(Redirected from Fujian Province)
'' (;
Postal map spelling: ''Fukien'', ''Foukien''; local transliteration 'Hokkien' from
Min Nan or
Taiwanese ''Hok-kiàn'') is one of the
provinces on the southeast coast of
China. Fujian borders
Zhejiang to the north,
Jiangxi to the west, and
Guangdong to the south.
Taiwan lies to the east, across the
Taiwan Strait.
The name Fujian comes from the combination of
Fuzhou and
Jian'ou, two cities in Fujian. The name was coined during
Tang Dynasty.
Most of Fujian is administered by the
People's Republic of China (PRC). However, the archipelagos of Kinmen (formerly known as
Quemoy)()and
Matsu() are under the control of the
Republic of China (ROC) based in
Taiwan. Thus, ''
de facto'' there are two provinces (in the sense of government organizations) with the same name. The two sides are rendered in different Romanizations of
Mandarin. The PRC side renders the name of the province in
Hanyu Pinyin, yielding "Fujian", while the ROC side renders the name of the province in
Tongyong Pinyin,
Wade-Giles and
Postal map spelling, resulting in "FuJian", "Fuchien" and "Fukien", respectively.
The existence of two parallel Fujian provincial governments is a result of the
Chinese Civil War. After losing mainland China (including most of Fujian) to communist forces in 1949, the
Republic of China (ROC) retreated to
Taiwan while retaining control over a few offshore islands of Fujian. Since then, the PRC (mainland) and ROC (Taiwan) have maintained separate provincial governments for Fujian. This article is concerned mainly with Fujian administered by the PRC; see
Fujian (ROC) for more information on the ROC's province of Fujian.
Fuzhou is the provincial capital of PRC-controlled Fujian while Kinmen(
Quemoy) is the seat of the ROC-controlled Fujian, though in practice most powers in ROC-controlled Fujian are delegated to the two counties of Kinmen(
Quemoy) and
Matsu Islands.
History
Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian (especially the northern coastal region around
Fuzhou) had entered the
Neolithic Age by the middle of the 8th millennium BP (6th millennium BC). From the Keqiutou site (7450-5590 BP), an early Neolithic site in
Pingtan Island located about 70 km southeast of Fuzhou, numerous tools made of stones,
shells,
bones,
jades, and
ceramics (including wheel-made-ceramics) have been unearthed, together with
spinning wheels, a definitive evidence of
weaving.
The Tanshishan (昙石山) site (5500-4000 BP) in suburban Fuzhou spans the Neolithic and
Chalcolithic Age where semi-underground circular buildings were found in the lower level. The Huangtulun (黄土崙) site (ca.1325 BC), also in suburban Fuzhou, was of the
Bronze Age in character.
These findings, however, also indicate that the agricultural tradition was weak if not lacking in this area, which is consistent with the early records stating that the indigenous people in Fujian, primarily those living along the
Min River, were
Austronesians with "large eyes, flat nose and tattooed bodies" , who made their living by fishing.
These people were probably the original inhabitants of southern China. Some of them may have been assimilated, driven further south, or exiled during
Han Dynasty to eastern China (north of present-day
Shanghai).
For the
Han Chinese, this area was also known as
Minyue. The word "Mǐnyuè" was derived by combining "Mǐn" (閩/闽;
POJ: bân), perhaps an ethnic name and associated with the Chinese word for barbarians (蠻/蛮; pinyin: mán; POJ: bân), and "
Yue", after the
State of Yue, a
Spring and Autumn Period kingdom in
Zhejiang Province to the north. This is because the royal family of Yuè fled to Fujian after their kingdom was annexed by the
State of Chu in
306 BC. Mǐn is also the name of the main river in this area, but the ethnonym is probably earlier.
Minyue was a ''de facto'' kingdom until the emperor of
Qin Dynasty, the first unified imperial Chinese state, abolished the status. In the aftermath of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, however, civil war broke out between two warlords,
Xiang Yu and
Liu Bang; the Minyue king Wuzhu sent his troops to fight side-by-side with Liu Bang, and his gamble paid off. Liu Bang was victorious, and founded the
Han Dynasty; in
202 BC he restored Minyue's status as a
tributary independent kingdom. Thus Wuzhu was allowed to construct his fortified city in
Fuzhou as well as a few locations in the
Wuyi Mountains, which have been excavated in recent years. His kingdom extended beyond the borders of contemporary Fujian into eastern
Guangdong, eastern
Jiangxi, and southern
Zhejiang. By this time Minyue was being
sinicized and had a combination of aboriginal (possibly
Austronesian) and Han Chinese elements.
After the death of Wuzhu, Minyue maintained its militant tradition and launched several expeditions against their neighboring kingdoms in
Guangdong,
Jiangxi, and
Zhejiang, mostly in the
2nd century BC, only to be stopped by the
Han Dynasty. The Han emperor eventually decided to get rid of the potential threat by sending in large forces simultaneously from four directions via land and sea in
111 BC. The rulers in Fuzhou surrendered to avoid a futile fight and destruction; thus the first kingdom in Fujian history came to an abrupt end. Nonetheless, the people of northern Fujian still erect temples in memory of their first kings.
The
Han Dynasty collapsed at the end of the
2nd century AD, paving the way for the
Three Kingdoms era.
Sun Quan, the founder of the
Kingdom of Wu, spent nearly twenty years subduing the Shan Yue people, the branch of the
Yue people living in mountains.
The first wave of immigration of the noble class arrived in the province in the early 4th century AD when the
Western Jin Dynasty collapsed and the north was torn apart by invasions by nomadic peoples from the north, as well as civil war. These immigrants were primarily from eight families in central China:
Lin (林),
Huang (黄),
Chen (陈),
Zheng (郑),
Zhan (詹),
Qiu (邱),
He (何), and
Hu (胡). The first four remain as the major surnames of modern Fujian.
Nevertheless, isolation from nearby areas owing to rugged terrain contributed to Fujian's relatively backward economy and level of development, despite major population boost from northern China during the "barbarian" invasions. Population density in Fujian remained low compared to the rest of China. Only two
commanderies and sixteen counties were established by the
Western Jin Dynasty. Like other southern provinces such as
Guangdong,
Guangxi,
Guizhou, and
Yunnan, Fujian often served as a destination for exiled prisoners and dissidents at that time.
During the
Northern and Southern Dynasties era, the
Southern Dynasties reigned south of the
Yangtze River. Their sovereigns put significant efforts into populating the area with Han Chinese.
The
Tang Dynasty (
618-
907) oversaw the next golden age of China. As the Tang Dynasty ended, China was torn apart in the period of the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. During this time, a second major wave of immigration arrived in the safe haven of Fujian, led by general Wang, who set up an independent
Kingdom of Min with its capital in Fuzhou. After the death of the founding king, however, the kingdom suffered from internal strife, and was soon swallowed up by
Southern Tang, another southern kingdom.
Quanzhou was blooming into a seaport under the reign of the
Min Kingdom, and may have been the largest seaport in the Eastern hemisphere. In the early
Ming dynasty, Quanzhou was the staging area and supply depot of
Zheng He's naval expeditions. Further development was severely hampered by the
sea trade ban of the
Ming Dynasty, and the area was superseded by nearby ports of
Guangzhou,
Hangzhou,
Ningbo and
Shanghai despite the lifting of the ban in
1550. Large scale piracy by
Wokou (Japanese pirates) was eventually wiped out by Chinese military and Japanese authority of
Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Late Ming and early
Qing Dynasty symbolized an era of large influx of refugees and another 20 years of sea trade ban under the
Kangxi Emperor, a measure intended to counter the refuge Ming government of
Koxinga in
Taiwan. Incoming refugees, however, did not translate into a major labor force owing to their re-migration into prosperous regions of
Guangdong province. In
1689, the Qing dynasty officially incorporated
Taiwan into Fujian province. Settlement of Taiwan by
Han Chinese followed, and the majority of people in Taiwan are descendants of emigrants from Southern Fujian. After Taiwan was separated into its own province in
1885 and ceded to Japan in
1895, Fujian arrived at its present extent. It was substantially influenced by the Japanese after the
Treaty of Shimonoseki of
1895 until the
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) of
WWII.
Owing to the mountainous landscape, Fujian was the most secluded province of the PRC in eastern China due to the lack of rail and underdeveloped networks of paved roads before the 1950s. The first railway to the province was completed in mid-1950s connecting
Xiamen to the rest of the
mainland. Despite its secluded location, Fujian has had a strong academic tradition since the
Southern Song Dynasty. At the time, north China was occupied by the
Jurchen Jin Dynasty, which caused a shift of the cultural center of China to the south, benefiting Fuzhou and other southern cities. In the
Chinese Academy of Science and
Chinese Academy of Engineering, there are more members from
Fuzhou than from any other city. In addition, it should also be pointed out that the slow development of Fujian in its early days has proven a blessing for the province's ecology; today, the province has the highest forest coverage rate and the most diverse biosphere in China whereas central China suffers from severe overpopulation and displays severe signs of
soil erosion accompanied by frequent droughts and floods due to lack of forest coverage.
Since the late
1970s, the economy of Fujian along the coast has greatly benefited from its geographic and cultural proximity to
Taiwan. In
2003,
Xiamen ranked number eight GDP per capita among 659 Chinese cities, ahead of Shanghai and Beijing, while
Fuzhou ranked no. 21 (number 4 among 30 provincial capitals). The development has been accompanied by a large influx of population from the over-populated areas in the north and west, and much of the farmland and forest as well as cultural heritage sites such as the temples of king Wuzhu have given way to ubiquitous high-rise buildings, and the government faces a challenge at all levels to sustain development while, at the same time, preserving the unique and vital natural and cultural heritage of Fujian.
Geography
The province is mostly mountainous, and is traditionally described to be "Eight parts mountain, one part water, and one part farmland" (八山一水一分田). The northwest is higher in altitude, with the
Wuyi Mountains forming the border between Fujian and
Jiangxi. The highest point of Fujian is
Huanggang Peak in the Wuyi Mountains, with an altitude of 2157
m.
The province faces
East China Sea to the east,
South China Sea to the south, and the
Taiwan Strait to the southeast. The coastline is ragged and has many bays and islands. Major islands include
Quemoy (controlled by the
Republic of China),
Haitan Island, and
Nanri Island.
The
River Min Jiang and its tributaries cut through much of northern and central Fujian. Other rivers include the
Jinjiang River and the
Jiulong River. Due to its uneven topography, Fujian has many cliffs and rapids.
Fujian is separated from
Taiwan by the 180-
km-wide Taiwan Strait. Some of the small islands in the Taiwan Strait are also part of the province.
Small parts of the province, namely the islands of
Quemoy and
Matsu are under the administration of the
Republic of China on Taiwan.
Fujian has a
subtropical climate, with warm winters. In January the coastal regions average around 7-10
°C while the hills average 6-8
°C. In summer temperatures are high, and province is threatened by
typhoons coming in from the
Pacific. Average annual
precipitation is 1400-2000
mm.
Major cities:
★
Fuzhou (Foochow)
★
Xiamen (Amoy)
★
Quanzhou
★
Zhangzhou
★
Putian
Administrative divisions
The
People's Republic of China controls most of the province, and divides it into nine
prefecture-level divisions, all of them
prefecture-level cities:
★
Fuzhou (
Simplified Chinese: 福州市;
Hanyu Pinyin: Fúzhōu Shì)
★
Xiamen (厦门市 Xiàmén Shì)
★
Zhangzhou (漳州市 Zhāngzhōu Shì)
★
Quanzhou (泉州市 Quánzhōu Shì)
★
Sanming (三明市 Sānmíng Shì)
★
Putian (莆田市 Pútián Shì)
★
Nanping (南平市 Nánpíng Shì)
★
Longyan (龙岩市 Lóngyán Shì)
★
Ningde (宁德市 Níngdé Shì)
All of the prefecture-level cities except Longyan, Sanming, and Nanping are found along the coast.
The nine
prefecture-level divisions are subdivided into 85
county-level divisions (26
districts, 14
county-level cities, and 45
counties). Those are in turn divided into 1107
township-level divisions (605
towns, 328
townships, 18
ethnic townships, and 156
subdistricts). ''Note: these are the official PRC numbers. Thus,
Quemoy is included as one of the 45 counties and
Matsu as one of the 334 townships.''
Quemoy County is nominally controlled by
Quanzhou prefecture-level city, but it is administered in its entirety by the
Republic of China on
Taiwan. The PRC-administered
Lianjiang County, under the jurisdiction of
Fuzhou prefecture-level city, nominally includes the
Matsu Islands, but Matsu is in reality controlled by the
Republic of China on
Taiwan, which administers Matsu as
Lienchiang County (same name Romanized differently).
See '
List of administrative divisions of Fujian' for a complete list of
county-level divisions.
Economy
Xiamen with old and new buildings.
Fujian is hilly and farmland is sparse.
Rice is the main crop, supplemented by
sweet potatoes and
wheat. Cash crops include
sugar cane and
rapeseed. Fujian leads the provinces of China in
longan production, and is also a major producer of
lychees and
tea. Seafood is another important product, with
shellfish production especially prominent.
Fujian is one of the wealthier provinces of China.
Xiamen was one of the first cities in China to be classified as a
Special Economic Zone. Because of the closeness both geographically and culturally with
Taiwan, Fujian receives much
investment from there.
In
2005, Fujian's nominal GDP was 648.7 billion yuan (US$81 billion), a rise of 11% from the previous year.
[1]
Demographics
Han Chinese make up most of the population.
Hakka, a
Han Chinese people with its own distinct identity, live in the southwestern parts of the province.
Hui'an, also a Han branch with their own colorful culture and fashion, populate Fujian's southeast coastline near
Chongwu in
Hui'an County. The
She, scattered over mountainous regions in the north, is the largest
minority ethnic group of the province. Genetic studies have suggested that a significant proportion of Han Chinese ancestry in Fujian descend (predominantly matrilineally) from pre-
Sinicization aborigines.
Many
ethnic Chinese around the world, especially
Southeast Asia, trace their ancestry to Fujian. Descendants of Fujian emigrants make up the majority of the majority ethnic Chinese population of
Malaysia, the
Philippines,
Taiwan,
Singapore and
Indonesia. Fujian, especially Fuzhou, is also the major source of undocumented Chinese immigrants in the United States.
Culture
Because of its mountainous nature and the numerous waves of migration from central China in the course of history, Fujian is one of the most linguistically diverse places in all
Han Chinese areas of China. Local dialects can become unintelligible within 10 km. This is reflected in the expression that "if you drive five miles in Fujian the culture changes, and if you drive ten miles, the language does". Classification of these various dialects have confounded linguists. In general, most dialects of Fujian are put into a broad
Min category, then subdivided into
Min Bei,
Min Dong,
Min Zhong,
Min Nan,
Pu Xian, and
Shao Jiang. (The seventh subdivision of Min,
Qiong Wen, is not spoken in Fujian.) The
Fuzhou dialect is part of
Min Dong, but some linguists classified it as Min Bei; the
Xiamen dialect is part of
Min Nan.
Hakka, another subdivision of spoken Chinese, is spoken around
Longyan by the
Hakka people who live there.
As is true of other provinces, the official language in Fujian is
Standard Mandarin, which is used for communication between people of different localities. During the Qing dynasty, traders in Fujian also used
pidgin English as a common language, although this is now extinct.
Several regions of Fujian have their own form of
Chinese opera.
Minju (Fujian Opera) is popular around
Fuzhou;
Gaojiaxi around
Jinjiang and
Quanzhou;
Xiangju around
Zhangzhou;
Fujian Nanqu throughout the south, and
Puxianxi around
Putian and
Xianyou County.
Fujian cuisine, with an emphasis on
seafood, is one of the eight great traditions of
Chinese cuisine. It is composed of traditions from various regions, including
Fuzhou cuisine and
Min Nan cuisine. The most prestigeful dish is
Fotiaoqiang (literally "
Buddha Jumps Over Wall"), a complex dish making use of many ingredients, including
shark fin,
sea cucumber,
abalone, and
Shaoxing wine (a form of "
Chinese alcoholic beverage").
Many famous
teas originate from Fujian, including
oolong,
Wuyi Yancha, and
Fuzhou jasmine tea.
Fujian tea ceremony is an elaborate way of preparing and serving tea. In fact, the English word "tea" is borrowed from
Min nan language. (
Standard Mandarin and
Standard Cantonese pronounce the word as ''chá''.)
Fuzhou bodiless lacquer ware, a famous type of
lacquer ware, is noted for using a body of
clay and/or
plaster to form its shape; the body later removed.
Fuzhou is also famous for
Shoushan stone carvings.
Tourism
Places of interest include:
★
Guanghua Temple, mainland
Putian
★
Gulangyu Island,
Xiamen
★
Kaiyuan Temple,
Quanzhou
★
Mount Tailao,
Fuding
★
Mount Wuyi, listed by the
UNESCO as one of the
World Heritage Sites (1999)
★
Nanshan Temple,
Zhangzhou
★ The
Matsu pilgrimage centers around
Meizhou Island (
Putian Municipality), because she was born there (and died on
Matsu Islands).
★
Yongquan Temple,
Fuzhou
★
Hakka architecture
Famous people
The province also has a tradition of educational achievement, and has produced many important scholars and statesmen since the time of the
Song dynasty, such as:
★
Zheng Qiao (1108-1166), historian.
★
Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Confucian philosopher.
★
Hong Chengchou (1593-1665), Ming dynasty official.
★
Lin Zexu (1785-1850), scholar and official.
★
Lin Shu (1852-1924), translator.
★
Yan Fu (1854-1921), scholar and translator.
★
Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958), literary historian.
★
Go Seigen (born 1914),
pseudonym of
Go champion Wú Qīngyuán.
Miscellaneous topics
Professional sports teams in Fujian include:
★
Chinese Basketball Association
★
★
Fujian Xunxing
★
Chinese Football Association Jia League
★
★
Xiamen Lanshi
Colleges and universities
:''Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.''
'National'
★
Huaqiao University (华侨大学) (Quanzhou)
★
Xiamen University (厦门大学) (founded 1921) (Xiamen)
'Public'
★
Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (福建农林大学) (Fuzhou)
★
Fujian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (福建中医学院) (Fuzhou)
★
Fujian Medical University (福建医科大学) (Fuzhou)
★
Fujian Normal University (福建师范大学) (founded 1907) (Fuzhou)
★
Fujian University of Technology (福建工程学院) (Fuzhou)
★
Fuzhou University (福州大学) (Fuzhou)
★
Jimei University (集美大学) (Xiamen)
★
Minjiang University (闽江学院) (Fuzhou)
★
Putian University (莆田学院) (Putian)
★
Quanzhou Normal College (泉州师范学院) (Quanzhou)
★
Zhangzhou Normal College (漳州师范学院) (Zhangzhou)
'Private'
★
Yang-en University (仰恩大学) (Quanzhou)
Sources
★ "Uniting China to Speak Mandarin, the One Official Language: Easier Said Than Done", New York Times Article by Howard W. French,
July 10,
2005.
External links
★
Wuyi Mountain Photo Gallery
★
Xiamen Photo Gallery
★
Fu Zhou Photo Gallery
★
Mei Zhou Island, Pu Tian, Photo Gallery
★
De Hua Photo Gallery
★
Nan An Photo Gallery
★
Quan Zhou Photo Gallery
★
Zhang Zhou Photo Gallery
★
Nanjing Village, Nanjing (Fujian Province) Photo Gallery
★
PRC Fujian People's Provincial Government (in
Simplified Chinese)
★
All-text webpages by
Fuzhou University, unofficial
★
Fujian International: Business website with introductions on the Province
★
Guide to Fujian Province
★
Large map of Fujian
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