I
Believed to result from the mixing-up and assimilation of the early immigrants with Guyue minority, an ancient ethnic group in southeast China, Yue people (also known as Guangfu Ren) mainly indicates the people resides around the Pearl River Delta who speaks Cantonese.
Benefited from the Guyue heritage and nurtured by Han culture from mid-China, Yue culture grows to be a culture of splendid richness, and the influence of western culture and the once colony economy also attribute a lot to its complexity.
The Xijiang River, Beijiang basin and Pearl River Delta where Yue people dwelled are believed to be places that gestated the earliest feudalist culture of Guangdong.
After the Song Dynasty, the Pearl River Delta had formed its budding shape in social and economic development, with Shunde, Nanhai, Zhongshan, Panyu and some other towns in the area gaining the reputation of a production base for a wide range of foodstuffs and economical crops in the time of Ming Dynasty. Supported by Guangzhou, a crucial world trade hub, the exchange of agricultural byproduct and handicrafts was active, a ready market was formed.
Till late Ming Dynasty, the commercialization of agricultural sector boost Pearl River Delta to become the most flourishing area with strongest sense of commerce and innovation in Guangdong.
The modern industry of Guangdong, starting from the late 19th Century, can also found its root in the Pearl River Delta.
The economic development also brought in the cultural prosperity--Guangzhou, as the central city of the Yue culture, has always been the political, economic and cultural hub of Guangdong province and south China.
With a sense of history and uniqueness in its architecture, art, religion, drama, music, literature, painting, craftwork, catering, gardening, and custom, Yue culture plays a predominant role among all cultural schools in Guangdong.
II
Yue people's cultural exchange with foreign countries dates back at least to as early as the Han Dynasty. Yue people are always open-minded, ready to accept new things and are good at copying and apprehending both material and spiritual achievements from the western world, then incorporating them with their own traditional culture.
With their courage to explore new horizons always, their broad insight, their strong sense of commerce and value, and their talent and skill in calculating, they created the multi-dimensional agricultural commodity economy in the Pearl River Delta, and gained a reputation of "Guangbang Businessmen" (means Yue businessmen), the story of which extended all the way back to mid-Qing Dynasty.
The influence of the advanced western ideology and the adventurous tint in their blood may somehow explain the fact that a bunch of Yue elites in Chinese modern history stood up, one after one, to fight for the overthrowing of the feudal imperialism, and also the fact that they have always be seen at the forefront of the economic development after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Ranked ahead among all other cultural schools of Guangdong, Yue culture is in many cases considered to be the synonym of Guangdong culture as a whole--for example, Cantonese is entitled "Yue Yu" (Yu means language in Chinese), folk song "Yue Ou" (Ou means ballad), etc. Though the dining culture of Guangdong is divided into Guangzhou Cuisine, Chaozhou Cuisine, and Dongjiang Cuisine, "Yue Cai" (Yue Dishes) normally indicates Guangzhou Cuisine; and some of the important craftworks in Guangzhou are also dubbed by the word Yue- like "Yue embroidery", and etc.
