Chinese culture today is derived from the culture of the people from the middle and lower Yellow River basin. However, over the course of centuries as the Han Chinese expanded over the vast territory that is now China, they encountered many diverse cultures and ethnic groups that greatly modified and enriched Han Chinese culture as it developed. This is one of the reasons why there are great regional variations in dialects and diversity in customs among the Han Chinese people.
There are great regional variations even in the prevalence of surnames. According to China’s 1982 census, the top three surnames in China—Li (Cantonese Lei or Lee), Wang (Cantonese Wong), and Zhang (Cantonese Jeung)—comprise 22.4 percent of the population, or about 200 million people.1 However, in Guangdong, Wang drops to sixth place and is not a very common surname among Cantonese in the Pearl River Delta region, to which a majority of the Chinese in America trace their origins, while the surname Zhang is not even listed among the top ten in the province. On the other hand, in eighth place is Mai (Cantonese Maak), a surname not ranked within the 100 most common surnames in China and not even listed among the 507 surnames in the Baijiaxing (surnames of the hundred families).2 Just this demographic difference alone should alert us to the fact that even though Guangdong has a common history with the rest of China, factors unique to the province’s history have contributed to the development of distinctive regional differences.
The Yue (Cantonese Yuet, Vietnamese Viet) were the earliest inhabitants of Guangdong when the region was first described in Chinese history. They first appeared more than three thousand years ago in the lower Yangzi River valley in eastern China and from there spread southward along the coast into the present Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam regions. They had a language, or languages, and culture different from that of proto-Chinese states in the Yellow River basin in the north. The Yue claimed descent from the Xia, to whom were attributed the establishment of the first proto-Han Chinese state. Many modern scholars supported this view citing as one of the proofs the fact that both peoples worshipped the dragon as their totem. Other scholars however, pointed out that the center of the Xia state was in Henan and was quite distant from the lower Yangzi River valley. They felt that the Yue were more likely to be the descendants of the original inhabitants of the region who left numerous sites with pottery shards distinguished by geometrical impressed patterns.
In the sixth century B.C., the Juwu, a branch of the Yue in Jiangsu, formed the state of Wu. This state became strong enough to challenge the powerful state of Chu in the middle Yangzi River basin. Soon afterward the Yuyue, a Yue group in neighboring Zhejiang, formed the rival state of Yue. By the fifth century B.C., Yue had defeated the state of Wu and dominated the lower Yangzi River valley for about a century before the state of Chu in turn conquered it during the fourth century B.C. The Yue people then became fragmented into many principalities in southeast China subservient to the state of Chu.
During the third century B.C. the state of Qin conquered the separate proto-Chinese states in north and central China and made them part of an empire ruled by the First Emperor of Qin. After Qin defeated the state of Chu in 223 B.C., the emperor ordered his armies to advance southward in five columns to absorb the Yue realms in the south into the empire. The Dong’ou, a Yue people in southern Zhejiang and the Minyue in Fujian soon became vassals of the emperor. The Qin armies, however, encountered fierce resistance from the Nanyue [Southern Yue] in Guangdong and Guangxi. At one point a Qin army was defeated and nearly annihilated. In order to facilitate supplying the Qin armies fighting in the present Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam, the twenty-mile long Ling Qu canal was excavated connecting the headwaters of the Xiang River in the Yangzi River basin with the Li River flowing into the West River basin. The superior armament and military organization of the Qin military forces finally prevailed, and by 214 B.C., Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam were subjugated. The land was administered as three prefectures of the Qin empire. At this time Guangdong was an undeveloped semitropical frontier region of forests, jungles, and swamps inhabited by wildlife such as elephants and crocodiles. In order to exercise greater control of the populace, the emperor forced thousands, including many convicts, to migrate from northern China to settle among the native Yue in his new domains.
The Qin empire lasted barely half a century and was brought down by peasant revolts. During the ensuing turmoil in north China, Zhao Tuo, a Chinese originally from Hebei in north China appointed as district magistrate in the newly conquered realm by the Qin court, proclaimed himself king of Nanyue. His realm included what is now Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam. Panyu (Punyu), the capital, was located on the site of the present city of Guangzhou.
Nanyue remained independent for about a century. Under Zhao Tuo’s rule, Chinese settlers were encouraged to intermarry with the Yue, thereby laying the basis for the formation of the Cantonese-speaking people. During the second century in 111 B.C. an army sent by the Han emperor, successor to Qin dynastic rule, brought the land into the Chinese empire again. During the Han period, Panyu was already beginning to function as a center for the maritime trade from abroad. However, during this period the principal ports in Guangdong for foreign trade were at Xuwen on the tip of Leizhou Peninsula opposite Hainan Island and Hepu now in the southeastern Guangxi on the Gulf of Tonkin. The regions near these ports were noted for their production of pearls. The ports became the termini in China of the maritime silk route initiated during the Han period. It was at this port that emissaries from India and the Eastern Roman Empire landed when they reached China during the Han dynasty.
Over the next few centuries, there was a steady trickle of immigrants from the north into the region. This influx increased during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. when chaotic political conditions existed in north China. Most refugees settled in the Yangzi Valley, but some moved on to the Lingnan region. At this time Han Chinese settlements in Guangdong were principally in the valley of the West River and southern Guangdong, the population of which exceeded that of Han Chinese in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta. Northern Guangdong in the Meizhou region and northeastern Guangdong in the Chaozhou region were even less densely populated. At the beginning of the seventh century, there were only 131, 230 Han Chinese households in Guangdong, or 0.65 households per square kilometer. It should be pointed out that the non-Han Chinese population was not included in the Chinese census; nonetheless, Guangdong remained a sparsely populated region.3
During this period the Guangdong hinterland away from the major river valleys was still dominated by the descendants of the Yue, now known as the Li, who were ruled indirectly through chieftains recognized by the Chinese court. In general, relations between Li and Han were amicable, and in one instance, the Li even helped to install a Chinese emperor. This occurred in the sixth century when Chen Baxian the prefect of Gaoyao with his Li allies marched northward from Guangdong to establish the short-lived Chen dynasty at Nanjing. Chen was the only Chinese emperor to have arisen in Guangdong. One of his principal allies was Lady Xian, influential Li leader in southern Guangdong, who was married to Feng Bao, a Chinese official. For more than six decades spanning the Liang, Chen, and Sui dynasties, Lady Xian was a pivotal figure maintaining amicable relations between the Li and the Han. This helped to facilitate the integration of the Li as part of the Han Chinese people.
During this same period the seaport at the Pearl River Delta became part of a newly established Guangzhou Prefecture in A.D. 264 as it gradually developed into a major port eclipsing Xuwen and Hepu in southern Guangdong. It became a maritime trade center where traders of products from the West River basin met merchants coming from southern Asia and Southeast Asia. Over the centuries many new ideas and products from abroad entered China via this maritime silk route. Merchants claiming to be from the Roman Empire brought in asbestos cloth during the third century A.D. Bodhidharma, the founder of Chan (Japanese Zen) sect of Buddhism, stepped ashore here during the sixth century. Around the seventh century, Islam was introduced into China at this seaport, and a large foreign quarter consisting of Persian and Arab merchants sprang up in the city. Intermarriage with local people was not uncommon, thus introducing an ethnic strain from abroad into the Cantonese population.4
In spite of the growing importance of Guangzhou as a port, the delta region had not yet developed to become the prosperous and densely populated region we know today. The seaport was on the edge of a shallow island-studded bay. Over time the territories rimming this bay slowly became colonized and were developed, as evidenced by the creation of new administrative districts. In the third century, a county named Pingyi (suppressed barbarians) was created on the western shore of the bay, where nonsinicized tribal groups still lived. This county embraced most of the territory of the present Wuyi (Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, and Hes-han). Later it became known as Xinhui (Sunwui) and then as Gangzhou (Kong Chow) during the sixth and seventh centuries. The founding of Pinyi was followed during the fourth century by the creation of Dongguan prefecture on the eastern edge of the bay in the East River Delta that included the present Dongguan (Tungkun) on the Pearl River Delta and extended eastward to embrace Chaozhou on the Han River delta. In the sixth century, Nanhai (Namhoi), west and south of Guangzhou, came into being, carved out of Panyu.5 But the West River Valley upriver from the delta was still economically more highly developed and more densely populated than either the delta or the regions north and east of it.6
This situation began to change during the Tang dynasty. In A.D. 716 Zhang Jiuling, pushed the government to construct a good road that pierced the mountain barrier connecting his home region in northern Guangdong to the Yangzi River basin in neighboring Jiangxi Province. This route to Guangdong greatly facilitated immigration and the introduction of Chinese culture and technology from the north.7 Consequently, northern Guangdong developed rapidly and soon overtook the West River basin to become the most densely populated region of the province.8 By the Song dynasty, this area had become the springboard for rapid colonization of the Pearl River Delta region.
In the meantime Han Chinese population in the lower Han River basin in northeastern Guangdong had increased during the Tang period as migrants from neighboring Fujian speaking the Minnan (southern Fujian) dialect settled in the Han River Delta around Chaozhou (near the present Shantou [Swatow]) in northeast Guangdong. Chaozhou began developing into a port with a growing maritime trade. As the Han Chinese population increased, conflicts sometimes developed between them and the native She people in the region. By the eighth century, the region was rapidly becoming sinicized under Han Chinese rule. One official whom the Chaozhou population revered as having encouraged Chinese education in the area was the famous literary figure Han Yu who was exiled there in A.D. 819 after he had incurred the displeasure of the emperor. However, Han Yu was actually just one of a number of Han Chinese officials who over a number of decades pushed sinicization of the populace in the region. Be that as it may, today visitors to Chaozhou still can visit a number of historic sites attributed to Han Yu’s sojourn in the area.
The rapid development of Guangdong during the Tang period left such a deep impression on the native Guangdongese that even today they continue to refer to China as Tangshan (Mountains of Tang) rather than Zhongguo, to the Chinese language as Tanghua (Speech of Tang) rather than Hanyu, and to the Chinese people as Tangren (People of Tang) rather than Hanren. Around this time the Yue or Li disappeared from history as a separate people. The bulk became part of the Han Chinese. Those who did not accept sinicization retreated to less developed areas. Most anthropologists and historians consider their direct descendants to be modern non-Han ethnic groups in south China such as the Zhuang, Buyi, Shui, Dong, Maonan, and Li. Some also consider groups such as the She, Yao, and Gaoshan (in Taiwan) to be derived at least partially from the Yue.9
The Yue made important contributions to Han Chinese culture. According to archaeological evidence, the Yue were the first people in China to practice widespread rice agriculture. They also domesticated the water buffalo as a beast of burden.10 Many anthropologists believe that the dragon-boat race and the glutinous rice dumpling zong associated with the dragon-boat festival were derived from the ancient Yue folk religion.11 In Guangdong, one of the areas where the Yue lingered longest as a separate group, the imprint was especially strong. Cantonese are distinguished from their compatriots in the north by such characteristics as a generally shorter stature and darker hue skin. The Cantonese dialect not only preserves much of the pronunciation and usage of medieval China, but it also includes many linguistic features in syntax, grammar, and vocabulary inherited from the Yue, which are similar to features still existing in kindred non-Han languages in south China, especially the Zhuang.12 Cantonese folk culture also has preserved distinctive regional characteristics.
With the disintegration of the Tang empire during the tenth century, Guangdong became an independent kingdom, Nanhan (Southern Han), for sixty-seven years. Sheltered by the mountain barrier from the chaos in the rest of China, Nanhan was economically prosperous, but after sixty-eight years, its domains again became part of the Song empire during the tenth century, However, although the Song reunified China, it was weak militarily and was constantly fending off invading aggressors from Mongolia and Manchuria on its northern borders. This steady pressure stimulated increased migratory movements southward to escape the threats and thus further accelerated the development of Guangdong. It was during this period about a thousand years ago that the Cantonese dialect began to take its present form based on Chinese as spoken by migrants from the north. However, due to the mountain barriers and the distance, migration to the Guangdong-Guangxi region took place over a lengthy period with the newcomers settling among a large native Yue population. Thus influence of Han Chinese language and culture was tempered by these factors. The Cantonese dialect became heavily influenced by the language spoken by the local Yue.13 The pronunciation in the city of Guangzhou is today considered the standard.
During this same period Chinese in the southern part of Fujian and northeastern Guangdong also evolved the Minnan dialect of which Chaozhou (Teochiu) dialect or Fuklo speech is a subgroup. Chaozhou pronunciation is today considered the standard for this subdialect.
By this time the deposition of soil from the West, North, and East rivers as they emptied into the South China Sea was gradually turning the shallow bay facing Guangzhou into dry land. The islands were in the process of becoming mountains separated by river channels and valleys. During the twelfth century some of the islands in this primordial delta became Xiangshan (Heungshan) County, which is today divided into the cities of Zhongshan and Zhuhai.14
One of the most famous tales in Cantonese tradition allegedly occurred toward the end of the Song dynasty. In the year 1273 (one version gave the year as 1131), an imperial concubine with the surname Su (or in some versions Hu) incurred the emperor’s wrath and fell into disfavor. She fled secretly from the palace and at a ferry she met a wealthy merchant, Huang Zhuwan (or in some versions Zhang Zhuwan), who was shipping grain to the capital. Attracted by her beauty, Huang took her back with him to his home in Nanxiong (Namhung) in northern Guangdong. Later the emperor discovered the concubine’s absence and ordered a search for her. But after trying for a year, officials reported to the throne that they could not find any trace of her.
During this period Huang (or Zhang) had punished one of his servants. In revenge the disgruntled man leaked the news of the presence of the imperial concubine in the Huang household. The information soon came to the ears of the officials, who, in order to cover up their previous failure, concocted a report of a bandit disturbance in the Nanxiong region. The plan was to dispatch troops to wipe out the population in order to seal their lips forever.
When the news was leaked to Zhuji Xiang (Jü Gei Hong, “Pearl Lane”), a village in the region, the population was panic-stricken. Ninety-seven families met and decided to pack their belongings and flee to the south. They embarked on bamboo rafts and floated down the North River. Their journey ended at Xiangshan, where they scattered to settle in various places in the then relatively undeveloped Pearl River Delta.
Many leading clans there today claim descent from these pioneers and the tale is as well known among Pearl River Delta Cantonese as the story of the Mayflower is among Anglo-Americans. The ninety-seven families who fled belonged to thirty-three clans (the number varies with different versions). However, the genealogies of another forty clans in the Pearl River Delta region also claim Zhuji Xiang ancestry, giving a total of seventy-three clans or surnames. If we consider different lineages of the same clan or surname separately, then nearly one hundred lineages were involved.15 Chinese Americans of Cantonese descent whose forebears came from the Pearl River Delta region, especially if they came from Nan-hai, Panyu, Shunde, Xiangshan, Dongguan, or Xinhui counties, have a good chance of encountering this tale in their genealogical research.16
The Zhuji Xiang tale was not documented in the official histories, and there are many variations and contradictions in the details. One Chinese historian believes that the tale may have been derived from the accumulated experiences of the many groups who migrated southward to the Pearl River Delta region. For those coming from the north, Nanxiong would have been one of the first stopping points in Guangdong. This appears to be a plausible explanation. But one fact is verified by historical documents—settlement of the Pearl River Delta region did accelerate during this period. Large-scale construction of levees began in the Pearl River Delta to reclaim marshlands for agriculture and for flood control. Thus by the thirteenth century the population density in the delta began to increase rapidly and approach that of northern Guangdong.17
A new group entered Guangdong during the same period as the Zhuji Xiang tradition. Inhabitants long settled in Guangdong called these relatively late arrivals Kejia [guest people] (Hakka), a name the newcomers also accepted and adopted. Hakkas claim to be originally from He’nan Province. Chaotic conditions in the north during the fourth century had forced them to migrate south to central China. Political chaos in the ninth century toward the end of the Tang dynasty spurred a second migration to the region just north of Guangdong. The Mongol invasion during the thirteenth century led to the third wave of migration into Guangdong and Fujian. In Guangdong the Hakkas settled in the mountainous terrain in the upper Han River basin and the East River basin in the northeastern part of the province, centering on Meizhou. The present Hakka dialect took shape during this period. The standard is based on Meizhou speech.
For several centuries from the Tang through the Ming dynasties seafaring people from Chaozhou and neighboring southern Fujian also migrated south to settle at various points along the Guangdong coast. Increased migration also occurred as a consequence of the Song court’s flight from the pursuing Mongols south along the southeast China coast. Many migrants settled in southern Guangdong in the eastern part of the Leizhou Peninsula and the coastal area from Yangjiang to Dianbai counties in southern Guangdong as well as in the northeastern part of Hainan Island.18 In the Pearl River Delta a number settled in the Longdu (Lungdu), Nanlang (Namlong), and Sanxiang (Samheung) areas in Zhongshan as well as Qi’ao (Ki’ou) in Zhuhai, forming enclaves that spoke Fujian-derived dialects in a Cantonese-speaking area.
As the Mongol armies steamrollered their way to becoming the first non-Han Chinese people to conquer all the Chinese empire, Song supporters fought desperate rearguard actions as they retreated southward in Guangdong. They finally reached the end of the road in the Pearl River Delta. The Song imperial court was alleged to have stopped in Kowloon near the former Kai Tak Airport. The court then continued its flight, dodging in and out of the islands off the Pearl River Delta. Finally, in 1279 Song naval forces were routed in a battle at the mouth of the West River near Xinhui. Minister Lu Xiufu jumped into the ocean with the boy emperor on his back to end the Song dynasty. Today many people in this area have the surname Zhao (Cantonese Chew, Jue) and claim descent from the Song royal line.
Mongol rule was short-lived, and in the fourteenth century the Ming expelled the Mongol rulers from China. Guangdong’s economy continued to develop under the Ming. The production of silk and other textiles, sugar, and handicraft products greatly increased. In the Pearl River Delta, Foshan (Fatshan) became known for its skilled steel smelters, while in nearby Shiwan (Shekwan) the ceramic industry became more highly developed in quality and variety of products. Commercial activities accelerated as Guangzhou became the largest center of commerce in Guangdong as well as China’s most important port for the international maritime trade. Guangdong merchants also sold the province’s products in other parts of China or abroad.19
The development of the area was reflected in the creation of additional counties. During this period, in the aftermath of a nineteen-year-long rebellion in the Pearl River Delta led by Huang Xiaoyang, Shunde (Shun-dak), the last of the Sam Yup to be created, was founded in 1452, taking away part of the territory of Nanhai.20 When the Portuguese arrived in the Far East and began aggressively probing the Pearl River estuary during the sixteenth century, the Ming government in 1573 responded by creating Xin’an (Sun’on) County, the present Shenzhen (Shumchen) City, out of the southern part of Dongguan to facilitate coastal defenses against these foreign invaders as well as against the forays of Chinese and Japanese pirates lurking in the area.21 The territory under jurisdiction of Xin’an includes the former British colony of Hong Kong.
During this period the Han Chinese population was also rapidly increasing in the mountainous areas on the upper reaches of the Han, East and North rivers in northern and northeastern Guangdong due to migrations from neighboring Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. These areas became solidly Hakka-speaking areas.22
As Han Chinese settlements expanded, they increasingly encroached on areas where non-Han Chinese tribes concentrated. The intensified pressures led to conflicts, and from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, the Ming government launched numerous military campaigns to suppress tribal uprisings in these areas. In the Pearl River Delta region, three out of the five counties of Wuyi were formed between mid-and late Ming. Enping (Yanping) was established in 1478.23 In 1498 after the suppresion of a Yao uprising in western Xinhui, the imperial government created Xinning (Sunning, new tranquility; renamed Taishan [Tois-han] in 1912).24 While the Qing were still battling the Ming in Guangdong, the Ming court established Kaiping (Hoiping) in 1649 by carving out parts of Xinhui, Xinxing, and Enping counties.25
Similar developments took place in other areas of Guangdong. In northeastern Guangdong the Hakka and Chaozhou dialect groups were confronted by She tribes, while settlers in western Guangdong encountered the Zhuang and Yao, and those in southern Guangdong and Hainan Island came face to face with the Li. Over the years many tribesmen became absorbed as integral parts of the Han Chinese population, while others retreated before the Han Chinese advance but retained their ethnic identities.26
By the seventeenth century, Guangdong again became one of the last Han Chinese bastions during the dying gasps of the Ming dynasty when it lost the mandate of heaven to the Manchu Qing dynasty. As the Ming court fled southward ahead of the Manchu advance, one pretender proclaimed himself emperor in Guangzhou, while for a while another established his court in Zhaoqing (Shiuhing) at the head of the Pearl River Delta. After the fall of these pretenders, Manchu armies suppressed nests of Ming loyalists, bandit bands, and remaining Yao strongholds in Guangdong.
Earlier the Manchu imperial government had ordered the region along the entire China coast to be evacuated for about fifty li (approximately sixteen miles) to provide a buffer zone against attacks from Ming adherents led by Zheng Chenggong (also known as Koxinga), who had ousted the Dutch from the island of Taiwan and established a base there. After the ban was lifted in 1684, many of the original inhabitants did not return and the vacuum was filled by immigrants from other areas with limited arable land. A number settled in former evacuated areas near the ocean. Others were encouraged by the authorities to settle in mountainous areas in the Pearl River Delta and in southern Guangdong. For example, after Hua Xian (Cantonese Fa Yuen) was formed from parts of Panyu and Nanhai in 1685 in order to facilitate the control of bands of brigands operating from the area’s mountainous region, many Hakkas settled in the region.27
By 1708 Qing military authorities had also encouraged Hakka settlers to establish seventeen villages in the future Heshan County.28 In 1732 in order to facilitate the defense of settled villages against the alleged depredations of Yao tribesmen living in mountains in the area, territory was taken from Xinhui and Kaiping to form Heshan (Hokshan) as the last county of Wuyi and one of the last counties in the Pearl River Delta region to be created before the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).29 Other Hakkas were also encouraged to migrate from Guangdong to Taiwan, Guangxi, and Sichuan.30
In Wuyi the Hakka population grew rapidly. In Xinning Hakkas grew to be about a third of the population. Friction between the Hakka minority and the Cantonese eventually led to a bloody conflict in the Wuyi area in the mid-nineteenth century. The fighting was especially fierce in Xinning, where the Hakkas were displaced from most of the territory and forced to retreat into the small enclave of Chixi (Cantonese Chikkai).31 After the fighting ended, many Hakkas chose to leave the area for southern Guangdong and Hainan.32 (In the 1980s, Hakkas comprised less than 3 percent of the Taishan population.) The economic dislocation caused by this conflict was a major factor encouraging emigration of the Wuyi people abroad.
The position of Guangdong on China’s southern flank made it the principal goal of maritime travelers coming from the south and east. Portugal, the first European nation to reach China in 1514, occupied Macao on the southern tip of Xiangshan in 1557 in order to be in a strategic position controlling the then lucrative China trade. The Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci entered Guangdong from Macao and stayed at Zhaoqing for several years before departing for the north.33
The English, Dutch, French, and Americans soon followed the Portuguese, all seeking their share of the lucrative traffic in silk, tea, porcelain, and other attractive Chinese goods. Guangzhou benefited from this commerce, especially after the imperial government decreed in 1757 that it was the only port to be opened to foreign ships. The flourishing trade, however, whetted the appetite of Western merchants, and they continued to pressure a reluctant Qing court to open the entire country for trade. Matters came to a head over the British opium trade at the Pearl River Delta and in the ensuing First Opium War of 1839–1842. China was defeated and in the Treaty of Nanjing, ending the conflict, was forced to open five treaty ports to the West including Guangzhou in Guangdong, thus ending China’s closed-door policy. Hong Kong at the mouth of the Pearl River estuary came under British rule. This was followed by China’s defeat in the Second Opium War and the Treaty of Tianjin that ceded Kowloon to the British and opened another five treaty ports including Chaozhou and Hainan in Guangdong. Continuing their unrelenting pressure, the Western powers, joined later by Japan, forced the opening of more treaty ports, established foreign concession, and extracted extraterritorial rights as well as economic privileges from a feebly resisting China. Even an insignificant power such as Portugal was able to force the Qing government to sign a treaty recognizing Portugal’s rule in Macao.
Due to the early contacts developed by Guangdongese, especially Cantonese, with Westerners in China, many were hired as compradores and staff members of Western enterprises headed by the British, as they expanded from Hong Kong to treaty ports such as Shanghai, Tianjin, and Hankou in China. Guangdongese merchants in the import–export trade also followed as these ports developed and sizable Guangdongese communities arose in these cities. Shanghai became the city with the largest Guangdongese population outside Guangdong.
The impact of the Guangdongese influx was all the more striking, because unlike Tianjin, Shanghai was only a small city when it was opened to the West during the mid-nineteenth century. In the International Settlement the Guangdongese community was about 21,000 in 1885, which was almost a fifth of the population in the district. The percentage dropped in succeeding years as people from neighboring areas settled in Shanghai, but even in 1935, the Guangdongese population in Shanghai was sizable at about 110,000, composing about 3.5 percent of the combined populations in the International Settlement and Chinese City. For a rough comparison, in 1947, the Guangdongese population in Tianjin was around 2,900 at 0.2 percent of the total population.34
The constant exposure of Guangdong to influences from abroad had led the people to be receptive to change and new ideas. Thus in the modern era, Guangdongese were instrumental in introducing modern Western practices and technology; for example, the Cantonese were the first Chinese aviators and started some of the first Chinese motion picture companies and earliest department stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The ever-present threat of foreign aggression also stimulated the growth of strong nationalistic sentiments. Thus Guangdongese played active leadership roles in movements to modernize China. Among the leaders were Hong Xiuquan, who led the Taiping Rebellion that almost toppled the Manchu dynasty, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who led an abortive movement to reform the Manchu empire, and Sun Yat-sen, the recognized head of the movement to successfully overthrow the two-thousand-year-old imperial system. All were natives of counties in the Pearl River Delta region. Guangdongese were also active participants in the 1905 boycott of American goods in protest against the Chinese exclusion acts.
The existence of a long maritime frontier in Guangdong resulted in an adventuresome and enterprising people. When the Western nations were developing their colonies and frontier regions during the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Guangdong, as well as neighboring Fujian, Hainan, and Guangxi provinces, went abroad to better their lots in these foreign lands. Of the estimated thirty-five million people of Chinese descent living outside the borders of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, about six out of ten or roughly 21 million can trace their ancestry to one of the dialect groups in Guangdong: Cantonese, Chaozhou, or Hakka as compared with 63 million in Guangdong (with slightly more than half Cantonese speakers, slightly more than a fifth speaking one of the Minnan dialects, and about one-fifth speaking the Hakka dialect).
Emigration of the Cantonese was facilitated by the proximity of Macao and Hong Kong, especially the latter, which developed into international ports that further facilitated maritime contacts with Guangdong. Thus Cantonese became the most widely dispersed, although not necessarily the most numerous, dialect group among the Chinese abroad.35 In the United States, the Cantonese emigrants’ presence was even more pronounced, and up to 1965 about 90 to 95 percent of Chinese could trace their roots to the Pearl River Delta and Wuyi in Guangdong Province. There was not much immigration of the Hakka and Chaozhou dialect groups to North America before World War II. However, since then political turmoil in Southeast Asia where many had immigrated had led to migration of members of these dialect groups to all parts of the Western world, including the United States and Canada.
From this sketch of the historical development of Guangdong over a period of two thousand years, one can see that the introduction of cultural elements as well as migration of people from the north at different periods played major roles in shaping the pace and course of development of the province. Significantly development did not proceed at the same pace in every part of the province. In spite of the fact that some regions were settled two thousand years ago, other parts remained frontier areas until about a thousand years ago, especially the areas in the Pearl River Delta and Wuyi regions from which many Chinese Americans claim their ancestry. This then is the Guangdong heritage of the overseas Chinese and forms the backdrop within which our Guangdong forebears played out their roles in the evolving historical drama.
1. Ta Kung Pao, May 4, 1987. The top ten surnames are Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu (Lau, Lew), Chen (Chan, Chun), Yang (Yeung), Zhao (Jue, Chiu), Huang (Wong), Zhou (Jau, Chow), and Wu (Ng).
2. Newcomers News, Dec. 5, 1986. The ten most common surnames in Guangdong are Li, Chen, Yu (Yee), Liang (Leung, Leong), Wu (Ng, different character from surname Wu listed in note 1), Wang, Huang, Mai, Ye (Yip), and Zhou.
3. Tian Fang and Chen Yijun, ed., Zhongguo yimin shilüe [A short history of migrations in China] (Beijing: Zhishi Chubanshe, 1986), 47–48.
4. Jiang Zuyuan and Fang Zhiqin, eds., Jianming Guangdong shi [A concise history of Guangdong] (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong Renmin Chubanshe, 1987), 83, 96, 128–29 (hereafter cited as History of Guangdong).
5. Ye Di, Guangdong di ming tan yuan [Explorations into the origins of Guangdong geographical names] (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong Sheng Ditu Chubanshe, 1986), 25, 33, 99 (hereafter cited as Guangdong Geographical Names).
6. Tian Fang and Chen Yijun, eds., Zhongguo yimin shi lue [A short history of migrations in China] (Beijing: Zhishi Chubanshe, 1986), 47–48 (hereafter cited as Migrations in China).
7. Jiang and Fang, History of Guangdong, 101, 126. Zhang Jiuling later became the first native Guangdongese to serve as the emperor’s prime minister. He was also the most famous Guangdongese poet of that period.
8. Tian and Chen, Migrations in China, 50.
9. Jiang Bingjian, Wu Mianji, and Shen Shicheng, eds., Baiyue minzu wenhua [Culture of the Baiyue people] (Shanghai: Xuelin Chubanshe, 1988), 113–22 (hereafter cited as Culture of the Baiyue); Chen Guoqiang, Jiang Bingjian, Wu Mianji, Shen Tucheng, Baiyue minzu shi [History of the Baiyue people] (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 1988), 314–24; Wang Wenguang, Zhongguo nanfang minzu shi [History of nationalities in south China] (Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe, 1999), 314–17; Zhu Yuncheng, ed., Zhongguo renkou: Guangdong fence [China’s population: Guangdong volume] (Beijing: Zhonguo Caizheng Jingji Chubanshe, 1988), 342. The Zhuang population was 14 million in the 1980s. Most lived in Guangxi and the population in Guangdong was around 70,000. The Buyi and Shui numbered about 220,000 and 280,000, respectively, and were found mostly in Guizhou Province while the Dong population of about 142,000 were mostly found in the region where the territories of Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi met. The Li, with a population of more than 810,000 in the 1980s, lived in Hainan province, which used to be part of Guangdong. The She population of 350,000 were found in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, with about 3,000 in the latter province. The Yao with a 1982 population of 1.4 million were found in Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Jiangxi. Most of the Yao in Guangdong lived in the mountains in the northwestern part of the province. Worthy of note is the fact that about 500,000 Yao had migrated to the countries of Southeast Asia. As a result of the war in IndoChina, about 20,000 moved to the United States, where they were known as the Mien.
10. Culture of the Baiyue, 124, 145.
11. Culture of the Baiyue, 359–64.
12. Wei Qingyin, “Shilun Baiyue minzu de yuyan” [An Exploratory discussion of the language of the Baiyue people], in Baiyue minzu shi lun ji [Historical articles on the Baiyue people], ed. Chen Guoqiang, Jiang Bingjian, and Wu Mianji (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 1982), 289–305.
13. Zhan, Modern Chinese Dialects, 162.
14. Ye, Guangdong Geographical Names, 23.
15. Huang Cibo, Zhuji Xiang minzu nanqian ji [Record of the southern migration of people from Zhuji Hang] (Guangzhou, China: Zhongshan Library, 1957), passim.
16. Chen Lesu, “Zhuji Xiang shishi” [The historical events connected with Zhuji Hang], Xueshu yanjiu [Scholarly research], no. 6 (1982): 71–77.
17. Tian and Chen, Migrations in China, 51–52.
18. Jiang and Fang, History of Guangdong, 136; Yu Guoyang, Nanhai mingzhu: Hainan Dao [Hainan Island: pearl of the South China Sea] (Guangzhou, China: Guangdong Sheng Ditu Chubanshe, 1985), 6–7.
19. Jiang and Fang, History of Guangdong, 220–23, 235–39.
20. History of Guangdong, 266.
21. Peter Y. L. Ng, New Peace County: A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1983), 26.
22. Wu Jianxin, “Ming Qing Guangdong renkou liudong gaiguan” [An overview of population movements in Guangdong during Ming and Qing], Guangdong shehui kexue [Social Sciences in Guangdong], no. 2 (1991): 38–45 (hereafter cited as Wu, “Population Movements in Guangdong”).
23. Shi Tai, comp., Enping Xian zhi [Gazetteer of Enping County] (1825; repr., Taipei, Taiwan: Chengwen Chubanshe, 1966), 27.
24. Huang Chaozhong, Liu Yaocuan, comp., Guangdong Yaozu lishi ziliao [Historical materials on the Yao nationality of Guangdong] (Nanning, China: Guangxi Renmin Chubanshe, 1984), 1:299 (hereafter cited as Historical Materials on the Yao 1).
25. Yu Qimou, comp., Kaiping Xian zhi [Gazetteer of Kaiping County] (1933; reprint, Taipei, Taiwan: Chengwen Chubanshe, 1966), 20.
26. Jiang and Fang, History of Guangdong, 266–70; Luo Xianglin (Lo Hsiang Lin), Kejia yanjiu daolun [An introduction to the study of the Hakkas in its ethnic, historical, and cultural aspects] (1933; reprint, Taipei, Taiwan: Jiwen Shuju, 1975), 75–76 (hereafter cited as Introduction to Study of Hakkas); Jao Tsung-i, “The She Settlements in the Han River Basin, Kwangtung,” in Symposium on Historical, Archaeological, and Linguistic Studies on Southern China, Southeast Asia and the Hong Kong Region, ed. F. S. Drake (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1967), 101–9.
27. Wong Yongming, comp., Hua Xian zhi [Gazetteer of Hua County] (1687; reprint, Taipei, China: Chengwen Chubanshe, 1967), 61–64; Wu, “Population Movements in Guandong.”
28. Wu, “Population Movements in Guangdong.”
29. Huang and Liu, Historical Materials on the Yao, 54–55.
30. Luo, Introduction to Study of Hakkas, 61–62; Luo Xianglin, “Kejia yuanliu kao” [A study of the origins of the Hakka people] (initially published in 1950 in Xianggang Chongzheng Zonghui sanshi zhounian jiniankan [Publication commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Tsung Tsin Association of Hong Kong] reprint, Beijing: Zhongguo Huaqiao Chuban Gongsi, 1989), 28–32 (hereafter cited as Origins of the Hakkas).
31. Qingxiao, “Qingdai Yuedong jiedou shishi” [History of local fights in Guangdong during the Qing period], Lingnan xuebao 432 (June 1935): 103–51.
32. Luo, Origins of the Hakkas, 33.
33. Jiang and Fang, History of Guangdong, 255–59, 281–84.
34. Cao Shuji, Zhongguo yiminshi [History of Chinese migrations] (Fuzhou, China: Fuzhou Renmin Chubanshe, 1997), 6:608–11.
35. There is no accurate census of Chinese abroad categorized by dialect groups. My calculations during the late 1970s based on tabulations and extrapolations from various sources indicate that the Cantonese groups are the most numerous—slightly less than a third of the total overseas Chinese population if Hong Kong and Macao are included. If these political anomalies, which are actually part of the Pearl River Delta, are excluded, then the southern Fujianese (Hokkien) and Chaozhou (Teochiu) dialect groups are more numerous than the Cantonese, and the latter drops to third place, running somewhat ahead of the Hakkas (Kheh). Emigrants from Hainan (Hailam), Guangxi (Kwongsai), the Fuzhou area (Henghua, Hokchia, Hokchiu), Taiwan, and the rest of China make up the remainder. The reason for this surprising fact (to Chinese Americans) is obvious: for in Southeast Asia, where more than 90 percent of the Chinese abroad dwell, Vietnam is the only country where Cantonese are the largest group. In all other countries usually either the Hokkien or the Teochiu dialect group predominates.
This essay began as an article entitled “Guangdong: The Heritage of 17.5 Million Overseas Chinese” and was published in July 7, 1982, in East/West Chinese American Journal. It was revised and annotated for a presentation at a 1989 Family History seminar sponsored by the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) and the Chinese Culture Foundation (CCF), and published as “The Guangdong Historical Background, with Emphasis on the Development of the Pearl River Delta Region,” in CHSA’s journal Chinese America: History and Perspectives 1991. Subsequently the essay was expanded, revised, and published as “Brief History of Guangdong” for use in the In Search of Roots Program jointly sponsored by CCF and CHSA. The essay was revised in 2003 for this chapter.