Taishanese people


台山人
Hoi San Ngin
Total population
Estimated: 8 - 9 million
Regions with significant populations
Greater China (Guangdong, Hong Kong) North America (Canada, United States)
Languages
Taishanese, Cantonese, Mandarin
Religion
Predominantly Chinese folk religions (including Taoism, Confucianism, ancestral worship and others) and Mahayana Buddhism. Minority: Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Other Han Chinese

Sze Yap Cantonese (Chinese: 四邑廣東人; Sze Yap: Sli Yip Gong Ong Ngin; Cantonese: Sze Yap Gwong Dong Yan; Mandarin: Sìyì guǎngdōng rén) are a Han Chinese group coming from a region in Guangdong Province in China called Sze Yap (四邑), now called Ng Yap, which consists of the cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, Enping, Heshan and Jiangmen; which now administers these cities. Their ancestors are said to have arrived from what is today central China about less than a thousand years ago and migrated into Guangdong around the Tang Dynasty rule period and thus Taishanese as a dialect of Yue Chinese has linguistically preserved many characteristics of Middle Chinese. Although Taishanese is considered to be one of the Cantonese groups of the Yue Chinese family, it has also retained an identity that distinguishes themselves from other Cantonese groups. One theory among Taishanese themselves is that they were northern migrants from Tang who intermixed with the earlier local Cantonese people. Among the Han Chinese, Taishanese are a source for most of the famous international Chinese celebrities and have produced the largest numbers of Chinese actors and singers than any city/region in mainland China. Among Asian Americans, Taishanese are influential in politics and were the first Americans of Asian descent to be elected as Governors, Mayors, U.S congress, including the first international actress and actor of Asian descent, and the America's first ace in World War II also have an Taishanese origin.

Linguistic and Identity

Taishanese is a dialect of Yue Chinese but is also treated separately from Standard Cantonese, since Cantonese speakers often find Taishanese difficult to understand and usually with an average intelligibility of only 30%, however this is also true for other Yue Chinese dialects such as Goulou dialects.[1][2] Like other varieties of Chinese dialects, Taishanese is known only by Taishanese and by other Chinese people as Toisan Cantonese, it is not prosperous like standard Cantonese. Unlike most 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 has achieved worldwide fame and is internationally well known due to popular Cantonese speaking action movies from Hong Kong, also because Cantonese in Hong Kong is the lingua franca for education, media, government, communication in Hong Kong, this leads to even more exposure of Cantonese throughout the world. Taishanese, who make up one-third of the population of Hong Kong, may identify themselves with Cantonese instead of Taishanese. Since Hong Kong culture is heavily Cantonese influenced and is a Cantonese speaking society, Taishanese and other Han Chinese who are Hong Kong born and raised, assimilate into the Cantonese identity of Hong Kong. Everything in Hong Kong from pop music, movies, media, education, TV series, cuisines, opera, communication is in Cantonese, and because Hong Kong, like Macau, has high autonomy and a different law and government system from China, this yet again strengthens Hong Kong identity. Cantonese is seen by all Hong Kong people as a cultural marker and identity that distinguishes themselves from mainland Chinese. Many Hong Kong activist are of Taishanese origin such as Szeto Wah who is a politician of the pan-democracy camp and sing democratic Cantonese songs with other activists to promote democracy in China.

Culture

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Kaiping Diaolou and Villages
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List

Ruishi Diaolou 瑞石樓

Culturally, Taishanese people are very similar to Cantonese. Today many Sze Yap people have become successful in many areas such as the entertainment industry, business and politics. Hong Kongers of Sze Yap origin include: Andy Lau, Beyond (band), Danny Chan, Kenny Kwan, Joey Yung, Ronnie Chan, John Tsang, Andrew Li and many others. The Father of, Lai Man-Wai also has ancestry from the Sze Yap region of province. As a result, Sze Yap people have dominated in the entertainment industry and play most major roles in the music and movie sectors. In many films, Taishanese can be heard, especially in many of Karl Maka's films such as Merry Christmas and Aces Go Places.

It is said that over 100 famous people come from the Sze Yap region of Guangdong province, making the region famous for producing more stars than any other city/region in mainland China. As a result, the local government in Jiangmen which administers the Sze Yap or Ng Yap cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, and Heshan, decided to build a Stars Park called Jiangmen star park (江门星光园).[3]

Taishan county is famous for being the Birthplace of China's Volleyball, that was brought to Taishan by overseas, and the city won many provincial and national championships. Taishanese are well known for their love for Volleyball and being China's champions.[4] Premier Zhou En-Lai once stated, "Taishan is Half of Country's (China) System.

In 2007, UNESCO named the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages (开平碉楼与村落) in China as a World Heritage Site. UNESCO wrote, "...the Diaolou ... display a complex and flamboyant fusion of Eastern and Western structural and decorative forms. They reflect the significant role of émigré Kaiping people in the development of several countries in South Asia, Australasia, and North America, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the close links between overseas Kaiping and their ancestral homes. The property inscribed here consists of four groups of Diaolou, totaling some 1,800 tower houses in their village settings." Today, approximately 1,833 diaolou remain standing in Kaiping, and approximately 500 in Taishan. Although the diaolou served mainly as protection against forays by bandits, a few of them also served as living quarters. Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas. As a result, many diaolou incorporate architectural features from China and from the West.

Economy and Business

Jiangmen GDP is ranked the 70th richest city in China out of 656 cities in 2012. Jiangmen was selected by the Chinese state as a pilot city for a nationwide information programme.[5] According to the "Report on Investment Environment in China 2003" by the World Bank, Jiangmen ranked the fourth after Shanghai, Hangzhou and Dalian of 23 cities under evaluation in China. Among various indicators, Jiangmen excelled in infrastructure, labour redundancy, proportion of joint ventures in all firms, informal payments to government, taxation, productivity and the investment rate.

Besides dominating the entertainment industry, they are quite dominant and influential in Hong Kong's Business Industry, such as the Bank of East Asia (東亞銀行), Lee Kum Kee (李錦記), Hang Lung Properties, Maxim's Catering (美心), Hysan Development Limited, Li & Fung (利豐), Beijing Air Catering Ltd, Hysan Development Company Limited (希慎興業) and many others.

Famous overseas Taishanese businessmen includes Loke Yew, the richest man of Malaysia in his time and who made significant impact in the growth of Kuala Lumpur, and was one of founder fathers of Victoria institution. Jack Yan who founded his company Lucire, is a magazine publisher in New Zealand and he also owns a software firm that created over 100 typeface designs himself for the firm, and inspired other local typeface designers such as Kris Sowersby to pursue careers in that industry. Norman Kwong who is the lieutenant governor of Alberta, is also president and manager of Calgary Stampeders a Canadian football league. In 2011 Forbes ranked Taishanese businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and ranked as the wealthiest American in the healthcare industry and in Los Angeles.[6] fortune at $7.2 billion, ranking him #39 among US billionaires. He performed the world’s first encapsulated human islet transplant and the first pig to man islet cell transplant in diabetic patients. He invented the nation’s first FDA approved protein nanoparticle delivery technology for the treatment of metastatic breast cance. The drug, Abraxane, is now approved in over 40 countries, and currently in trials for lung,

History Overseas

Because the history of the going abroad is long, and there are many people sojourning widely in various districts, is called " No.1 Homeland of Overseas Chinese ".[7] Now, 1.3 million overseas distribute in 91 countries and regions of the five continents including US, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Trestle, c.1869. : Carleton Watkins
Route of the first American transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Taishanese have large influence in the course of Asian-American history, as they were first Asian Americans to be elected as Governors, Mayors, U.S congress in the continental United States. The first international celebrity of Asian descent, and America's first Ace in world war II. They also represented the largest Asian community in America and have an large significant contribution in building the First Transcontinental Railroad of United States. They were instrumental in the completion of the railroads. About 12,000 such emigrant workers were employed as laborers by the Central Pacific Railroad representing 90 percent of the entire work force.[8] J. O. Wilder, a Central Pacific-Southern Pacific employee, commented that “The Chinese were as steady, hard-working a set of men as could be found. With the exception of a few whites at the west end of Tunnel No. 6, the laboring force was entirely composed of Chinamen with white foremen. A single Irish foreman with a gang of 30 to 40 Chinese men generally constituted the force at work at each end of a tunnel; of these, 12 to 15 worked on the heading, and the rest on the bottom removing material. When a gang was small or the men needed elsewhere, the bottoms were worked with fewer men or stopped so as to keep the headings going.”[8] The laborers usually worked three shifts of 8 hours each per day, while the foremen worked in two shifts of 12 hours each, managing the laborers.[9]

The Sun Ning Railway (aka Sunning Railway and Xinning Railway ) 新寧鐵路 (pinyin: Xinning Tielu) was a standard gauge railway in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province founded in 1906 by a man of Taishanese origin Chin Gee Hee 陳宜禧 (pinyin: Chen Yixi) and Yu Shek 余灼 (pinyin: Yu Zhuo). It was South China's second railway[10][11][12] and one of only three railways in pre-1949 China built solely with private Chinese capital.[13][14]

World war II

Soldier kneels aiming down the iron sight of a Thompson submachine gun in front of a M3 Half-track.
A Chinese American soldier training at Fort Knox

It has been estimated that between 12,000[15] and 20,000[16] Chinese American men, representing up to 22 percent of the men in their portion of the U.S. population, served during World War II.[17] Of those serving about 40 percent were not citizens,and unlike Japanese and Filipino Americans, 75 percent served in non-segregated units. Chinese Americans distinguished themselves from Japanese Americans, and suffered less discrimination.[18] A quarter of those would serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces, some of were sent to the Chinese-Burma-India theater for service with the 14th Air Service Group[19] and the Chinese-American Composite Wing.[20] Another 70 percent would go on to serve in the U.S. Army in various units, including the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 32nd and 77th Infantry Divisions.[17] Prior to the war, the U.S. Navy had recruited Chinese Americans but they had been restricted to serve only as stewards;[20] this continued until May 1942, when restrictions ceased and they were allowed to serve in other ratings. Wilbur Carl Sze was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and the first Chinese-American officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

List of Notable people from China and Hong Kong

List of Notable people from China and other countries in U.S, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii ect

Artists

Directors and presenters

Business

Athletes

Education

Historical figures

Politicians

References

  1. ↑ Cantonese speakers have been shown to understand only about 30% of what they hear in Taishanese (Szeto 2000)
  2. ↑ (Ma & Cartier 2003)
  3. ↑ "江门星光园" nddaily
  4. ↑ http://www.taishan.com/english/
  5. ↑ []
  6. ↑ "Patrick Soon-Shiong - Forbes". Forbes.com. 9 March 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
  7. ↑ http://www.gdts.gov.cn/en/xgz.htm
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Kraus, "Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific," p. 49.
  9. ↑ John R. Gillis, "TUNNELS OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD." Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine, January 5, 1870, p. 418-423,
  10. ↑ The of Xinning Railway, Bureau of Archives of City.
  11. ↑ Scigliano 2007.
  12. ↑ Another transliteration of 余灼 (pinyin: Yu Zhuo) is Yu Chuek (Editors' note, p. 125, Chin Gee Hee, "Letter Asking for Support to Build the Sunning Railroad" (1911), p. 125–128 in Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai (compilers and editors), Chinese American Voices, University of California Press (2006). ISBN 0-520-24310-2.)
  13. ↑ Don T. Nakanishi and Tina Yamano Nishida, The Asian American Educational Experience: A Source Book for Teachers and Students, Routledge (1995). ISBN 0-415-90872-8. p. 55.
  14. ↑ Jue (1983) for the ideographs and spellings.
  15. ↑ Wong, Kevin Scott (2005). Americans first: Chinese Americans and the Second World War. Harvard University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-674-01671-2. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  16. ↑ "One Fifth of Chinese Americans Fight Fascism in World War II". Xinhua News Agency. 28 May 2001. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "World War II/Post War Era". Timeline. Oakland Museum of California. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  18. ↑ "Asian Americans:World War II". Calisphere. The Regents of The University of California. 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  19. ↑ James C. McNaughton (3 August 2009). "Chinese-Americans in World War II". Center of Military History. United States Army. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Wong, Kevin Scott (2005). Americans first: Chinese Americans and the Second World War. Harvard University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-674-01671-2. Retrieved 2 October 2009.