为什么现在还有那么多福建人要偷渡到国外？

choi

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(1) I want to find statistics to see if it is true, that 那么多福建人要偷渡到国外. What about Tibetans?  Is there any evidence that the former leave for economic reasons whereas the latter for political reasons?  Or Chinese leave China for either or both (think China's brain drain)?

But I can not think of the English word for 偷渡, and can not find that in the Web.

(2) Talk about 福建人偷渡. Well, it is a centuries-old tradition.

A man originally from Taiwan, I have lived in US for more than a quarter century. Of Cantonese descent and with Cantonese as the first language, I am, however, versed at history of Taiwan.  

(a) You see, few Han Chinese were in Taiwan, which was full of jungles and malaria, when in 1544 Portuguese sailed by, "discovered" it* and bestowed the name "Ilha Formosa" ("Beautiful Island" in English) or in colonial rules under the Dutch  (1624-1662) and the Spanish (1626-1642).**

* According to internatinal law, similar to the fact Columbus discovered the New Continent.

** Spanish Formosa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Formosa
fell to Dutch Formosa.  

(b) Koxinga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koxinga
(國姓爺; 鄭成功; 1624-1662 (at 37 years old); born in Japan with Japanese mother)
was raised from age 7 at his father's hometown (Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍 (1604 – 1661); present-day 福建省泉州市南安市).

The wandering lust of Fujianese predated Koxinga's father. And the naval forces led by Koxinga that drove Dutch out in 1662 was made up mostly of Fujianese.

(c) 海禁
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E7%A6%81
("中國政府在十四世紀開始實行的政策，橫跨元明清三個朝代。除非得到官方正式許可，禁止民間私自出洋貿易，以及出海捕魚")

(i) Both English-language (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin
) and Japanese Wikipedia (海禁
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E7%A6%81
) state that China started the practice in Ming, rather than Yuan, dynasty.
(ii) At least one translated 海禁 into "Maritime Prohibition" in English.

If Fujianese were to obey the order of Chinese emperors, there would be no Chinese in Taiwan and Southeast Asia today.

(d) About 1 1/2 decades ago I was invited to Chinese New Year banquet that Singapore consulate held at MIT for MIT students. I was pleasantly surprised that hundred years later, descendants of Fujianese immigrants (or 偷渡者) in Singapore and in Taiwan shared the same tongue. Later I asked my French colleague at Massachusetts General if she had the same experience, and she said yes, when she had visited Quebec where Quebecois, she told me, used some old French words or phrases that the latter-day French no longer use. 黃梁一夢?

(3) Cantonese are as adventurous, if not more. And I am proud of being Cantonese.

Indeed, without the aid of even a compass, ABORIGINES of Taiwan populated the entire Pacific--from New Zealand to Hawaii to Easter Island. Oh, the ode to seafarers 航海家們.

(4) You need not look afield at Dutch, Portugese, Spanish, and the English--and in earlier times Phoenicians (1200BC-333AD), Carthaginians (ended in Roman conquest in 146BC), Greeks, and Vikings (from the late 8th to the mid-11th century), all of whom lived at the periphery of Europe (or around Mediterranean Sea).

Likewise, Fujian, Canton and Taiwan (aborigines) lie in the periphery of East Asia, so does Japan.

(5) The Irish, too, has got a bad rap of sneaking out of the proud nation, for economic reasons. Irish men and women in US become abashed when volunteering this subject. There used to be many illegal aliens among the Irish in US, particularly in Massachusetts where I live and where Irish are the majority (for it has been easy for the illegal Irishmen to obtain jobs from fellow legal Irishmen). Thanks to the deceased Senator Edward Kennedy who dramatically increased immigration quota for the Irish, illegal Irishmen have necame legal residents in US.

US Census Bureau has not released teh data of 2010 census. However, its greetings on St Patrick's Day this years repeated the message:

Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick's Day (March 17): 2011; Facts for features. Census Bureau, Jan 13, 2011
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb11-ff03.html
("36.9 million
Number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2009. This number was more than eight times the population of Ireland itself (4.5 million). Irish was the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.")




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※ 修改:．choi 于 Aug 18 12:58:28 修改本文．[FROM: 129.10.0.0]