73 replies to this topic

[Cao Cao]

it sounds plausible (especially with the Zhao Tuo angle) but at the same time, if Chaozhou people's ancestors were from Zhao, wouldn't it make sense that Zhao would be a very common last name for Chazhou people?

[General_Zhaoyun]

I suppose "Chao Zhou" people you're talking about are the Teochew People..well.. I'm not sure about their history but they dwelled mostly in Shantou region of Guangdong province in South China.

[General_Zhaoyun]

In Thailand, the chinese community is also dominated by Teochew people, with a large portion originating from Swatow region of Guangdong province.

[hansioux]

i'm glad to see people are making an effort to understand more about their culture and background.  for more information regarding the Chaozhou dialect, please visit:

http://www.gaginang.org

ChaoZhou is very similar to Holo. There's a lot of Chao Zhou Han immigrants to Taiwan. They often have gang fights that boarders to war with people from Zhang Zhou.

[Ziwei]

I'm a pure teochew Singaporean and have been brought up believing i'm a Han chinese. However i've recently found out thru CHF that the teochews were part of the Min who migrated away from the overcrowded Fujian province (pls crrect me if i'm wrong) So, am i a Min? or a Han? or is the Min part of the Han? I can't find the Min as part of the 56 ethnic groups listed out. Can anyone advise? It might sound simple and clear to you guys, but to me, my brain doesn't seem to work in the same way

[Karakhan]

I'm a pure teochew Singaporean and have been brought up believing i'm a Han chinese. However i've recently found out thru CHF that the teochews were part of the Min who migrated away from the overcrowded Fujian province (pls crrect me if i'm wrong) So, am i a Min? or a Han? or is the Min part of the Han? I can't find the Min as part of the 56 ethnic groups listed out. Can anyone advise? It might sound simple and clear to you guys, but to me, my brain doesn't seem to work in the same way 

I believe the Min are part of the Han. Within the Han, the Min are one of the major "dialect" groups along with Wu, Yue, etc

[General_Zhaoyun]

Teowchews were part of Min (闽), a dialect group within the han-chinese. Han chinese or Han-Ren (汉人) constitutes a large ethnicity group within China, and includes the following dialect group such as Min,Yue,Wu etc.

[Holamon]

Yeah Teochew is definitely Han. Min is just a dialet group. BTW, I'm also Teochew.

[Ludahai]

Yeah Teochew is definitely Han. Min is just a dialet group. BTW, I'm also Teochew.

However, the Min weren't always considered to be Han. In fact, the Min maintained their independence through most of the Han Dynasty. The Minnan language and other Min languages are not mutually intelligible when compared to Mandarin, and thus are not dialects, they are in fact separate languages.

People in Taiwan who only speak Taiwanese (a dialect of Minnanhua) can not understand Mandarin. This indicates that they are distinct languages, and not mere dialects.

[nishishei]

However, the Min weren't always considered to be Han.  In fact, the Min maintained their independence through most of the Han Dynasty.  The Minnan language and other Min languages are not mutually intelligible when compared to Mandarin, and thus are not dialects, they are in fact separate languages.

People in Taiwan who only speak Taiwanese (a dialect of Minnanhua) can not understand Mandarin.  This indicates that they are distinct languages, and not mere dialects.

Hehe. The mutual intelligibility of Minnan dialects with themselves is also pretty low. Maybe it's the difficult terrain, serving as an isolating factor. Intelligibility between the representatives of all major Chinese dialect groups (Mandarin, Wu, Yue, Min, Gan, Hakka) are all low; but along the border (transition zones), the intelligibility is much higher. This is the same in Europe (such as dialects between Spain and France, Germany and France, Italy with Austria and France, France and Netherlands and Germany, etc).