Chapter 4 Chapter Two Chinese Laborers and Contract Chinese Laborers in America

The southeast coast of my country, especially the "Three Cities" and "Four Cities" in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong are the most famous hometowns of overseas Chinese in my country. "Sanyi" refers to the three counties of Panyu, Nanhai, and Shunde (now all county-level cities) located in the central area of ​​the Pearl River Delta; "Siyi" refers to Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping, and Enping that still belong to the Pearl River Delta Four counties (now all are county-level cities). Why did "Sanyi" and "Siyi" become famous hometowns of overseas Chinese?This also starts with the Opium War.

As we all know, the two Opium Wars launched by the British invaders in 1840 and 1856 both broke out in Guangdong.Guangdong was the main battlefield of the Opium War.In the first Opium War, the lives and properties of the people of Guangdong suffered serious losses.After the war, Britain extorted a huge amount of compensation from the Chinese government through unequal treaties, and Guangdong Province paid 70% of the compensation.What’s more, when the British aggressors signed the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing, they forced the Qing government’s representative, Qiying, to verbally agree that China would not need to ask whether merchant ships from various countries carried opium in the future, nor would China need to take any measures in this regard.Since then, the Qing government has kept this promise.The aggressors had no fear, and continuously imported opium into China, 3/5 of which were sold in Guangzhou, which caused the people in the "Sanyi" and "Siyi" near Guangzhou to suffer greatly and their lives worsened.

Heavy taxes, the proliferation of drugs, and the inflow of British textiles and iron products have severely impacted the vast rural and handicraft economies in Guangdong; continuous social unrest has made life difficult for the people in Guangdong, especially in the Pearl River Delta, and many people have to travel far away. Go abroad and go out to make a living.As the American historian Gunter Bart pointed out: "In the middle of the 19th century, social chaos and unrest forced Cantonese to go overseas to make a living to support their families. At that time, politics and economy were in a state of anarchy, and villagers could only take on the responsibility of defending their families. responsibility for the good old life, leaving their parents, wives, children, and relatives."

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