To go anywhere, we had to walk. Therefore, our intermarriage and shopping trips were limited to a short radius. We could reach as far as Districts 5, 6, 15, and 16 only. It took an overnight trip to reach Districts 7, 8, 12, and 13. My mother was from District 5, my grandmother from 16.
Taishan County has a very unique feature: Many people from here are overseas in the U.S.A. The turning point was the Opium War of 1840. We lost that war to the British. Since then, people began to look beyond our own borders for the future. Besides, Taishan could produce only nine months of food supply per year. The first wave of cheap labor imported from China to America was in 1845. It was for the mining industry. The second wave was in 1865-1869. This was for the building of the intercontinental railroad. In both waves of immigration, most recruits were from our county. My grandfather was born in 1871 and my father in 1901. They and many of their cousins later came to America.
They were not "coolies." Most of them were intellectuals and from well-to-do families who had the vision, courage and money to leave the country. Once the railroad was completed, they could not save enough money to go home. They could not speak the English required to find jobs. The only things they could do were laundry and cooking. They worked hard, very, very hard. They worked long hours, earned low wages, lived in ghettoes (Chinatowns), faced prejudice, risked beating and lynching. But they were patient and determined. They saved every penny they could and sent all the money home to educate their children and grandchildren, and to build a new home. That transformed the whole county of Taishan.
In the late 1920's, we had to cross a big river by ferry boat beyond our district. The fare was one penny. By the 1930's, many bridges had been built, with concrete and steel rods. Many townships had sprung up, full of three-story buildings and paved streets. A highway stretched from the north to Kwonghoi (6). We saw with fascination, for the first time in our lives, a flashlight, a bicycle, an automobile. Many new houses were built in every village, houses with two stories and wow, windows, too. Taishan soon became the richest and fastest growing county in China. Taishanese swarmed into Guangzhou and Hong Kong. In Guangzhou the tallest hotel and the bus company were owned by Taishanese. The highest percentage of students in all the top high schools were Taishanese. Taishanese students were also found in almost every major college throughout the country. Today, 90% of all Chinese in the U.S.A. are Taishanese. The common Chinese language spoken in Chinatowns is the Taishanese dialect.
Taishanese used to be laughed at as dumb country folk. No more.
My comments:
Starting in the mid-1800's, the Taishanese made up a major portion of Chinese immigrants in America. Taishanese was the dominant dialect spoken in Chinatowns across North America. In the early part of the 21st century, the total population of Taishanese descent living outside of China is estimated at 1.3 million, with 500,000 in the U.S. There was a time in the late 1980's when historians estimated that 70% of all Chinese Americans were of Taishanese origin.
So far as I can remember, the major theme for our family was this. Older generation worked hard, scrimped and saved every dime, to put into the next generation's education. Advanced education was the way to break free from a hard life of not enough to eat. The mantra "Be a doctor" or "be a lawyer" was heard over and over, because those jobs paid well.
The term first generation refers to those that were foreign born but immigrated and became naturalized citizens. That would include my grandparents and my parents, and even some of my cousins who were not born in the U.S. The Japanese call this the Issei. The second generation are the ones born here, the Nisei. Therefore you, my children, would be the third generation, which the Japanese call the Sansei.
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