Hey, everyone! I'm trying to shore up my knowledge of southern China. I know (or think I know!) of two narratives related to this area:
(a) South China is a starting point for immigrant and overseas Chinese people. Most famously, people from this area of China were used as cheap labor and played a significant part in developing the US's railroads on the west coast.
(b) South China contained non-Han and non-Chinese peoples that were eventually forcefully integrated into the various Chinese empires and then into the vaguely ethic group of Han people.
Does anyone know anything about these areas of history? Does anyone have suggested readings on these time periods in southern China? Thanks so much! Not a historian, so Googling only goes so far. :>
I wrote briefly on how the south of the Yangtze became Chinese and I would recommend Rafe De Crespigny's Generals of the South (as I did in the thread) with focus on chapters 1 and 5 for China's expansion into the south
That only covers some part of south China's history so any with more answers across it's centuries is welcome.