The continuation of the Chaoshan ethnic group story
Where does “A Chaozhou Overseas” come from?
People often say "there is a Chaozhou overseas" to indicate the large number of Chaozhou people overseas. From Southeast Asia to the United States, Europe, and Oceania, the spread of Chaozhou people's footprints is an important part of Chinese overseas immigration and a continuation of the story of the Chaoshan ethnic group.
Swing to nothing, pass Siam
When did hipsters start to immigrate overseas? Some individual cases may be traced back to the Tang and Song dynasties. Yang Wanli, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote in Chaozhou, "Soon my eyes were filled with merchant boats, and endless blue waves stuck to the sky. It was just like the view from the Qiantang River, except that there were no raindrops on Haimen Mountain." Chaozhou merchants who traveled on the sea went to Southeast Asia when the north wind blew in autumn and winter, spent the winter there, and returned home when the southwest monsoon started. This was called "wintering." Huang Xiaojian, an expert in overseas Chinese studies, believes that although there is no clear record of the Chaozhou people settling overseas at that time, this is possible. Afterwards, the relationship between the maritime armed groups along the coast of Chaozhou in the Ming Dynasty and the imperial court became uncertain, and some of them fled to Southeast Asia to settle down.
The geographical location of Chaoshan provides natural convenience for Chaoshan people to go out to sea. In the Preface to Sending Off Minister Zheng in August, Han Yu recorded that "the barbarians are fierce and frivolous... The southern states are all on the coast of the sea, with many islands. In a day, with a sail, you can travel thousands of miles, and the waves will make you lose your trace." If you go out to sea by boat, you can "lose your trace." This was the awareness held by the Chaozhou natives who had not yet been fully civilized in the Tang Dynasty. Chaoshan experienced "Hokkienization" during the Song Dynasty and ushered in the prosperity of traditional Confucian culture in the Central Plains. The farming-based culture has the idea of being rooted in the land.
The large-scale emigration of Chaozhou people to live abroad did not begin until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In the 12th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1746), as the land pressure caused by the increase in manpower became increasingly obvious, the Qing government slightly relaxed the maritime ban and allowed residents in coastal areas to engage in rice and timber trade. The sails of the "red-headed ships" were inflated, thus generating the first wave of Chaoshan immigration overseas.
Scholars who study population migration believe that the main reasons affecting immigration are: the push of the place of departure, which is mainly the economic factors of the place of departure; the attraction of the place of destination, which is mainly manifested in the attraction of the living space of the place of destination to immigrants; the mediating factors between the place of destination and the place of departure, which is mainly manifested in the geographical relationship between the place of departure and the place of destination; and the influence of psychological and cultural factors on immigrants.
According to the "Chaoshan Prefecture Chronicle", during the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, there were 248 disasters such as floods, winds, locusts, plagues and earthquakes in various counties of Chaoshan. There were records of "selling wives and abandoning children, starving people on the streets, and even eight out of ten people committing suicide or migrating away." In the late Qing Dynasty, Chaoshan was densely populated, had a small land area, a turbulent situation, and frequent disasters. Going to Southeast Asia was a last resort.
There are a large number of Chaozhou folk songs about going overseas. "A stream of tears, a boatload of people, and a bath towel to go overseas. Money and silver should be sent back to people, and not forgotten. Parents and wives should be kept in the same room. The fireboat sailed across the seven oceans, and I could not see my hometown when I looked back. Good or bad, it all depends on fate, and I don't know when I will return to the cold kiln." "The big wood we carried, the work we did day and night, and the broken hut we lived in were truly worse than shrimps."...
Free immigrants who were forced to make a living could still fight for hope, but "piglet laborers" suffered in extreme misery.
Lin Dachuan of the Qing Dynasty wrote in Volume 8 of his notes "Han Jiang Ji": "During January and February of the Wuwu year of the Xianfeng period (1858), there were dozens of foreign ships that bought innocent people to cross the ocean. They were called 'Guo Gu Li'. At first they bought them at a low price, then they lured them, and then they plundered them." According to incomplete statistics, from 1852 to 1858, as many as 40,000 "piglets" were smuggled overseas from Nan'ao and Mayu. There were approximately 8,000 bodies of Chinese workers abandoned on the beach of Mayu Island, accounting for about 20%, not including those who committed suicide by jumping into the sea.
Zeng Jinming, chairman of the Teochew Trade Union of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, was born in 1959. He is the youngest child in the family and was born in Malaysia. When he was a child, Zeng Jinming's home was often occupied by many fellow Chaoshan people who came there to work. Zeng Jinming thought his father was amazing for being able to bring his wife and children over at that time. Many Chaoshan people who went to Southeast Asia were separated from their families. During festivals, some fellow townsmen would "borrow" Zeng Jinming, the sixth child, from his father to join in the fun.
In 1860, Britain and France forced the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Beijing, which stated that it was allowed to recruit Chinese workers to go abroad and the trafficking of "piglets" by foreigners was officially legalized. At the same time, Shantou was officially opened as a port, and foreigners set up nearly 30 companies in Shantou to recruit Chinese workers to go abroad. According to the Shantou Customs Chronicle, from 1864 to 1911, the number of people from Chaoshan who went abroad to make a living reached 2.94 million. The situation of "piglet labor" continued until the Xinhai Revolution, which was the second wave of Chaoshan people immigrating overseas.
Among the overseas Chinese communities that took shape from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, Teochew people were concentrated in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Afterwards, the Chaozhou people gradually moved to Southeast Asia to escape the war and seek political asylum caused by the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. The prototype of "a Chaozhou overseas" gradually began to take shape.
From falling leaves to returning to their roots to taking root
In 1844, in Jinsha Village, Shangputu (now Jinsha Township, Caitang Town, Chao'an), Chen Yuyi, a young boy who lost his father at a young age and lived a hard life, was "sold as a pig" to work as a coolie in Pahang, Malaysia. After paying off the debt of "selling piglets", he changed his business to selling cloth and hawking his wares on the streets.
Chen Yuyi left a good impression on the local residents because of his upright character, fair business practices, handsome youth, and witty and infectious conversation. While doing business, he was appreciated by the Malay nobleman Temenggong Abu Bakar, who became brothers with him despite the disparity in their status. Later, he married Abu Bakar's cousin and was called "the foreign prince consort" by the Chaozhou people. The name "Chen Xunian" which was mistakenly reported by local media replaced "Chen Yuyi" and became the legendary symbol of the rise of the trendsetter. Afterwards, Chen Xu Nian developed Johor and became the largest port owner on the Malay Peninsula, in charge of the export of gambier and pepper, etc. In 1870, the construction of Cong Xi Ancestral Hall began. Chen Xunian's unsparing investment and the ingenuity of Chaozhou craftsmen made this magnificent ancestral hall a reality.
Not every foreign guest has the talent and luck of Chen Xunian, who can spend a lot of money to make a fortune. For more foreign visitors and their families, each letter from overseas Chinese is the thread that maintains family ties and economic ties in turbulent times. From the data in Chen Zhifang's "A Casual Talk on the Chaoshan Folk Remittance Industry", it can be obtained that in 1934, the peak period of the development of the Chaoshan overseas Chinese remittance industry, the average monthly number of remittances in Shantou City was 183,744 letters, and the monthly amount of remittances was 2,759,730 silver yuan.
There is a proverb in Xiabeishe, Longdu Town, Chenghai: "Gu Zhai carries ash spoons, Tanwei makes oyster dustpans, Houchen eats foreign money, Zhaitou wears mats, Longwei chisels big coins, Houbang makes dustpans, He Xi cuts calloused ribs, and the money overflows from the East Office." The "Houchen eats foreign money" refers to the fact that Houchen Village relies on overseas remittances to survive. There is nothing you can do about Siam, but you can always find a way out. The Chaoshan immigrants migrated south from the Central Plains, wandering all the way, always struggling with the land, natural disasters, and man-made calamities, always looking for a way out, always looking for the next piece of wild land waiting to be developed.
Huang Xiaojian believes that overseas Chaoren immigrants generally engage in business and participate in economic and business activities at different levels in their local areas. Since it was mainly distributed in Southeast Asia in the early stage, it played a very important role in the economic and social development of Southeast Asia.
Chen Xuonian played a supporting role in the economy of the Johor Kingdom at that time and was one of the main sources of finance and taxation for the Kingdom. When the Sultan of Johor encountered an economic crisis, he helped Johor overcome the difficulties. After 1875, Chen Xunian moved from Johor to Singapore. He invited craftsmen from Teochew and transported raw materials. According to the specifications and style of the Congxi Temple, he built the "Zi Zheng Di" between Clemenceau Road and Penang Road, which was listed as the fifth oldest building in the country. Three Chaozhou businessmen, Chen Bicheng, Xie Guomin and Su Xuming, have successively ascended the throne of the richest man in Thailand; in Singapore, "paint tycoon" Wu Qingliang has been on the Singapore rich list many times; in addition to Southeast Asia, Chaozhou people have also appeared as the richest Chinese in Europe, Canada and other places.
The accumulation and struggle of generations. Back then, "making money abroad is a blessing", and even if you make money, you still have to return to your roots. Even if you became a rich man overseas and struggled all your life, Chen Xunian finally chose to spend his old age in Chaozhou. Afterwards, more and more Chaozhou people chose to settle down and use family as a bond to help more Chaozhou people make a living in Southeast Asia. Chen Limei, the second son of Chen Cihong, inherited the past and opened up the future in the development history of the Hongli family. Because fellow villagers who came to Thailand to make a living could take Hongli’s ships for free, and when they arrived in Thailand, they were also provided with many conveniences such as employment, food and accommodation, so there is a proverb that "It's nice to enjoy the cool at the foot of Meizuo Mountain."
Zhou Guiyang, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and executive committee member of the Chaozhou Association of Thailand, was born in Chaozhou in 1975. He set his sights on the Thai market in the 1990s. When he was a child, "a Chaozhou overseas" was already a very clear existence. Zhou Guishun’s great-grandfather was a first-generation foreign immigrant who settled in Thailand. By the time of Zhou Guishun’s grandfather’s generation, the family’s financial situation had improved, and Zhou Guishun’s grandfather chose to stay in Chaozhou as a teacher. After retirement, he worked in the Chaozhou Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. The impression of "a Chaozhou overseas" first appeared in Zhou Guishun's living room. "At that time, there were always many overseas Chinese coming to our house. I didn't understand when I was young. They just came to eat candy. As I listened, I gradually learned about the life in Southeast Asia."
According to Huang Daiguang, chairman of the Chaozhou Association of Thailand, there are currently between 7 million and 8 million Chaozhou people in Thailand. Zhou Guiyang said: "The second and third generation of Teochew and overseas Chinese have achieved relatively high positions in many fields in Thailand, and they are also relatively positive. Therefore, we Teochew and Chinese can also be treated equally in Thailand, and no one will look down on us."