Tanka (ethnic group)

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The Boat people or Tanka (Chinese: 蜑家 (vermin families), corruption: 蛋家 (egg families); sometimes 艇家 (lit. boat households) or Chinese: 水上人; Jyutping: seui2 seung5 yan4; Mandarin Pinyin: shuǐshàngrén); 水上人 (lit. people living on water); 曲蹄 (BUC: Kuóh-dà̤, lit. deformed feet); is an ethnic group in China that has traditionally lived on junks in coastal parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Hainan provinces, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Though many now live onshore, some members of the older generations still live on their narrow boats and pursue their traditional livelihood of fishing. Originally the Tanka were a non-Chinese ethnic group and were classified by the Qing government as "mean". The Yongzheng Emperor freed them and several other "mean" groups from this status in a series of edicts from 1723 to 1731. They mostly worked as fishermen and tended to gather at some bays. Some built markets or villages on the shore, while others continued to live on their junks or boats. As Hong Kong developed, some of the fishing grounds in Hong Kong became badly polluted or were reclaimed, and so became land. Those Tanka who only own small boats and cannot fish far out to sea are forced to stay inshore in bays, gathering together like floating villages.