I need to establish an objective research.
What kind of group does he ( I interviewed the protagonist of the filming, the owner of the seafood shop yang) represent behind such a Chinese living abroad?
How does policy and immigration affect him?
Fujian people are the largest part of the immigrant group of Chinese people.
But why are Fujian people keen on immigration?
Fujian people used to be the king of maritime trade.
1. Fujian has marine resources but 75% of the mountainous area, so they can only “take the sea as the field” and make up for the innate shortage of agricultural production through maritime trade.
Advanced shipbuilding technology and excellent harbours help them better go to sea.
2. Fujian people first occupied Southeast Asia. From the late 16th century to the late 18th century, Fujian people dominated the Chinese society in Southeast Asia as a whole and became indispensable assistants to European colonisers.
Labourers who travel across the ocean
The cause of large-scale mobility dates back to labour trade more than 100 years ago.
The natural environment of “eight mountains, one water and one division of fields” makes Fujian’s arable land scarce after population growth. In the 150 years from 1661 to 1812, Fujian’s population increased ninefold, but cultivated land increased by only 32%, and the per capita cultivated land decreased from 7.11 mu to 0.9 mu.
After the Opium War, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai were opened as trade ports, and Fujian occupied two provinces. Foreign yarn, foreign cloth, foreign sugar and foreign oil are piled up in Xiamen and Fuzhou, and transferred to inland areas, which has greatly impacted the non-governmental domestic textile industry and planting industry, and a large number of farmers and handicrafts are on the verge of bankruptcy.
At the same time, foreign goods are carried directly into by foreign ships. Some Chinese merchants in order to steal tariffs even hire foreign ships to carry goods. The original Chinese merchant ships have lost their use and lost their jobs one after another, resulting in a large number of sailors and boatmen “out money in food and clothing, and gangsters”.
In the 19th century, Western countries established their own production bases in Southeast Asia, the Americas and Oceania, and the demand for cheap labour doubled. Chinese labourers trapped in poverty and worrying about life, and willing to exchange physical strength for hard-earned money have become their best choice, and Fujian people are very suitable.
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