Siyi
| Sze Yup | |||||||||||||||||||||
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 Top: Location of Sze Yup (pink) within the province of Guangdong (gray) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | Tứ ấp | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Four counties | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | Ngũ ấp | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Five counties | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TheSiyi(SeiyaporSze YupinCantonese;Chinese:Tứ ấp;pinyin:Sìyì;Jyutping:sei3 jap1;lit.'Four Counties') refers to the four former counties ofXinhui(Sunwui),Taishan(Toisan),Kaiping(Hoiping) andEnping(Yanping) on the west side of thePearl River Deltain SouthernGuangdong Province,China.[1][2]
Geography
[edit]One of the early descriptions of the land came from the American missionary,William Speer,who lived there around 1850 and observed: "Towns embowered in bamboo, a species of banyan and other trees meet the eye on every hand. The level portion of the soil is cultivated as only the Chinese know how to do in order to obtain the utmost possible returns from Nature. The view appears like a great garden bounded by ranges of hills."[3]: 472
Xinhuiis a city district and the other three are county-level cities, all four belong toJiangmen Prefectureadministered from the city ofJiangmen.An alternative term, Wuyi (Chinese:NgũẤp;pinyin:Wǔyì,Cantonese:Ng5 Yap1;'five counties'), which refers to the five former counties of Xinhui,Taishan,KaipingandEnpingas well asHeshan,all administered by Jiangmen, has become an official title and is widely accepted by the local residents today. However, among overseas Chinese, the name Siyi is still popular and frequently used as Heshan County was established much later than the other four.
It is said that over 100 famous people come from the Siyi or Wuyi region of Guangdong Province, making the region famous for producing more entertainment stars than any other region in mainland China. As a result, the local government in Jiangmen which administers the Siyi or Wuyi cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui and Heshan, decided to build a Stars Park calledJiangmen Star Park.
Dialects
[edit]The area gave rise to theSiyi dialects,the most prominent of which isTaishanese(Toisanese/Hoisanese). Although Siyi andCantoneseboth belong to theYue branchof Chinese, Cantonese speakers cannot easily understand Siyi dialect.[4][5][6]
Emigration
[edit]
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, many people from the Siyi (or Sze Yup as it was then known) emigrated to Hong Kong,Southeast Asia,Australasia,North America and South America. Of theChinese Americanpopulation from that time until the 1950s, Sze Yup accounted for the vast majority, about 80%, along with people fromSanyi (Sam Yup)andZhongshan (Chung Shan).[7]
In America, people from Sze Yup generally worked as laborers; Sam Yup people worked as entrepreneurs; and Chung Shan people specialized in agriculture.[8]ThePunti–Hakka Clan Warsalso erupted in the Sze Yup counties just prior to this time period of emigration.[9]In 1851, twoWui Gun(huiguan;traditional Chinese:Hội quán;simplified Chinese:Hội quán;pinyin:huìguǎn;Jyutping:wui6gun2)[10](native place associations) were established inSan Francisco:theSze Yup Wui Gunand theSam YupWui Gun.[11]Endowed with only limited arable lands, with much of the terrain either rocky or swampy, Sze Yup was the "pre-eminent sending area" of overseas Chinese.[7]
In addition to being a region of major emigration abroad, Sze Yup is a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese. For example, manytong lauinChekhamanddiaolouinHoipingandToishanbuilt in the early 20th century incorporate architectural features from both China and the West.[12]
Notable people:
- Chen Xian Zhang (Trần hiến chương): scholar of Ming dynasty
- Liang Qichao(Lương khải siêu): scholar of early modern China
- Wu, Xiang Shi (Ngô thượng thời) (1904-1947): geographer
- Gary Faye Locke(Lạc gia huy): Chinese American, a politician, his ancestral hometown is Taishan City
- Joey Yung (Dung tổ nhi): female singer of Hong Kong
- Andy Lau(Lưu đức hoa): male singer and actor of Hong Kong
Popular culture
[edit]Mark Twainreferences the See Yup Company, and the Ning Yeong Company, inRoughing It.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition – Page 118 Emma Woo Louie – 2008 "These were the Sam Yup and Sze Yup dialects, which the author spelled as “Saam Yup” and “Sz Yip,” respectively. Sam Yup means “Three Districts dialect,” which is akin to standard Cantonese, and Sze Yup means “Four Districts dialect.”
- ^Shanghai Girls – Page 8 Lisa See – 2010 "My first language was Sze Yup, the dialect spoken in the Four Districts in Kwangtung province, where our ancestral home is located...”
- ^Speer, William (1870).The oldest and the newest empire: China and the United States(PDF).Pittsburgh, PA: Robert S. Davis & Co. (1877): S. S. Scranton & Co. pp. 1–681.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location (link) - ^Szeto, Cecilia (2001),"Testing intelligibility among Sinitic dialects"(PDF),in Allan, Keith; Henderson, John (eds.),Proceedings of ALS2k, the 2000 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society,retrieved5 Jan2014
- ^Phonology of Cantonese – Page 192 Oi-kan Yue Hashimoto – 1972 "... affricates and aspirated stops into consonant clusters is for external comparative purposes, because the Cantonese aspirated stops correspond to /h/ and some of the Cantonese affricates correspond to stops in many Si-yi (Seiyap) dialects."
- ^Language in the USA – Page 217 Charles A. Ferguson, Shirley Brice Heath, David Hwang – 1981 "Even the kind of Cantonese which the Chinese Americans speak causes difficulties, because most of them have come from the rural Seiyap districts southwest of Canton and speak dialects of that region rather than the Standard Cantonese of the city"
- ^abPan, Lynn (1999).The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 36.ISBN0674252101.
- ^Hsia, Lisa (2007). "Asians and Asian Americans in the West". In Mancall, Peter; Johnson, Benjamin Heber (eds.).Making of the American West: People and Perspectives.ABC-CLIO. pp. 161–187.
- ^Punti-Hakka Clan Wars and Taishan CountyArchived2007-09-10 at theWayback Machine
- ^"Huiguan".Retrieved2 February2018.
- ^Chi, Tsung (2005).East Asian Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook.ABC-CLIO. p.65.ISBN9781576072905.
- ^Pan, Lynn (1999).The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 28–29.ISBN0674252101.
- ^Twain, Mark (1994).Roughing It.Pleasantville: The reader's Digest Association, Inc. pp. 261–266.ISBN0895776286.
