page_title: Fuzhou Tanka
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Fuzhou Tanka / Society
caption_attribution_description: English: Distribution of the Fuzhou Tanka people 中文（简体）‎: 福州疍民的分布区域 Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄: Hók-ciŭ Dáng-mìng gì Hŭng-buó.
context_page_description: Fuzhou Tanka, or Fuzhou Boat People, is an ethnic group in Fujian, China. A branch of the Tanka people, they traditionally lived on sampans in the lower course of Min River and the coast of Fuzhou in Fujian Province most of their lives and have been officially recognized as Han Chinese since 1955.
context_section_description: Traditionally, Fuzhou Tanka people lived on boats in most of their lives. They were severely discriminated by land living Fuzhounese residents. Their life depended on fishing and ferrying, and most of them remained poor and uneducated before the founding of Republic of China. Fuzhou Tanka people had a rich tradition of folk music, especially call and response. They also had different views on chastity and remarriage from the land living Han Chinese. Pre-marital sex and remarriage were not restricted in their society. Due to the discriminatory policy imposed by the land living Han majority, Fuzhou Tanka were forced to dress themselves in a humble way to show their inferiority to the land residents.
  By the second half of the 19th century, many Tanka people had already been converted to Roman Catholicism. Some of these Catholic Tanka consequently moved onto land under the protection of the Catholic Church. In the Republic of China era, the ethnic egalitarianism was guaranteed by law. Since the 1950s, the Communist government began to resettle Fuzhou Tanka to land dwellings. As a result, many Fuzhou Tanka villages were built along the Min River and the coast. Nowadays, most Fuzhou Tanka people have abandoned their traditional waterborne lives and intermarriage is common. Their traditions, such as Fuzhou Tanka folk music, are under threat as well.
caption: Distribution of the Fuzhou Tanka people in China.
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