Wenzhou people or Wenzhounese people is a subgroup of
OujiangWu Chinese speaking peoples, who live primarily in
Wenzhou,
Zhejiang province. Wenzhou people are known for their business and money-making skills. The area also has a large diaspora population in
Europe and the
United States, with a reputation for being enterprising natives who start restaurants, retail and wholesale businesses in their adopted countries. About two-thirds of the overseas community is in Europe. Wenzhounese people have also made notable contributions to mathematics and technology.
The majority of people in Wenzhou are descendants of immigrants and about 80% came from Fujian province. From the Tang, Song to Ming and Qing dynasties, a great number of families in Fujian province immigrated to Wenzhou with all their family members.[8]
Culture
Language
Wenzhou natives speak a unique form of
Wu Chinese called
Wenzhou dialect. However, geographic isolation and an admixture of
Southern Min Chinese speakers from nearby
Fujian Province, have caused Wenzhou's spoken language to evolve into a dialect that is notable for its
highly divergent phonology. As a result, even people from other regions of
Zhejiang and
Fujian both have trouble understanding
Wenzhounese. The
Taizhou dialect, located directly to the north, has little to no mutual intelligibility with Wenzhou. Many Wenzhou natives[quantify] also speak a
Southern Min dialect called
Zhenan Min.
The Wenzhou dialect preserves a large amount of vocabulary of
classical Chinese lost in most other Chinese dialects, earning itself the nickname "the
living fossil", and has distinct grammatical differences from Mandarin.[9][10]
Wenzhou was home to the
Yongjia School of thought, which emphasized pragmatism and commerce.[14] This philosophy is thought to have been a forerunner to modern capitalism in the region.[15]
People of Excellence and Land of Wisdom
There is a popular saying in China that reflects the status of the city of Wenzhou related to the
Fengshui of Wenzhou which is "People of Excellence and Land of Wisdom"(人傑地靈), as the local
Wenzhounese people are usually described in China as the people of excellence and the city of Wenzhou is usually praised as the city of wisdom.[16][17][18]
Birthplace of China's private economy
In the early days of economic reforms, local Wenzhounese took the lead in China in developing a
commodity economy, household industries and specialized markets. Many thousands of people and families were engaged in household manufacturing to develop individual and private economy (
private enterprise). Up till now, Wenzhou has a total of 240,000 individually owned commercial and industrial units and 130,000 private enterprises of which 180 are group companies, 4 among China's top 500 enterprises and 36 among national 500 top private enterprises. There are 27 national production bases such as "China’s Shoes Capital" and "China’s Capital of Electrical Equipment", China's 40 famous trademarks and China's famous-brand products and 67 national inspection-exempt products in the city. The development of private economy in Wenzhou has created the "Wenzhou Economic Model", which inspires the modernization drive in China.
Education
As of 2010[update], 650,300 people in Wenzhou hold a college degree; 1,150,400 people hold a high school degree; 3,344,400 people hold a middle school degree; 2,679,900 people hold an elementary school degree. In every 100,000 people in Wenzhou, 7128 people hold a college degree; 12611 people hold a high school degree; 36663 people hold a middle school degree and 29379 people hold an elementary school degree. The population of illiterate people in Wenzhou is 645,100, which is 7.07% of its whole population.[19][20]
At the time of the
2010 Chinese census, 3,039,500 people lived in Wenzhou's city proper;[21] the area under its jurisdiction (which includes two satellite cities and six counties) held a population of 9,122,100 of which 31.16% are non-local residents from outside of Wenzhou.[22]
Rest of mainland China
There are around 1.7 million Wenzhounese people living in other parts of the country. In major cities such as
Beijing or
Shanghai there are "Zhejiang villages", enclaves where people from Wenzhou reside and do business.[23]
Italy
In 2010, an analysis conducted by the
CESNUR and the
University of Turin on the 4,000-strong Chinese community of
Turin showed that at that time, 48% of this community was women and 30%, minors. Most of the Chinese in Italy—and virtually all of the Turin community—hail from the southeastern Chinese province of
Zhejiang, primarily the city of
Wenzhou.[2] The community in Turin is younger than other Chinese settlements in Italy, and for this reason it depends as a branch of the community of Milan.[24] Approximately 70% of the Chinese in Turin work in
restaurant activity, and more than 20% work in commercial activity.[25]
Prato,
Tuscany has the largest concentration of Chinese people in Italy, and all of
Europe. It has the second largest population of Chinese people overall in Italy, after
Milan.[26]
The Netherlands
The Netherlands currently has the third largest population of Wenzhounese in Europe.
Japan was the destination for many Wenzhounese migrants in the beginning of the 20th century, however many of them returned following the rise of anti-foreign sentiment and ultimately the outbreak of the
second Sino-Japanese War.
Jiang Lifu, father of mathematics in modern China.
Sun Yirang (1848–1908), pioneer of decipherment of
oracle bone script, founder of the first mathematical academy in the history of China, mentor of Huang Qingcheng
Huang Qingcheng (黄庆澄; 1863–1904), uncle of Jiang Lifu, founder of the first periodical of mathematics in the history of China, student of
Sun Yirang
Su Buqing (1902–2003), mathematician, president and honorary president of
Fudan University, honorary chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society, first geometer in the
Orient, renowned as "King of Math" in
China, student of Jiang Lifu
Jiang Boju (1937–), first president of School of Mathematical Sciences at
Peking University, former chairman of Beijing Mathematical Society, son of Jiang Lifu
Ding Liren (1992–), chess grandmaster, ranked first in China and third in the world (as of April 2019). Current World Chess Champion (as of January 2024).
Shen Zhixun (1962–), one of the pioneers in materials physics, winner of E.O. Lawrence Award, Advisor for Science and Technology of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Jason Chang 张虔生 (1944–), billionaire, founder and president of
ASE Group, the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services
^
abBerzano, Luigi; Genova, Carlo; Introvigne, Massimo; Ricucci, Roberta; Zoccatelli, Pierluigi (2010). Cinesi a Torino: La crescita di un arcipelago (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino.
ISBN978-88-15-13791-3. p. 217: «Poche persone estranee alla catena migratoria dello Zhejiang sono approdate qui [in Turin] [...]»; p. 228: «La grande maggioranza dei cinesi presenti a Torino proviene dallo Zhejiang e in particolare da aree periferiche urbane e semiurbane, e villaggi, intorno a Wenzhou, in particolare dal distretto di Wencheng.»
^Lai, Him Mark (2004). Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press. p. 247.
ISBN0-7591-0457-3.
^Hong Liu, ed. (2006). The Chinese Overseas. Vol. 4: Homeland Ties and Agencies of Interaction. London: Routledge.
ISBN0-415-33862-X.
^Cao, Nanlai (2011). Constructing China's Jerusalem: Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wenzhou. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
ISBN978-0-8047-7080-4.
^Zhang, Jianjun (2008). Marketization and Democracy in China. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
ISBN978-0-415-45222-9.
^郭璞:杰出的城市规划大师. 赣州杨公风水养生堂 (in Chinese). 16 August 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
^Pieke, Frank N.; Mallee, Hein, eds. (1999). Internal and International Migration: Chinese Perspectives. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. p. 256.
ISBN0-7007-1076-0.
^Berzano, Luigi; Genova, Carlo; Introvigne, Massimo; Ricucci, Roberta; Zoccatelli, Pierluigi (2010). Cinesi a Torino: La crescita di un arcipelago (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino. p. 216.
ISBN978-88-15-13791-3. [...] la co-munità di Torino, per via delle sua origine recente, pare per molti versi essere una propaggine di quella decisa-mente più ricca e stratificata di Milano.