Why are Jiaozhou people not from Qingdao?

The main reason is that cultural identity varies from place to place.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the division of Shandong Province has been adjusted many times. The administrative divisions we see now were established after 1980s and 1990s. These adjustments have changed the traditions of many people who have lived for a long time in history.

During the Republic of China, Qingdao was called Qingdao Special City, which was a bit like Taiwan Province Province or Japanese cities now, and the surrounding counties were not under the jurisdiction of this city. As for the topic, the current administrative divisions belong to some districts and cities in Qingdao, which need to be slowly adjusted with the development of the country in various historical periods after the founding of the People's Republic of China. For example, Laixi originally belonged to Yantai area, and Pingdu originally belonged to Weifang area. These areas have an innate sense of cultural belonging, and there are indeed differences in folk customs with Qingdao, an immigrant city with a history of only a hundred years. So it is normal and reasonable for them to answer that they are from Jiaozhou instead of Qingdao.