Taishan (Taishanese:
Hoisan [hɔi˨san˧]; Chinese: 台山;
CantoneseCantonese sensu stricto, also known as Canton dialect or Guangzhou dialect, is the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese , especially when pronounced with a Canton City accent...
: Toisan; Mandarin: Taishan; Other: Toishan, Toisaan) is a coastal
county-level cityA county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....
in Guangdong Province,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The city is located in the
Pearl River DeltaThe Pearl River Delta in southern People's Republic of China is the low-lying area alongside the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Since economic liberalisation was adopted by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the delta has become one of the leading...
, southwest of
JiangmenJiangmen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 3.8 million.- History :The port of Jiangmen, previously romanised as Kong-Moon, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined...
(to which it administratively belongs) and 140 kilometers west of
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, with a population of approximately 1 million. It contains 95
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
s and islets, including the largest island in Guangdong,
Shangchuan IslandShangchuan Island is an island on the southern coast of China, part of the Guangdong province, in the South China Sea...
. It is one of four county-level cities in an area known as
Sze YupSze Yup, Sze Yap, Seiyap or Si Yi refers to the four counties of Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping and Enping in the Pearl River Delta, in southern Guangdong Province, China...
.
Because it is estimated that over 75% of all
overseas ChineseOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese." As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.
Taishanese speak the
Taishan dialectTaishanese is a dialect of Yue. It is mainly spoken in and around Taishan, a county-level city situated southwest of Guangzhou on the coast of Guangdong province...
of Chinese.
Taishan (Taishanese:
Hoisan [hɔi˨san˧]; Chinese: 台山;
CantoneseCantonese sensu stricto, also known as Canton dialect or Guangzhou dialect, is the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese , especially when pronounced with a Canton City accent...
: Toisan; Mandarin: Taishan; Other: Toishan, Toisaan) is a coastal
county-level cityA county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....
in Guangdong Province,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The city is located in the
Pearl River DeltaThe Pearl River Delta in southern People's Republic of China is the low-lying area alongside the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Since economic liberalisation was adopted by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the delta has become one of the leading...
, southwest of
JiangmenJiangmen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 3.8 million.- History :The port of Jiangmen, previously romanised as Kong-Moon, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined...
(to which it administratively belongs) and 140 kilometers west of
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
, with a population of approximately 1 million. It contains 95
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
s and islets, including the largest island in Guangdong,
Shangchuan IslandShangchuan Island is an island on the southern coast of China, part of the Guangdong province, in the South China Sea...
. It is one of four county-level cities in an area known as
Sze YupSze Yup, Sze Yap, Seiyap or Si Yi refers to the four counties of Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping and Enping in the Pearl River Delta, in southern Guangdong Province, China...
.
Because it is estimated that over 75% of all
overseas ChineseOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese." As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.
Taishanese speak the
Taishan dialectTaishanese is a dialect of Yue. It is mainly spoken in and around Taishan, a county-level city situated southwest of Guangzhou on the coast of Guangdong province...
of Chinese. Before the
1980sThe 1980s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989.The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies...
, Taishanese was the predominant Chinese language spoken throughout North America's
ChinatownA Chinatown is a section of an urban area with a large number of Chinese residents, usually outside of Greater China. Chinatowns are present throughout the world, including those in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe....
s. It is the de facto language of Taishan.
History
On February 12, 1499 in the 12th year of the reign of the emperor Hongzhi during the
Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
, Taishan was founded as
Xinning County (新宁县) from land in the southwest of
XinhuiXinhui is a City district of the City of Jiangmen in the province of Guangdong in southern China. Xinhui has a population of about 735,500.-Administration:...
County. Xinning has also been romanized as Sunning, Sinning, Hsinning, Hsînnîng, and Llin-nen.
From 1854 to 1867 a
genocidal warPunti-Hakka Clan Wars or Hakka-Punti Clan Wars refers to battles or conflicts between the Hakka and the Punti in Guangdong, China, between 1855 and 1867, during the Qing Dynasty. The wars were particularly fierce in the area around Pearl River Delta, especially Taishan of Sze Yup...
broke out mainly in Taishan County between the
PuntiThe Punti, a rough transliteration of the Cantonese term for "original locality," refers to the Cantonese-speaking populations of Guangdong province in southern China...
and Hakka people with disastrous results for both sides.
In 1914, Xinning was renamed Taishan to avoid confusion with the Xinnings of
Hunan' is a province of China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
and
Sichuan' is a province in Southwestern China with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, 四川 , is an abbreviation of 四川路 , or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from 川峡四路 , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the...
. Unfortunately it is now confused in English with
Taishan MountainMount Tai is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an, in Shandong Province, China. The tallest peak is Jade Emperor Peak , which is commonly reported as 1545 metres tall, but is described by the Chinese government as 1532.7 metres .Mount Tai is one...
in
ShandongFor the people of Shandong, see Shandong people' is a coastal province of eastern People's Republic of China. Its abbreviation is Lǔ, after the state of Lu that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
Province.
On April 17, 1992, Taishan's status was upgraded from county (县) to
county-level cityA county-level city is a county-level administrative division of mainland China. County-level cities are usually governed by prefecture-level divisions, but a few are governed directly by province-level divisions....
(县级市).
Education
Education in the city of Taishan enjoys significant support from
overseas ChineseOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
professionals and businessmen. Many secondary schools were built and financed by Chinese living in the SAR (Hong Kong and Macau) and various foreign countries, such as the US, Canada and Brazil. To their credit, almost no strings are attached to their beneficence.
To honor their benefactors, these schools often bear their names or the names of their parents. An outstanding example is the Pengquan Middle School (鹏权中学), which was constructed during 1999–2001, and is now integrated into the city's public school system. It is situated on the west side of the city, and was built by a Hong Kong businessman.
Primary and secondary education is generally excellent for the region.
The only university is the
Deng Xiaoping-eraIn September 1976, after Mao Zedong's death, the People's Republic of China was left with no central authority figure, either symbolically or administratively. The Gang of Four was dismantled, but Hua Guofeng continued to persist on Mao-era policies. After a bloodless power struggle, Deng Xiaoping...
Television University (电视大学), which mostly services high school dropouts and adults seeking additional education credentials for jobs they already have.
Local high school students usually try to attend universities outside the city, in
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
and
JiangmenJiangmen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 3.8 million.- History :The port of Jiangmen, previously romanised as Kong-Moon, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined...
. Admissions to prestigious universities are rare, but a few students succeed each year, with most attending Tsinghua and Beijing University.
Administration
Taishan is under the jurisdiction of
JiangmenJiangmen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 3.8 million.- History :The port of Jiangmen, previously romanised as Kong-Moon, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined...
. In a jurisdiction of 3,286
km²Square kilometre , symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of surface area, the square metre, one of the SI derived units.1 km2 is equal to:* 1,000,000 m2...
, Taishan contains 20 townships (镇), which are subdivided into 503 village residential committees (村居委会) and 3,655 natural villages (自然村).
These townships (镇) are:
- Baisha (白沙镇)
- Beidou (北陡镇): separated from the other townships by Zhenhai Bay (镇海湾) inlet
- Chixi (赤溪镇)
- Dajiang (大江镇)
- Doushan (斗山镇)
- Duhu (都斛镇)
- Guanghai
Guanghai is a town under the jurisdiction of Taishan, in the Guangdong province of southern China.-External links:* * *...
(广海镇)
- Haiyan (海宴镇): contains an overseas Chinese farm (华侨农场)
- Nafu (那扶镇)
- Duanfen (端芬镇)
- Sanba
-A Musical Instrument:*sanba , a percussion instrument used in Ryukyuan music...
(三八镇)
- Sanhe
Sanhe is a township under the jurisdiction of Taishan, in the Guangdong province of southern China....
(三合镇)
- Shangchuan (上川镇): islands; Tourism Open Integrated Experimental Zone (旅游开发综合试验区)
- Shenjing (深井镇)
- Shuibu
Shuibu is a town in Taishan County, Guangdong Province in China. It's near the county of Kaiping. Gary Locke, the then Governor of the State of Washington, visited the Shuibu area in 1997, to visit his ancestral home.-External links:*...
(水步镇)
- Sijiu (四九镇)
- Taicheng
Taicheng Township is the capital of Taishan City, which lies on the right bank of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, China.-Geography:The township covers 142.4km² with 18km² in the town itself which has a population of 93153...
(台城镇): contains downtownDowntown is a term primarily used in North America to refer to a city's core or central business district, usually in a geographical, commercial, and community sense....
and the city seat
- Wencun (汶村镇)
- Xiachuan (下川镇): islands; Tourism Open Integrated Experimental Zone (旅游开发综合试验区)
- Chonglou (冲蒌镇)
- Paobu (泡步镇)
These "natural villages" (自然村) include:
- An Nan Jiang Chao (安南江潮)
- Bei Hou
Bei Hou is a village just west of Taicheng in Taishan City in the Guangdong Province of southern China, and is located at latitude 22° 15' 09.22" N and longitude 112° 46' 01.12" E, 11 meters above sea level off the Cinnamon Stream Road...
(庇厚)
- Tang Mien Pao
- Jilong
- guanbuli (官步里)
Transportation
Taishan is currently accessible by bus and
hydrofoilA hydrofoil is a winglike structure or foil, attached to the hull of a boat that raises all or part of the hull out of the water when the boat is moving forward, thus reducing drag....
ferry. There is a bus station in Taicheng and a port at
GongYiGongyi , formerly Gong County , is a county-level city belonging to the city of Zhengzhou in Henan province, China. It has a population of 790,000 people and an area of 1,041 square kilometres....
on the Tan River which flows into the
Pearl River DeltaThe Pearl River Delta in southern People's Republic of China is the low-lying area alongside the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Since economic liberalisation was adopted by the Chinese government in the late 1970s, the delta has become one of the leading...
.
Up until the Japanese War, there was a limited railway system constructed by
Chen YixiChin Gee Hee , courtesy name Changting , Cheun Gee Yee, was a Chinese merchant, labor contractor, and railway entrepreneur, who made his fortune in Seattle, Washington before returning to his native village in Taishan, Guangdong province, which sources variously refer to as...
linking various parts of Taishan with
JiangmenJiangmen is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong province in southern China with a population of about 3.8 million.- History :The port of Jiangmen, previously romanised as Kong-Moon, was forced to open to western trade in 1902. One legacy of this period is an historic waterfront district lined...
, then known as Kong Moon. It was one of only three built, owned and run by Chinese during the years prior to the Communist Revolution of 1949.
Demographics
Today, some 1.3 million people living
overseasOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the territories administered by the rival governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
can trace their ancestry to Taishan, outnumbering those who now live in Taishan. According to American historian
Him Mark LaiHim Mark Lai was an American historian. Born in San Francisco, he was known as the “Dean of Chinese American History” by his academic peers, despite the fact that he was professionally trained as a mechanical engineer with no advanced training in the academic field of History...
, approximately 430,000 or 70% of Chinese Americans in the
1980sThe 1980s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989.The time period saw social, economic and general change as wealth and production migrated to newly industrializing economies...
were Taishanese according to 1988 data. Currently some 500,000 Chinese Americans claim Taishanese origins.
An office of the local Taishan Bureau of Overseas Chinese can help to arrange visits of overseas Chinese people.
Some notable people that are from Taishan include:
- Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
- The first Chinese AmericanChinese Americans are Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of Overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
movie star.
- Julius Chan
Sir Julius Chan GCL GCMG KBE was Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982 and from 1994 to 1997. He is currently Member of Parliament for New Ireland Province, having won the seat in the 2007 national election...
- Former Prime Minister of Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
of An Nan Jiang Chao village in Doushan.
- Flora Chan
Flora Chan Wai-Shan is a Hong Kong television and film actress.-Biography:Chan was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts at a young age. As a child, she had hoped to become a dancer, but because of an injury when she was a teenager, she was forced to abandon her dreams as a...
- Hong Kong actress and singer.
- Chin Siu Dek (aka Jimmy H. Woo) - Martial Artist of Sanba
-A Musical Instrument:*sanba , a percussion instrument used in Ryukyuan music...
and a Grandmaster of Kung Fu San SooTERMINOLOGY AND BACKGROUNDIn America, and more recently in other parts of the world, San Soo or San3 Shou3 in Mandarin is a phrase often loosely used to describe "Kung Fu San Soo", a popular name for the Chinese Martial Art brought to America from Taishan, China, by the late Chin Siu Dek , also...
.
- Alan Chin
Alan Chin is an American artist. Studied at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. He is an American painter and sculptor, who currently resides in the Bay Area and works in Lafayette, California...
- Notable San Francisco Bay Area contemporary artist
- Raymond Kwok Chow
Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, born Chow Kwok Cheung in 1960 in Hong Kong, is a Chinese American former gang member who once was the second-highest ranking member of the American branch of the Hong Kong-based triad Wo Hop To...
(aka Shrimp Boy) -- San Francisco Chinatown mobster, Dragon Head of the San Francisco Chapter Chinese Freemasons
- Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who, until 27 September 2005, served as the Governor General of Canada. She was appointed as such by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on the recommendation of then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, to replace Roméo LeBlanc as...
- Former Governor General of CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
of Sijiu.
- Hiram Fong
Hiram Leong Fong , born Yau Leong Fong , was an American businessman and politician from Hawaii. He is most notable for his service as Republican United States Senator from 1959 to 1977, and for being the first Asian American and Chinese American to be elected as such...
(aka Hiram Kwong) - Former US Senator from HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
.
- Matt Fong
Matthew Kip Ling Fong is a Republican political leader from California and former state Treasurer. He is a leading Asian Pacific American Republican leader in the United States....
(aka Matt KwongKuang , also Kwong, Kwang, Quong, Kong, and Fong, is a Chinese family name originated from central China. Today, it is the surname of over 5 million individuals, across the southern part of China and in the ethnic Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, United...
) - Former Treasurer of the State of California.
- James Hong
James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists .-Early life:...
- Actor in United States famous for roles in Big Trouble in Little China, Balls of Fury and others.
- James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe, A.S.C. is considered one of the greatest American cinematographers. He has over 130 films to his credit. A master at the use of shadow, he was one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, photography in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus...
- Master cinematographer of Hollywood.
- Eric Kwong - Noted investor.
- Norman Kwong
Norman Lim Kwong, CM, AOE , born in Calgary, Alberta, 1929, is a former professional athlete, sports executive, and is currently the 16th lieutenant-governor of Alberta....
- Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta & professional football player, president & manager of the Calgary StampedersThe Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...
.
- Justin Lee - Cardiovascular specialist of Seattle WA.
- Tony Leung
Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is a five-time Hong Kong Film Award-winning Chinese film actor who is a former TVB actor. He has also won the Golden Horse Best Actor awards thrice . He has been a major film star since the 1990s...
- Actor.
- Gary Locke - Commerce Secretary of the US and Former Governor of Washington
Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
of ShuibuShuibu is a town in Taishan County, Guangdong Province in China. It's near the county of Kaiping. Gary Locke, the then Governor of the State of Washington, visited the Shuibu area in 1997, to visit his ancestral home.-External links:*...
.
- Andrea Louie - Scholar, actress, model, singer and fashion designer.
- John Tsang
John Tsang Chun-wah , JP, is the current Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. His responsibility is to assist the Chief Executive of Hong Kong in overseeing policy formulation and implementation in financial, monetary, economic, trade and employment matters...
- Financial Secretary of Hong Kong.
- William Poi Lee - San Francisco author who wrote The Eighth Promise.
- Wong Ka Keung
Steve Wong Ka-Keung is a Hong Kong musician, composer and the songwriter. He was one of the members of the now disbanded, Hong Kong rock band Beyond. Steve Wong plays bass guitar and provides vocals...
- Member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
- Wong Ka Kui
Wong Ka-Kui was a Hong Kong composer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and the founder of the Hong Kong rock band Beyond....
- Lead singer of Hong Kong band Beyond.
- Wong Kim Ark - Defendant in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898).
- Wong Koon Chung
Paul Wong Koon-Chung is a composer, songwriter, singer and the lead guitarist of the Hong Kong rock band Beyond.Wong started off doing artwork for Beyond before joining in 1985...
- Member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
- Myolie Wu
Myolie Wu is a Hong Kong actress for the popular Hong Kong TVB television station.-Career:Myolie attended Boarding School at Methodist College Belfast before returning to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology....
- Hong Kong actress and singer.
- Jack Yan
Jack Yan is a publisher, designer and businessman, born 1972 in Kowloon, Hong Kong.Yan founded his own company in 1987 while a teenager and grew it, initially, into the region's leading font software firm, claiming to be the first New Zealander to design digital typefaces...
- Magazine publisher of New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
.
- Yip Sai Wing
Yip Sai Wing is a songwriter, singer and the drummer of the Hong Kong rock band Beyond. He is the only remaining original member of Beyond.In 1983, Sai Wing, along with the late Wong Ka Kui and a few other friends, formed Beyond....
- Member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
- Patrick Yu
Patrick Yu Shuk-Siu is a celebrated trial and appellate lawyer in Hong Kong.Born into an intellectual Chinese family in Hong Kong, with ancestry from Taishan Guangdong, Yu was educated at home for many years before attending Wah Yan College Hong Kong, a prominent Jesuit high school in Hong Kong...
- Hong Kong lawyer and Crown Counsel, and founder of its first law school.
- Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen Chi-Tan is a Hong Kong martial artist, actor, film director, fight choreographer, and producer. He is a well known film and television actor in Hong Kong and, more recently, in the West, having been featured in many movies with prominent, internationally known actors such as Jackie...
- a Hong Kong Chinese martial artist and actor, film director, fight choreographer, and producer
- Dr. Eddie Liu, OBE, OAM. Father of Brisbane's Chinatown; Hon. Ambassador for City of Brisbane; Australian of the Year, 2004, Local Hero Queensland; Australia Day Award - Senior Citizen of the Year, 2007; and Honorary Doctorate - University of Queesnland.
External links