Photography Chaoshan

Speaking of Chaoshan, students must be very familiar with this place. In this vast land of Guangzhou, Chaoshan people occupy a large area of land. Walking on the road, one of the ten shops is a Chaoshan boss.

In Guangzhou, which is strict with food, Chaoshan has its solid position. But I can't seem to say anything except delicious food. Who among us can remember that Shantou is also the first batch of special economic zones in China except Shenzhen? (Students with good history should take a detour.)

▲3 minutes to see the Chaoshan scenery, taken in Chaozhou. Author/Guo, Lu, Li Runyu

Chaoshan, many students mistakenly think that it refers to a certain place. In fact, Chaoshan includes Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang today. These three places are close to each other, located in the east of Guangzhou, and separated from Guangfu, which is represented by Guangzhou, forming a unique Chaoshan culture.

Chaoshan, which is half surrounded by seawater, has a superior geographical position. Since ancient times, it has been a port for maritime trade, with abundant seaside resources. Many foreigners come here to taste rich seafood.

However, students who come here may be a little disappointed. The dilapidated residential buildings on both sides of the street make you doubt the city. But please savor carefully, this city is actually powerful internally, and every step hides its past historical track.

▲ A shopping plaza on the street of Shantou.

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Shengwei national pits

"The corner of the country at the end of the province" is a mockery of Chaoshan people. Chaoshan is surrounded by mountains on three sides, forming a natural barrier with the outside world. Because of the inconvenient transportation here, Guangfu people and Hakkas can't understand Chaoshan dialect at all.

Fortunately, facing the sea, from north to south are the Japanese archipelago, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Province Island and Nansha Islands. Not far away, there are also neighboring countries near the sea: Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. Chaoshan, together with them, constitutes a close marine world.

▲ Cross-sea bridge connecting Shantou City to Nan 'ao County, with total length of11.08km..

In the Ming Dynasty, many "Haikou people" living in exile along the coast of Chaozhou and anti-Qing people in the late Ming Dynasty flowed to all parts of Southeast Asia. During the early Qing Dynasty, a large number of Chaozhou poor ventured abroad and settled in various parts of Southeast Asia. Most of them went to Vietnam, Cambodia and other places along the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi. For example, Yongzheng, the father of Zhao Daxin, the king who swallowed the Wuli dynasty in Thailand in the 0/8th century, was a native of Huafu Village in Chenghai and sailed to Siam during the Yongzheng period.

▲ The Wangzheng Temple in the center of Bangkok was ordered to be built by King Zheng Xin who annexed the Wu Dynasty at that time.

Because it is located in a barren mountainous area, there is no road to pass, and it is difficult for centralization to reach Chaoshan, where the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, so it has always been regarded as a place of externalization. Because there are dense forests, wild animals and crocodiles in the Han River, Chaoshan has become the best place to demote officials. Han Xin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, is one of them.

Han Xin, who was demoted to Chaozhou, made great efforts to drive crocodiles, promote learning and care about people's livelihood as soon as he arrived. Although he only stayed in Chaozhou for seven months, he had a great influence on chaozhou people. In order to commemorate Han Xin's contribution to the local people, chaozhou people renamed the evil creek where Han Yu sacrificed crocodiles as Hanjiang, renamed Dongshan as Hanshan, and built the Han Wengong Temple in the east of Guangji Bridge.

▲ Guangji Bridge, a famous cultural tourist resort in Chaozhou, was built in the Southern Song Dynasty 1 17 1.

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There is a God in my heart.

Incense is very popular in Chaoshan area, and there are new temples or ancestral halls in the territory.

The Buddha statues placed in it come from all directions. There are the mother of heaven and earth, the Jade Emperor, the auspicious ancestor, the founder of Sanqing, the Emperor Dongyue, the Queen Mother, the God of Wealth, as well as sages, loyal ministers, heroes and other loyal and benevolent people throughout the ages.

▲ Most people who come to worship God are Chaoshan women, praying for men who go out to work at home.

Every village has a god and every family has a shrine. Superstition aside, this sense of ritual alone is particularly important in an era when we are easy to lose ourselves.

▲ An activity called "Making Heat" is being held in Chaozhou Ancestral Hall. The picture shows the sacrifice. Photography/Lu

Buddha is the god who saves all beings and lives. In Chaoshan area, the ninth day of the first month is the "God's Birthday" (God is also called Jade Emperor). On this day, every household will prepare sugar and vegetarian food as sacrifices and burn "Dabao" and "Shenjin" to pray for world peace.

On the first and fifteenth day of the first lunar month, women from every household in Chaoshan worship the kitchen god and offer fruits and biscuits as sacrifices. Chaoshan women respect the kitchen god very much. They think that breaking bowls, stealing vegetables and swearing in the kitchen are all disrespectful to the kitchen god.

No matter what gods they are, when they worship, Chaoshan people are very sincere, thinking that only in this way can the gods hear and be willing to bless them.

▲? Jieyang holds a grand folk activity Torch Festival every New Year. Photography/Xiao Yunfeng

▲? Jieyang Mid-Autumn Festival Burning Tower. Photography/Xiao Yunfeng

On important festivals, family sacrifices are not grand enough, and Chaoshan people have to hold "temple fairs to worship God". At the beginning of the new year, several young men invited the patron saint of their respective towns outside the temple, carried his master (that is, the patron saint) around the village, and went to every place for people to worship, and finally sent him back to the temple to continue to worship.

According to local people, the purpose of doing this is to pray for the host to bless the villagers' peace and prosperity.

▲? Jieyang God Touring Competition. Figure/vision china

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Clan culture

Chaoshan people wandering outside have become particularly United. Any industry is bound to find a bunch of bosses with the same surname to support each other. An enterprise must have a group of neighboring businessmen who are related to each other by blood. In Southeast Asia, there are Chaoshan gangs everywhere, where they gather in different places.

▲? Shantou small park. Photography/No.2 Middle School Brother

Why are Chaoshan people so United?

Chaoshan, which is near the sea, belongs to barbarian land in history and suffers from natural disasters such as typhoons and floods all the year round. With limited medical conditions, life is so small. When people's life and death are linked together, they become a powerful force of unity.

In addition to geographical factors, there are also very important reasons from clan factors. Chaoshan people are far away from home because of their livelihood. Regardless of success or failure, they will always remember the advice of their elders and remember where their roots are.

▲ Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, was born in Chaoan County, Chaozhou.

In the concept of Chaoshan people, clan is their powerful backer. In the past, people of the same clan would unite against people of another clan because of land disputes with Hakkas. It is precisely because of the power of the clan that Chaoshan people overcame natural and man-made disasters and formed a personality that is difficult to replicate.

▲? Zhongshan Road, Chaozhou City, praying and worshiping God during the hot activities. Photography/Lu

04

prescribe a diet

Nowadays, Chaoshan cuisine is deeply loved by people all over the world. In the matter of "eating", Chaoshan people are not careless at all.

Relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea, Chaoshan can eat delicacies. Chaoshan people who are rich in products and deal with all kinds of ingredients are very picky about food. They pay attention to seasonality and freshness, try to make food eat at the freshest time and keep the original "fresh" taste of food.

▲ Decompose and slice all parts of a cow for later use.

Rice white is a kind of rice porridge in Chaoshan. Although it is a simple bowl of rice porridge, it has more side dishes than you think. Pickled vegetables, pickled vegetables, dried radishes, young fish, pickled cucumber seedlings, pickled shrimps, olives, salted eggs, olives, salted peanuts, fried peanuts ... all kinds of salty, sweet and sour flavors. As a result, a bowl of Chaoshan rice porridge, like the emperor, was served by three thousand harem beauties.

▲? Chaoshan snacks, also known as midnight snack. Figure/"Flavor House"

Speaking of this, students must be familiar with it. No matter which store you enter, there must be all kinds of clams on the menu.

Glutinous rice flour, glutinous rice flour, wheat flour and potato flour are mixed with different fillings to make delicious food.

▲ A kind of embarrassment, the picture comes from the Internet.

▲? Sell all kinds of cockroaches every day and choose enemies with phobia. Photography/ear dust

Brain juice, the sum of Chaoshan cuisine "brain" is inseparable. This kind of dough is similar to the rice noodles we usually eat, but the choice of ingredients is dazzling. There will be a pile of ingredients to choose from in front of the store. There are oysters, beef, fish balls, pork, pig offal and various fungi and vegetables. You can choose a few of them and add them to the rice noodles made by Chaoshan people, and a bowl of bitter juice with your own heart will be freshly baked.

▲ A famous glutinous rice juice shop in Shantou city. Coix seed is added to it, which has the effect of dehumidification and whitening. Graphics/network

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An indomitable fighting spirit

There is a popular saying in Guangdong: marry a Chaoshan woman, not a Chaoshan man. In Chaoshan, there is a strong preference for boys over girls. In a family, Chaoshan men have long shouldered the burden of supporting their families.

The men here have known since childhood that everywhere is their home, just like their ancestors, they have never left their hometown and worked hard abroad. The shortest road they have traveled may be Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta, and the farthest road they have traveled has also crossed overseas, reaching Southeast Asia and even Europe.

▲? The daily life of Chaoshan residents, Zhuofu in the picture, is a private mansion. Photography/No.2 Middle School Brother

But no matter how far you go, Chaoshan people's yearning for seafood, family and a free future will not change.

PS/

When I first arrived in Shantou, the appearance of the city looked a little old and simple.

Perhaps it is precisely because there is no innate resource advantage that Chaoshan people have to go out and work hard. It is precisely because of this that the Chaoshan people dare to fight and rush, and many Chaoshan people have created a wonderful world overseas.