Fujian Merchants
Fujian
Province lies along China's southeastern coast, facing Taiwan
Province across the Taiwan Straits to the east. It has a very long and colorful
recorded history, dating at least as far back as the Warring
States Period (475-221BC).
At that time the State of Yue, located approximately in present-day Jiangsu
and Zhejiang
provinces, was defeated by the State of Chu, which ruled the areas of
today's Hubei and Hunan
provinces. After their defeat, the Yue people were forced to move southward
and settled in the areas now known as Fujian and Guangdong
provinces, the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam. Those that
went to Fujian were called Min Yue, and the province itself Dong Yue.
Later, Emperor Shihuang of the Qin
Dynasty (221-206BC) set up a prefecture in Fujian and changed the province's
name to Min. Even today this word is used as an abbreviation for Fujian, and
people in the south of the province speak a dialect called the Minnan (southern
Fujian) dialect.
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Min merchants have been one of the ten most influential regional merchant
groups in the country's history. Since the opening-up policy in the late 1970's,
Min merchants have grown rapidly to become one of the most active regional
merchant groups on modern China's economic stage.
Among Min merchants, the overseas ones form an important
force, with eye-catching economic success. They take up a fourth of the 40
million overseas Chinese merchants, with their business reaching more than 160
countries around the world. The total assets of these overseas Min merchants are
estimated to be approximately US$300 billion.
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