Cuangzhou (pronounced “gwahng joe”) was formerly known in the West as Canton and is the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. “Canton” became famous in the West as most of the overseas Chinese diaspora originally came from Guangdong Province, leading to the construction of Chinatowns throughout the world where Cantonese, the language of Guangdong Province, was the most commonly spoken dialect, not Mandarin.
The port city of Guangzhou has always had an international bent as it was one of the earliest points of entry for foreigners coming to China. The Romans arrived here around the second century CE. Much later, in the sixteenth century, Portuguese traders arrived, looking to expand their trade in Chinese ceramics, teas, silks, and spices. Within a few decades, Jesuits arrived, looking to convert Chinese souls to Catholicism. The British first arrived at Guangzhou in the seventeenth century,
with ships from the East India Company looking to trade with China. The Qing dynasty, alarmed by the increasing foreign presence at the port, confined all foreigners to the nearby island of Shamian and authorized a single merchant group, known as the cohong, to oversee China’s trade with the outside world. The British decided to tip the trade imbalance in their favor by dumping cheap opium onto the Guangzhou market, creating addicts who would later be willing to pay much inflated prices. The Qing government tried to stop the British opium trade, leading to the Opium War, which the British with their superior arms were able to win. As a result, the Chinese government was forced to cede nearby Hong Kong Island to Great Britain.
The port city of Guangzhou has always had an international bent as it was one of the earliest points of entry for foreigners coming to China. The Romans arrived here around the second century CE. Much later, in the sixteenth century, Portuguese traders arrived, looking to expand their trade in Chinese ceramics, teas, silks, and spices. Within a few decades, Jesuits arrived, looking to convert Chinese souls to Catholicism. The British first arrived at Guangzhou in the seventeenth century,
with ships from the East India Company looking to trade with China. The Qing dynasty, alarmed by the increasing foreign presence at the port, confined all foreigners to the nearby island of Shamian and authorized a single merchant group, known as the cohong, to oversee China’s trade with the outside world. The British decided to tip the trade imbalance in their favor by dumping cheap opium onto the Guangzhou market, creating addicts who would later be willing to pay much inflated prices. The Qing government tried to stop the British opium trade, leading to the Opium War, which the British with their superior arms were able to win. As a result, the Chinese government was forced to cede nearby Hong Kong Island to Great Britain.
Guangzhou today is known for its exquisite cuisine, such as dim sum, and also its adventurous residents’ willingness to eat just about anything from dogs to cats, rats, live shrimp, endangered species, and unusual species not found in other provinces. These eating habits have given Chinese in general the reputation for culinary revolution, but in fact most Chinese from outside Guangdong marvel at the daring of the Cantonese palate. Unfortunately, these adventures in dining occasionally have dire consequences as the 2003 SARS epidemic is now believed to have originated in Guangzhou after people began eating civet cats (a wild animal quite unlike the domesticated pets), which then caused the virus to be transmitted from animal to human.
Perhaps because Guangzhou has always been marked by an adventurous spirit—as shown by the number of sojourners, revolutionaries, and gourmands it has spawned the city also was one of the first to embrace market reforms and capitalism. Even in the late 1980s when other Chinese cities were still marked by squat concrete, Soviet-style buildings, a few so-called free markets (where budding entrepreneurs could sell their wares) and many government-run enterprises, Guangzhou was
building skyscrapers, attracting investors from abroad (especially among the large overseas Chinese community with roots in the province), and fast becoming China’s first modern city. Its proximity to Hong Kong and shared Cantonese dialect with Hong Kong residents also helped Guangzhou to bridge the divide between a government-planned economy and a free market economy.
Today Guangzhou, with more than 12 million residents, remains one of China’s most sophisticated, prosperous, and expensive cities. In a bold move with implications for the rest of China, the municipal government in 2012 announced the strictest measures in the country to reduce by half the number of new cars on its streets, including license plate auctions and lotteries. The central government in Beijing has generally frowned upon such measures for fear of damaging the growing auto industry. Although Guangzhou is also a major auto manufacturing hub, city officials felt it was more important to take steps to improve air quality and reduce gridlock in response to
growing public outcry. The city’s growing middle class no longer accepted the decades-old model of putting short-term economic growth over quality-of-life issues, a change in attitude that could very well be the next new trend that originated in Guangzhou.
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