User:Rigley/meixian

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Geography

Mei County is located on Guangdong's northeastern borders with Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.[1] "Around 85% of the land consists of hills less than 500 meters above sea level". The three major rivers in Mei County are the Mei, the Ting, and the Han.[1]

History

The first Emperor of China,

Catholicism penetrated Mei County in 1849, when a Malaysian Chinese convert brought the Paris Foreign Missions Society to the home county of his relatives. The steady conversion of families was only interrupted when the antiforeign Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) reached the area.[2]

The name "Meixian" came into use during China's

Shantou Prefecture.[3]

People's Liberation Army general Ye Jianying and son.

Transportation

In October 1987, the

Meixian Airport began serving daily flights to the provincial capital of Guangzhou, which was previously 12 hours away by car.[3] In 1995, the Guang-Mei-Shan railway was completed, connecting Meixian to Guangzhou and Shantou.[1]

Culture

"Anyone from Meixian, the main city of northeast Guangdong Province, will tell you that its people are famous for their 'three abundances': soccer players, compatriots overseas, and the quality of their education."[4] The local high school, Dongshan, is the only nationally-designated high school in Guangdong. Also, Meixian is home since 1985 to Jiaying University.[3] China's best teams in women's international football competitions in the 1980s consisted of ethnic Koreans from Jilin who practiced against men in Meixian, known even then as the "homeland" of association football.[5]

Economy

"In 1994 the population of Meixian was about 580,500, with farmers making up 86.99% of the total. During the reform period, the grain-only model was abandoned in favor of a diversified commercial economy. Fruit production has been the dominant form of agriculture since the mid-1980s...."[1] "What industry it had was designed to support agriculture and to provide the beginnings of heavy industry to make use of its coal and other ores."[3]

Hakka

The majority of Mei County's residents are

Chaozhou people.[7]

Emigration

One of the provisions of the 1860

Qing Dynasty's ban on emigration. The primary provinces to produce Overseas Chinese for the next hundred years would be Guangdong, Fujian, and Hainan. Within Guangdong, key sending areas to Nanyang were the "four counties" known as siyi, and the inland areas surrounding Shantou's port, including Meixian and Chaoshan.[8] In the 1980s, over 1.8 million Overseas Chinese—twice the number of residents of the prefecture—traced their ancestry to Meixian. However, because of Meixian's inland location, and the fact that most emigrants became professionals rather than bankers or investors, Meixian did not become wealthy as a direct result.[3]


Famous

Hou Yongchang.[9]

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Ku, Hok Bun (2003). Moral Politics in a South Chinese Village: Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Resistance. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 25.
  2. ^ Lozada, Eriberto (2001). "Catholicism in the Hakka Homeland". God Aboveground: Catholic Church, Postsocialist State, and Transnational Processes in a Chinese Vilage. Stanford University Press. p. 69.
  3. ^ a b c d e Vogel, Ezra F (1990). One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong Under Reform. Harvard University Press. pp. 242–245.
  4. ^ Guilin, Canton, Guangdong. China Guides Series Ltd. 1985. p. 124.
  5. ^ Williams, Jean (2007). A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football. Berg. p. 93.
  6. ^ Constable, Nicole (1994). Christian Souls and Chinese Spirits: A Hakka Community in Hong Kong. University of California Press. p. 11.
  7. ^ Heidhues, Mary F. Somers (2003). Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the 'Chinese Districts' of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. SEAP Publications. p. 36.
  8. ^ Peterson, Glen (2011). Overseas Chinese in the People's Republic of China. Routledge. pp. 11–12.
  9. ^ Lee, Khoon Choy (2005). Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese. World Scientific. p. 64.
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