Cantonese people

Encyclopedia : C : CA : CAN : Cantonese people

Cantonese people (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: }}}; pinyin: ; Jyutping: gwong2 dung1 yan4), broadly speaking, are persons originating from the present-day Guangdong province in southern China. A more narrow definition of 廣東人 based on a sociolinguistics and cultural perspectives excludes groups that do not speak Cantonese (Yue) as a primary language and speak other languages native to Guangdong, such as Hakka, Teochiu (a variant of the Min Nan group). However, this sociolinguistic and cultural definition will often also include native speakers of Cantonese in nearby Hong Kong and Macao, which were traditionally part of Guangdong prior to European colonisation, and eastern and southern Guangxi, parts of which were part of Guangdong prior to administrative reforms made by the People's Republic of China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Punti subethnic group, and is sometimes known as 廣府人 for this narrower definition. The discussion in this article mainly focuses on the latter definition.

Culture

The Cantonese language is one of the major divisions of spoken Chinese. In the native areas of Guangdong and Guangxi, many closely related varieties exist, and linguists collectively refer to these as the Cantonese (or Yue) group. More specifically, the Cantonese language can also refer a specific and standarized variety of the language, standard Cantonese. This is the language used as a lingua franca, education, media, and by Cantonese people in Hong Kong, Macao, and overseas. Unlike most other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese enjoys a de facto official status (in Hong Kong and Macau), and has an independent tradition of written vernacular.

Cantonese language opera exists in the form of Cantonese opera, which uses of a theatrical form of Cantonese singing in its performances. The Cantonese opera tradition may date back as far as the Southern Song Dynasty in the 13th century.

Due to its current and historical status, Hong Kong has been an active (and primary) producer of Cantonese language entertainment. Cantopop, Cantonese language pop music, enjoys a multinational fanbase, and the major center of the Cantonese music industry is in Hong Kong. Well-known Cantopop artistes include Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Faye Wong, and Coco Lee. 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.

Cantonese cuisine is one of the most famous types of Chinese cuisine, popular both inside and outside China, and characterized by its variety of cooking methods, freshness, and use of seafood, while dim sum is equally famous for its variety of small servings.

History

Until the 19th century, Cantonese history was largely part of the history of Guangdong. Guangdong was first brought under Han Chinese influence by a former Qin Dynasty general named Zhao Tuo, who conquered and consolidated territories into the kingdom of Nanyue. Nanyue included the territories of modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam and its capital was situated near modern-day Guangzhou. This kingdom was fully brought under Han Chinese control under the Han dynasty, but it wasn't until subsequent dynasties such as the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty that major waves of Han Chinese migration to the south occurred, that people arrived in different waves, together with inter-mixing with existing local populations, have evolved into the present-day Cantonese, Hakka and Teochiu groups in Guangdong.

The Opium Wars resulted in China's loss of control over Hong Kong, which was ceded to the British Empire. Macao, a Portuguese settlement subjected to Chinese sovereignty since Ming Dynasty (16th century), was subsequently turned into a colony.

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 provinces of China, Fujian and Guangdong. As a result of these migrations, many Chinese with Cantonese ancestry have settled throughout the world, particularly in North America, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

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 labourors to build the transcontinental railroads in the United States and Canada, while those in South America were mostly forced laborers in the brought as coolies. Chinese in California participated in the California Gold Rush, while Chinese in Hawaii found employment in sugar plantations as contract laborers. These early immigrants founded communities of Chinatowns but faced hostillity and a variety of discriminatory laws that targeted them, such as 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 Siyi (Seiyap) region of Guangdong. As a result, these early communities spoke mostly Taishanese, one of the dialects of Yue distinctive from mainstream Cantonese. This 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 in the western world and has not been supplanted by Mandarin.

Cantonese people

Culture

History

See also