Public History · Oral History · Cultural Research
Since the 17th century, hundreds of thousands of Cantonese migrants from Guangdong’s coastal region have crossed the South China Sea and the Pacific for commerce, contract labor, education, and family reunion. They moved back and forth across Southeast Asia and North America. Over time, these movements helped shape the social structures and cultural image of Chinese communities overseas.
This project seeks to shift the focus from “a group of Guangdong people” to a broader question of how Guangdong culture has been carried abroad, transformed, and transmitted across generations. Through multi-regional, multilingual archival research, this project aims to present the history of Cantonese migration and cultural transformation that has often been simplified.
Documented migration since the 1848 Gold Rush.
U.S. residents speaking Cantonese at home.
Descendants in a vast global diaspora.
Waves, Networks, and Institutions
Trace the diaspora that defied borders. From the rugged goldfields of 1848 to the refugee waves of the 20th century, this timeline reveals how a people weathered the storms of exclusion to forge new destinies.
Witness the rise of Chinatowns, the resilience of Huiguan associations, and the silent strength of communities that anchored themselves in foreign soil.
View the full articlePower, Hierarchy, and Identity
Language is never just words; it is the currency of power and the architecture of identity. Explore the invisible battlegrounds where Cantonese and Mandarin vie for dominance in schools, policies, and labor markets.
Map the poignant shift of a mother tongue, fading from public squares to the intimate whispers of the kitchen table, and uncover what is lost, what is saved, and what it truly means to sound like where Cantonese comes from.
View the full articleRituals, Performance, and Resilience
From the ritual pulse of dragon and lion dances and ancestral offerings to the kinetic power of Kung Fu; from the evolution of cuisine—transforming from a survival strategy into global gastronomy—to the Opera stage that preserves the memory of a mobile homeland.
Witness how Cantonese culture reshapes itself, forging a resilient new identity across the seas.
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