Fujian European immigrants

When I was a child, the internet was underdeveloped, and people's impressions of overseas Chinese often came from movies. In the movies, these China people spread China culture overseas, which is very different from the traditional culture in the north. The most important thing is that most of them speak Cantonese, whether at home or in Chinatown.

In the early years, the southeast coast was sparsely populated and the ports were dense. Since ancient times, it has been closely related to overseas cultural and commercial exchanges. Therefore, it is not surprising that early overseas immigrants were mainly from Fujian and Guangdong.

Among the two places, Fujian Minnan, Guangdong Guangfu and Chaoshan are the places with more immigrants. Therefore, in terms of language, Minnan and Chaoshan are similar, both speak Minnan dialect, Guangfu people speak Cantonese, and Hakka people speak Hakka dialect. However, because of the existence of the provincial capital of Guangzhou, Hakka and Chaoshan people in Guangdong also have a certain sense of identity with Cantonese. So in terms of language, Minnan and Cantonese are the strongest.

At that time, the classic route of a Guangdong immigrant may be to take a small steamboat from his hometown, go down the Pearl River or the Han River, come to Hong Kong or Shantou, and then transfer to a steamboat that is humid, stuffy and seriously overloaded, and spend more than a few months crossing the Pacific Ocean. It is such a group of Cantonese immigrants who let Cantonese go from Guangdong to the world. 1945 According to the data released by the Statistics Office of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission of the National Government, the number of overseas Chinese in China reached 8,546,374, including 5,992,066 from Guangdong, accounting for 70% of the total number of overseas Chinese.

As a big immigrant province, Fujian immigrants mostly chose Southeast Asia in the early years, while Cantonese people dominated in North America. After entering the 20th century, the United States has gradually developed and gained an absolute right to speak in the world structure, which is also the reason why Cantonese has a stronger sense of existence and centrality than Minnan dialect.

This phenomenon began to change after the reform and opening up, especially after the new century, Guangdong no longer became the mainstream province of immigrants.

The first is the sudden emergence of Wenzhou people in Zhejiang. People in these places prefer European countries such as France and Italy, followed by immigrants from Fuqing and other places in eastern Fujian. However, even so, most immigrants belong to the southeast coastal areas, and their culture and folk customs are similar to some extent. Therefore, even immigrants will soon be assimilated by the older generation of overseas Chinese, and it is the people in the non-coastal areas of China who really change the language structure of overseas Chinese.