My Hometown

My Hometown

Guangdong is the best developing province in China and have 3 different cultures -- GuangFu culture,ChaoShan culture and Kejia culture. My hometown is a small town in the east of Guangdong province and boasts a rich Chaoshan culture. I think Chaoshan culture was kept very well in this modern world. First, we have traditional life, language, food, drink, dance, architecture and so on. But do not get me wrong. I think those are good, diverse and delicious foods and beautiful language, and I really got the benefit of it. For example, our language is called Chaoshan dialect, very similar to the ancient style language. So I can easily understand the ancient style prose in my chinese class and that made me get good scores. Second, we believe in ancestors, Buddhism, Taoism, combination of three religions. There are over 100 worship days every year for different religions, and different oblations on different worship days.

Such as xiucai cake matches the qixi worship day, fried rice matches the ghost's day and sweet soup balls matches the Dongzhi day and dance rite at the Mid of First lunar month and so on.

Most the worships will be held by Chaoshan housewife, and my mother really does them well.It is crazy, as you know, over 100 worship days. Third, We attach importance to family and business. Family has two meanings. One is big family, In our hometown, we each village each town as a big family, outside our Chaoshan area as a big family, we are very united. Worship, business, and life events such as weddings and funerals were held together. The other family means that we have a strong marriage and many children in every family. Often, most families run as the husband does a business and the wife keeps the family as housewife. We have the lowest divorce rate in China, five out of ten thousand. It is unbelievable, right? My parents were not close but divorce would never be their choice.

On the other hand, the chaoshan couple have over 3 children, and at least 2 of them are boys. Even in the past 40 years, China implemented the 'one couple one child' policy strictly, which was stopped a few years ago, but the Chaoshan area may be the only place against the policy so obviously.

The big village family protects the families and avoids the policy. There is nothing the government can do about it. My parent have 3 kids. I have an elder brother and a younger brother.My aunt has 8 children, 5 girls and 3 boys. When she had the 5rd child and also the 5rd girl, they decided to name baby girl as 'aidi', which means 'love younger brother and will bring younger brother in next pregnancy'. Fortunately and ultimately, my aunt has 3 boys the next 3 pregnancies and she can stop it when she is over 45 years old. Those boys have interesting names. The first boy's name is 'changde', which means 'it takes a long time to wait for this boy'.

The second boy's name is 'changli', which means 'Hope it will continue to get another boy'.

The third boy name is 'changfeng', which means 'It is the harvest festival to get boys, it is enough.'. That is funny ha.

The culture of 'prefer boys to girls' is very strong in Chaoshan area. The boys take care of the family when they grow up and the girls will join their husband's family when they grow up.

When I was a child, parents would offer more resources to boys. Boys would have more opportunities to study and have more money from parents.So I was lucky to have got the opportunity to go to university because my brothers were tired of school life and looked forward to getting out into business like most chaoshan men.

Despite recent improvements in the economy and increased access to education for girls, the cultural bias towards boys remains prevalent.

When it comes to business, we are often referred to as the Chinese Jews due to our reputation for being skilled in this field. Many renowned entrepreneurs, both domestically and internationally, hail from the Chaoshan region. One of the wealthiest individuals in Hong Kong, Ljc, is also a Chaoshan native. In our family, the majority of us are involved in business ventures. We prefer to run our own small businesses rather than work for large corporations. Our belief is that being an entrepreneur provides the opportunity to attain wealth and provide a better life for our family.

What makes the culture of Chaoshan so strong? It is often said that geography plays a significant role in shaping a culture.

In the case of Chaoshan, its proximity to the ocean and lack of arable land meant that the region had to contend with piracy and banditry in the past. As a result, people had to rely on business to support their families, and the concept of large families and preferred boys became crucial in ensuring their safety and security. Running a successful business requires both skill and luck, which is why we believe in turning to different religions for good fortune. In modern times, Chaoshan people have ventured overseas to conduct business, and strong familial ties have continued to serve as a protective shield in foreign lands. It is no wonder that the big family culture has endured and thrived in Chaoshan.