Cantonese people

Cantonese
廣府人
广府人
Gwóngfú Yàhn
Wong Fei Hung
Ip Man
Total population
Around 66 million (est. worldwide)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Greater China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam), Western world (United States, Peru, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Venezuela)
Languages
Yue Chinese
Religion
Predominantly Chinese folk religions (which include Taoism, Confucianism, ancestral worship) and Mahayana Buddhism. Minorities: Christianity; others.
Related ethnic groups
Hong Kong people, Macanese people, Taishanese people, other Han Chinese.
Cantonese people
Traditional Chinese 廣府人
Simplified Chinese 广府人
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 廣東人
Simplified Chinese 广东人

The Cantonese people (simplified Chinese: 广府人; traditional Chinese: 廣府人) are Han Chinese people whose ancestral homes are in Guangdong, China. Traditionally, the majority of Cantonese reside in Guangdong and the majority of the population of Guangdong are of Cantonese ancestry. The term "Cantonese people" would then be customarily synonymous with the Bun Dei (Chinese: 本地; Jyutping: bun2 dei6) sub-ethnic group, or Gwong Dong Jan (simplified Chinese: 广东人; traditional Chinese: 廣東人, literally "the people of Guangdong") in a broader definition. The Cantonese people are separate from the Hakka people, most of whom also live in Guangdong.

They are referred to as "Kongfu" in Malaysia and "Konghu" in Indonesia.[2] They are referred to as "Hoa" in Vietnam. They also established Cantonese as a mainstream language in Hong Kong during the early colonial era. Taishanese people are also Cantonese but speak a different variation of the Yue language. Many world famous people of overseas Chinese have a Cantonese origin.

Famous people of Cantonese ancestry include Sun Yat-sen, Bruce Lee, Ching Shih, Lee Shau Kee, John So, Ho Ching, Yuan Chonghuan and Vivian Chow, who are some of the most influential or most powerful historical figures of Asian descent in the 20th century and in the world.

Culture

A bronze statue on a pedestal, with the city skyline in the background. The pedestal is designed in the image of four clapperboards forming a box. The statue is of a woman wrapped in photographic film, looking straight up, with her left hand stretched upwards and holding a glass sphere containing a light.
A statue on the Avenue of Stars, a tribute to Hong Kong Cantonese cinema.
Bāngzi (梆子) is one of the main instruments used in Cantonese opera
Cantonese food Dim-sum
Cantonese gambling centre, the world largest diamond shaped Casino
Sculpture of the famous cultural Cantonese fighter Bruce Lee at the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong
Written Cantonese on the packaging of Hong Kong beverage brand Vitasoy

Yue Chinese, broadly "Cantonese", is its own language, with 70 million speakers. It consists of many closely related dialects native to areas of Guangdong and Guangxi. The pronunciation and vocabulary of Cantonese has also preserved many features of the official language of the Tang dynasty with elements of ancient Yue language.[3] Cantonese is an western word used by westerners to described the native Guangdong people, who are linguistically different from the vast majority of Chinese population.[4] The culture of the Cantonese and history of Nanyue originated in Guangdong. Abbreviation of Guangdong(粵/Yue) is an shortened form of Baiyue but carries a different meaning.

More specifically, Cantonese refers to the prestige dialect of the language native to Guangzhou. This is the language used as a lingua franca, education, media in Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas. Unlike most other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese has semi-official status in Hong Kong and Macau, and has an independent tradition of a written vernacular. Aside from Standard Mandarin, Standard Cantonese is the only other Chinese dialect/language to be internationally known world wide and has its own versions of songs, dramas, movies. Including animations and video games that are dubbed in Cantonese. In Playstation 3, Cantonese can be found spoken in popular video games such as Resident Evil 6, Grand Theft Auto IV especially in Sleeping Dogs (video game) where it is Hong Kong based and Canto-rap is also played. Many books, articles, magazines, newspapers, online chat, instant messaging, social networking websites especially Manhua can also be found written in Cantonese . Hong Kong Cantonese is therefore a cultural marker and identity for Hong Kong people to distinguish themselves from mainland Chinese.

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 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 multinational fan base in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, China (Guangdong, Guangxi) and to a small extent Vietnam and Japan. Canton-Pop is also popular among the Cantonese community in the United States, Canada, Malaysia and Australia. The major center of the Cantonese music industry is in Hong Kong. Well-known Cantopop artistes include Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Joey Yung, Alan Tam, Roman Tam, Danny Chan, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng, and Coco Lee. Many of these well known stars are Cantonese, 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. For some decades Hong Kong Cantonese speaking movie was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Bollywood and Hollywood) and the second largest exporter of films, due to popular Hong Kong action films. Cantonese speaking movies can be found exported around the world particular in Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan.

Cantonese cuisine is one of the most famous types of cuisine, popular both within and outside China and is characterized by its variety of cooking methods, freshness and use of seafood.[5]Dim sum is equally famous for its variety of small servings.

Historical figures

Some examples of the many historical and well known figures of Cantonese origin who originate mainly from Taishan, Shunde, Panyu and Dongguan are:[6][7]

Cantonese who contributed to modern history of China and Hong Kong

Cantonese Cultural hub

Hong Kong and Macau are two cultural hub centers for Cantonese people, it is two of the top 50 richest international cities in the world. They are also two of the highest GDP per capita in China. The type of Cantonese that is spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is called Guangzhouwa, which originated in Guangzhou city, which is also an cultural hub for Cantonese. Guangzhou was also ranked a world city in 2008. It also became a city for migrant workers, which has constituted 40% of Guangzhou population, though many of these migrants speak mandarin.[21] As a result Guangzhou is no longer a cultural hub for Cantonese alone.

Unlike China, both Hong Kong and Macau retained a high level of autonomy and freedom, with different legal codes as compared to China proper. The colonies originally had only few people, so the British and Portuguese encouraged Chinese migration to their respective colonies, and relied on them to build western architecture for Europeans and Chinese architecture for Chinese. Due to these migrations, both of the cities became a linguistically and culturally Cantonese, due to the vast majority of migrants being Cantonese. As a result, the culture of Cantonese began merging with western culture. Hong Kong's and Macau's cultures are generally viewed as where the "East meets West". Macau is also a World cultural heritage site (Historic Centre of Macau). Guangzhou was historically one of China's international trading ports since the Tang dynasty and Ming dynasty.

In the 17th century Guangzhou quickly emerged as one of the most suitable ports for international trade before long ships arrived from all over the world. Many empires frequented the port through Canton System in hopes to trade Chinese silk, porcelain ("fine china") and most lucratively, tea. By the middle of the 18th century, Guangzhou had emerged as one of the world's great trading ports under the Thirteen Factories. The privilege during this period made Guangzhou one of the top 3 cities in the world.[22] Cantonese links to overseas Chinese and beneficial tax reforms of the 1990s have aided the city's rapid growth.

Hong Kong

The British empire first colonized the empty Hong Kong Island in 1842, however it was in 1898 - 1997 that Hong Kong truly became an colony when the British empire added the New territories which constituted 86.2% of Hong Kong's modern territory, and it was this time that Chinese migrants (not only Cantonese but also other Han Chinese subgroups etc.) started entering to this colony. It is today one of the world's leading international financial centers, and is ranked as the 5th world city. It is also the eighth most traded currency in the world.[23]

Macau

While it became, officially, a colony of the Portuguese Empire in 1887, parts of the city were first loaned to the Portuguese by the Chinese empire as a trading centre in the 16th century. Portugal was required to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. Portugal later occupied the two closest offshore islands, Taipa and Coloane in 1851 and 1864 respectively. Macau was handed back to China in 1999, and by 2002, it had become one of the world's richest cities.[24] In 2004, the World's Highest Skyjump was broken in Macau.[25] It became the world's biggest gambling centre in 2006.[26]

Cantonese influence on Xinhai Revolution

The Xinhai revolution was the instrument that overthrew the corrupt Qing dynasty that would later bring Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and other regions under Han Chinese rule once again. During the Xinhai Revolution, many patriotic Cantonese performers promoted the idea of fighting with the Qing Dynasty, imperialism and feudalism through their performances in Cantonese opera.[27] Troops of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary army (made up overwhelmingly of Cantonese). Most of the early revolutionary leaders were also Cantonese.[28] In 1895, Guangzhou started its first uprising against Qing dynasty. It would later become to known as the "cradle of the Xinhai revolution".[29][30][31] Hong Kong was the cradle of Sun Yat Sen's revolutionary thoughts and the base for subsequent uprisings. An important place for propaganda, Hong Kong saw the founding of the first revolutionary newspaper.[32][33] Zhongshan was the birthplace of first president of China and native Cantonese dialect of Sun Yat Sen.[34][35]

History

Nanyue Kingdom
Further information: Nanyue and Southward expansion of the Han Dynasty

Until the 19th century, Cantonese history was largely part of the history of Guangdong. What is now Guangdong was first brought under Qin influence by a Qin Dynasty general named Zhao Tuo who later founded the kingdom of Nanyue in 204 BC,[36][37][38][39][40] and became the strongest Baiyue state in China with many neighboring kingdoms declaring their allegiance to Nanyue rule. Zhao Tuo assimilated cultures of both Han and Yue as well as encouraging intermarriage. Nanyue under Zhao Tuo sacked the Han territory of Hunan in its capital city and defeated Han Dynasty's first attack on Nanyue. He later annexed the kingdom of Minyue in the east and conquered Au Lac (North Vietnam) to the west in 179 BC.[5] The greatly expanded Nanyue included the territories of modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam with its capital situated at modern-day Guangzhou. The original people of Guangdong belonged to the Yue until that kingdom was fully brought under Han control of Han Dynasty in 111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War, but it wasn't until subsequent dynasties such as the Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty that major waves of Han Chinese literati migration to the south of Guangdong occurred. Migrations came in waves, displacing and assimilating the existing populations with intermarriage at different time periods, but some native groups like the Zhuang still reside.The Cantonese often call themselves "people of Tang". This is because of the Inter-mixture between native and Han immigrants in Guangdong reached a critical mass of acculturation during the Tang dynasty, creating a new local identity among the Guangdong people.[41] Some studies have shown that most Cantonese have a mixture of DNA ancestry from Han Chinese from the North and Yue from the South[42][43][44] with the exception of the Ping-Yue branch of Pinghua and the Tanka who speaks various types of dialects are genetically in common with the Southern ethnic minorities of China with little to no Han Chinese ancestry, some scholars believe that they are the sinicized descendants of Baiyue stock.[45][46][47]

From the tenth to twelfth century, Persian women were to be found in Guangzhou (Canton), some of them in the tenth century like Mei Zhu in the harem of the Emperor Liu Chang, and in the twelfth century large numbers of Persian women lived there, noted for wearing multiple earrings and "quarrelsome dispositions".[48][49] Some scholars did not differentiate between Persian and Arab, and some say that the Chinese called all women coming from the Persian Gulf "Persian Women".

The first conflict between the Cantonese and Europeans was the Ningpo Massacre, where the Cantonese defeated a group of Portuguese pirates.[50] During the 19th century, the First (1839–1842) and Second Opium War (1856–1860) with the West resulted in China's loss of control over Hong Kong and Kowloon, which were ceded to the British. Macau, a Portuguese settlement subjected to Chinese sovereignty since the Ming Dynasty (16th century), was subsequently turned into a colony although self-administration was not achieved until the 1840s. These colonies make up roughly less than 2% of Guangdong territories. An Third Pandemic broke out from Yunnan and spread to the city of Canton, beginning in March 1894; the disease killed 60,000 people in a few weeks. It then spread to the water traffic with the nearby city of Hong Kong. Within two months, after 100,000 deaths, the death rates dropped below epidemic rates, although the disease continued to be endemic in Hong Kong until 1929. Plague came to India in 1896, most likely from Hong Kong, where the epidemic had been festering since 1894. In India, 12.5 million Indians lost the their lives to the disease.

Main article: Interracial_marriage

The turmoil of the second half of the 19th century compelled many residents of Guangdong to seek their fortunes overseas. Until the second half of the 20th century, the majority of overseas Chinese emigrated from two of China, Fujian and Guangdong. As a result of these migrations, many Chinese with a Cantonese background have settled throughout the world, particularly in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Pacific Islands, where they have established communities and mostly intermarried with local women, due to all the migrations being almost entirely of men. High numbers of Interracial marriage between Cantonese men with women from other countries has produced a high numbers of Eurasians and mixed origins in countries such as Peru, Cuba, Madagascar, Mexico, Australia, America Hawaii, Guyana, Costa Rica. A small number of hundreds to thousand Cantonese men also married British women in the UK [51] and resulted in number of Chinese-Eurasian community in Chinatown, Liverpool. Ernest John Eitel mentioned in 1889 how important change had taken place among Eurasian girls, the offspring of illicit connections: Instead of becoming concubines, they were commonly brought up respectably and married to Hong Kong Chinese husbands and became assimilated into the Hong Kong Cantonese population. An example of a Cantonese Eurasian is Nancy Kwan, one of Hollywood sex symbol, she was of Eurasian origin born in 1939 in Hong Kong to a father of a Cantonese architect and mother who is an model of British and Scottish descent. The world most influential martial artist icon Bruce Lee, was also born to parents of Hong Kong heritage to a Cantonese father and a Eurasian mother.

Main article: California Gold Rush

Unlike the migrants from Fujian, who mostly settled in Southeast Asia, many Cantonese emigrants also migrated to the western hemisphere, particularly the United States and Canada. Chinese immigrants in North America were brought as cheap labourers to build the transcontinental railroads in the United States and Canada, while those in South America were mostly forced laborers brought in as coolies. Chinese in California participated in the California Gold Rush, while Chinese in Hawaii found employment in sugar plantations as contract laborers. Chinese also played a significant role in Australia's gold rush, from 1854 onwards. These early immigrants founded communities of Chinatowns but also faced hostility and a variety of discriminatory laws that targeted them. This includes denying the immigration of women to prevent Chinese families from taking root, culminating in anti-immigration laws that restricted Chinese migration. A large proportion of these early immigrants came from the Sze Yup (Seiyap) region of Guangdong. As a result, these early communities spoke mostly Taishanese, one of the dialects of Yue distinctive from Cantonese. The Taishan (, Hoisan) dialect is still spoken in Chinese communities in the Americas, by older people as well as more recent immigrants from Taishan. The relaxing of immigration laws after World War II allowed for subsequent waves of migration to the United States from both mainland China and Hong Kong, while the majority of the Chinese-Vietnamese boat people from the Vietnam War spoke Cantonese either as a first or secondary language. As a result, Cantonese continues to be widely used by Chinese communities of Guangdong and Hong Kong origin in the western world and has not been supplanted by Standard Chinese.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/help/top-100-languages-by-population.html
  2. ↑ Chinese Overseas: Comparative Cultural Issues. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 92–93.
  3. ↑ South China Morning Post. [2009] (2009). 11, October. "Linguistic heritage in peril". By Chloe Lai.
  4. ↑ Unity and diversity: local cultures and identities in China By David Faure
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People. p. 281.
  6. ↑ http://gcontent.oeeee.com/7/92/792c7b5aae4a79e7/Blog/907/fbe93b.html
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/-people--llc/1026987674
  8. ↑ Cantonese cultural warriors fight back, Asia Times, 2010-08-04, retrieved 2010-08-08
  9. ↑ http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/pirate-life/10-pirate-captains.php
  10. ↑ Lily Xiao Hong Lee, A. D. Stefanowska, Clara Wing-chung Ho - 2003 - 387 pages
  11. ↑ "Ho Ching, world's 3rd most powerful woman". Today. 1 September 2007.
  12. ↑ Jim Rogers (3 May 2007). "Ho Ching - The TIME 100". Time. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Bloomberg Markets Most Influential 50". Bloomberg. 8 September 2011.
  14. ↑ "SWF Institute: Ho Ching".
  15. ↑ "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Forbes. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  16. ↑ http://english.cntv.cn/program/newshour/20120626/113531.shtml
  17. ↑ 14th century Zheng He and the Huaqiao Policy 郑和的国家观与"华侨政策"
  18. ↑ Cooke & Li 2004, p. 63
  19. ↑ Sun Yat-sen By Marie-Claire Bergère, Janet Lloyd
  20. ↑ Levenson, Joseph R. (1959). Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and the mind of modern China (2nd rev. ed. ed.). Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press. p. vii. ISBN 978-0520007352.
  21. ↑ http://english.cri.cn/4026/2008/01/25/44@317459.htm
  22. ↑ "Top 10 Cities of the Year 1800". About.com. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
  23. ↑ "Triennial Central Bank Survey: Report on global foreign exchange market activity in 2010" (PDF). Monetary and Economic Department (Bank for International Settlements): 12. December 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  24. ↑ Macau has become known as the 'Las Vegas of the Far East'. Papers by Cindia Ching-Chi
  25. ↑ http://macau.ajhackett.com/products/skyjump.html
  26. ↑ Barboza, David (2007-01-23). "Macao Surpasses Las Vegas as Gambling Center". The New York Times.
  27. ↑ Cantonese Opera (chinaculture.org) 2011-04-19 17:44
  28. ↑ Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor By Elizabeth J. Perry
  29. ↑ Nation, Governance, and Modernity in China: Canton, 1900-1927
  30. ↑ Langmead, Donald. [2011] (2011). Maya Lin: A Biography. ABC-CLIO publishing. ISBN 0313378533, 9780313378539. pg 5-6.
  31. ↑ 廣東是革命搖籃
  32. ↑ Hong Kong public libraries Leisure and Cultural Services Department
  33. ↑ 香港为何成辛亥革命摇篮
  34. ↑ Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver By Paul Yee
  35. ↑ http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7609678.html
  36. ↑ Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, section 112.
  37. ↑ Huai Nan Zi, section 18
  38. ↑ Zhang & Huang, pp. 26–31.
  39. ↑ Zhang and Huang, pp. 196-200; also Shi Ji 130
  40. ↑ Records of the Grand Historian, section 97 《《史記·酈生陸賈列傳》
  41. ↑ Ramsey, S. Robert (1987). The Languages of China. Princeton University Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 0-691-06694-9.
  42. ↑ http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-XAYX201006005.htm
  43. ↑ "Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population ", American Journal of Human Genetics, AJHG, Volume 85
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  45. ↑ "Pinghua population as an exception of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure". Nature. 2008. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
  46. ↑ Cooley's anaemia among the tanka of South China
  47. ↑ Cooley's anaemia among the Tanka of South China, A.J.S. McFadzean, D. Todd. Tropicalmedandhygienejrnl.net. Retrieved on 2012-03-02.
  48. ↑ Walter Joseph Fischel "Semitic and Oriental studies: a volume presented to William Popper, professor of Semitic languages, emeritus, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, October 29, 1949" University of California Press (1951) p. 407 Multiple women originating from the Persian Gulf lived in Guangzhou's foreign quarter, they were all called "Persian women" (波斯婦 Po-ssu-fu or Bosifu).
  49. ↑ Tōyō Bunko (Japan). Kenkyūbu (1928). Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko (the Oriental Library), Issue 2. the University of Michigan: The Toyo Bunko. p. 34. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
  50. ↑ Zhidong Hao (2011). Macau History and Society (illustrated ed.). Hong Kong University Press. p. 67. ISBN 988-8028-54-5. Retrieved 4 November 2011. There was indeed a group of Portuguese who became pirates, called "Macau ruffians," or policemen who turned bad, along with "Manila-men" from the Philippines and escaped African slaves. Their fleet attacked "the Cantonese ships when they could get them at an advantage, and murdered their crews with circumstances of great atrocity."55 They were destroyed in Ningbo by a fleet of Chinese pirates with the support of the local Chinese government and other Europeans.
  51. ↑ http://www.sacu.org/ukchinese.html