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161-474: It is sometimes claimed that the word "sampan" is derived from the Cantonese term sāam báan ([三板] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |labels= ( help ) ), literally "three planks", but this is likely to be a false etymology . A possible Austronesian origin of the word has been suggested, as it is attested in an Old Malay inscription from 684 CE. Sampans may be propelled by poles, oars (particularly

322-589: A linguistic discrimination that has also contributed to social conflicts between the two sides, with a growing number of Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background defending the historic Chinese-American culture against the impacts of increasing Mandarin-speaking new arrivals. In Northern California , especially the San Francisco Bay Area , the California Cantonese have historically dominated in

483-657: A Chinese community. The majority of Cantonese-speakers in Canada live in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver . There are sufficient Cantonese-speakers in Canada that there exist locally produced Cantonese TV and radio programming, such as Fairchild TV . As in the United States, the Chinese Canadian community traces its roots to early immigrants from Guangdong during the latter half of

644-459: A combination of factors, including phonological differences and variations in grammar and vocabulary. Notably, there are instances where the sentence structure, particularly with regard to verb placement, differs between the two varieties. A noteworthy distinction between Cantonese and Mandarin is the manner in which the spoken word is written. Both languages can be recorded verbatim, yet a paucity of Cantonese speakers possess comprehensive knowledge of

805-598: A development plan for the Pearl River Delta in January 2009; on March 19 of the same year, the Guangzhou and Foshan municipal governments agreed to establish a framework to merge the two cities. In 2014, Luogang merged into Huangpu and both Conghua and Zengcheng counties were upgraded to districts. On 16 June 2022 an EF2 tornado struck the city , causing major power outages and knocking out power to

966-477: A formal part of the Han Empire. The native prime minister Lü Jia ( 呂 嘉 ) launched a coup, killing Han ambassadors along with the king, his mother, and their supporters. A successful ambush then annihilated a Han force which had been sent to arrest him. Emperor Wu of Han took offense and launched a massive riverine and seaborne war : six armies under Lu Bode and Yang Pu took Panyu and annexed Nanyue by

1127-649: A general supportive of the Wuhan faction, seized Canton and installed Wang Jingwei 's faction in the city, the communists saw an opening and launched the Guangzhou Uprising . Prominent communist military leaders Ye Ting and Ye Jianying led the failed defense of the city. Soon, control of the city reverted to Li Jishen . Li Jishen was deposed during a war between Chiang and the New Guangxi Clique . By 1929, Chen Jitang had established himself as

1288-637: A monopoly after the war; consequently it lost trade to other ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai , but continued to serve as a major entrepôt . Following the Second Battle of Chuenpi in 1841, the Treaty of Nanking was signed between Sir Robert Peel on behalf of Queen Victoria and Lin Zexu on behalf of Emperor Xuanzong and has ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom on 26 January 1841 after

1449-582: A more important status by the natives than ever before as a common identity of the local people. This has led to initiatives to revive the language such as its introduction into school curricula and locally produced programs on broadcast media. Cantonese has historically served as a lingua franca among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, who speak a variety of other forms of Chinese including Hokkien , Teochew , and Hakka . Additionally, Cantonese media and popular culture such as cinema of Hong Kong

1610-516: A political compromise that reunited all factions. While the intraparty division was resolved, Chen kept his power until he was defeated by Chiang in 1936. During the WW2 , the " Canton Operation " subjected the city to Japanese occupation by the end of December 1938. Amid the closing months before total Communist victory, Guangzhou briefly served as the capital of the Republican government. Guangzhou

1771-596: A rather polluted city. After green urban planning was implemented, it is now one of the most livable cities in China. Zhujiang New Town is the central business district of Guangzhou in the 21st century. It covers 6.44 km in Tianhe District . Multiple financial institutions are headquartered in this area. The Canton Fair , formally the "China Import and Export Fair", is held every year in April and October by

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1932-608: A relatively minor presence compared to other Southeast Asian nations, being the fourth most spoken Chinese variety after Hokkien, Hakka and Teochew. Despite the majority of Chinese Filipinos are Fujianese , there are also sizeable Cantonese population in the Philippines, with many of them mainly came from Taishan , Guangdong . Many of the Cantonese people and their descendants live in Baguio and its province Benguet , where

2093-484: A segregation of communities based on linguistic cleavage. In particular, some Chinese Americans (including American-born Chinese ) of Cantonese background emphasise their non-mainland origins (e.g. Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, etc.) to assert their identity in the face of new waves of immigration. Guangzhou Guangzhou , previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow , is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China . Located on

2254-421: A separate Hong Kong identity. A similar identity issue exists in the United States, where conflicts have arisen among Chinese-speakers due to a large recent influx of Mandarin-speakers. While older Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster integration within the traditional Chinese American populations, more recent arrivals from the mainland continue to use Mandarin exclusively. This has contributed to

2415-536: A significant proportion of the entertainment industry in China migrated to Hong Kong in the early decades of the 20th century, the Hong Kong-based entertainment industry underwent a transformation to suit overseas as well as domestic audiences. With the bifurcation of the film industry into Cantonese and Mandarin, the use of the Xiguan accent of Guangzhou as a conservative prestige accent of standard Cantonese

2576-529: A single, long stern sculling oar called a yuloh (simplified Chinese 摇橹/ traditional Chinese 搖櫓) ) or may be fitted with outboard motors. Sampans are still in use by rural residents of Southeast Asia , particularly in Malaysia , Indonesia , Bangladesh , Myanmar , Sri Lanka and Vietnam . Malay communities in Southeast Asia also use the term sampan for their boats. Large boats such as sampan panjang , kolek and perahu panjang are used and built by

2737-415: A study by Oxford Economics, and its nominal GDP per capita will reach above $ 42,000 in 2030. Guangzhou also ranks 21st globally (between Washington, D.C., and Amsterdam) and 8th in the whole Asia & Oceania region (behind Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen and Dubai) in the 2020 Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI). Owing to rapid industrialization, it was once also considered

2898-607: A successful offense against his cousin Zhu Youlang but was deposed and executed on January 20, 1647, when the Ming turncoat Li Chengdong ( 李 成 棟 ) sacked the city on behalf of the Qing . The Qing became somewhat more receptive to foreign trade after gaining control of Taiwan in 1683. The Portuguese from Macau and Spaniards from Manila returned, as did private Muslim, Armenian , and English traders. From 1699 to 1714,

3059-429: A year, ultimately executed 23 by lingchi . With the help of local pirates, the " Folangji " then carried out smuggling at Macao , Lampacau , and St John's Island (now Shangchuan ), until Leonel de Sousa legalized their trade with bribes to Admiral Wang Bo ( 汪 柏 ) and the 1554 Luso-Chinese Accord . The Portuguese undertook not to raise fortifications and to pay customs dues; three years later, after providing

3220-716: Is Han Chinese . Almost all Cantonese people speak Cantonese as their first language, while most migrants speak forms of Mandarin . In 2010, each language was the native tongue of roughly half of the city's population, although minor but substantial numbers speak other varieties as well. In 2018, He Huifeng of the South China Morning Post stated that younger residents have increasingly favored using Mandarin instead of Cantonese in their daily lives, causing their Cantonese-speaking grandparents and parents to use Mandarin to communicate with them. He Huifeng stated that factors included local authorities discouraging

3381-629: Is 2.828 billion cubic meters. The southern river network area is in the tidal influence area, with large runoff and a strong tidal effect. The three major entrances of the Pearl River, Humen, Jiaomen, and Hongqili, enter the Lingding Ocean and exit the South China Sea in the south of Guangzhou City. The annual high tide volume is 271 billion cubic meters and the annual ebb tide volume is 408.8 billion cubic meters. The annual runoff of

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3542-538: Is 74,400 hectares, accounting for 10.05% of the city's land area. The main rivers include Beijiang, Dongjiang North Mainstream, Zengjiang, Liuxi River, Baini River, Pearl River Guangzhou Reach, Shiqiao Waterway, and Shawan Waterway. Beijiang, The Dongjiang River flows through Guangzhou City and merges with the Pearl River to flow into the sea. The local average total water resources is 7.979 billion cubic meters, including 7.881 billion cubic meters of surface water and 1.487 billion cubic meters of groundwater. Calculated based on

3703-535: Is also available in the nation and Cantonese is prevalent in locally produced Chinese television. Cantonese spoken in Malaysia and Singapore often exhibits influences from Malay and other Chinese varieties spoken in the country, like Hokkien and Teochew. The Singapore government uses Mandarin as the official Chinese variety and has a Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC) seeking to actively promote using Mandarin at

3864-488: Is also referred to as "Canton prefecture speech" ( 廣府話 ; 广府话 ; Gwong2 fu2 waa2 ; Gwóngfú wá ). In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, the language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province Speech" ( 廣東話 ; 广东话 ; Gwong2 dung1 waa2 ; Gwóngdùng wá ) or simply as "Chinese" ( 中文 ; Zung1 man2 ; Jùngmán ). During the Southern Song period, Guangzhou became

4025-533: Is also widely spoken as well in the town of Sekinchan in the district of Sabak Bernam located in the northern part of Selangor state and also in the state of Perak , especially in the state capital city of Ipoh and its surrounding towns of Gopeng , Batu Gajah , and Kampar of the Kinta Valley region plus the towns of Tapah and Bidor in the southern part of the Perak state, and also widely spoken in

4186-520: Is an official language alongside Portuguese . As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou , although there exist some minor differences in accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around

4347-628: Is becoming increasingly concentrated in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, also known as Little Fuzhou , which is causing the city's growing Cantonese and Fuzhou enclaves to become increasingly distanced and isolated from both each other and other Chinese enclaves in Queens. Flushing's Chinatown , which is now the largest Chinatown in the city, and Elmhurst's smaller Chinatown in Queens are very diverse, with large numbers of Mandarin speakers from different regions of China and Taiwan. The Chinatowns of Queens comprise

4508-547: Is considered one of the most prosperous cities in China. Guangzhou ranks 10th in the world and 5th in China (after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen) in terms of the number of billionaires according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2020. Guangzhou is projected to be among the world top 10 largest cities in terms of nominal GDP in 2035 (together with Shanghai , Beijing and Shenzhen in China) according to

4669-516: Is estimated that in Zengcheng district and Huadu district of Guangzhou, Hakka speakers account for about 40 percent and a third of the district's population. Recent years have seen a huge influx of migrants, with up to 30 million additional migrants living in the Guangzhou area for at least six months out of every year with the majority being female migrants and many becoming local Guangzhou people. This huge influx of people from other areas, called

4830-582: Is growing, with a number of educational institutes offering Cantonese as an elective language course. Cantonese is widely used as the inter-communal language among Chinese Cambodians , especially in Phnom Penh and other urban areas. While Teochew speakers form the majority of the Chinese population in Cambodia , Cantonese is often used as a vernacular in commerce and with other Chinese variant groups in

4991-514: Is largely a countermeasure against Hong Kong's influence, as the autonomous territory has the right to freedom of the press and speech and its Cantonese-language media have a substantial exposure and following in Guangdong. Nevertheless, the place of local Cantonese language and culture remains contentious, as with other non-Mandarin Chinese languages. A 2010 proposal to switch some programming on Guangzhou television from Cantonese to Mandarin

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5152-579: Is largely influential in the local Chinese media and is used in commerce by Chinese Malaysians. Due to the popularity of Hong Kong popular culture , especially through drama series and popular music, Cantonese is widely understood by the Chinese in all parts of Malaysia, even though a large proportion of the Chinese Malaysian population is non-Cantonese. Television networks in Malaysia regularly broadcast Hong Kong television programmes in their original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. Cantonese radio

5313-443: Is located in the water-rich area of southern China, it has a wide water area with many rivers and water systems, accounting for 10% of the total land area. The rivers and streams improve the landscape and keep the ecological environment of the city stable. The main characteristics of Guangzhou's water resources are that there are relatively few local water resources and relatively abundant transit water resources. The city's water area

5474-435: Is over 28 million after including the population of the adjacent Hong Kong Special Administrative Region . The area's fast-growing economy and high demand for labor has produced a huge "floating population" of migrant workers ; thus, up to 10 million migrants reside in the area least six months each year. In 2008, about five million of Guangzhou's permanent residents were hukouless migrants. Most of Guangzhou's population

5635-463: Is popular throughout the region. In Vietnam , Cantonese is the dominant language of the main ethnic Chinese community, usually referred to as Hoa , which numbers about one million people and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the country. Over half of the ethnic Chinese population in Vietnam speaks Cantonese as a native language and the variety also serves as a lingua franca between

5796-483: Is spoken by ethnic Chinese in Portugal who originate from Macau , the most established Chinese community in the nation with a presence dating back to the 16th century and Portuguese colonialism . Since the late-20th century, however, Mandarin- and Wu-speaking migrants from mainland China have outnumbered those from Macau, although Cantonese is still retained among mainstream Chinese community associations. Cantonese

5957-547: Is the center of origin and variety of lychee, longan, yellow skin, black (white) olive, and so on. Vegetables are known for their high quality and variety, with 15 major categories, 127 species, and more than 370 varieties. Flowers include fresh cut flowers (fresh cut flowers, fresh cut leaves, fresh cut branches), potted plants (potted flowers, bonsai, flower bed plants), ornamental seedlings, edible and medicinal flowers, industrial and other uses of flowers, lawns, seedlings, etc. More than 3,000 traditional varieties and in recent years

6118-503: Is the main manufacturing hub of the Pearl River Delta , one of mainland China 's leading commercial and manufacturing regions. In 2021, its GDP reached ¥2,823 billion (US$ 444.37 billion in nominal), making it the 2nd largest economy in the South-Central China region after Shenzhen . Guangzhou's GDP (nominal) was $ 444.37 billion in 2021, exceeding that Guangzhou's per capita was ¥151,162 ($ 23,794 in nominal). Guangzhou

6279-460: Is the translation to Hanyu Pinyin of certain terms which originated from southern Chinese varieties. For instance, dim sum is often known as diǎn xīn in Singapore's English-language media, though this is largely a matter of style, and most Singaporeans will still refer to it as dim sum when speaking English. Nevertheless, since the government restriction on media in non-Mandarin varieties

6440-434: Is used for Cantonese proper. Historically, speakers called this variety "Canton speech" ( 廣州話 ; 广州话 ; Gwong2 zau1 waa2 ; Gwóngjàu wá ), although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people also call it "provincial capital speech" ( 省城話 ; 省城话 ; Saang2 seng4 waa2 ; Sáangsèhng wá ) or "plain speech" ( 白話 ; 白话 ; Baak6 waa2 ; Baahkwá ). In academic linguistic circles, it

6601-634: Is widely spoken among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia , as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent) and the Western world, such as California . Despite the considerable overlap in vocabulary between Cantonese and Mandarin, as well as other varieties of Chinese , these Sinitic languages are not mutually intelligible. This is due to

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6762-546: The First Opium War , centuries of maritime prohibitions ( 海禁 ; hǎijìn ; hoi2 gam3 ) ended. Large numbers of Cantonese people from the Pearl River Delta, especially merchants, subsequently migrated by boat to other parts of Guangdong and Guangxi. These migrants established enclaves of Cantonese in areas that primarily spoke other forms of Yue or even non-Sinitic languages such as Zhuang , for example in

6923-813: The French and British East India Companies sent a ship or two each year; the Austrian Ostend General India Co. arrived in 1717, the Dutch East India Co. in 1729, the Danish Asiatic Co. in 1731, and the Swedish East India Co. the next year. These were joined by the occasional Prussian or Trieste Company vessel. The first independent American ship arrived in 1784, and the first colonial Australian one in 1788. By that time, Guangzhou

7084-613: The Guangdong–Hankou Railway was awarded to the American China Development Co. in 1898. It completed its branch line west to Foshan and Sanshui before being engulfed in a diplomatic crisis after a Belgian consortium bought a controlling interest and the Qing subsequently canceled its concession. J.P. Morgan was awarded millions in damages and the line to Wuchang was not completed until 1936 and

7245-595: The Hong Kong Basic Law . The Chinese language has many different varieties , of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals. It is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation also exists in neighboring Macau , where Chinese

7406-536: The Hurun Global Rich List. Guangzhou is a research and development hub ranking 8th globally as well as 4th in the Asia-Pacific region, and is home to numerous Double First-Class Universities , including Sun Yat-sen University . Guǎngzhōu is the official romanization of the Chinese name 广州 . The name of the city is taken from the ancient Guǎng Prefecture after it had become

7567-460: The Immortals " ( 仙城 / 五仙城 ) came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers ( 花城 ) is usually taken as a simple reference to the area's fine greenery. The English name "Canton" derived from Portuguese Cidade de Cantão , a blend of dialectal pronunciations of "Guangdong" (e.g., Cantonese Gwong2-dung1 ). Although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it

7728-632: The Ministry of Trade . Inaugurated in the spring of 1957, the fair is a major event for the city. It is the trade fair with the longest history, highest level, and largest scale in China. From the 104th session onwards, the fair moved to the new Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center ( 广州 国际 会展 中心 ) in Pazhou , from the older complex in Liuhua. The GICEC is served by two stations on Line 8 and three stations on Tram Line THZ1 . Since

7889-580: The Pearl River about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km (90 mi) north of Macau , Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the Silk Road . The port of Guangzhou serves as a transportation hub for Guangzhou, one of China's three largest cities. Guangzhou was captured by the British during the First Opium War and no longer enjoyed

8050-604: The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone . Administratively, the city holds subprovincial status and is one of China's nine National Central Cities . In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nationals of sub-Saharan Africa who had initially settled in the Middle East and Southeast Asia moved in unprecedented numbers to Guangzhou in response to the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis . The domestic migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou

8211-666: The Peasant Movement Training Institute in the city, of which Mao Zedong was a director for one term. Sun and his military commander Chiang used Soviet funds and weapons to build an armed force staffed by communist commissars, training its cadres in the Whampoa Military Academy . In August, the fledgling army suppressed the Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising . The next year the anti-imperialist May Thirtieth Movement swept

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8372-503: The Sacramento River Delta (see Locke, California ). It is a Yuehai variety much like Guangzhou Cantonese but has "flatter" tones. Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the United States when both Cantonese and Mandarin are combined, behind Spanish. Many institutes of higher education have traditionally had Chinese programs based on Cantonese, with some continuing to offer these programs despite

8533-595: The Yuegui Wars . On June 16, 1922, Sun was ousted in a coup and fled on the warship Yongfeng after Chen sided with the Zhili Clique 's Beijing government . In the following months Sun mounted a counterattack into Guangdong by rallying supporters from Yunnan and Guangxi, and in January established a government in the city for the third time. From 1923 to 1926, Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) used

8694-447: The cultural identity of its native speakers across a vast expanse of southeastern China , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in overseas communities . In mainland China , Cantonese is the lingua franca of the Chinese province of Guangdong (being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta ) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. It is also the dominant and co-official language of Hong Kong and Macau . Furthermore, Cantonese

8855-639: The emergent Chinese American enclaves in eastern Los Angeles County and other areas of the metropolitan region. Cantonese is the most common Chinese variety spoken among Chinese Canadians . According to the Canada 2016 census , there were 565,275 Canadian residents who reported Cantonese as their native language. Among the self-reported Cantonese speakers, 44% were born in Hong Kong, 27% were born in Guangdong Province in China, and 18% were Canadian-born. Cantonese-speakers can be found in every city with

9016-668: The tribute delegations sent to or by official representatives of foreign governments. Following the Portuguese conquest of the Melaka Sultanate , Rafael Perestrello traveled to Guangzhou as a passenger on a native junk in 1516. His report induced Fernão Pires de Andrade to sail to the city with eight ships the next year, but De Andrade's exploration was understood as spying and his brother Simão and others began attempting to monopolize trade, enslaving Chinese women and children, engaging in piracy, and fortifying

9177-555: The 104th session, the Canton Fair has been arranged in three phases instead of two phases. Guangzhou is a hub for international businesses. According to an article by China Briefing, over 30,000 foreign-invested companies had settled in Guangzhou by 2018, including 297 Fortune Global 500 companies with projects and 120 Fortune Global 500 companies with headquarters or regional headquarters in the city. The 2010 census found Guangzhou's population to be 12.78 million. As of 2014 , it

9338-480: The 1700s, Cantonese became the variety of Chinese interacting most with the Western world. Much of the sources for this period of early Cantonese, such as the 18th century rime dictionary Fenyun Cuoyao ( 分韻撮要 ; Fēnyùn Cuòyào ; Fan1 wan5 Cyut3 jiu3 ) and the 1828 Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect by the missionary Robert Morrison , were written in Guangzhou during this period of prosperity. After

9499-778: The 19th century, most of the city's buildings were still only one or two stories. However, there were notable exceptions such as the Flower Pagoda of the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees , and the guard tower known as the Five-Story Pagoda . The subsequently urbanized northern hills were bare and covered with traditional graves. The brick city walls were about 6 mi (10 km) in circumference, 25 ft (8 m) high, and 20 ft (6 m) wide. Its eight main gates and two water gates all held guards during

9660-493: The 19th century. Later Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong in two waves, first in the late 1960s to mid 1970s, and again in the 1980s to late 1990s on fears arising from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and impending handover to the People's Republic of China. Chinese-speaking immigrants from conflict zones in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam, arrived as well, beginning in the mid-1970s and were also largely Cantonese-speaking. The overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers in

9821-726: The 2010 proposal put forth by Guangzhou Television , which called for an increase in Mandarin broadcasts at the expense of Cantonese programmes. This, however, resulted in protests in Guangzhou, which ultimately dissuaded the authorities from pursuing the proposal. Furthermore, there are reports of students being punished for speaking other Chinese languages at school, which has led to a reluctance among younger children to communicate in their native languages, including Cantonese. Such actions have further provoked Cantonese speakers to cherish their linguistic identity in contrast to migrants who have generally arrived from poorer areas of China and largely speak Mandarin or other Chinese languages. Due to

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9982-420: The Australian Bureau of Statistics listed 336,410 and 263,673 speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, respectively. By 2016, those numbers became 596,711 and 280,943. Spoken Chinese exhibits a multitude of regional and local varieties, many of which are mutually unintelligible . The majority of these varieties are not widely spoken outside of their native regions, although they may be encountered in other parts of

10143-463: The Cantonese authorities in the early In the 20th century, proponents of the regional uniqueness of their local language and the commercial importance of the region argued that Cantonese should be preserved. In contrast to other non-Mandarin Chinese varieties, Cantonese persists in a few state television and radio broadcasts today. Nevertheless, there have been recent efforts to reduce the use of Cantonese in China . The most notable of these has been

10304-416: The Cantonese made up the majority of the city's and province's Chinese Filipino residents, with some of them have residences in Metro Manila. They speak Cantonese and its dialects such as Taishanese at home or in their circles, though they also learned Hokkien —a community lingua franca and trade language among Chinese Filipinos—to interact with the majority of Chinese Filipinos for business purposes, even to

10465-509: The Chinatowns of San Francisco and Oakland , as well as the surrounding suburbs and metropolitan area, although since the late 2000s a concentration of Mandarin speakers has formed in Silicon Valley . In contrast, Southern California hosts a much larger Mandarin-speaking population, with Cantonese found in more historical Chinese communities such as that of Chinatown, Los Angeles , and older Chinese ethnoburbs such as San Gabriel , Rosemead , and Temple City . Mandarin predominates in much of

10626-418: The Chinese with assistance suppressing their former pirate allies, the Portuguese were permitted to warehouse their goods at Macau instead of Guangzhou itself. In October 1646, the Longwu Emperor 's brother, Zhu Yuyue fled by sea to Guangzhou, the last stronghold of the Ming empire . On December 11, he declared himself the Shaowu Emperor, borrowing his imperial regalia from local theater troupes. He led

10787-492: The Chinese-run schools, colleges and universities currently employs Mandarin as the subject and medium of instruction for teaching Standard Chinese class subjects, often nearly replacing Hokkien and Cantonese, due to the mainland Chinese and Taiwanese influence in the country since the late 20th century. This also made Cantonese, Hokkien and other Chinese variants endangered languages in the country. However, there are efforts to preserve Cantonese Chinese culture and language in

10948-405: The Guangdong province that houses Guangzhou has more than 130 boys for every 100 girls. Guangzhou also possesses a large resident population who are Hakka people . There are seven administrative districts in Guangzhou with a considerable Hakka population: Zengcheng District , Huadu District , Conghua District , Baiyun District , Tianhe District , Yuexiu District and Panyu District . It

11109-465: The Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences researcher Peng Peng, the city is almost at its maximum capacity of just 15 million, which means the city is facing a great strain, mostly due to a high population of unregistered people. According to the 2000 National Census, marriage is one of the top two reasons for permanent migration and is particularly important for women as 29.3% of the permanent female migrants migrate for marriage [Liang et al.,2004]. Many of

11270-402: The Malays and Orang Laut living in their coastal villages. Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese , a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family . It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton ) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta . Cantonese is regarded as an integral and inextricable component of

11431-409: The Philippines by volunteers within the Cantonese community to teach it to younger fellow Cantonese. Over a period of 150 years (from 1850 to the 2000s), Guangdong has been the place-of-origin for most Chinese emigrants to Western nations; one coastal county, Taishan (or Tóisàn, where the Sìyì or sei yap variety of Yue is spoken), alone may be the origin of the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to

11592-625: The South China coast in the late antiquity . Surviving records from the Tang dynasty confirm, that the residents of Panyu observed a range of trade missions. Records on foreign trade ships reach upon til the late 20th century. Panyu was the seat of Qin Empire 's Nanhai Commandery , and served as a base for the first invasion of the Baiyue lands in southern China. Legendary accounts claimed that

11753-606: The Soviet Union, leaving the pro-communist Wang Jingwei in charge. Opposing communist encroachment, the right-wing Western Hills Group vowed to expel the communists from the KMT. The " Canton Coup " on March 20, 1926, saw Chiang solidify his control over the Nationalists and their army against Wang Jingwei , the party's left wing, its Communist allies, and its Soviet advisors. By May, he had ended civilian control of

11914-754: The Thai Chinese commercial sector, it serves as a common language alongside Teochew or Thai. Chinese-language schools in Thailand have also traditionally been conducted in Cantonese. Furthermore, Cantonese serves as the lingua franca with other Chinese communities in the region. In Indonesia , Cantonese is locally known as Konghu and is one of the variants spoken by the Chinese Indonesian community, with speakers largely concentrated in certain major cities like Jakarta , Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , Semarang , Manado and Batam . However, it has

12075-576: The U.S. before 1965. As a result, Yue languages such as Cantonese and the closely related variety of Taishanese have been the major Chinese varieties traditionally spoken in the United States. In 2009, 458,840 Americans spoke Cantonese at home according to an American Community Survey. The Zhongshan variant of Cantonese, which originated from the western Pearl River Delta, is spoken by many Chinese immigrants in Hawaii, and some in San Francisco and

12236-564: The United Kingdom use Cantonese, with about 300,000 British people claiming it as their first language. This is largely due to the presence of British Hong Kongers and the fact that many British Chinese also have origins in the former British colonies in Southeast Asia of Singapore and Malaysia. Among the Chinese community in France , Cantonese is spoken by immigrants who fled the former French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) following

12397-581: The agreement of the Convention of Chuenpi . Guangzhou is at the center of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area , the most populous built-up metropolitan area in the world, which extends into the neighboring cities of Foshan , Dongguan , Zhongshan , Shenzhen and part of Jiangmen , Huizhou , Zhuhai and Macau , forming the largest urban agglomeration on Earth with approximately 70 million residents and part of

12558-485: The amount of local water resources and the permanent population counted in the sixth census in 2010, there are 1.0601 million cubic meters of water resources per square kilometer, with an average of 628 cubic meters per capita, which is one-half of the country's per capita water resources. The amount of water resources for transit passengers is 186.024 billion cubic meters, which is 23 times the total local water resources. The passenger water resources are mainly concentrated in

12719-901: The annual mean is 22.4 °C (72.3 °F). Autumn, from October to December, is very moderate, cool and windy, and is the best travel time. The relative humidity is approximately 76 percent, whereas annual rainfall in the metropolitan area is over 1,950 mm (77 in). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 17 percent in March to 51 percent in October, the city receives 1,559 hours of bright sunshine annually, considerably less than nearby Shenzhen and Hong Kong . Extreme temperatures have ranged from 0 °C (32 °F) on 11 February 1957 and 23 December 1999 to 39.1 °C (102.4 °F) on 1 July 2004, though an unofficial record low of −5.0 °C (23.0 °F), in which modern meteorologists believe it to be −3.0 °C (26.6 °F)

12880-735: The area are in short supply, sporadically distributed, small in scale, and unstable in grade. , Despite being located just south of the Tropic of Cancer , Guangzhou has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cwa ) influenced by the East Asian monsoon . Summers are wet with high temperatures, high humidity, and a high heat index . Winters are mild and comparatively dry. Guangzhou has a lengthy monsoon season, spanning from April through September. Monthly averages range from 13.8 °C (56.8 °F) in January to 28.9 °C (84.0 °F) in July, while

13041-413: The banks of the Pearl River to adjust the city's boat people to life on land. Since the 1980s, the city's close proximity to Hong Kong and Shenzhen and its ties to overseas Chinese made it one of the first beneficiaries of China's opening up under Deng Xiaoping . Beneficial tax reforms in the 1990s also helped the city's industrialization and economic development. The municipality was expanded in

13202-456: The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic , Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport , the major airport of Guangzhou, briefly became the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic in 2020. Guangzhou is the fifth most populous city by urban resident population in China after Shanghai, Beijing , Shenzhen and Chongqing . In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair ,

13363-441: The boats of fishers, traders, and Tanka ("boat people") almost entirely concealed the riverbank for about 4 mi (6 km). It was common for homes to have a storefront facing the street and to treat their courtyards as a kind of warehouse. The city was part of a network of signal towers so effective that messages could be relayed to Beijing —about 1,200 mi (1,931 km) away—in less than 24 hours. The Canton System

13524-519: The capital of a prefecture . From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi and Ibn Khordadbeh as Khanfu ( خانفو ). Under the Southern Han , the city was renamed Xingwang Fu ( 興王府 ). The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is 穗 , pronounced Seoi in Cantonese and Suì in Mandarin—although the abbreviation on car license plates, as with

13685-409: The city and the surrounding Guangdong province or migrants from other provinces, which shows how much importance the Cantonese language still has in the city despite the strict policy rules from the government to be using Mandarin as the country's official language. Guangzhou has an even more unbalanced gender ratio than the rest of the country. While most areas of China have 112–120 boys per 100 girls,

13846-440: The city as a base to prosecute a renewed revolution in China by conquering the warlords in the north. Although Sun was previously dependent on opportunistic warlords who hosted him in the city, with the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT developed its own military power to serve its ambition. The Canton years saw the evolution of the KMT into a revolutionary movement with a strong military focus and ideological commitment, setting

14007-613: The city's subway lines. The old town of Guangzhou was near Baiyun Mountain on the east bank of the Pearl River (Zhujiang) about 80 mi (129 km) from its junction with the South China Sea and about 300 mi (483 km) below its head of navigation . It commanded the rich alluvial plain of the Pearl River Delta , with its connection to the sea protected at the Humen Strait . The present city spans 7,434.4 km (2,870.4 sq mi) on both sides of

14168-461: The completion of a unified Beijing–Guangzhou Railway waited until the completion of Wuhan 's Yangtze River Bridge in 1957. During the late Qing dynasty, Guangzhou was the site of revolutionary attempts such as the Uprisings of 1895 and 1911 that were the predecessors of the successful Xinhai Revolution , which overthrew the Qing dynasty. The 72 revolutionaries whose bodies were found after

14329-467: The conflicts and communist takeovers in the region during the 1970s. While a slight majority of ethnic Chinese from Indochina speak Teochew at home, knowledge of Cantonese is prevalent due to its historic prestige status in the region and is used for commercial and community purposes between the different Chinese variety groups. As in the United States, there is a divide between Cantonese-speakers and those speaking other mainland Chinese varieties. Cantonese

14490-702: The constitution triggered the Constitutional Protection Movement . Sun Yat-sen came to head the Guangzhou Military Government supported by the members of the dissolved parliament and the Southwestern warlords. The Guangzhou government fell apart as the warlords withdrew their support. Sun fled to Shanghai in November 1918 until the Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming restored him in October 1920 during

14651-521: The country, and the KMT government called for strikes in Canton and Hong Kong. The tensions of the massive strikes and protests led to the Shakee Massacre . After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 the mood was changing in the party toward the communists. In August the left-wing KMT leader Liao Zhongkai was assassinated and the right-wing leader Hu Hanmin , the suspected mastermind, was exiled to

14812-600: The cultural center of the region. Cantonese emerged as the prestige variety of Yue Chinese when the port city of Guangzhou on the Pearl River Delta became the largest port in China, with a trade network stretching as far as Arabia. Specifically, the mutually intelligible speech of the Sam Yap ( 三邑 ; Sānyì ; Sam1 jap1 ), the Three Counties of Guangzhou, namely the historical counties of Panyu ( 番禺 ), Nanhai ( 南海 ), and Shunde ( 顺德 ), came to be heralded as

14973-583: The daily recreational use of Cantonese, roughly 40%-50% of them participated in these recreational functions with the usage of Cantonese with 51.4% of them in mobile games, 47% in Social Platforms, 44.1% in TV shows, and 39.8% in Books and Newspapers. Despite some decline in the use of Cantonese, it is faring better in survival, popularity, and prestige than other Chinese languages due to the historical pride in

15134-418: The day and were closed at night. The wall rose to incorporate a hill on its northern side and was surrounded on the other three by a moat which, along with the canals, functioned as the city's sewer, emptied daily by the river's tides. A partition wall with four gates divided the northern "old town" from the southern "new town" closer to the river; the suburb of Xiguan (Saikwan; "West Gate") stretched beyond and

15295-595: The decline of Qing prestige and the chaos of the Red Turban Rebellion (1854–1856) , the Punti and Hakka waged a series of clan wars from 1855 to 1867 in which one million people died. The foreign trade facilities were destroyed by local Chinese in the Arrow War (1856–1858). The international community relocated to the outskirts and most international trade moved through Shanghai . The concession for

15456-634: The different Chinese dialect groups. Many speakers reflect their exposure to Vietnamese with a Vietnamese accent or a tendency to code-switch between Cantonese and Vietnamese. In Malaysia , Cantonese is widely spoken among the Malaysian Chinese community in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas in the Klang Valley ( Petaling Jaya , Ampang , Putrajaya , Cheras , Selayang , Sungai Buloh , Puchong , Shah Alam , Kajang , Bangi , and Subang Jaya ). The language

15617-458: The early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Mandarin Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government encourages

15778-462: The eastern Sabahan town of Sandakan as well as the towns of Kuantan , Raub , Bentong , Temerloh , Pekan , Jerantut as well as Cameron Highlands in Pahang state, and they are also found in other areas like Sarikei , Sarawak, and Mersing , Johor. Although Hokkien is the most natively spoken variety of Chinese and Mandarin is the medium of education at Chinese-language schools , Cantonese

15939-525: The end of 111 BC. Incorporated into the Han dynasty , Panyu became a provincial capital. In AD 226, it became the seat of Guang Prefecture , which gave it its modern name. The Old Book of Tang described Guangzhou as an important port in southern China. Direct routes connected the Middle East and China, as shown in the records of a Chinese prisoner returning home from Iraq twelve years after his capture at Talas . Relations were often strained: while China

16100-416: The ethnic Chinese population of the two territories largely originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories. On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi even after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in

16261-728: The expense of other Chinese varieties. A little over 15% of Chinese households in Singapore speak Cantonese. Despite the government actively promoting SMC, the Cantonese-speaking Chinese community has been relatively successful in preserving its language from Mandarin compared with other dialect groups. Notably, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979. The prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew , then, also stopped giving speeches in Hokkien to prevent giving conflicting signals to

16422-463: The female economic migrants marry men from Guangzhou in hopes of a better life. but like elsewhere in the People's Republic of China , the household registration system ( hukou ) limits migrants' access to residences, educational institutions and other public benefits. It has been noted that many women end up in prostitution. In May 2014, legally employed migrants in Guangzhou were permitted to receive

16583-432: The floating population, is due to the city's fast-growing economy and high labor demands. Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang told an urban planning seminar that Guangzhou is facing a very serious population problem stating that, while the city had 10.33 million registered residents at the time with targets and scales of land use based on this number, the city actually had a population with migrants of nearly 15 million. According to

16744-878: The introduction of new varieties, development, and utilization. Grain, cash crops, livestock, poultry, aquatic products, wild animals, and a wide variety of famous and excellent varieties, including Zengcheng Simiao rice is the first protected variety in Guangzhou City to obtain geographical indications. The geological structure of Guangzhou City is quite complex, with good conditions for mineralization. Forty-seven kinds of minerals (including subspecies) have been discovered, with 820 mineral sites and 25 large and medium-sized mining areas. The main minerals are granite for construction, limestone for cement, ceramic clay, potassium, sodium feldspar, salt mines, manganese, nepheline orthoclase, fluorite, marble, mineral water, and thermal mineral water. Energy minerals and non-ferrous minerals in

16905-617: The island of Tamão . Rumors even circulated that Portuguese were eating the children. The Guangzhou administration was charged with driving them off: they bested the Portuguese at the Battle of Tunmen and in Xicao Bay ; held a diplomatic mission hostage in a failed attempt to pressure the restoration of the sultan of Malacca , who had been accounted a Ming vassal ; and, after placing them in cangues and keeping them for most of

17066-465: The language and culture, as well as the wide popularity and availability of mainstream Cantonese entertainment, which encourages locals to retain the Cantonese language. As of the 2020s, additional renewed efforts were introduced to preserve the local Cantonese language and culture with some limited Cantonese language classes now being taught in some schools as well as hosting Cantonese appreciation cultural events along with hosting activities that cater to

17227-475: The large foreign communities were not exclusively men, but included " Persian females". According to Odoric of Pordenone , Guangzhou was as large as three Venices in terms of area, and rivaled all of Italy in the amount of crafts produced. He also noted the large amount of ginger available as well as large geese and snakes. Guangzhou was visited by the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta during his journey around

17388-629: The latter uprising are honored as the city's 72 Martyrs at the Huanghuagang ("Yellow Flower Mound") Mausoleum. After the assassination of Song Jiaoren and Yuan Shikai 's attempts to remove the Nationalist Party of China from power, the leader of Guangdong Hu Hanmin joined the 1913 Second Revolution against him but was forced to flee to Japan with Sun Yat-sen after its failure. The city came under national spotlight again in 1917, when Prime Minister Duan Qirui 's abrogation of

17549-478: The linguistic history of Hong Kong and Macau , and the use of Cantonese in many established overseas Chinese communities, the use of Cantonese is quite widespread compared to the presence of its speakers residing in China. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese variety spoken in Hong Kong and Macau. In these areas, public discourse takes place almost exclusively in Cantonese, making it the only variety of Chinese other than Mandarin to be used as an official language in

17710-426: The local Cantonese culture and language as well as many local Cantonese speaking families are now placing much stronger emphasis on their children to speak Cantonese to preserve the culture and language. In a 2018 report study by Shan Yunming and Li Sheng, the report showed that 90% of people living in Guangzhou are bilingual in both Cantonese and Mandarin, though fluency will vary depending on if they are locally born to

17871-482: The military and begun his Northern Expedition against the warlords of the north. Its success led to the split of the KMT between Wuhan and Nanking and the purge of the communists in the April 12 Incident . Immediately afterwards Canton joined the purge under the auspice of Li Jishen , resulting in the arrest of communists and the suspension of left wing KMT apparatuses and labor groups. Later in 1927 when Zhang Fakui ,

18032-491: The most notable being the 2010 Asian Games , the 2010 Asian Para Games , and the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup . The city hosts 65 foreign representatives , making it the major city hosting the third most foreign representatives in China, after Beijing and Shanghai. As of 2020, Guangzhou ranked 10th in the world and 5th in China—after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen—for the number of billionaire residents by

18193-547: The nation. Chinese-language schools in Cambodia are conducted in both Cantonese and Mandarin, but schools may be conducted exclusively in one Chinese variant or the other. While Thailand is home to the largest overseas Chinese community in the world, the vast majority of ethnic Chinese in the country speak Thai exclusively. Among Chinese-speaking Thai households, Cantonese is the fourth most-spoken Chinese variety after Teochew , Hakka and Hainanese . Nevertheless, within

18354-487: The official variety of Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau, both during and after the colonial period, under the policy of ' biliteracy and trilingualism ' ( Chinese : 兩文三語 ; pinyin : liǎngwén sānyǔ ; Jyutping : loeng3 man4 saam1 jyu5 ). Government and law still function predominantly in Cantonese in these jurisdictions, and officials speak Cantonese even at the most formal occasions. The official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in

18515-491: The oldest and largest trade fair in China. For three consecutive years (2013–2015), Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city in mainland China. Guangzhou is highly ranked as an Alpha (global first-tier) city together with San Francisco and Stockholm. It is a major Asia-Pacific finance hub, ranking 21st globally in the 2020 Global Financial Centres Index . As an important international city, Guangzhou has hosted numerous international and national sporting events,

18676-552: The people. Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese dramas are unavailable in their untranslated form on free-to-air television, though drama series in non-Chinese languages are available in their original languages. Cantonese drama series on terrestrial TV channels are instead dubbed in Mandarin and broadcast without the original Cantonese audio and soundtrack. However, originals may be available through other sources like cable television and online videos. Furthermore, an offshoot of SMC

18837-617: The point of assimilating into their Fujianese neighbors, as well as Spanish , English and Philippine languages such as Tagalog / Filipino , Cebuano and Ilocano . Like the Fujianese, newer generations of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese descent barely speak Cantonese or Hokkien as their second or third languages or none at all due to assimilation into the local Filipino population over the years, making Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages such as Cebuano and Ilocano as their first languages and English as second. Additionally, most of

18998-474: The population of Hong Kong and Macau arrived from Guangzhou and surrounding areas after they were ceded to Britain and Portugal , respectively. The influx of such migrants into Hong Kong established Cantonese as the main language of the city, supplanting local Yue Chinese varieties, which were closer to the dialects of neighboring Shenzhen and Dongguan , as well as the Hakka and Southern Min varieties of

19159-492: The port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing role as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi . Despite the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842 and Macau to Portugal in 1887,

19320-525: The powerholder of Guangdong. In 1931 he threw his weight behind the anti-Chiang schism by hosting a separate Nationalist government in Guangzhou. The opposition to Chiang included KMT leaders like Wang Jingwei , Sun Fo and others from diverse factions. The peace negotiations amid the armed standoff led to the 4th National Congress of Kuomintang being held separately by three factions in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Canton. Resigning all his posts, Chiang pulled off

19481-584: The prefecture generally increases from southwest to northeast, with mountains forming the backbone of the city and the ocean comprising the front. Tiantang Peak is the highest point of elevation at 1,210 m (3,970 ft) above sea level . There are 47 different types of minerals and also 820 ore fields in Guangzhou, including 18 large and medium-sized oil deposits. The major minerals are granite, cement limestone, ceramic clay, potassium, albite, salt mine, mirabilite, nepheline, syenite, fluorite, marble, mineral water, and geothermal mineral water. Since Guangzhou

19642-501: The prefecture's seat of government. The character 廣 or 广 means 'broad' or 'expansive'. Before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu (Punyü; 番禺 ), a name still borne by one of Guangzhou's districts not far from the main city. The origin of the name is still uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered, including that it may have referred to two local mountains. The city has also sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as

19803-787: The primary Chinese variety spoken. Socioeconomic statuses are also a factor. For example, in New York City, Cantonese still predominates in the city's older, traditional western portion of Chinatown in Manhattan and in Brooklyn's small new Chinatowns in Bensonhurst and Homecrest . The newly emerged Little Fuzhou eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown and Brooklyn's main large Chinatown in and around Sunset Park are mostly populated by Fuzhounese speakers , who often speak Mandarin as well. The Cantonese and Fuzhounese enclaves in New York City are more working class. However, due to

19964-436: The primary cultural center for New York City's Chinese population and are more middle class. While a number of more-established Taiwanese immigrants have learned Cantonese to foster relations with the traditional Cantonese-speaking Chinese American population, more recent arrivals and the larger number of mainland Chinese immigrants have largely continued to use Mandarin as the exclusive variety of Chinese. This has led to

20125-410: The provenance of the prestige accent of Cantonese: that of the district of Xiguan ( 西关 ; 西關 ; Xīguān ; Sai1 Gwaan1 ) in the west of Guangzhou. It is known for its distinctive use of an apical vowel ( /ɿ/ , or in more conventional IPA : /ź̩~ɯ~ɨ/ ) in some cases where modern Cantonese would use a /i/ final. Throughout the 19th century and continuing into the 1900s, the ancestors of most of

20286-564: The rapid gentrification of Manhattan's Chinatown and with NYC's Cantonese and Fuzhou populations now increasingly shifting to other Chinese enclaves in the Outer Boroughs of NYC , such as Brooklyn and Queens , but mainly in Brooklyn's newer Chinatowns, the Cantonese speaking population in NYC is now increasingly concentrated in Bensonhurst's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong and Homecrest's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong . The Fuzhou population of NYC

20447-481: The region. With subsequent waves of migration into Hong Kong, even as late as the 1950s, the proportion of Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong had not yet surpassed 50%; nonetheless, this figure has risen to above 90% since the 1970s. On the other hand, the indigenous variety of Yue Chinese in Macau had been close to that of Zhongshan , and this has had an effect on the tonal phonology of the Cantonese spoken in Macau. As

20608-514: The rest of mainland China and Taiwan and most often speak Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) as their native language, although some may also speak their native local variety, such as Shanghainese , Hokkien , Fuzhounese , Hakka , etc. As a result, Mandarin is becoming more common among the Chinese American community. The increase of Mandarin-speaking communities has resulted in the rise of separate neighborhoods or enclaves segregated by

20769-615: The rest of the province, is 粤 ), after its nickname "City of Rice" ( 穗城 . The city has long borne the nickname City of Rams ( 羊城 ) or City of the Five Rams ( 五羊城 ) from the five stones at the old Temple of the Five Immortals said to have been the sheep or goats ridden by the Taoist culture heroes credited with introducing rice cultivation to the area around the time of the city's foundation. The former name "City of

20930-432: The rise of Mandarin. The most popular romanization for learning Cantonese in the United States is Yale romanization . The majority of Chinese emigrants have traditionally originated from Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Hong Kong and Macau (beginning in the latter half of the 20th century and before the handover ) and Southeast Asia, with Cantonese as their native language. However, more recent immigrants are arriving from

21091-407: The river from 112° 57′ to 114° 03′ E longitude and 22° 26′ to 23° 56′ N latitude in south-central Guangdong. The Pearl is the 4th-largest river of China. Intertidal ecosystems exist on the tidal flat lining the river estuary, however, many of the tidal flats have been reclaimed for agriculture. Baiyun Mountain is now locally referred to as the city's "lung" ( 市 肺 ). The elevation of

21252-409: The situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may appear similar but are pronounced differently. Conversely, written (vernacular) Cantonese is mostly used in informal settings like social media and comic books. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. "Cantonese" as used to refer to the language native to the city of Canton, which is the traditional English name of Guangzhou ,

21413-553: The soldiers at Panyu were so vigilant that they did not remove their armor for three years. Upon the fall of the Qin , General Zhao Tuo established the kingdom of Nanyue and made Panyu its capital in 204 BC. It remained independent throughout the Chu-Han Contention , although Zhao negotiated recognition of his independence in exchange for his nominal submission to the Han in 196 BC. Archeological evidence shows that Panyu

21574-590: The southern Wanghe District and Zengcheng District. The passenger water resources diverted from the Xijiang and Beijiang Rivers into Guangzhou City are 159.15 billion cubic meters, and the passenger water resources diverted from the Dongjiang River into the north mainstream of the Dongjiang River are 14.203 billion cubic meters. meters and the water inflow from the upper reaches of the Zengjiang River

21735-425: The standard. Cantonese was also used in the popular Yuè'ōu , Mùyú and Nányīn folksong genres, as well as Cantonese opera . Additionally, a distinct classical literature was developed in Cantonese, with Middle Chinese texts sounding more similar to modern Cantonese than other present-day Chinese varieties, including Mandarin. As Guangzhou became China's key commercial center for foreign trade and exchange in

21896-603: The three major entrances is 137.7 billion cubic meters. Compared with meters, the annual tide can bring a large amount of water, part of which is freshwater resources that can be utilized. Cultivated crops in Guangzhou have the distinctive characteristics of the transition from the tropics to the subtropics, and it is one of the richest regions in China in terms of fruit tree resources, including three major categories of tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones, 41 families, 82 genera and 174 species, totaling more than 500 varieties (among which there are 55 major varieties of lychee). It

22057-651: The tone of the KMT rule of China beyond 1927. In 1924, the KMT made the momentous decision to ally with the Communist Party and the USSR. With Soviet help, KMT reorganized itself along the Leninist line and adopted a pro-labor and pro-peasant stance. The Kuomintang-CCP cooperation was confirmed in the First Congress of the KMT and the communists were instructed to join the KMT. The allied government set up

22218-473: The use of Cantonese in schools and the rise in prestige of Mandarin-speaking Shenzhen. Jinan University released a survey result of the Guangzhou youths born in the year 2000 or after that were part of this educational study showed that 69% could still speak and understand Cantonese, 20% can understand Cantonese, but unable to speak it, and 11% completely had no knowledge of Cantonese. Jinan University's study of these Guangzhou youths also indicated when it came to

22379-456: The use of Standard Mandarin rather than local varieties of Chinese in broadcasts, Cantonese enjoys a relatively higher standing than other Chinese languages, with its own media and usage in public transportation in Guangdong province. Furthermore, it is also a medium of instruction in select academic curricula, including some university elective courses and Chinese as a foreign language programs. The permitted usage of Cantonese in mainland China

22540-561: The way the Yong–Xun Yue dialect of Nanning emerged. Many Cantonese migrants sailed overseas, bringing the Cantonese language with the overseas Chinese to Southeast Asia, North and South America, and Western Europe. Such enclaves of Cantonese are found in Chinatowns across many of these major cities outside China. During the late 19th century, the pedagogical work Cantonese made easy , written by James Dyer Ball in 1883, articulated

22701-667: The world in the 14th century. He detailed the process by which the Chinese constructed their large ships in the port's shipyards. Shortly after the Hongwu Emperor 's declaration of the Ming dynasty , he reversed his earlier support of foreign trade and imposed the first of a series of sea bans ( 海禁 ). These banned private foreign trade upon penalty of death for the merchant and exile for his family and neighbors. Previous maritime intendancies of Guangzhou, Quanzhou , and Ningbo were closed in 1384 and legal trade became limited to

22862-400: The world. Additionally, numerous varieties possess both literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters for newer standard reading sounds. Since a 1909 decree of the Qing dynasty , the government of China has promoted Mandarin for use in education, the media, and official communications. However, the proclamation of Mandarin as the official national language was not fully accepted by

23023-464: The world. Because of their dominance in Chinese diaspora overseas, standard Cantonese and its dialect Taishanese are among the most common Chinese languages that one may encounter in the West. Increasingly since the 1997 handover , Cantonese has been used as a symbol of local identity in Hong Kong, largely through the development of democracy in the territory and desinicization practices to emphasise

23184-422: The written vocabulary. Consequently, a non-verbatim formalised written form is adopted, which bears resemblance to the written Standard Mandarin . However, it is only non-verbatim with respect to vernacular Cantonese, it is possible to read Standard Chinese text verbatim in formal Cantonese, often with only slight changes in lexicon that are optional depending on the reader's choice of register. This results in

23345-520: The year 2000, with Huadu and Panyu joining the city as urban districts and Conghua and Zengcheng as more rural counties . The former districts of Dongshan and Fangcun were abolished in 2005, merged into Yuexiu and Liwan respectively. The city acquired Nansha and Luogang . The former was carved out of Panyu , the latter from parts of Baiyun , Tianhe , Zengcheng , and an exclave within Huangpu . The National People's Congress approved

23506-412: Was 40% of the city's total population in 2008. Guangzhou has one of the most expensive real estate markets in China. As of the 2020 census, the registered population of the city's expansive administrative area was 18,676,605 individuals (up 47 percent from the previous census in 2010), of whom 16,492,590 lived in 9 urban districts (all but Conghua and Zengcheng ). Due to worldwide travel restrictions at

23667-470: Was abandoned following massive public protests, the largest since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 . As a major economic center of China, there have been concerns that the use of Cantonese in Guangzhou is diminishing in favour of Mandarin, both through the continual influx of Mandarin-speaking migrants from impoverished areas and strict government policies. As a result, Cantonese is being given

23828-541: Was an expansive commercial center: in addition to items from central China, archeologists have found remains originating from Southeast Asia , India, and even Africa. Zhao Tuo was succeeded by Zhao Mo and then Zhao Yingqi. Upon Zhao Yingqi 's death in 115 BC, his younger son Zhao Xing was named as his successor in violation of Chinese primogeniture . By 113 BC, his Chinese mother, the Empress Dowager Jiu ( 樛 ) had prevailed upon him to submit Nanyue as

23989-473: Was captured on October 14, 1949. Amid a massive exodus to Hong Kong and Macau , defeated Nationalist forces blew up the Haizhu Bridge across the Pearl River in retreat. The Cultural Revolution had a large effect on the city, with many of its temples, churches and other monuments destroyed during this chaotic period. The People's Republic of China initiated building projects including new housing on

24150-544: Was closed for fifty years after its destruction. Amid the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed the collapse of the Tang dynasty , the Later Liang governor Liu Yan used his base at Panyu to establish a "Great Yue" or " Southern Han " empire, which lasted from 917 to 971. The region enjoyed considerable cultural and economic success in this period. From the 10th to 12th century, there are records that

24311-629: Was estimated at 13,080,500, with 11,264,800 urban residents. Its population density is thus around 1,800 people per km . The built-up area of the Guangzhou proper connects directly to several other cities. The built-up area of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone covers around 17,573 km (6,785 sq mi) and has been estimated to house 22 million people, including Guangzhou's nine urban districts, Shenzhen (5.36m), Dongguan (3.22m), Zhongshan (3.12m), most of Foshan (2.2m), Jiangmen (1.82m), Zhuhai (890k), and Huizhou 's Huiyang District (760k). The total population of this agglomeration

24472-437: Was maintained in mass media, with films from the 1930s making prominent use of it. However, during this time many phonological changes can be detected, indicating the change from Early Cantonese to Modern Cantonese. In mainland China, Standard Mandarin has been heavily promoted as the medium of instruction in schools and as the official language, especially after the communist takeover in 1949. Meanwhile, Cantonese has remained

24633-512: Was maintained until the outbreak of the First Opium War in 1839. Following a series of battles in the Pearl River Delta , the British captured Canton on March 18, 1841. The Second Battle of Canton was fought two months later. Following the Qing's 1842 treaty with Great Britain , Guangzhou lost its privileged trade status as more and more treaty ports were opened to more and more countries, usually including extraterritorial enclaves. Amid

24794-502: Was occasionally conflated with Guangdong by some authors. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou, and remained the official name until its name change to "Guangzhou". As an adjective, it is still used in describing the people , language , cuisine and culture of Guangzhou and the surrounding Liangguang region. The 19th-century name was " Kwang-chow foo ". A settlement now known as Nanwucheng

24955-534: Was one of the world's greatest ports, organized under the Canton System . The main exports were tea and porcelain . As a meeting place of merchants from all over the world, Guangzhou became a major contributor to the rise of the modern global economy. Guangzhou is the site of the Thirteen Factories , which were the only legal place to conduct foreign trade with China from 1757 to 1842. In

25116-528: Was popularized by An English and Cantonese Pocket Dictionary (1859), a bestseller by the missionary John Chalmers . Before 1859, this variant was often referred to in English as "the Canton dialect". However, "Cantonese" may also refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang ; this broader usage may be specified as " Yue speech " ( 粵語 ; 粤语 ; Jyut6 jyu5 ; Yuhtyúh ). In this article, "Cantonese"

25277-412: Was present in the area by 1100 BC. Some traditional Chinese histories placed Nanwucheng's founding during the reign of King Nan of Zhou , emperor of Zhou from 314 to 256 BC. It was said to have consisted of little more than a stockade of bamboo and mud. Guangzhou, then known as Panyu , was founded on the eastern bank of the Pearl River in 214 BC. Ships commanded by tradespersons arrived on

25438-420: Was recorded on 18 January 1893 and for the station that begun records in 1912 located in Huangpu District, an unofficial record low of −0.3 °C (31.5 °F) was recorded on 8 December 1934. The last recorded snowfall in the city was on January 24, 2016, 87 years after the second last recorded snowfall. Guangzhou is a sub-provincial city . It has direct jurisdiction over eleven districts : Guangzhou

25599-436: Was relaxed in the mid-1990s and 2000s, presence of Cantonese in Singapore has grown substantially. Forms of popular culture from Hong Kong, like television series , cinema and pop music have become popular in Singaporean society, and non-dubbed original versions of the media became widely available. Consequently, the number of non-Cantonese Chinese Singaporeans being able to understand or speak Cantonese to some varying extent

25760-404: Was the dominant Chinese language of the Chinese Australian community from the time the first ethnic Chinese settlers arrived in the 1850s until the mid-2000s, when a heavy increase in immigration from Mandarin-speakers largely from mainland China led to Mandarin surpassing Cantonese as the dominant Chinese dialect spoken. Cantonese is the third most-spoken language in Australia. In the 2011 census,

25921-415: Was undergoing the An Lushan Rebellion , Arab and Persian pirates sacked the city on 30 October 758 and in revenge thousands of Arabs and Persians were killed by Chinese rebels in the Yangzhou massacre (760) . In the Guangzhou massacre about 200,000 Arab, Persian and other foreigners were killed by Chinese rebel Huang Chao in 878, along with the city's Jews , Christians , and Parsis . The port

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