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Canton Culture
2013-10-12 22:40:58

Cantonese

Cantonese has a very long history and is originated from the Northern Central Plains Ya Yu. In the period of Qin and Han Dynasty, Ya Yu was spread to Liang Guang Region and merged with the then local language, Old Yue Yu and a new language was emerged. In the Qin Dynasty, there were a lot of tribes in Canton area where was named by Hua Xia people as “Land of barbarians”. After Qin Dynasty, the whole China had been unified, Hua Xia people began to move into the Canton area. The old Han Yu merged with old Yue Yu and formed the Cantonese prototype. After several wars, large population were moved to Canton Area, The population reached the final peak in Song Dynasty and Cantonese was begun to fix. Later, Mongolian occupied the whole China, and promote the then capital language and a lot of the original Central Plains language characteristic was lost. Fortunately Cantonese was not affected by Yuan Dynasty and the original characteristic could be kept. In Qing Dynasty, the Central Plains language was replaced by the modern formal language while the Cantonese was developed slowly and become the modern Cantonese. Cantonese keeps a lot of old Han Yu grammar and elements and words and has become the important language media of Canton culture.

On the other hand, due to the close door policy of Qing Dynasty, only Guangzhou Management Region (now named as the Guangzhou and Foshan zone) was opened. The one port business strategy attracted a lot of foreigners to Canton area and Cantonese absorb a lot of the oversea elements. Therefore, a lot of foreign terms like bus, store and strawberry were created. Cantonese, inherited the old Chinese characteristics and had slow intonation, are the most important media for Canton culture, is the bridge for maintaining the relationship of Canton people, and also the guarantee for the booming of Canton. The development of Cantonese not only represents the inheritance of Canton culture, but also reflects the open and tolerance of Canton people.

Canton Cuisine

Canton Cuisine has a very long history, in the ancient time, Lingnan Ku Yue Tribe had close relationship with Central Plains. Following the change of Dynasty, a lot of Central Plains people came to Canton for avoiding the wars. The Han tribe and Yue Tribe were merged together. The Central Plains culture was moving to southern region. The food making technique, tools, utensils and agricultural products were merged together. Canton cuisine and Chinesecuisine were in the same line. The main reason is a lot of dynasty were once built in Canton.

The other reason is that a lot of official were demoted to Canton and they brought a lot of cooks and cuisine culture. Especially at the time of southern move of Song Dynasty. A lot of emperor cooks were concentrated in Canton, leading to the more mature cooking technique and characteristics.

Besides, the development of Canton cuisine are closely relating to the geographical and economic environment. Canton is situated at subtropical zone, near the South Sea, plenty of rain, green four seasons and rich products. In the ancient time, Nanhai was the market of internal and external trade and a port city. The business was booming and leading to the development of food services. This provide a very important condition for the growth of Canton cuisine. The highly developed business brings the requirement for the more healthy food industry and continuously improvement in quality. Merging the external cooking strong points and improvement on the cooking technique, the food details, rich ingredients and light taste are the characteristics of Canton cuisine.

Canton cuisine is striving for “New Wave” and is good at imitating with innovation. In thousands of years, the demand for ingredient is very wide. The request for fresh, bright, soft and smooth has a deep effect on the innovation. A lot of the old fashion dim sum such as shrimp dumplings, dry steam dumplings, chicken rice, chestnut cake, bun, crab bag, changfen, fried rice noodles, tingzi zhou, salty pancake, Daliang sand collapse are all enduring foods. This reflects the deep culture of Canton cuisine and also the inclusive feature of Canton culture.

Canton Opera

Canton Opera is also named as “Big Film” or “Canton Big Film”. Canton Opera merges various opera performance from the outside to Guangdong in Ming and Qing Dynasty and absorb the Pearl civil music technique. It was invented in Guangxu years and can be traced back from Qin Dynasty. Canton Opera is an art that blend with singing, acting, clothing, background music, and body movement. In 2009, Canton Opera was listed as the human non-material cultural heritage.

In Shunzhi years of Qing Dynasty, a “Hui Feng Drama Stage” was built in Foshan Ancestor Temple. In Kangxi years, its name was changed as Wan Fu Stage. It is the most gorgeous and the largest scale old drama stage, evident the Canton Opera’s history. In Qianlong years of Qing Dynasty, Canton was a very safe place, stable society and possessed developed trade. Foshan was a place where gathering a lot of businessmen.

Therefore, the demand for entertainment was very great and the development of Canton opera is good. The earliest drama organization, “Viburnum Hall” was established. Foshan was named as the Home of Canton Opera.

In Xianfeng years of Qing Dynasty, due to the export of China workers and actors, Canton Opera were transferring to overseas. Following the moving of Guangdong people to the overseas, the spreading of Canton Opera made it become the most wide-spread district drama. At present, Canton Opera are showing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Austria, United States of America, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America where a lot of Guangdong overseas Chinese are settling, Canton Opera are showing. The earliest drama club has a history of more than 90 years. According to “American Chinese History”, Canton Opera is a civil culture that many Chinese are relying on and they have substantial effect on the Chinese world.

Canton Embroidery

Canton Embroidery is sourced from the folk embroidery arts of Guangzhou and its old dependency such as Panyu and Shunde. It is one of the big four embroidery in China, the other three are from Xiang, Sichuan and Jiangsu respectively. Canton embroidery is a national intangible cultural heritage. It was originated from Tang Dynasty, and became more mature in late Qing Dynasty and has more than one thousand years history.

In the past, the Canton embroidery workers were mostly men, this was very rare in the world. The characteristics were using many kinds of materials as lines (including silk, wool, hair from horse tails etc). The color was clear, great contrast and luxury feel. Golden lines are used as contour, plenty of subordinate patterns, producing a lively and cheerful feel.

 

In Tang Dynasty, Canton embroidery was exported to Portugal, Britain, France etc by Europe merchant ships. Canton embroidery became the luxuries loved by European nobles. In the Qianlong years of Qing Dynasty, the merchant ships were only allowed to use Guangzhou port. This enforced the development of Canton embroidery and it became famous all over the world.

The Britain Queen Elizabeth I liked Canton embroidery very much. She encouraged the establishment of Britain Embroidery Society and organized the manufacturing of Royal Embroidery according to the Canton mode. Silk were imported from China for making the nobles clothes. The Britain Emperor Charles I regarded Canton embroidery as the gift from China and encouraged the Britain three inlands for promoting this art. Both the museum of Britain, France, German and America possesses the Canton embroidery.

In the beginning of Qing Dynasty, British like to bring their clothes to Guangzhou for additional work. Guangdong embroidery absorbed the European style and become more popular in western countries. This greatly helped the development of export trade.

Guangdong Merchants

The ancestors of Cantonese were Hua Xia Clan which was the important component of modern Chinese culture. In the past, Canton area was the major agricultural producer. Cantonese inherited the hard working characteristics. Living in broad plain and facing sea, provided Cantonese with plenty natural resources. This also led to the optimistic character of Cantonese. And being the earliest open area in Southern China, Cantonese became more inclusive, open and innovative.

Started from Qing Dynasty, Guangdong merchants were very famous for their openness, easy to accept new things, willing to learn and dare to absorb and imitate. They merged the Chinese and Western culture and explored the new area with excellent business sense and were good at financial planning.

Guangdong merchants are the earliest businessmen that affected by the sophisticated oversea thinking. They possess strong, innovative and adventure character. The rebelliousness and militancy are also strong. In the history of modern China, a lot of hero who overthrow the feudal monarchy were come from Canton. In the economy development, Cantonese were “brave enough to make the first move”. This was a very precious character and a lot of excellent businessmen such as Zheng Yu Tong, Huo Ying Dong, Li Shao Ji, Guo De Xing Guo Bin Xiang, Guo Bin Lian and Stanley Ho were appeared.

Kungfu

Foshan is the most famous Gong-fu place in Canton area and is the “Home of Gong-fu” . It is the source of Southern school gong-fu. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Foshan Gong-fu had been very popular already. In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, a lot of gong-fu schools, international gong-fu organization and stars were established. They moved to the world in different channels, the representative gong-fu included Yong Chun Quan, Cai Li Fo Quan, Hong Quan, Bai Wei Quan. In which Cai Li Fo Quan, Hong Quan and Yong Chun Quan were popular over the world. Besides, some other modern school and Tai Chi were also very popular. In 2007, Foshan organized a Tai Chi show of more than 18000 participants which broke the world record. The famous gong-fu stars came from Foshan included Famous Gong-fu master Mr. Huang Fei Hong, Yong Chun Quan’s master Mr. Liang Zan and Mr. Ye Wen etc. In 2004, Foshan was awarded the “Gong-fu City”. Besides, the world class famous gong-fu movie star Mr. Bruce Lee was also from Shunde of Foshan. Canton is so important in Gong-fu area that most foreigners think that the Canton Gong-fu is equal to Chinese Gong-fu. Besides, a lot of terms in Gong-fu are translated directly from Cantonese such as “Kungfu” and “WingTsun”.

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