This article first appeared in Daojia: Revista Eletrônica de Taoismo e Cultura Chinesa in April 2021.

Quangang, China: Language, Music, Geography, Religion and Diasporic Influence

A Place of Many Names

泉港 Quangang is a coastal district of 泉州 Quanzhou city (Quangang District People’s Government [QDPG], 2019). In 981, Emperor 太宗 Taizong of the 宋 Song dynasty established 惠安 Huian county, in which present-day 泉港 Quangang lies. 泉港 Quangang was known as the 惠北 Huibei (Huian north) district, as it lay at 惠安 Huian’s northern border with 莆田 Putian. These boundaries remained the same for more than a millennium until 21 April 1996 when 惠北 Huibei was separated from 惠安 Huian and renamed 肖厝 Xiaocuo (House of Xiao), a petrochemical economic zone with its own county-level administration. As 肖厝 Xiaocuo sounded like 烧厝 shaocuo “burning house” in the local dialect, it was deemed inauspicious and disadvantageous to economic prosperity. 肖厝 Xiaocuo was then renamed 湄港 Meigang (Meizhou Bay Port) in 1999, but this led to confusion as the 湄洲 Meizhou Bay was under 莆田 Putian city’s jurisdiction, but 湄港 Meigang was under 泉州 Quanzhou city’s jurisdiction. After further consideration, local officials proposed the name 泉港 “Quangang” to the State Council in Beijing. On 12 April 2000, Beijing approved the new name. Finally, 泉港 Quangang district was officially established on 28 December 2000.

Toubei Dialect

There is tremendous linguistic diversity in the 泉港 Quangang district, to such an extent that neighbours speak different tongues (Lai & Zhou, 2019). The dialects in 泉港 Quangang can be broadly classified into three groups following a dialect continuum from south to north (Gooskens, 2018). In the south, the towns 山腰 Shanyao, 前黄 Qianhuang, and涂岭 Tuling speak the 惠安 Huian dialect. In the north, the 界山 Jieshan town speaks the 仙游 Xianyou dialect. Between these two latitudinal extremities lie the towns of 峰尾 Fengwei, 后龙 Houlong and 南埔 Nanpu, which speak fascinating mixtures of Huian (泉州 Quanzhou Min Nan) and Xianyou (莆田仙游 Putian–Xianyou [Puxian]) dialects. These three “gradient towns” are collectively called the 头北 Toubei region. Correspondingly, the dialects there are called 头北话 Toubei dialect or 下路话 Xialu dialect.

Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the democratisation of knowledge as lockdown measures forced people to collaborate and share information online. Audio recordings of the Quanzhou city government’s public health announcements have been uploaded online, featuring the same message read in the 惠安 Huian (泉州 Quanzhou), 头北 Toubei and 仙游 Xianyou (Puxian) dialects — the three spoken in 泉港 Quangang (Quanzhou City People's Government [QCPG], 2020). This is unprecedented as there are no public recordings of one standardised text read in those three Quangang dialects of such high quality which allow for interdialectal comparison.

Putian characteristics present in Toubei include the [ɬ] sound as well as lenition from [t^h] to [l] in a [t^h]-starting word when it follows any other word, for example from 头 /t^hau₂₄/ alone to 枕头 /tsɪm₃₄ lau₅₅/ when paired (Dai, 2007).

Remarkably, Toubei shares similarities with 潮州话 Chaozhou (“Teochew”) dialect spoken around 潮州 Chaozhou city, 广东 Guangdong province. These similarities include the [ɛ] vowel and the high 阳平 yang rising tone, raising the question of how and why 头北 Toubei is related to a language spoken nearly 400 kilometres away. According to the Putian Culture Web (2012), waves of 莆田 Putian people fled to 潮州 Chaozhou to escape from war and conflict since the late 唐 Tang dynasty — with the largest wave occurring in the late 宋 Song dynasty upon Mongol invasions — suggesting that Teochew is descended from 莆仙 Puxian and influenced by neighbouring 漳州 Zhangzhou. Similarly, 头北 Toubei is a mixture of 莆仙 Puxian and 泉州 Quanzhou dialect (Lian, 2012), which is itself closely related to the 漳州 Zhangzhou dialect, thereby accounting for the similarities between 头北 Toubei and Teochew. Empirically, this thesis is supported by Lin and Fan (2010), who adopted a lexicostatistical approach using the Fitch–Margoliash distance algorithm on dialectal speech data to obtain the following phylogenetic tree of the Min Nan dialects. Teochew is represented by 揭阳 Jieyang in the diagram.

Beiguan Music

北管 Beiguan (“northern pipe”) music first came to 泉港 Quangang through the 峰尾 Fengwei salt merchant 刘永赖 Liu Yonglai (1852–1926), who shipped salt from 泉港 Quangang to 北京 Beijing, 上海 Shanghai, 江苏 Jiangsu and 浙江 Zhejiang (QDPG, 2019). Exposed to music from other parts of China through his mercantile travels, Yonglai brought the melodies back to 泉港 Quangang and performed it in his hometown. The 泉港 Quangang locals immediately fell in love with the music and started making and teaching it, which they called 北管 Beiguan. 北管 Beiguan is also known as 北曲 Beiqu (“northern tunes”), 小曲 Xiaoqu (“small tunes”), 小调 Xiaodiao (“small tones”), or 曲仔 Quzai (“mini-tunes”).

The 北管 Beiguan repertoire consists of over 220 indexed songs split across two categories: 曲 qu (“tunes”) which are sung and 谱 pu (“sheets”) which are played (Huang, 2019). 曲 qu (“tunes”) are descendants of folk music from 安徽 Anhui, 江苏 Jiangsu and 上海 Shanghai, and are typically sung in Mandarin by 5 to 6 teenagers, accompanied by gongs and cymbals. Exclamations like “oh!” and “ah!” are common in 曲 qu (“tunes”), characteristic of the folk songs of 安徽 Anhui, 江苏 Jiangsu and 上海 Shanghai. 谱 pu (“sheets”) are descendants of 广东 Guangdong folk music, 江南 Jiangnan 丝竹 sizhu music and Peking opera instrumentals, and are played with string and wind instruments accompanied by wooden percussion. 谱 pu (“sheets”) ensembles typically comprise 7 to 10 members.

During the Cultural Revolution, 北管 Beiguan was deemed demonic and many 北管 Beiguan music sheets were confiscated and destroyed (Huang, 2004). In 2006, 北管 Beiguan was admitted to the list of national intangible cultural heritage forms in China. In 2014, 泉港 Quangang was officially labelled “the hometown of Chinese Beiguan music culture”. Based on the data by Huang (2019), this author has created the following table showing the distribution of 北管 Beiguan institutions in Mainland China.

Quangang Beiguan shares a common ancestry with Taiwanese Beiguan, which is now recognised as one of Taiwan’s traditional musical forms (Lin, 2019). Following the Chinese diaspora, many overseas 北管 Beiguan societies have popped up in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Fengwei Town: Strategic Importance and Urban Planning

The coastal town of 峰尾 Fengwei (“Peak’s Tail”) occupies the eponymous peninsula in southern 泉港 Quangang. It is the only pre-modern town in 泉港 Quangang (QDPG, 2019). Throughout history, 峰尾 Fengwei was also known as 烽火岛 Fenghuodao (“Flare Island”) and 圭峰 Guifeng (“Jade Tablet Peak”). An alternate etymology states that 圭峰 Guifeng had the moniker 蜂穴 Fengxue (“bee cave”), and the town was named 蜂尾 Fengwei (“bee tail”) as the peninsula was shaped like a bee’s abdomen and stinger, which was later changed to the homophonous 峰尾 Fengwei (“Peak’s Tail”).

Situated at the southern opening of 湄洲湾 Meizhou Bay, the 峰尾 Fengwei peninsula was naturally suited to be a strategic station of naval defence against pirates and maritime invaders (Zhang, 2020). Fengwei Stream, flowing into Meizhou Bay, provided freshwater to the local townsfolk and soldiers. In the 元 Yuan dynasty (circa 1300), 圭峰塔 Guifeng Tower was built atop 烟墩山 Mt. Yandun (30.7 m) on the eastern tip of Fengwei peninsula as a watchtower and navigational landmark for passing ships. In the 明 Ming dynasty (circa 1630), 圭峰塔 Guifeng Tower collapsed due to weathering and decay. In 1798, during the 清 Qing dynasty, Guifeng Tower was rebuilt and has stood on 烟墩山 Mt. Yandun ever since.

The peninsula’s southern ridge also made it conducive to establish a town on the peninsula’s north coast, as the ridge sheltered the town from strong south-westerly winds. Together with 海景山 Mt. Haijing (23 m), a smaller hill on the southern coast of the Fengwei peninsula, Mt. Yandun formed the geometric basis of the urban planning of Fengwei town. According to Zhang (2020), the Fengwei town centre was defined to be roughly 800 metres from the peaks of both Mt. Yandun and Mt. Haijing. However, there was no indication that the Fengwei town centre is indeed the geographic centre of the area. Upon further analysis, this author confirms that the Fengwei town centre is indeed the centroid (geographic centre) of the coastal lowlands of the Fengwei peninsula, and is coincidentally equidistant from both Mt. Yandun and Mt. Haijing — remarkable accuracy for medieval urban planning.

Map by Zhang (2020), with yellow lowland outline and red centroid generated by this author using the Inkscape software.

The central axis of 峰尾 Fengwei was thus defined to be the line that passes through the town centre and the peak of 烟墩山 Mt. Yandun. From this axis, a grid system was established and the town’s boundaries were drawn. 峰尾 Fengwei’s three most prominent temples — 东岳庙 Dongyue Temple, 义烈庙 Yilie Temple and the 永全社 Yongquan Institution — are scattered across the town, encircling both the town and the coast, thus providing spiritual cover for the townsfolk and fishermen. 峰尾 Fengwei locals attribute their town’s economic prosperity to the blessings from this spiritual triangle. Fishing is the mainstay of 峰尾 Fengwei’s economy. At its heyday in 1932, 峰尾 Fengwei had 184 fishing boats and over 800 fishermen (Liu, 2015). During the Second Sino-Japanese War, 峰尾 Fengwei experienced surprising economic prosperity and was nicknamed “Little Shanghai”. In particular, historical anecdotes tell that 峰尾 Fengwei’s fishermen averted disaster many times due to divine protection and blessings from 义烈庙 Yilie Temple.

The Yilie Temple

The 义烈庙 Yilie Temple, also known as the 姑妈宫 Guma Temple, is dedicated to 姑妈娘娘 Guma Niangniang (Lady Aunt), the apotheosised historical figure 刘益娘 Liu Yiniang (1499–1518) venerated by 峰尾 Fengwei locals for her kindness, magnanimity and heroism. Her story is well-documented and can be recounted by virtually everyone in 峰尾 Fengwei.

Yiniang was born in Fengwei on the 17^th day of the 11^th lunar month in 1499 AD. A few months old, Yiniang could talk. Barely one year old, she could walk. Throughout her childhood, she displayed exceptional emotional and intellectual maturity. She was respectful to all and described by locals as “gentle and sensible”. When fishermen were out at sea, Yiniang worried for their safety and could not sleep at night. Especially during nocturnal fishing, she stationed herself at the beach or 尾山埔 Weishanpu Peak from dusk till dawn, so that she could light a signal to guide fishing boats back to shore in case of any emergency at sea. Everyone in Fengwei adored and praised her.

In 1517, when Yiniang was eighteen, she was betrothed to the 程 Cheng family in 郭厝 Guocuo village. One year later in 1518, on the way to her husband’s home in Guocuo from her maternal home in Fengwei with her youngest brother, the duo passed by a sugarcane plantation in Guocuo. Her little brother wanted to eat some sugarcane and threw a tantrum. Out of sympathy, Yiniang used a red string to tie two bronze coins to a sugarcane plant as payment, and broke off some sugarcane for her brother to consume. Having just arrived, the plantation’s owner saw Yiniang’s actions and launched into a tirade. He slapped Yiniang brutally on the cheek. Utterly humiliated by this incident, Yiniang hanged herself in her husband’s home that very night.

Indignant at her unjust death, Fengwei townsfolk committed her to remembrance and later, reverence: apotheosising her, hoping that her “婆心济世 motherly heart succours the world” — words carved on a sign hung in the main altar. The Fengwei gentry created a golden idol of Yiniang and placed it in her ancestral home as a place of worship for the townsfolk. Circa 1544, her relatives from the Liu family built a shrine in her honour, calling it affectionately “姑妈宫 Aunt Temple”. The 姑妈宫 Aunt Temple drew many devotees from far and wide, and soon reached its full capacity. In 1621, a big new temple was built outside the western gate of Fengwei town on the coast of Meizhou Bay. In light of Yiniang’s “pure illuminance and magnitudinous righteousness, with character true and staunchly upright”, the temple was officially named 义烈庙 Yilie Temple “Temple of Righteousness and Staunch Rectitude”. The Yilie Temple which stands today was built in 2010 with the support of Taiwanese and Singaporean communities related to Fengwei (Liu, 2013).

Every year, Fengwei locals celebrate Yiniang’s birthday with mass prayer and festivities within and surrounding the temple. It is customary to be dressed in red from head to toe. Locals have observed that every year on Yiniang’s birthday, a pair of dolphins would swim by the coast in front of the temple and bob their heads above the water as if they were bowing in prayer.

Quangang’s Diasporic Influence

With a long history of being an international trading hub, 泉港 Quangang has enjoyed frequent multicultural diasporic interplays. In the late 19^th century, the port town of 柳厝 Liucuo in northeastern 泉港 Quangang was the designated export port for all 惠安 Huian county products headed for Taiwan to the east, the Malay Archipelago to the south and 青岛 Qingdao and Japan to the north (QDPG, 2019). As Quangang people migrated to Southeast Asia and Taiwan, they brought their cultures along with them. One example is the Yilie Temple in Singapore, covered by Victor Yue (2020) in Volume 5, Issue 14 of this journal. The temple is located in an unoccupied apartment flat — an intriguing yet common sight in land-scarce Singapore. Its address is #06-450, Block 5 Telok Blangah Crescent, Singapore 090005. Visits are by appointment only. This author, who is also a documentary photographer, has recently visited this temple, and is pleased to share the following photographs.

Conclusion

泉港 Quangang is a fascinating district with a disproportionately large international sphere of cultural influence due to its unique language, music, geography, religion and diasporic communities. There is hardly any Anglophone/Occidental literature on the cultural world of 泉港 Quangang — a dearth which was the impetus for this article. This author hopes that this article — the first of its kind in English/Portuguese — is able to put 泉港 Quangang in the spotlight and spark greater interest in 泉港 Quangang amongst audiences from around the world. ∎

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