Kwangtung Province Research Articles

Adapting Christianity to Hakka Culture: The Basel Mission’s Activities among Indigenous People in China (1846–1931)

The Hakka are a branch of the Chinese Han people, who immigrated from central China to Kwangtung (Guangdong 广东) Province. They have their own cultural norms in terms of language, lineage, distribution of work roles and status of women. The trans-national Basel Mission was headquartered in the Swiss city of Basel, near the Swiss–German border. The Basel Mission was distinguished among the missions to China by its rural Hakka Christian community. This article sets out to illustrate how the Basel Mission supported and maintained the rural Hakka Christianity community by integrating Christianity with Hakka cultural precepts. Previous Christian historiographical research has generally chosen not to emphasize Hakka cultural beliefs and practices. Examining the activities of the Basel Mission from the perspective of the indigenous Hakka culture, this article aims to enhance our understanding of the cultural precepts of receptors to shape the global enterprise of missionary society.

Spatial distribution characteristics of Foreign Customs Districts in Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province based on geographic information system (1842–1949)

The Foreign Customs Districts in Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province were spatial areas under the customs business jurisdiction established on the basis of location. Such Districts were under the Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs during 1859–1949.Since then, the number of Foreign Customs Districts had grown from two in the late Qing Dynasty to 11 in the Republic of China, which accounted for nearly half of the Chinese Maritime Customs Districts (19).They also gradually developed a vertical spatial pattern system, which was composed of three levels, namely, the head office, sub-offices and barriers. This thesis analyzes the characteristics of the spatial distribution of the Foreign Customs Districts, which are located at the junction of China’s land and sea resources by mathematical graph analysis methods, such as kernel density estimation, geographic concentration index, and imbalance index method. The study aims to provide a case study of the spatial structure of the Foreign Customs Districts in the modern Chinese reference.

Li Hung-chang and the Peiyang Navy

After the Opium War (1839-42), the Chinese literati-officials realized that it was impossible for China to defend herself against the Western maritime powers without a strong and modernized navy. The establishment of a modern navy became an urgent and persistent concern in China's struggle to Westernize. Lin Tse-hsu (1785-1850) was the prominent Chinese official who realized the importance of building up such a navy during his painful encounter with the British over the opium issue. He once proposed to use the excise tax revenue of Kwangtung Province to purchase Western guns and ships as a first step toward modernizing the Chinese navy.1 Unfortunately, his proposal was rejected by Emperor Hsuan-tsung and was of no avail. Wei Yuan (1794-1857), Lin's good friend, brought up the issue in his Hai-kuo t'u-chih (Illustrated gazetteer of the maritime countries) and urged the authorities concerned to build state-run shipyards and arsenals to make guns, cannon, and vessels at Sand Point (Sha-chiao) and Big Point (...

Body-wave waveform constraints on the source parameters of the Yangjiang, China, earthquake of July 25, 1969: A devastating earthquake in a stable continental region

On July 25, 1969, anM s 5.9 earthquake shook the Kwangtung Province near Yangjiang, China. Casualties and extensive damage were reported in the epicentral area. The Yangjiang earthquake occurred within the passive margin located along China's southeast coast. This stable continental setting is seismically one of the most quiet regions of China; historic records indicate this earthquake to have been the first devastating one in the area. A remarkable feature of this earthquake sequence is that its foreshocks and aftershocks are relatively small in terms of number and magnitude despite the relatively large main shock. Waveforms of long-and short-period teleseismicP and long-period teleseismicSH waves have been modeled to estimate the source parameters for this earthquake. The focal mechanism determined is predominately strike-slip with a small normal component (strike=263°, dip=79°, rake=194°) and is in good agreement with observations in the epicentral area regarding dislocation direction of fissures, distribution of aftershocks, and isoseismals. The average seismic moment is 5.15×1024 dyne-cm and the focal depth is estimated to be 9 km. The earthquake is characterized by a rather short source-time function and a high stress drop of approximately 380 bars. The observed pattern of the foreshock-main shock-aftershock sequence is interpreted in terms of the large stress drop associated with the main shock and the material properties at and near the source. TheP-axis orientation lies roughly NW-SE and is consistent with the maximum compressive stress observed along the coast of southeast China. This stress orientation is consistent with the NW subducting Philippine Sea plate and the SE ward push from central China due to the convergence between Indian and Eurasian subcontinents.

Hakka Mausoleums in North Taiwan

This essay is about an unusual form of corporate kin group burial practiced by Hakka in northern Taiwan. Following a brief history of settlement in the district under consideration, I describe two contrasting styles of burial, with the emphasis placed on the arrangement of the dead in family mausoleums. Several principles which reveal the hierarchy of the ancestors are derived from the examples presented. Burial practices encountered on the Chinese mainland which are analogous to the Taiwan form are later discussed. The object of this comparative exercise is to show that Chinese corporate kin groups exist in the absence of common property; the manipulation of agnatic relations through ritual and common action are sufficient expressions of corporateness. Burial in southeastern mainland China and on Taiwan is usually of single individuals or of individuals together with their spouses in dispersed graves at scattered locations.1 This emphasis on the physical remains of the individual ancestor stands in marked contrast to the collective representation of the souls of the ancestors by means of ancestor tablets (tsu-hsien p'ai-wei) placed together on altars in lineage halls (ts'u-t'ang) and, for kin groups not organized as lineages, on domestic altars. Ahern (1973), Chuang (1990), Freedman (1979), Pasternak (1973) and Watson (1982) discuss the placement of graves in Chinese society and show that the preferred, dispersed pattern is an attempt on the part of the living to avail themselves of benefits which may be channelled from the magical forces of the earth (feng-shui) through the proper siting of their ancestor's graves. The efficacy of these forces varies according to highly specific topographic conditions, an understanding of the rules of which is an esoteric study mastered by ritual specialists. In light of the Chinese preference for dispersed burials and the underlying belief in the magical forces of the earth, an innovative practice of common burial in monumental tombs is worthy of attention. The analysis of corporate burials which follows is based on research carried out in Chung-hsin Village in Hsin-chu County (hsien), Taiwan. Chung-hsin, and the district in which it is located, is populated by Hakka whose ancestors migrated to Taiwan from coastal counties in Kwangtung Province during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The district is in the foothills of the mountains which form Taiwan's central spine; the Hakka population which settled the area generally arrived later from the mainland than Hokkien who inhabit the coastal plains immediately to the west. The district is primarily rural and is comprised of three administrative townships (hsiang), the dominant town of each of which is also the seat of the township government. The three townships of the district are together called the Ta-ai (great guardpost) by residents. The Ta-ai district was carved out of the frontier between Chinese settlers and unsinicized aborigines (sheng-fan) between 1830 and 1860. Prior to 1830, the Ta-ai district was an unknown, unsurveyed, and ungoverned area. While the availability of virgin land attracted

Some Problems concerning the T'u-chia Charts (図甲表) in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung Province during the Late Ch'ing (清) Period : Land Tax, Household Register and Lineage

Some Problems concerning the T'u-chia Charts (図甲表) in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung Province during the Late Ch'ing (清) Period : Land Tax, Household Register and Lineage

Chinese and Western medical care in China's rural commune: a case study

This paper examines the structure and functioning of both the traditional Chinese and the modern Western medical care services in the rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Data were drawn from the in-depth interviews and non-participant observations during a field visit to the Toushan Commune of Kwangtung Province in May 1978. It was found that a variety of Chinese and Western medical services were systematically organized in terms of the three-level principle of administration, and were made available for use by the peasants living in different regions of the commune. There is a constant flow of patients and health resources among the three levels, i.e. the commune health clinic, the brigade medical stations, and the auxiliary health workers of the production teams. It is argued that (a) some organizational principles of the rural commune have facilitated the mobilization and organization not only of the Western but also of the Chinese medical resources in the rural areas, and (b) the incorporation of Chinese medical care into the organized health system has political as well as technical, cultural and economic implications.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Chinese—Salted fish or inhaled smoke?

The role of two proposed risk factors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Chinese was examined by comparing incidence rates (1974–1975) of NPC among Chinese in Hong Kong with those in Los Angeles County (1972–1976) by age, sex, birthplace, and occupation. In Hong Kong, incidence rates for NPC were highest for persons born outside of the Chiu Chau region in Kwangtung Province. In Los Angeles County, the highest rates were observed for immigrant Chinese followed by indigenous Chinese. The high rates in Hong Kong-born Chinese and in Hong Kong boat people and the much higher rates in men compared with women do not support an inhaled carcinogen as the major risk factor for NPC in southern Chinese. The incidence data coupled with available experimental evidence are most consistent with consumption of Cantonese salted fish as the major etiologic factor.

Village and Family in Contemporary China.

After 1949 the Chinese Communists carried out land reform, the collectivization of agriculture, and the formation of people's communes. The new economic and political organizations that emerged have made peasant life more comfortable and secure, but many economic and status differentials and traditional customs remain resistant to change. Focusing on rural Kwangtung province, William L. Parish and Martin King Whyte examine the rural work-incentive system, village equality and inequality, rural health care and education, marriage customs, and the position of women, among other topics, to determine what and how much of the traditional Chinese ways of life is left in Communist China.

Planned Fertility and Fertility Socialization in Kwangtung Province

This is a report on some aspects of the publicity activities of the “planned fertility” (chi-hua sheng-yu) campaign in parts of Kwangtung Province. I shall make special reference to three rural communes, namely, Huan-ch'eng (population: 59,000) of Hsin-hui Hsien, Ta-li (population: 68,000) of Nan-hai Hsien, and Ch'ang-sha (population: 59,500) of K'ai-p'ing Hsien, each of which I visited in December 1976 as a member of the research team of the Social Research Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Based on personal observations and conversation with various individuals during that trip, including officials and ordinary peasants, I propose to describe in some detail the ways in which the principles of planned fertility are transmitted to the masses.

Collective incentives in the Chinese countryside: Lessons from Chen Village

The Chinese government uses a variety of institutional mechanisms to encourage the peasantry's commitment to the collective sector and their desire for local economic development. Eight of these government policies are spelled out in this essay, which focuses on how the policies operate, and the problems encountered, in the farming community of Chen Village, Kwangtung Province.

Chiang Village: A Household Survey

The data presented in this paper are drawn from observations and materials that I acquired as the result of a short visit to Kwangtung Province in April 1977. During that time I was able to travel as an individual and undertake 10 days of concentrated interviewing on the composition of the household, marriage and kinship relationsin a selection of rural villages and urban neighbourhoods. During this visit I specifically set out to test the correlation between differing patterns of marriage with the structure and functions of households and primary groups that I had already developed from a study of the documentary sources. In making these correlations from documentary sources, I found that I was far from clear about questions such as household composition, post-marital residential arrangements and relations between households and kin groups in rural villages. I hoped that my visit might allow me to make an inquiry into the structure of domestic groups and the nature of primary kin groups in rural and urban areas. Restricted by time, I had to be less concerned with the actual marriage patterns themselves and with other areas of interest, such as the relation of kin groups to leadership patterns. My collection of data is, therefore, directly relevant to a very limited subject area. The materials collected from one village have been published here because the opportunities to acquire a survey of, or more comprehensive materials from, a single village are still limited, and previous such collections stand out as land-marks in the history of the study of social institutions in China.

Principles and Profits: Standard Oil Responds to Chinese Nationalism, 1925-1927

ON MARCH 24, 1925, the Canton government in South China notified all oil dealers in Kwangtung Province that beginning on April 1, a stamp tax of twenty cents would be levied on every five-gallon tin of kerosene. On the surface it seemed a simple matter. The Chinese Nationalist party (Kuomintang) which controlled the Canton government was desperate for funds. It had already levied taxes on flour, tobacco, wine, sugar, and sundry other commodities, including opium. It also collected taxes on slaughtered hogs, business establishments, gambling, coffins, and shipping.' Kerosene was an untaxed commodity which could bear a moderate assessment and turn a tidy sum for the government treasury. There was, however,

A New Song Composed on the Banks of the Hsiao-Hsi-Chiang

San-shui Commune in Lien-shan Chuang and Yao Autonomous Hsien, Kwangtung Province, is contiguous with Ta-ning Commune in Ho hsien, Kwangsi. There the mountains and rivers run together, and the fraternal nationalities of Yao, Chuang and Han live together. They use firewood from the same mountains and drink water from the same river. The various nationals have fostered profound class feelings among one another in their common fight, expecially during the Cultural Revolution and the movement to criticize Lin Piao and rectify the style of work.

Clonorchiasis in New York City Chinese.

Among 150 Chinese-born residents of New York City a single stool examination showed 26% were infected with C, sinensis. Most of those infected were immigrants from the Kwangtung Province of China. The possibility of clonorchiasis in Oriental-born residents is emphasized.

Mechanism of the reservoir impounding earthquakes at Hsinfengkiang and a preliminary endeavour to discuss their cause

After the filling up of the Hsinfengkiang Reservoir Kwangtung Province, seismicity was greatly increased. The majority of earthquakes occurred in the deep water gorge close to the dam, concentrated within a northwest belt. They are usually of shallow focal depths. A strong earthquake with magnitude 6.1 took place on March 19, 1962, about two and a half years since the impounding of the reservoir. According to the results of analysis of data from geodetic leveling and the spectra of seismic waves, the fault parameters of the main shock were determined. The fault plane solutions of 150 small earthquakes, occurring within a period of 18 months before and after the main shock were determined from the amplitudes of the first motion of P wave. The directions of the earthquake generating stress of about 2000 small earthquakes were obtained by smoothing the first motion patterns. Displacement field and stress field in the rock bodies underneath the reservoir caused by the loading of the reservoir water were calculated. Variations of the velocity ratio of the P and S waves prior to the main shock and several strong aftershocks were analysed. In consideration of the seismicity as well as the geological background, we endeavour to discuss the cause of reservoir impounding earthquakes at Hsinfengkiang. We have the opinion that the penetration of water along fissures becomes the most important cause of the main shock of March 19, 1962 at Hsinfengkiang.

An Interview with Chinese Legal Officials

The following interview took place in Canton on 13 May 1974, where my wife and I met five leading members of the Kwangtung Institute of Law and Political Science – Mr Kao Kun-feng, chairman, Mr Chiang Chun-chin, Mr Koo Yue-hua, Mr Wang Tieh-hsing and Mr Hsin Ban-chi. Most of the information was supplied by Mr Kao Kun-feng, whom some embassy experts in Peking believe to be – or to have been – the president of the intermediate court in Canton. The Institute of Law and Political Science of Kwangtung Province was described as a mass organization for research into law and for facilitating meetings with foreigners. It was compared to the law department of the Academy of Sciences in Peking which, however, was said to have more specialized sections than this provincial institute.

A Genealogical Study of Ch'i-T'ung-Man during The Sung Period

Historical studies of China and Southeast Asia have recently focussed on South China and Southwest China. In particular, much work has been done on the history and culture of non-Chinese groups, that is, ethnic groups in South China.This is not to say that there is no room for more study. Much of what has been done is rough as yet, and requires organization and synthesis. Understanding of the racial structure of ethnic groups in South China is especially complicated as the genealogies of the, Yao the Miao, the Liao, the Hakka and the Hung are not distinct.Professor Yoshiro Shiratori has begun to elucidate the complicated genealogical structure of ethnic groups in South China. He focussed on, the t'u-ssu system, which had been established by the Chinese in order to govern their non-Chinese conquests, and he classified and distributed the t'u-ssu clans in order to elucidate their genealogy and historical background. This is without question a pioneering effort in studies of South China tribal history and culture. Professor Shiratori believes that the study of the historical background of each racial group is invaluable in reconstructing the history of this region.In line with Professor Shiratori's point of view, the present writer proposes to inquire into the genealogy of Chi'i-t'ung-man during the Sung dynasty, to determine their racial origins, clan history and distribution.Almost all the Sung Ch'i-t'ung-man trace their descent to Yao and the Keh-lao. The Yao first inhabited the Lake Tun-t'ing region gradually spreading out until, by the Sung Period, they covered area, from the northern part of Kwangsi Province to the northern part of Kwangtung Province. The names of some Yao clans are Ch'in', Yao, Lo, Lei and Yuan; others tracing their descent to the Yao are P'eng, Su, Huang, Teng, T'ang, Pan, Fang, Zhong, Li and Ch'en. Certain others, such as T'ien, Hsian, Shu, T'an were initially barbarian chiefs mentioned in ancient documents, and became Chinese government offcials under the official chi-mi policy. Eventually their names were entered in the Chinese census register, and their barbarian origins became obscured and ultimately disappeared. Accordingly it is practically impossible to trace theirr genealogy in non-Chinese sources, although they invariably do derive from the Yao.The Keh-iao, on the other hand, produced such clans as Yang, Wu and Wei, of which Yang was an eminent barbarian clan remarkably active in the period of the Southern Sung dynasty. The eh-lao was more advantaged by its contact with Chinese civilization than other tribes, and developed a rather high level of culture. The Keh-lao originally inhabited the boundary area of Szechwan and Hupei. Like the Yao, they also gradually spread, and by the Sung, populated as widely distant geographical Hunan and Kweichow.It was during this same Sung period that the Yao and the Keh-lao came into contact and mixed in the district of the Ch'i-t'ung-man. This inevitably resulted in change in their respective cultures, though, to be sure, they Were both heavily influenced by the dominant Chinese culture.In the same district, other tribes, such as the Miao and the T'ung, appeared subsequent to the Yuan period. Future studies will focus on the issues of racial between the Yao the Miao and the T'ung, and between the Keh-lao and the Liao.

Four New Kinds of Schools

Following Chairman Mao's great strategic policy and great directive for the educational revolution to "prepare for war, prepare for natural calamities, and serve the people," all the hsien (shih) of Kwangtung Province, during the high tide of socialist revolution and socialist construction, exhibited a revolutionary spirit of self-reliance; they established 298 short-term industrial, agricultural, health, and normal schools, which break down into 59 industrial schools, 60 agricultural schools, 72 health schools, and 107 normal schools. More than 26,000 students were selected from among workers with practical experience, poor and lower-middle peasants, and teachers in active service.

Contributors

After the filling up of the Hsinfengkiang Reservoir Kwangtung Province, seismicity was greatly increased. The majority of earthquakes occurred in the deep water gorge close to the dam, concentrated within a northwest belt. They are usually of shallow focal depths. A strong earthquake with magnitude 6.1 took place on March 19, 1962, about two and a half years since the impounding of the reservoir.According to the results of analysis of data from geodetic leveling and the spectra of seismic waves, the fault parameters of the main shock were determined. The fault plane solutions of 150 small earthquakes, occurring within a period of 18 months before and after the main shock were determined from the amplitudes of the first motion of P wave. The directions of the earthquake generating stress of about 2000 small earthquakes were obtained by smoothing the first motion patterns. Displacement field and stress field in the rock bodies underneath the reservoir caused by the loading of the reservoir water were calculated. Variations of the velocity ratio of the P and S waves prior to the main shock and several strong aftershocks were analysed.In consideration of the seismicity as well as the geological background, we endeavour to discuss the cause of reservoir impounding earthquakes at Hsinfengkiang. We have the opinion that the penetration of water along fissures becomes the most important cause of the main shock of March 19, 1962 at Hsinfengkiang.