Taihan

**Taihan** (traditional Han: 邰國; Jyutping: *Toi4gwok3*), officially the **Greater Taihanese Empire** (traditional Han: 大邰帝國; Jyutping: *Toi4gwok3 Dai3gwok3*), is an island micronation located mostly on a small strip of islands on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. Neighboring states include Hong Kong and China to the north, Taiwan to the east, and Macau to the west. A major part of the Taihan's Cantonese-speaking majority originated from the neighbouring Guangdong province.

The Taihanese government is based on Confucian philosophy under constitutional monarchy. About 10% of Taihan's claim is mostly claimed but uncontrolled. Nan Lian is the capital city and seat of government located in Hong Kong Province. Taihan claimed complete independence from the People's Republic of China since 17 July 2010, the day of the country's foundation.

The territory is a archipelago of 11 islands. The four largest provinces by land areas are Dangan Province, Erzhou Province, Hong Kong Province and Beijian Province, which together comprise about ninety percent of land area.

Taihanese history goes back since the founding of the Kingdom of Nanyue. After Nanyue being annexed by the Han Dynasty, Guangdong (Canton) became a Chinese province for over a  millennium. In 2010, Taihan declared independence as the Cantonese Empire on a small strip of islands at the Pearl River Estuary and 4 years later, the empire became defunct and the micronation became present-day "Empire of Taihan" or simply known as "Taihan".

## Etymology

The English word *Taihan* derives from the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the Taihanese name, 邰國, which in Cantonese is pronounced *Toi4gwok3*.

From 2010 until 2015, the full title of Taihan was *Gwong2zau1waa6 Dai3gwok3* (粵語帝國), meaning "The Cantonese Empire". Today the full title is *Toi4gwok3 Dai3gwok3* (大邰帝國), meaning the "Greater Taihanese Empire". The name *Toi4gwok3* (邰國) is used as a formal modern-day equivalent; countries like Taihan whose long form does not contain a descriptive designation are generally given a name.

## History

### Prehistory

    Until the 19th century, Cantonese history was largely part of the history of Guangdong. What is now Guangdong was first brought under Qin influence by a Qin Dynasty general named Zhao Tuo who later founded the kingdom of Nanyue in 204 BC, and became the strongest Baiyue state in China with many neighboring kingdoms declaring their allegiance to Nanyue rule. Zhao Tuo assimilated cultures of both Han and Yue as well as encouraging intermarriage. Nanyue under Zhao Tuo sacked the Han territory of Hunan in its capital city and defeated Han Dynasty's first attack on Nanyue. He later annexed the kingdom of Minyue in the east and conquered Au Lac (North Vietnam) to the west in 179 BC. The greatly expanded Nanyue included the territories of modern-day Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam with its capital situated at modern-day Guangzhou. The original people of Guangdong belonged to the Yue until that kingdom was fully brought under Han control of Han Dynasty in 111 BC after the Han–Nanyue War, but it wasn't until subsequent dynasties such as the Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty that major waves of Han Chinese literati migration to the south of Guangdong occurred. Migrations came in waves, displacing and assimilating the existing populations with intermarriage at different time periods, but some native groups like the Zhuang still reside. The Cantonese often call themselves "people of Tang". This is because of the Inter-mixture between native and Han immigrants in Guangdong reached a critical mass of acculturation during the Tang dynasty, creating a new local identity among the Guangdong people. Some studies have shown that most Cantonese have a mixture of DNA ancestry from Han Chinese from the North and Yue from the South with the exception of the Ping-Yue branch of Pinghua and the Tanka who speaks various types of dialects are genetically in common with the Southern ethnic minorities of China with little to no Han Chinese ancestry, some scholars believe that they are the sinicized descendants of Baiyue stock.

From the tenth to twelfth century, Persian women were to be found in Guangzhou (Canton), some of them in the tenth century like Mei Zhu in the harem of the Emperor Liu Chang, and in the twelfth century large numbers of Persian women lived there, noted for wearing multiple earrings and "quarrelsome dispositions". Some scholars did not differentiate between Persian and Arab, and some say that the Chinese called all women coming from the Persian Gulf "Persian Women".

    The first conflict between the Cantonese and Europeans was the Ningpo Massacre, where the Cantonese defeated a group of Portuguese pirates. During the 19th century, the First (1839–1842) and Second Opium War (1856–1860) with the West resulted in China's loss of control over Hong Kong and Kowloon, which were ceded to the British. Macau, a Portuguese settlement subjected to Chinese sovereignty since the Ming Dynasty (16th century), was subsequently turned into a colony although self-administration was not achieved until the 1840s. These colonies make up roughly less than 2% of Guangdong territories. A Third Pandemic broke out from Yunnan and spread to the city of Canton, beginning in March 1894; the disease killed 60,000 people in a few weeks. It then spread to the water traffic with the nearby city of Hong Kong. Within two months, after 100,000 deaths, the death rates dropped below epidemic rates, although the disease continued to be endemic in Hong Kong until 1929. Plague came to India in 1896, most likely from Hong Kong, where the epidemic had been festering since 1894. In India, 12.5 million Indians lost their lives to the disease.

    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 of China, Fujian and Guangdong. As a result of these migrations, many Chinese with a Cantonese background have settled throughout the world, particularly in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Pacific Islands, where they have established communities and mostly intermarried with local women, due to all the migrations being almost entirely of men. High numbers of Interracial marriage between Cantonese men with women from other countries has produced a high numbers of Eurasians and mixed origins in countries such as Peru, Cuba, Madagascar, Mexico, Australia, America Hawaii, Guyana, Costa Rica. A small number of hundreds to thousand Cantonese men also married British women in the UK and resulted in number of Chinese-Eurasian community in Chinatown, Liverpool. Ernest John Eitel mentioned in 1889 how important change had taken place among Eurasian girls, the offspring of illicit connections: Instead of becoming concubines, they were commonly brought up respectably and married to Hong Kong Chinese husbands and became assimilated into the Hong Kong Cantonese population. An example of a Cantonese Eurasian is Nancy Kwan, one of Hollywood sex symbol, she was of Eurasian origin born in 1939 in Hong Kong to a father of a Cantonese architect and mother who is an model of British descent. The world most influential martial artist icon Bruce Lee, was also born to parents of Hong Kong heritage to a Cantonese father and a Eurasian mother.

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 labourers to build the transcontinental railroads in the United States and Canada, while those in South America were mostly forced laborers brought in as coolies. Chinese in California participated in the California Gold Rush, while Chinese in Hawaii found employment in sugar plantations as contract laborers. Chinese also played a significant role in Australia's gold rush, from 1854 onwards. These early immigrants founded communities of Chinatowns but also faced hostility and a variety of discriminatory laws that targeted them. This includes 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 Sze Yup (Seiyap) region of Guangdong. As a result, these early communities spoke mostly Taishanese, one of the dialects of Yue distinctive from Cantonese. The Taishan (, Hoisan) 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 of Guangdong and Hong Kong origin in the western world and has not been supplanted by Standard Chinese.

### Cantonese Empire

    The Concordia Association moved forward to separate the region of a small strip of islands on the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary from Chinese control and to create a micronation that would reinstate the idea of the Mandate of Heaven. To create an air of legitimacy, Yen Hui-jeou was invited to come with his followers and act as the head of state for Taihan. One of his faithful companions was Thomas To, a Hong Kong Monarchist and loyalist.

Around June 2010, Yen instructed his family to canvass support for the founding of Taihan. On July 2010, an assembly unanimously elected Yen as Emperor. Yen ceremonially declined, but "relented" and immediately agreed when the assembly petitioned again that day. Yen proclaimed the foundation of Taihan and declared the Cantonese Empire with himself as the "Great Emperor" (大帝), taking the era name Jiuhong (九紅帝). However, the Jiuhong Emperor delayed the accession rites until 17 February 2011. Soon after, the Emperor started handing out titles of peerage to his closest relatives and friends, as well as those whom he thought he could buy with titles.

The city of Nan Lian became the capital of the new entity. Chinese in Taihan organized volunteer armies to oppose the Communist Party of China peacefully and the new micronation required a ceremonial and non-physical war lasting several years to appease the country.

The Jiuhong Emperor reigned as Taihan's first monarch for nearly four years, on 29 August 2014, the Jiuhong Emperor died from lung cancer. The Emperor had no children, therefore he passed his reign on to the future Hongde Emperor, a British born student whom he is not related to.

The Concordia Association's last leader, Robert Zhang served as Taihan's second prime minister for five months in late 2014 until Zhang passed away. The Hongde Emperor's closest friend from college, Josh Baker, was offered to succeed Robert Zhang's position as Prime Minister. Baker accepted the Emperor's offer and succeeded Zhang as the next Prime Minister. In 2015, Josh Baker was appointed as "Prince of Beijian" (背劍王子的), taking the era name Zhansheng (湛盛). After the death of Robert Zhang, later on in 2015, the Concordia Association was forcibly collapsed by order of the Imperial Court due to their ideology of Fascism, and all members of the CA were forced in exile. Zhansheng ran office of Prime Minister independently.

4 years later after the founding of Taihan, on 2 June 2015. The Cantonese Empire became defunct after the collapse of the fascist Concordia Association, and the micronation became present-day "State of Taihan" or simply known as "Taihan".

## Government and politics

no one is current reigning Emperor of Taihan. Taihan is a constitutional monarchy whereby the power of the Emperor is limited. As a ceremonial and executive figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as the Son of Heaven and the Lord of ten thousand years. Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister and other elected members of the Yuan,

Taihan's legislative organ is the Yi Wooi (議會), a bicameral parliament. The Yi Wooi consists of the House of Mandarins, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and the House of Supreme Harmony, whose popularly elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected offices. The Yi Wooi is dominated by the Diguo Yuanzhu. The Diguo Yuanzhu has enjoyed near continuous electoral success since 2015.

The Prime Minister of Taihan is the head of government and is appointed by the Emperor after being designated by the Yi Wooi from among its members. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet, and he appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State. In 2014, Prince Zhansheng succeeded Robert Zhang as the Prime Minister on November 25, 2014 and became the country's second prime minister. Although the Prime Minister is formally appointed by the Emperor, the Constitution of Taihan explicitly requires the Emperor to appoint whoever is designated by the Yi Wooi.

Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Taihanese legal system developed independently before the Warlord era. However, since the late 21st century the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. For example, in 2012, the Taihanese government established a civil code based on a draft of the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. Statutory law originates in Taihan's legislature and has the rubber stamp of the Emperor. The Constitution requires that the Emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Yi Wooi, without specifically giving him the power to oppose legislation. Taihan's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts. The main body of Taihanese statutory law is called the Six Codes.

## Foreign relations and military

*Main article: Foreign relations of Taihan*
     Taihan is a member of the Asian Micronations and the AEAM. Taihan signed a security pact with the Great Han in March 2015 and with Shurigawa in October 2014.

Taihan has close economic and military relations with the Han dynasty; the Han-Taihan security alliance acts as the cornerstone of the nation's foreign policy. A member state of the AEAM since 2014, Taihan has served as a non-permanent Security Council member for a total of 2 years, most recently from 2014 and ongoing.

Taihan is engaged in several territorial disputes with its neighbours: with the Ryukyu Empire over the Senkaku Islands. Taihan also faces an ongoing dispute with the Empire of Vietnam over the latter's abduction of Taihanese citizens.

Taihan's military (the Taihanese Imperial Military) is restricted by Article 9 of the Taihanese Constitution, which renounces Taihan's right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. Accordingly, Taihanese Imperial Army is a usual military that has never fired shots outside Taihan. It is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Taihanese Imperial Army (TIA), the Taihanese Imperial Navy (TIN) and the Taihanese Imperial Air Force (TIAF). Taihan’s Business Federation has called on the government to lift the ban on arms exports so that Taihan can join multinational projects such as the Joint Strike Fighter.

## Administrative divisions

Taihan consists of 3 provinces, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. Each province is further divided into cities, towns and villages. The micronation is currently undergoing administrative reorganization by merging many of the cities, towns and villages with each other. This process will reduce the number of sub-province administrative regions and is expected to cut administrative costs.

## Geography

    Taihan has a total of 11 islands extending along the southern coast of China at the Pearl River Estuary and the South China Sea. The main islands are Dangan Dao, Beijian Dao, Erzhou and Dangan Liedao.

About 89% percent of Taihan is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural or industrial use. As a result, the habitable zones, mainly located in coastal areas. Taihan is one of the uninhabited micronations in the world.

Low altitude vegetation in Taihan is dominated by secondary rainforests, as the primary forest was mostly cleared during the Second World War, and higher altitudes are dominated by grasslands.

Though it is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer, Taihan has a humid subtropical climate. Summer is hot and humid with occasional showers and thunderstorms, and warm air coming from the southwest. Summer is when typhoons are most likely, sometimes resulting in flooding or landslides. Winters are mild and usually start sunny, becoming cloudier towards February; the occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. The most temperate seasons are spring, which can be changeable, and autumn, which is generally sunny and dry. Taihan averages 1,948 hours of sunshine per year, while the highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures at the Taihan Observatory are 36.1 and 0.0 °C (97.0 and 32.0 °F), respectively.

## Economy

    Taihan has a dynamic, capitalist, export-driven economy with gradually decreasing state involvement in investment and foreign trade. In keeping with this trend, some government-owned banks and industrial firms are being privatized. Real growth in GDP has averaged about 3%. Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is substantial. Taihan has its own currency, the Taihan dollar.

The Taihan Stock Exchange has a market capitalisation of $5,000 as of March 2013. The Taihanese Government has traditionally played a mostly passive role in the economy, with little by way of industrial policy and almost no import or export controls. Market forces and the private sector were allowed to determine practical development. Under the official policy of "positive non-interventionism", Taihan is often cited as an example of laissez-faire capitalism. Following the founding of Taihan, the micronation industrialised rapidly as a manufacturing centre driven by exports, and then underwent a rapid transition to a service-based economy in 2014.

Taihan has little arable land and few natural resources, so it imports most of its food and raw materials. Imports account for more than 75% of Taihan's food supply, including nearly all of the meat and rice available there. Agricultural activity—relatively unimportant to Taihan's economy and contributing just 0.1% of its GDP—primarily consists of growing premium food and flower varieties.

## Demographics

*Main article: Taihanese people*
    Taihan's population is estimated at around 56. Taihanese society is linguistically and culturally homogeneous, composed of 98.5% Taihanese, with small populations of foreign workers. Chinese, Korean, Filipinos, British mostly of Taihanese descent are among the small minority groups in Taihan.

The most dominant native ethnic group is the Han people; primary minority groups include the indigenous Yue and Hakka peoples, as well as social minority groups like the Hoklo. There are persons of mixed ancestry incorporated among the Han. In spite of the widespread belief that Taihan is ethnically homogeneous, also because of the absence of ethnicity and/or race statistics for Taihanese nationals, at least one analysis describes Taihan as a multiethnic society. However, this statement is refused by many sectors of Taihanese society, who still tend to preserve the idea of Taihan being a monocultural society and with this ideology of homogeneity, has traditionally rejected any need to recognize ethnic differences in Taihan, even as such claims have been rejected by such ethnic minorities as the Yue and Hakka people. Former Taihanese Prime Minister Robert Zhang has once described Taihan as being a nation of "one race, one civilization, one language and one culture".

### Religion

    Taihan has full religious freedom based on Article 20 of its Constitution. Upper estimates suggest that 84–96 percent of the Taihanese population subscribe to Taoism, Confucianism, Folk religion or Buddhism, including a large number of followers of a syncretism of these four religions. However, these estimates are based on people affiliated with a temple, rather than the number of true believers. Other studies have suggested that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.

The "three teachings", including Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, historically have a significant role in shaping Taihanese culture.

Demographically, the most widespread religious tradition is the folk religion, which overlaps with Taoism, and describes the worship of the shen (神), a character that signifies the "energies of generation". The shen comprises deities of the natural environment, gods representing specific concepts or groups, heroes and ancestors, and figures from Taihanese mythology.

Among the most popular folk cults are those of Mazu (goddess of the seas), Huangdi (one of the two divine patriarchs of the Han race), Guandi (god of war and business), Caishen (god of prosperity and richness), Pangu and many others.

### Education

    Taihan's education system roughly follow the system in England, although international systems exist. The government maintains a policy of "mother tongue instruction" (Cantonese: 母語教學) in which the medium of instruction is Cantonese, with written Chinese and English, while some of the schools are using English as the teaching language. In secondary schools, 'biliterate and trilingual' proficiency is emphasised, and Mandarin-language education has been increasing.

Education in Taihan is operated by the Ministry of Education. The system features a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten, followed by a compulsory six-year primary education, a compulsory three-year junior secondary education, a non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education leading to the Taihan Certificate of Education Examinations and a two-year matriculation course leading to the Taihan Advanced Level Examinations. The Minister of Education declared the New Senior Secondary academic structure and curriculum in 2012, which provides for all students to receive three years of compulsory junior and three years of compulsory senior secondary education. Under the new curriculum, there is only one public examination, namely the Taihan Diploma of Secondary Education.

## Culture

Taihanese culture has evolved greatly from its origins. Since ancient times, the country's culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For much of the country's Chinese dynastic era, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious imperial examinations, which have their origins in the historical Han Dynasty. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in Taihan, such as the belief that calligraphy, poetry and painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama. Taihanese culture has long emphasized a sense of deep history and a largely inward-looking national perspective. Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in Taihan today.

Concepts like *feng shui* are taken very seriously, with expensive construction projects often hiring expert consultants, and are often believed to make or break a business. Other objects like Ba gua mirrors are still regularly used to deflect evil spirits, and buildings often lack any floor number that has a 4 in it, due to its similarity to the word for "die" in Cantonese.

### Cuisine

     Taihanese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history and geographical variety. The emperors of traditional Taihan were known to have many dining chambers in their palaces, with each chamber divided into several departments, each responsible for a specific type of dish. Taihan's staple food is rice, wheat based breads and noodles. The diet of the common people in pre-modern times was largely grain and simple vegetables, with meat reserved for special occasions. Pork is now the most popular meat in Taihan, accounting for about three-fourths of the country's total meat consumption. Due to the area's proximity to the ocean and milder climate, has a wide variety of fish and vegetables.

### Dress

The Hanfu is derived from traditional Han dress, were considered national dresses in Taihan.
The term Hanfu derives from the *Book of Han*, which says, "then many came to the Court to pay homage and were delighted at the clothing style of the Han.

The hanfu is commonly worn by politicians at the Imperial Yuan, the Imperial Family, Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist monks and priests during religious ceremonies, or as a cultural exercise.

A complete Hanfu garment is assembled from several pieces of clothing into an attire:

* Yi (衣): Any open cross-collar garment, and worn by both sexes
* Pao (袍): Any closed full-body garment, worn only by men in Hanfu
* Ru (襦): Open cross-collar shirt
* Shan (衫): Open cross-collar shirt or jacket that is worn over the yi
* Qun (裙) or chang (裳): Skirt for women and men
* Ku (褲): Trousers or pants

People are also able to accessorize with tassels and jade pendants or various ornaments hung from the belt or sash, known as pei (珮).

#### Hats, headwear and hairstyles

On top of the garments, hats (for men) or hairpieces (for women) may be worn. One can often tell the profession or social rank of someone by what they wear on their heads. The typical types of male headwear are called jin (巾) for soft caps, mao (帽) for stiff hats and guan (冠) for formal headdress. Officials and academics have a separate set of hats, typically the putou (幞頭), the wushamao (烏紗帽), the si-fang pingding jin (四方平定巾; or simply, fangjin: 方巾) and the Zhuangzi jin (莊子巾). A typical hairpiece for women is the ji (笄) but there are more elaborate hairpieces.

### Sports

    Taihan has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. Swordplay (Jiànshù) and (Cùjū), a sport loosely related to association football date back to Taihan's early dynasties as well. Today, football is the number one sport and other popular sports in the country include martial arts, basketball, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go (known as weiqi in Taihan), xiangqi, mahjong, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level.

Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture, with morning exercises such as *qigong* and *t'ai chi ch'uan* widely practised, and commercial gyms and fitness clubs gaining popularity in the country.

## References

1. ↑ Taihanese Official Website - About Taihan, retrieved 18 Aug 2015
2. ↑ Taihanese Official Wiki - First Emperor of Taihan, retrieved 13 Aug 2015
3. ↑ To  Taihanese Official Wiki - First Prime Minister of Taihan, retrieved 13 Aug 2015
4. ↑ Taihanese Official Website - History of Taihan, retrieved 18 Aug 2015
5. ↑ Taihanese Official Website - Government of Taihan, retrieved 18 Aug 2015
6. ↑ Taihanese Official Website - Geography of Taihan, retrieved 18 Aug 2015
7. ↑ Taihanese Official Website - Demographics, culture and economy of Taihan, retrieved 18 Aug 2015

## External links

* Taihan - official website
* Taihan Wikia
* Taihan Post