Since the 1980's, one has been witnessing a re-emergence of regional and provincial cultures in China which accompanied the processes of modernization, decentralization, and internationalization. Local cultural identities have been constructed not simply to lure tourists but also to attract both domestic and foreign investments. It is in such a context that the construction of a unique "Hainanese" culture began.

Since the establishment of the Hainan Province and the Hainan Special Economic Zone in 1988, local Hainanese authorities have striven to create a distinct Hainanese identity. One of the most emphasized aspects of Hainan's uniqueness is its international-ness:

1. The large majority of its population is made up of migrants.
2. Its indigenous people are of "foreign origin"
3. Its close ties with the communities in Southeast Asia since ancient times.
4. The incorporation of some vocabulary of European languages into the daily speech of the Hainanese villagers (e.g. "ausai" for outside, "bo" for ball, "budud" for bottle,"degci" for taxi, etc.)
5. The intense internationalization of the Hainanese economy.

However, the creation of a "Hainanese" identity is complicated by the fact that, in multiethnic Hainan, there exists a hierarchical relations of power that favor the "Mainlanders" ("Daluren" who came to Hainan after 1949 with minimum effort to assimilate into the local culture) who claim superiority over the "local" people, notably the "Li" people who are the indigenous "Hainanese" and, to a lesser extent, the "Hainanese" (the various "Han" Chinese groups, the biggest being the Hainanese(Minanese)-speaking group). (The situation is somehow, but not exactly similar, to the situation that one sees in Taiwan.)

So what one sees as an emerging "Hainan" culture may be a rather unique synthesis of the localization of Mainlanders, the sinicization of the Hainanese and the Li people, and the internationalization of the entire population.



Reference:

Feng, C. (1999). Seeking lost code in the wilderness: The search for a Hainanese culture. The China Quarterly, 160, 1036-1056.

Nice article

There should be a long way to go for constructing such a "culture", as Hainan was a part of intergerated culture of Guangdong for over thousand years, and main residents there mainly came from either Fujian and Guangdong before becoming a province. The formation of a culture needs times and certain conditions. However, Hainan is too isolate from mainland and too addiction to mainland culture. It is not an easy thing to construct an own culture itself.

I heard alot of hainanese people were immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong area. Is that true?