nights, opened the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as one of 22 films in competition. The lead, American singer-songwriter Norah Jones, made her acting debut in the film.

Wong Kar-wai was the jury president of the 2008 Shanghai International Film Festival which was held from June 14-22, 2008.

 

As Tears Go By (旺角卡門) is a 1988 Hong Kong film that was the directorial debut of Wong Kar-wai. Critics have compared the film to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, as the central plot revolves around a small time gangster trying to keep his smaller-time gangster friend out of trouble (trailer).

 

 

Chungking Express (重慶森林) is a 1994 Hong Kong film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film consists of two stories told in sequence, each about a Hong Kong cop and his relationship with a woman. The first story stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Brigitte Lin and the second stars Tony Leung, Faye Wong and Valerie Chow. The Chinese title translates to "Chungking Jungle", referring to the metaphoric concrete jungle of the city, as well as to Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui, where much of the first part of the movie is set (trailer).

 

Happy Together (春光乍洩) is a 1997 Hong Kong movie directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, that depicts a turbulent romance between two men (trailer).

 

 

 

In the Mood for Love (花樣年華, literally "Our Glorious Years Have Passed Like Flowers") is a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung (trailer).