Cantonese people

TheCantonese people(廣府人;广府人;gwong fu jan;Gwóngfú Yàhn) orYue people(粵人;粤人;jyut jan;Yuht Yàhn), are aHan Chinesesubgrouporiginating fromGuangzhouand its satellite cities and towns (such asHong KongandMacau).In a more general sense "Cantonese people" can refer to anyHan Chinesepeople originating from or residing in the provinces ofGuangdongandGuangxi(collectively known asLiangguang), or it may refer to the inhabitants of Guangdong province alone.
Historically centered aroundGuangzhouand the surroundingPearl River Delta, the Cantonese people established theCantonese languageas the dominant one inHong KongandMacauduring their 19th century migrations within the times of theBritishandPortuguesecolonial eras respectively. Cantonese remains today as a majority language in Guangdong and Guangxi, despite the increasing influence of Mandarin. Speakers of other Yue Chinese dialects, such as theTaishanese peoplewho speakTaishanese, may or may not be considered Cantonese. TheHakkaandMin-speakingpeople (such asHoklo,TeochewandLeizhounese) who also reside in Guangdong are usually differentiated from the Cantonese as they speak non-Yue Chinese languages.
"Cantonese" has been generally used to describe all Chinese people from Guangdong since "Cantonese" is commonly treated as a synonym with "Guangdong" and theCantonese languageis treated as the sole language of the region. This is inaccurate as "Canton" itself technically only refers to the capital Guangzhou, and the Cantonese language specifically refers to only the Guangzhou dialect of theYue Chineselanguages. David Faure points out that there is no direct Chinese translation of the English term "Cantonese".People living in Guangdong and Guangxi may speak other Yue dialects or dialects from other Chinese language groups such asMandarin,Min,Hakka, andPinghua.
The English name "Canton" derived fromPortugueseCantãoorCidade de Cantão,a muddling ofdialecticalpronunciations of "Guangdong"(e.g.,HakkaKóng-tûng). Although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city of Guangzhou, it was occasionally conflated with Guangdong by some authors.Within Guangdong and Guangxi, Cantonese is considered theprestige dialectand is calledbaahk wá,[pàːkwǎː](白話) which means "vernacular". It is also known as "Guangzhou speech" orGuangzhounese(廣州話, 广州话, Gwóngjāu wá).
Other Yue peoples are sometimes labelled as "Cantonese" such as theTaishanese people(四邑粵人;sei yāp yuht yàhn), even thoughTaishanese(台山話) has low intelligibility toStandard Cantonese. Some literature uses neutral terminology such asGuangdongeseandGuangxieseto refer to people from these provinces without the cultural or linguistic affiliations to Cantonese.
Cantonese peoples are predominantly of Han Chinese ancestry, with various local genetic clusters suggesting regional language-basedendogamy.They descend from Han migrants from the Central Plains, who continually migrated to southern China and in the process, absorbedTai-speaking (or Bai Yue) minoritiesin their community.
Paternally, the Cantonese population show no genetic difference from other northern and southern Han Chinese populations- Cantonese generally descend from northern Han males and their Y-chromosome haplotypes conform to the distribution seen in all other Han subgroups. Maternally, both southern natives and northern Han Chinese women contributed to the Cantonese gene pool. As a whole, the Cantonese predominantly show Han ancestry, which is more pronounced in the patriline. This is in contrast to thePinghuaandTankapopulation,who both show the reverse pattern. Overall, the Cantonese represent the most southernmost cluster of the Han Chinesealthough other studies state that Guangxi Han have the least northeast Asian ancestry.Hong Kong Cantonese also share similar ancestry with other southern Han Chinese.
Because of their native southern ancestry, they slightly differ from other Han subgroups in skin tone, build, stature and having a higher incidence of certain diseases such as nasopharyngeal cancer.According to a 2012 study, Cantonese usually have similar physical characteristics to Han fromJiangxi, including the predominance of mesocephalic and hypsicephalic types, darker skin in males, thin lips, thin eye slits with higher external angles and less 'mongoloid folds', straight nasal profiles with medium-high nasal roots etc.
Despite being a distinct sub-group among Guangdong Han, Cantonese show less genetic differences with Teochew and Hakka people due to population assimilation and gene flow.Cantonese also show the most genetic affinities withTaiwanese Hanout of the Sino-Tibetan-speaking groups, along withSingaporean Chinese.
Until the 19th century, Cantonese history was largely the history of Guangdong and Guangxi, collectively known as Liangguang or Guangnan.
Throughout history, there have been multiple migrations of Han people from the Central Plains into the region that is now southeastern and southern China.The first Chinese presence in Guangdong can be traced to the conquest by the Qin general Zhao Tuo and his subsequent establishment of the Nanyue kingdom, a hybrid Han-Yue polity as an independent state.There was a second wave of migration during the Han dynasty during the troubled reign of the usurper Wang Mang. However, it was only under much later dynasties such as theJin dynasty, theTang dynasty, and theSong dynasty, when major waves of Han Chinese began to migrate south into Guangdong and Guangxi, that the region acquired the cultural characteristics that last until the present day.
Formation of Nanyue kingdom
What is now Guangdong and later Guangxi, was first brought underQin influenceby a general namedZhao Tuo, who conquered the region in 214 BCand later, after the collapse of the Qin empire, founded the independent kingdom ofNanyuein 204 BC.Zhao Tuo's retinue included hundreds of thousands of predominantly male Qin conscripts, and he is recorded as petitioning the Qin Emperor for 30,000 wives from the Central Plains for his restless soldiers.Following the collapse of central authority in the Qin Empire, the Han Chinese soldiers, conscripts, and laborers under Zhao Tuo's command were incorporated into the Nanyue kingdomand ordered to mix with the local inhabitants.
Like the founder Zhao Tuo, the aristocratic elite and military class of the newly formed Nanyue state were of Central Plains origin and mediated the transmission of Han culture to the local inhabitants. Grave goods and burial pits show a significant and immediate cultural shift at the time of Nanyue's establishment, especially in larger tombs, which began to deploy Han Chinese features such as ramps and compartmentalized coffins, and to contain traditional Han Chinese drinking vessels such as thehu,he, anddingas well as incense burners such as thexun lu. Buildings began to feature architectural elements from the Central Plains, including covered galleries, drains, stone lintels, and columnar bases.The Han aristocratic elite, however, did adopt features of the Bai Yue culture, including the use of feathered headdresses as represented on Nanyue cauldrons, in order to bolster their authority amongst the indigenous people in the new hybrid Han-Yue polity.
The Nanyue kingdom, which was led by a Han aristocracy and adopted Han bureaucratic structures,and which adopted a policy of assimilation and fusion with the native Bai Yue, then went on to become the strongest state on the southern periphery of the Han, with many neighboring kingdoms declaring their allegiance to Nanyue rule. Zhao Tuo took theHanterritory ofHunanand defeated the Han dynasty's first attack on Nanyue, later annexing the kingdom ofMinyuein the east and conqueringÂu Lạc, Northern Vietnam, in the west in 179 BC.
The greatly expanded Nanyue kingdom included the territories of modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi andNorthern Vietnam(Tonkin), with the capital situated at modern-day Guangzhou. The people of Liangguang remained autonomous until formally incorporated into theHan dynastyin 111 BC, following theHan–Nanyue War.
Incorporation into Han territory
Liangguang was incorporated into theHan dynastyin 111 BC, following theHan–Nanyue War. From this point on, it was directly administered by the Han Empire.
Han Empire
During the troubled period ofWang Mang's reign in theHan dynasty(206BC–220AD), there were influxes of Han Chinese migrants into Guangdong and Guangxi, western coast of Hainan, Annam (now Northern Vietnam) and Eastern Yunnan.
4th-12th century AD
During the 4th–12th centuries, yet more waves of Han Chinese people from the central plains migrated and settled in the South of China. This gave rise to peoples, including the Cantonese themselves,and the other dialect groups of Guangdong during theTang dynastyincluding the Hakka and the Teochew.Waves of migration and intermarriage meant that the indigenous populations of both Guangxi and Guangdong provinces were either assimilated or displaced, but some native groups like theZhuangsremain.
One notable migration occurred in the aftermath of the deadly An Lushan rebellion in the Tang dynasty, which led to a massive southward migration by people from the Tang heartland into the Panyu area, causing a 75% increase in the population on household registers.Unsurprisingly, the Cantonese often call themselves "people of Tang" (唐人;tòhng yàhn). This is because Han immigration and the intermarriage with and acculturation of indigenous tribes reached a critical mass during the Tang dynasty, creating a new local identity among the Liangguang peoples.The origin of the Cantonese people is thus said to be Han people from the Central Plains who migrated to Guangdong and Guangxi in multiple successive waves of settlement while it was still inhabited byBaiyuepeoples.
During the early 1800s, conflict occurred between Cantonese and Portuguese pirates in the form of theNingpo massacreafter the defeat of Portuguese pirates.TheFirst(1839–1842) andSecond Opium Wars(1856–1860) led to the loss of China's control overHong KongandKowloon, which were ceded to theBritish Empire.Macaualso became aPortuguese settlement. Between 1855 and 1867, thePunti–Hakka Clan Warscaused further discord in Guangdong and Guangxi. Thethird plague pandemicof 1855 broke out inYunnanand spread to the Liangguang region via Guangxi, killing thousands and spreading via water traffic to nearby Hong Kong and Macau.
The turmoil of the 19th century, followed by the political upheaval of the early 20th century, compelled many residents of Guangdong to migrate overseas in search of a better future. Up until the second half of the 20th century, the majority ofoverseas Chineseemigrated from two provinces of China; Guangdong andFujian. As a result, there are today many Cantonese communities throughout the world, including inSoutheast Asia, thePacific Islands, theAmericas, theCaribbeanandWestern Europe, withChinatownscommonly being established by Cantonese communities. There have been a large number ofinterracial marriagesbetween Cantonese men and women from other nations (especially from Cuba, Peru, Mexico), as most of the Cantonese migrants were men. As a result, there are many Afro-Caribbeans and South American people of Cantonese descent including many Eurasians.
Unlike the migrants fromFujian, who mostly settled inSoutheast Asia, many Cantonese emigrants also migrated to theWestern Hemisphere, particularly theUnited States,Canada,AustraliaandNew Zealandand Burma. Many Cantonese immigrants into the United States became railroad labourers, while many in South America were brought in ascoolies. Cantonese immigrants in the United States and Australia participated in theCalifornia Gold Rushand theAustralian gold rushesof 1854 onwards, whilethose in Hawaiifound employment in sugarcane plantations as contract labourers. These early Cantonese immigrants variously faced hostility and a variety of discriminatory laws, including the prohibition of Chinese female immigrants. The relaxation of immigration laws afterWorld War IIallowed for subsequent waves of migration to the Western world from southeastern mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. As a result, Cantonese continues to be widely used by Chinese communities of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau regional origin in the Western hemisphere, and has not been supplanted by theMandarin-basedStandard Chinese. A large proportion of the early migrants also came from theSiyiregion of Guangdong and spoke Taishanese. The Taishanese variant is still spoken in American Chinese communities, by the older population as well as by more recent immigrants from Taishan, inJiangmen, Guangdong.
Cantonese uprising against the Qing Empire in 1895 let to its naming as the "cradle of the Xinhai Revolution".Revolutionary leaderSun Yat-senwas born inZhongshan, Guangdong.Hong Kong was where he developed his thoughts of revolution and was the base of subsequent uprisings, as well as the first revolutionary newspaper.Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary army was largely made up of Cantonese, and many of the early revolutionary leaders were also Cantonese.
Cantonese people and their culture are centered in Guangdong, Eastern Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau.
Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, has been one of China's international trading ports since the Tang dynasty. During the 18th century, it became an important centre of the emerging trade between China and the Western world, as part of theCanton System. The privilege during this period made Guangzhou one of the top three cities in the world.Operating from theThirteen Factorieslocated on the banks of thePearl Riveroutside Canton, merchants traded goods such assilk,porcelain("fine china") andtea, allowing Guangzhou to become a prosperous city. Links to overseas contacts and beneficial tax reforms in the 1990s have also contributed to the city's ongoing growth. Guangzhou was named aglobal cityin 2008. The migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40 percent of the city's total population in 2008. Most of them are rural migrants and they speak only standard Chinese.
Hong Kong and Macau are two of therichest cities in the world in terms of GDP per capitaand are autonomousSARs(Special Administrative Regions) that are under independent governance from China. Historically governed by theBritishandPortugueseempires respectively, colonial Hong Kong and Macau were increasingly populated by migrant influxes from mainland China, particularly the nearby Guangdong Province. For that reason, the culture of Hong Kong and Macau became a mixture of Cantonese and Western influences, sometimes described as "East meets West".
Hong Kong Islandwas first colonised by theBritish Empirein 1842 with a population of 7,450; however, it was in 1898 that Hong Kong became aBritish colony, when the British also colonised theNew Territories(which constitute 86.2% of Hong Kong's modern territory). It was during this period that migrants from China entered, mainly speaking Cantonese, the prestige variety ofYue Chinese, as a common language. During the following century of British rule, Hong Kong grew into a hub of Cantonese culture and has remained as such since thehandover in 1997.
Today Hong Kong is one of the world's leading financial centres and theHong Kong dollaris the thirteenth most-traded currency in the world.
Macau natives are known as theTanka people. A dialect similar toShiqi, originating fromZhongshanin Guangdong, is also spoken in the region.
Parts of Macau were first loaned to the Portuguese by China as a trading centre in the 16th century, with the Portuguese required to administer the city under Chinese authority. In 1851 and 1864, the Portuguese Empire occupied the two nearest offshore islandsTaipaandColoanerespectively and Macau officially became a colony of thePortuguese Empirein 1887. Macau wasreturned to Chinain 1999.
By 2002, Macau had become one of the world's richest citiesand by 2006, it had surpassedLas Vegasto become the world's biggest gambling centre.Macau is also aworld cultural heritage sitedue to its Portuguese colonial architecture.
The term "Cantonese" is used to refer to the native culture, language, and people who can trace their ancestral roots back to the city ofGuangzhou. Their influence has spread across the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
There are cultural, economic, political, generational and geographical differences in making "Cantonese-ness" in and beyond Guangdong and Guangxi, with the interacting dynamics of migration, education, social developments and cultural representations.
The term "Cantonese language" is sometimes used to refer to the broader group of Yue languages and dialects spoken in Guangdong and Guangxi, although it is used more specifically to describeGwóngjāu wah(廣州話), the prestige variant spoken inGuangzhou.Gwóngjāu wahis the main language used for education, literature and media in Hong Kong and Macau. It is still widely used in Guangzhou, despite the fact that a large proportion of the city's population is made up by migrant workers from elsewhere in China that speaknon-Cantonese variants of ChineseandStandard Chinese.Though in recent years it is slowly falling out of favour with the younger generationprompting fears in Cantonese people that the language may die out. Cantonese language's erosion in Guangzhou is due to a mix of suppression of the language and the mass migration of non-Cantonese speaking people in to the area.
Because of its tradition of usage in music, cinema, literature and newspapers, this form of Cantonese is a cultural mark of identity that distinguishes Cantonese people from speakers of other varieties of Chinese, whose languages are prohibited to have strong influences under China's Standard Mandarin policy. The pronunciation and vocabulary of Cantonese has preserved many features of the official language of the Tang dynasty with elements of theancient Yue language.Written Cantoneseis very common inmanhua, books, articles, magazines, newspapers, online chat, instant messaging, internet blogs and social networking websites.Anime,cartoonsand foreign films are also dubbed in Cantonese. Some videogames such asSleeping Dogs,Far Cry 4,Grand Theft Auto IIIandResident Evil 6have substantial Cantonese dialogues.
Cantonese people have created various schools or styles of arts, with the more prominent beingLingnan architecture,Lingnan school of painting,Canton porcelain,Cantonese opera,Cantonese music, among many others.
Architecture
Cantonese architecture or Lingnan architecture favors pale colors such as white and grey-green, demonstrates straight rather than curved roof ridges and the use of "woerlou or omega-shaped structures" at the ends, and employs open structures such as balconies, skylights and verandas to accommodate the tropical climate in the south.Buildings are also generally taller than in the north. It also features narrow structures known as "cold alleys" to promote the increase of windspeed, and thus the cooling and ventilation of buildings.
Cantopopduring its early glory had spread to mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Well-known Cantopop singers includeAndy Lau,Aaron Kwok,Joey Yung,Alan Tam,Roman Tam,Anita Mui,Danny Chan,Leslie Cheung,Jacky Cheung,Leon Lai,Sammi ChengandCoco Lee, many of whom are of Cantonese or Taishanese origin.
TheHong Kong movie industrywas the third-largest movie industry in the world (afterHollywoodandBollywood) for decades throughout the 20th century, with Cantonese-language films viewed and acclaimed around the world for its innovative style.
Cantonese popular culture through the medium Hong Kong cinema has been responsible for pioneering the development of new genres and styles and paving the path for the rest of Chinese cinema. These innovations include the development of action-comedy genre exemplified in movies such as theGod of Gamblers, the pioneering of the comedy-horror genre seen inMr Vampire,  the popularization Chinese cultivation fantasy fiction genres as seen in cult classics and experimental movies rich in special effects such asChinese Ghost StoryandZu Warriors from Magic Mountain, and leading the way for the use of complex choreography and stunts through Jackie Chan movies such asPolice Story.
Recent films includeKung Fu Hustle,Shaolin Soccer,Infernal AffairsandIp Man 3.
Cantonese cuisine is one of the "Great Eight Traditions" of Chinese cuisine, has become one of the most renowned types of cuisine around the world, characterized by its variety of cooking methods and use of fresh ingredients, particularly seafood.One of the most famous examples of Cantonese cuisine isdim sum, a variety of small and light dishes such ashar gow(steamed shrimp dumplings),siu mai(steamed pork dumplings) andcha siu bao(barbecued pork buns).
This is anincomplete listof notable Cantonese people.