Rediscovering the Ethnic Trails Untold
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I cannot help being intrigued by one of the questions posed in the book Han Chinese Expansion in South China by Harold J. Wiens. The question is "What has happened to the non-Han inhabitants of early South China? This paper is my attempt to answer that particular question. Hopefully, it may lead to further studies that will possibly confirm my answer.
First of all, it is necessary to clarify the term, "Han-Chinese" to be adopted in this paper. The term, "Han" refers to that of the five major ethnic groups of modern China, namely Man, Han, Hmon, Hui, Chwang (Manchurian, Han, Mongolian, Moslem and Tibetan). The Han-Chinese are also often referred to as "Sons of the Yellow Emperor". Thus, a number of Southern Chinese peoples such as the Cantonese and the Hokienese (Southern Min of Fukien province) are classified without question as "Han-Chinese" in contrast to the non-Han tribes such as Miao, Yao, Tai etc. in the same region. It follows then, that languages spoken by the latter are distinct languages. Though all the different ethnic group of China should be considered to be Chinese, many of the non-Han tribes generally do not feel themselves to be so. In their vocabulary, the terms "Han-Chinese" and "Chinese" actually mean the same thing.
Many or the ethnic groups in South China, such as Miao, Yao, Tai etc. still retain their identities and their non-Chineseness is well defined. However, there are some that are not so fortunate and have lost their identities over the years. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to rediscover one of those lost tribes, known as Min-Yueh as recorded in the early history of that region.
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About the Book
One subject that has been intriguing me in recent years is the origin of the Mon people of Burma and its possible prehistorical link with the Hokien people of South China. Some points under consideration are: At present, the Mons inhabit the southern part of Burma keeping to the costal area bordering Thsiland and Malaysia. There are isolated groups to the north in the Assam hills of India and far to the south on one of the Indonesian islands. Of course, there are the closely related Khmer people in nearby Cambodia. Both the Khmers and the Mons had founded mighty and influential Kingdoms in Southeast Asia not many centuries ago. The original homeland of the Mon-Khmer speaking people is supposed to be in South China (south of the Yangtze Kiang) where rice cultivqation is said to have originated. The word ‘Kiang’ (river) is a corruption of Mon-Khmer language ‘Krang’ which is very much different from the original Chinese word ‘Ho’ for river. Some of the basic words used in daily life, such as ‘Eat rice’, spoken by the Mons in Burma, sound strikingly similar to the words used by the Hokienese both in tone and grammar. Perhaps, such similarities can also be found with the Khmer spoken language. The Hokienese are the present day overseas Chinese, originally from the area surrounding the city of Amoy in Fukien Province of China. Many of them are now found living in places like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Lower Burma and also Taiwan.
About the Author
Charles N.C. Shi, an ethnic
Chinese brought up in Burma and with ancestral home in Quemoy Island, Fukien,
China. Like many over-sea Chinese, he
experienced the unforgettable refugee journey ahead and behind the invading
Japanese lines under absolutely non-protection conditions. Later on, he also experienced the back-slash
of the Cultural Revolution politics across the border.
Anyway, he graduated from
the University of Rangoon with 3 academic degrees and served in the government
services, including University of Rangoon (Chemistry Dept.) and the Department
of Health (Chemical, Food and Drug Lab.) for altogether 28 years. He took an early retirement a job with the
Portland Public Schools (ESL Program) where he worked till retirement in
1993. He is very much involved with the
local organizations, such as Refugee/Immigrant Consortium of Oregon, Asian
Pacific American Senior Coalition, Asian Pacific American Alliance, Oregon
Myanmar Christian Church, etc.
His hobby is essay writings
and song composings. And his main
ambition is how to live a fruitful life of good Christian Chun-ze (Gentleman)
as prescribed in Confucius’ teachings.