Wenzhou people

Wenzhou people
溫州人/溫州漢人

Total population
(approximately 6 million people)
Regions with significant populations
China, Wenzhou (urban + rural areas)	~6,000,000 (natives)
China	1,700,000 (rest of country)[1]
Italy	288,715 (90% of Chinese poplulation).[2]
France	60,000–100,000[3]
Spain	~116,000 <70% (+ Qingtian)[4]
Taiwan	as part of the mainlander poplation[5]
Australia	part of Chinese Australian population
United States	small part of Chinese American population
Netherlands	part of Chinese people in the Netherlands[6]
Languages
Wenzhou dialect, Zhenan Min, Standard Mandarin Chinese, Italian
Religion
Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Irreligion, Chinese folk religion and a small Christian minorities
Related ethnic groups
Wu-speaking peoples, Shanghainese people, Min-speaking peoples, other Han Chinese

Wenzhou people or Wenzhounese people is a subgroup of Oujiang Wu Chinese speaking peoples, who live primarily in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Wenzhou people are known for their business and money making skills. The area also has a large diaspora population in land for Europe and the United States, with a reputation for being enterprising natives who start restaurants, retail and wholesale businesses in their adopted countries. About two-thirds of the overseas community is in Europe. Wenzhounese people have also a notable contributions to mathematics and technology.

Language and culture

Wenzhou natives speak a unique form of Wu Chinese, which is the Chinese language branh which includes the people of neighbouring Hangzhou and Shanghai. However, geographic isolation and an admixture of Southern Min Chinese speakers from nearby Fujian Province, have caused Wenzhou's spoken language to evolve into a dialect that is notable for its highly divergent phonology. As a result even people from other regions of Zhejiang and Fujian both have trouble understanding Wenzhounese. The Taizhou dialect, located directly to the north, has little to no mutual intelligbility with Wenzhou. Many Wenzhou natives also speak a Southern Min dialect called Zhenan Min.

Nanxi is a form of Chinese opera developed in Wenzhou.

Wenzhou was home to the Yongjia School of thought, which emphasized pragmatism and commerce.^[7] This philosophy is thought to have been a forerunner to modern capitalism in the region.^[8]

People of Excellence and Land of Wisdom

There is a popular saying in China that reflects the status of the city of Wenzhou related to the Fengshui of Wenzhou which is "People of Excellence and Land of Wisdom"(人傑地靈), as the local Wenzhounese people are usually described in China as the people of excellence and the city of Wenzhou is usually praised as the city of wisdom.^[9][10][11]

Birthplace of China's private economy

In the early days of economic reforms, local Wenzhounese took the lead in China in developing a commodity economy, household industries and specialized markets. Many thousands of people and families were engaged in household manufacturing to develop individual and private economy (private enterprise). Up till now, Wenzhou has a total of 240,000 individually owned commercial and industrial units and 130,000 private enterprises of which 180 are group companies, 4 among China’s top 500 enterprises and 36 among national 500 top private enterprises. There are 27 national production bases such as "China’s Shoes Capital" and "China’s Capital of Electrical Equipment", China’s 40 famous trademarks and China’s famous-brand products and 67 national inspection-exempt products in the city. The development of private economy in Wenzhou has created the "Wenzhou Economic Model", which inspires the modernization drive in China.

Education

As of 2010, 650,300 people in Wenzhou hold a college degree; 1,150,400 people hold a high school degree; 3,344,400 people hold a middle school degree; 2,679,900 people hold an elementary school degree. In every 100,000 people in Wenzhou, 7128 people hold a college degree; 12611 people hold a high school degree; 36663 people hold a middle school degree and 29379 people hold an elementary school degree. The population of illiterate people in Wenzhou is 645,100, which is 7.07% of its whole population.^[12][13][14]

Regions

Wenzhou

At the time of the 2010 Chinese census, 3,039,500 people lived in Wenzhou's city proper;^[15] the area under its jurisdiction (which includes two satellite cities and six counties) held a population of 9,122,100 of which 31.16% are non-local residents from outside of Wenzhou.^[16]

Rest of Mainland China

There are around 1.7 million Wenzhounese people living in other parts of the country. In major cities such as Beijing or Shanghai there are "Zhejiang villages", enclaves where people from Wenzhou reside and do business.^[17]

Italy

In 2010, an analysis conducted by the CESNUR and the University of Turin on the 4,000-strong Chinese community of Turin showed that at that time, 48% of this community was women and 30%, minors. Most of the Chinese in Italy—and virtually all of the Turin community—hail from the southeastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, primarily the city of Wenzhou.^[18] The community in Turin is younger than other Chinese settlements in Italy, and for this reason it depends as a branch of the community of Milan.^[19] Approximately 70% of the Chinese in Turin work in restaurant activity, and more than 20% work in commercial activity.^[20]

Prato, Tuscany has the largest concentration of Chinese people in Italy, and all of Europe. It has the second largest population of Chinese people overall in Italy, after Milan.^[21]

The Netherlands

The Netherlands currently has the third largest population of Wenzhounese in Europe.

Spain

About 70% of the Chinese people in Spain are from Wenzhou or Qingtian.^[22]

United States

Wenzhou people in the United States are mostly concentrated on the East Coast, particularily around the New York City metropolitan area. Many Wenzhou people are owners of Chinese restaurants. They are the second largest group of Chinese undocumented immigrants in the United States, after Fuzhounese people.

Japan

Japan was the destination for many Wenzhounese migrants in the beginning of the 20th century, however many of them returned following the rise of anti-foreign sentiment and ultimately the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War.

References