China in America / A study in the social life of the Chinese in the eastern cities of the United States

A STUDY IN THE Social Life of the Chinese IN THE Eastern Cities of the United States.
BY STEWART CULIN.
READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY), AT THE THIRTY-SIXTH MEETING, NEW YORK, 1887.
PHILADELPHIA: 1887.


The Chinese laborers in America all come from the departments of Kwangchau and Shauking, in the province of Kwantung.
The tract embraced in these districts is little more than 100 miles square, but it exhibits much diversity in its natural features, the northern and western parts being high and mountainous, while those approaching the coast are low and covered with small hills, and the entire region is well watered by numerous large rivers and tributary streams. Large towns and cities, many of them the seat of important manufactures, are found within its limits. The coast is studded with numerous small islands and furnished with safe and commodious harbors.
The people of the different districts show distinctive peculiarities, both in speech and customs. Those from Nánhái and Pw'anyú, the districts within which the city of Canton is situated, partake of the manners of its inhabitants, although few here are from the capital itself, and their language differs little from the dialect of Canton as transcribed by Dr. Williams. The Sz' Yup people, particularly those from the maritime district of Sinning, who comprise the greater part, are ruder and more adventurous than those from nearer the capital, and their speech can only be understood with difficulty by the inhabitants of the Provincial City.
The immigrants are much influenced by local traditions and those from different sections keep much to themselves. They establish separate shops when their numbers warrant it, as well as assembly-rooms and guild-halls. The Six Companies in San Francisco, under which nearly all of the Chinese in the United States are enrolled, are the guilds formed in this manner by the emigrants from different parts of the province.