Taishanese people


Sze Yup Cantonese are a Han Chinese group coming from a region in Guangdong Province in China called Sze Yup, which consisted of the four county-level cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, and Enping. Now Heshan has been added to this historic region, and the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen administers all five of these county-level cities, which is sometimes informally called Ng Yap. 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.
The Taishanese are part of the Yue Chinese family and have an identity that distinguishes themselves from the dominant Cantonese people. Among the Han Chinese, Taishanese are a source for many famous international Chinese celebrities and have produced the largest numbers of Chinese actors and singers than any other region in mainland China. Despite their small population size, Taishanese people have produced a number of famous academics and historical figures. Sze Yup or Jiangmen is considered the home of Chinese Academicians. The total of academicians is 31 people, a city with over 20 is considered extremely rare in China.
Among Asian Americans, Taishanese are influential in politics and were the first Americans of Asian descent to be elected as governors, mayors, and U.S congressmen. The Taishanese were the first Chinese people to settle in America and the Taishanese language was the lingua franca of Chinatowns but this was replaced with Cantonese after being overwhelmed by immigration from Guangzhou and its satellite cities. Taishanese American laundrymen and shopkeepers were a primary source of funding that helped launch Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's revolutionary activities while he was in exile and raising money from overseas countrymen.

Language and identity

Taishanese is a Yue Chinese language that is distinguished from Standard Cantonese but non-specialists often use "Cantonese" in a broader sense for the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese rather than specifically the language of Guangzhou. Cantonese and Taishanese are mutually unintelligible. Cantonese speakers often find Taishanese difficult to understand and have an average intelligibility of only 30%. This is also true for other Yue Chinese variants such as the Goulou dialects.
Unlike most varieties of Chinese, Cantonese has de facto official status in Hong Kong and Macau, and has an independent tradition of the written vernacular. 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. Many Hong Kong activists are of Taishanese ancestry such as the late Szeto Wah who was a politician of the pan-democracy camp and sang democratic Cantonese songs with other activists to promote democracy in China.

Culture

Culturally, Taishanese people are similar to other Yue Chinese peoples. Today, many Sze Yup people have become successful in many areas such as the entertainment industry, business and politics. Hong Kongers of Sze Yup ancestry include: Andy Lau, Beyond, Danny Chan, Kenny Kwan, Joey Yung, Ronnie Chan, John Tsang, Andrew Li and many others. The Father of Hong Kong Cinema, Lai Man-Wai also has ancestry from the Sze Yup region of province. As a result, Sze Yup 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 a hundred famous people come from the Sze Yup 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 Yup or Ng Yap cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, and Heshan, decided to build a Stars Park called Jiangmen star park.
Taishan county is famous for being the Birthplace of China's volleyball, that was brought to Taishan by Overseas Chinese, and the city won many provincial and national championships. Taishanese are well known for their love for Volleyball and being China's champions. Premier Zhou En-Lai once stated, "Taishan is Half of the Country's System."

Architecture

In 2007, UNESCO named the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages 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 from Overseas Chinese. As a result, many diaolou incorporate architectural features from China and from the West. Tong Laus which are mixed-used buildings where the ground floor is reserved for commercial use and the top floors for residential are also prominent in the region, as are traditional Lingnan architecture aesthetics which are commonly found throughout Guangdong province.

Economy and business

Besides dominating the entertainment industry, they are quite dominant and influential in Hong Kong's Business Industry, founding such companies as the Bank of East Asia, Lee Kum Kee, Hang Lung Properties, Maxim's Catering, Li & Fung, Beijing Air Catering Ltd, Hysan Development and many others. Lui Che-woo once the second richest man in Asia.

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.

Academics

Sze Yup or Jiangmen is considered the home of Chinese Academician town: The total of academicians is 31 people, a town with over 20 is considered extremely rare in China.
Wu Lien-teh - First Han Chinese and Malaysian Chinese to be nominated for a Nobel prize in physiology or Medicine, Chu Ching-wu - Selected as the Best Researcher in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report in 1990., GUO Jing-Kun - pioneer and one of academic leaders in the field of Materials Research
Nancy Ip - member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences., Vivian Wing-Wah Yam - she was a 2011 L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureate "for her work on light-emitting materials and innovative ways of capturing solar energy.
Huan Yong - China's modern plant taxonomy founder, Chen Haozhu - Career in medicine for many years, has won the national, military science and technology progress award more than 20 other awards
Albert Chan - a Hong Kong professor of chemistry and traditional Chinese medicine.
Huang Cuifen one of the founders, successive Chinese Academy of Military Medical Institute of Basic Medical researcher
Liang Sili - Chinese Engineer. Chief Designer of inertial guidance platforms for Chinese ballistic missiles.
Chen Guoda - Expertise in Mechanical Engineering
Huang Benli - Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen University, Professor, Huang has won many awards: 2 2nd-class Major Science and Technology Achievements Awards of Chinese Academy of Science
Zhangyou Qi - Computational mechanics, civil engineering experts
Xue Shepu - Researcher in cell proliferation and differentiation
Huan Yong - Is one of the founders of modern science of plant classification. His lifelong hard work, rigorous scholarship on China Plant Science has made outstanding contributions.
Li Chunxuan - Aerospace aircraft design, high-speed collision mechanics specialist.
Chen Hao Zhu - Medical experts in cardiovascular disease. member of China Engineering Academy.
Mr Wong - Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, general surgery specialist.
TANG Zhao - Former director of the International Union Against Cancer
Cai Ruixian - Received the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Progress Award, Chinese Academy of Natural Science Award
I Guocong - Former China Engineering Thermophysics director, China Power Engineering Society executive director; China Energy Research Association executive director.
Kuang Yu Ping- 1989 was awarded the First Prize in Physics Wu Xun, 2003 was elected to the Academy of Mathematics and Physics Academy of Sciences.
Henry NC Wong - University of London, and then to Harvard University postdoctoral research.
Albert Chan - An organic chemist, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Huang Cuifen - University of London, and then to Harvard University postdoctoral research.
Li Shaozhen - improve cataract surgery quality in the introduction of technology and innovation
Huangyao Xiang - Zhongshan University Department of Physics.
Chen Yong-Su - Research on a new target of cancer chemotherapy drugs and biochemical modulation
Maisong Wei - 1965-1969 any Associate Professor University of Western Ontario in Canada.
Ye Danian - 1991 was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences Division of Earth Sciences and in 2001 as Peking University professor of Earth and Space Sciences.
Feng Peide - well-known experts in the field of aviation.

Overseas

Because the history of going abroad is long, and there are many people sojourning widely in various districts, Taishan is called the "No.1 Homeland of Overseas Chinese". The Taishanese diaspora is distributed in 91 countries and regions of the five continents including US, Canada, Hong Kong, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Taishanese have had a large influence in the course of Asian-American history, as they were the first Asian Americans to be elected as Governors, Mayors, and U.S congressmen 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 made a significant contribution in building the First Transcontinental Railroad of United States. The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. About 12,000 such emigrant workers were employed as laborers by the Central Pacific Railroad representing 90 percent of the entire work force. 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.” 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.
The Sun Ning Railway 新寧鐵路 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 and Yu Shek 余灼. It was South China's second railway and one of only three railways in pre-1949 China built solely with private Chinese capital.

Notable Taishanese people