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{{Importartikel}}
{{Short description|Ethnic group of Han Chinese}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Over-quotation|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group     = Tanka people
| image     = MacaneseTanka.JPG
| caption   = Tanka woman in [[Macau]]
| pop       = 
| region1   = {{Flag|China}} (mainland)
| pop1      = [[Guangdong]], [[Guangxi]], [[Fujian]], [[Hainan]], [[Shanghai]], [[Zhejiang]], and along the [[Yangtze river]]<ref>[books.google.com.sg/books?id=HcPuCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA219]</ref>
| region2   = {{Flag|Hong Kong}}
| pop2 = [[Kowloon]]
| region3   = {{Flag|Macau}}
| pop3 = Macau Bay
| languages = Tanka dialect of [[Yue Chinese]],<br />[[Fuzhou dialect]] of [[Eastern Min|Eastern Min Chinese]] ([[Fuzhou Tanka]]), other [[varieties of Chinese]],<br />for those living in the diaspora speak [[English language|English]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]], [[Tetum language|Tetun]], [[Burmese language|Burmese]], [[Thai language|Thai]], [[Hindi]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Malay language|Malay]] (both [[Malaysian language|Malaysian]] / [[Brunei Malay language|Bruneian]] and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]), [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] (including Macau), [[French language|French]],  [[Fijian language|Fijian]], [[French-based creole languages|Creole]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
| religions = [[Chinese folk religion]]s (including [[Taoism]], [[Confucianism]], [[ancestor veneration in China|ancestral worship]] and others) and [[Mahayana Buddhism]].
| related   =
}}
{{Chinese
| t = 1. 蜑家<br />2. 艇家<br />3. 水上人<br />4. 曲蹄<br />5. 蜑民<br />6. 曲蹄囝
| y = 1. Daahngā<br />2. Téhnggā<br />3. Séuiseuhngyàn<br />4. Kūktài
| j = 1. Daan6gaa1<br />2. Teng5gaa1<br />3. Seoi2soeng6jan4<br />4. Kuk1tai4
| p = 1. Dànjiā<br />2. Tǐngjiā<br />3. Shuǐshàngrén
| buc = 4. Kuóh-dà̤<br />5. Dáng-mìng<br />6. Kuóh-dà̤-giāng
| l = 1. Dan families<br />2. boat households<br />3. people on water<br />4. crooked hoof, bowlegged<br />5. Dan people<br />6. crooked hoof children, bowlegged children
}}

The '''Tankas''' or '''boat people''' are a [[sinicised]] ethnic group in [[Southern China]]<ref>{{cite book |author1=Maria Jaschok |author2=Suzanne Miers |editor1=Maria Jaschok |editor2=Suzanne Miers |title=Women and Chinese patriarchy: submission, servitude, and escape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5o_t7VxHYAC&pg=PA237 |year=1994 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=1-85649-126-9 |page=xvi |quote=Tanka, a marginalised boat people which could be found in the Southern provinces of China.}}</ref> who have traditionally lived on [[junk (ship)|junks]] in coastal parts of [[Guangdong]], [[Guangxi]], [[Fujian]], [[Hainan]], [[Shanghai]], [[Zhejiang]] and along the [[Yangtze river]], as well as [[Hong Kong]], and [[Macau]]. The Boat people are referred to with other different names outside of Guangdong (not called Tanka). Though many now live onshore, some from the older generations still live on their boats and pursue their traditional livelihood of fishing. Historically, the Tankas were considered to be [[outcast (person)|outcast]]s. Since they were boat people who lived by the sea, they were sometimes referred to as "'''sea [[gypsies]]'''" by both Chinese and British. Tanka origins can be traced back to the native ethnic minorities of southern China known historically as the [[Baiyue]] who may have taken refuge on the sea and gradually assimilated into [[Han culture]]. However, Tanka have preserved many of their native traditions that are not found in [[Han Chinese culture]].

A small number of Tankas also live in parts of [[Vietnam]]. There they are called '''Dan''' ({{lang|vi|Đàn}}) and are classified as a subgroup of the [[Ngái]] ethnicity.

==Etymology and terminology==
According to official [[Liu Zongyuan]] (Liou Tsung-yüan; {{lang|zh-hant|柳宗元}}; 773–819) of the Tang Dynasty, there were Tanka people settled in the boats of nowadays Guangdong province and Guangxi Zhang autonomous region.

"Tank" is a Cantonese term for boat or junk and "ka" means family or peoples. The term ''Tanka'' is now considered derogatory and no longer in common use.<ref>Farewell to Peasant China: Rural Urbanization and Social Change in ... – Page 75 Gregory Eliyu Guldin – 1997 "In Dongji hamlet, most villagers were originally shuishangren (boat people) [Also known in the West by the pejorative label, "Tanka" people. — Ed.] and settled on land only in the 1950s. Per-capita cultivated land averaged only 1 mu ..."</ref> These boat dwellers are now referred to in China as "'''on-water people'''" ({{zh|t=水上人|p=shuǐshàng rén|cy=Séuiseuhngyàn}}),<ref>{{cite book |author=Cornelius Osgood |title=The Chinese: a study of a Hong Kong community, Volume 3 |url=https://archive.org/details/chinesestudyofho0003osgo |url-access=registration |year=1975 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinesestudyofho0003osgo/page/1212 1212] |isbn=9780816504183 |quote=shii leung (shu lang) shii miu (shu miao) shui fan (shui fen) shui kwa (shui kua) sui seung yan (shui shang jen) Shui Sin (Shui Hsien) shuk in (shu yen) ShunTe Sian Sin Ku (Hsien Ku) sin t'it (hsien t'ieh) Sin Yan (Hsien Jen) sing}}</ref> or "'''people of the southern sea'''" ({{zh|t=南海人|cy=Nàamhóiyàn}}).<ref>{{cite book |author=Great Britain. Colonial Office, Hong Kong. Government Information Services |title=Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=3V-1TuqkKOH30gGo0oTSBw|year=1962 |publisher=Govt. Press |page=37 |quote=The Tanka are boat dwellers who very seldom settle ashore. They themselves do not much use this name, which they consider derogatory, but usually call themselves 'Nam Hoi Yan (people of the southern sea) or 'Sui Seung Yan}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=National Physical Laboratory (Great Britain) |title=Report for the year ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0iDjAAAAMAAJ|year=1962 |publisher=H.M.S.O. |page=37}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Hong Kong: report for the year ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-FHAAAAYAAJ|year=1961 |publisher=Government Press |page=40}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Hong Kong, Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office |title=Hong Kong annual report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h2kUAAAAIAAJ|year=1962 |publisher=H.M.S.O. |page=37}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Hong Kong. Government Information Services |title=Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ycfAQAAMAAJ |year=1960 |publisher=Govt. Press |page=40}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Martin Hürlimann |title=Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6IJwAAAAMAAJ|year=1962 |publisher=Viking Press |page=17 |isbn=9783761100301 |quote=The Tanka are among the earliest of the region's inhabitants. They call themselves 'Sui Seung Yan', signifying 'those born on the waters'; for they have been a population afloat as far back as men can remember—their craft jostle each other most closely in the fishing port}}</ref><ref name="google2">{{cite book |author=Valery M. Garrett |title=Traditional Chinese clothing in Hong Kong and South China, 1840–1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9MffAAAAMAAJ|year=1987 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-584174-3 |page=2 |quote=The Tanka dislike the name and prefer 'Sui seung yan', which means 'people who live on the water'. Because of their different physique and darker skin, they were traditionally thought by those living on the land to be a race of sea gypsies and not Chinese at all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Far Eastern economic review, Volume 24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afAnAAAAMAAJ|year=1958 |publisher=Review Pub. Co. Ltd. |page=280 |quote=The name "Hoklo" is used by the Hoklo, but the Tanka will not use the name "Tanka" which they consider derogatory, using instead "Nam hoi yan" or "Sui seung yan". Shore dwellers however have few dealings with either race of people and tend to call them both "Tanka". The Pui Tanka dialects both belong to the western section of}}</ref> No standardised English translation of this term exists. "Boat People" is a commonly used translation, although it may be confused with the [[boat people|similar term]] for [[Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong]]. The term "'''Boat Dwellers'''" was proposed by Dr. Lee Ho Yin of [[The University of Hong Kong]] in 1999, and it has been adopted by the [[Hong Kong Museum of History]] for its exhibition.<ref name="Heritage%2525252520Impact%2525252520Assessment%2525252520Report">[http://www.amo.gov.hk/form/YMTT_RBB_HIA%20Report.pdf Architectural Conservation Office, HKSAR Government. (2008). '&#39;Heritage Impact Assessment Report of the Yau Ma Tei Theatre & Red Brick Building'&#39;, p.5]. (PDF). Retrieved on 2 March 2012.</ref>

Both the Tanka and the Cantonese speak [[Cantonese language|Cantonese]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Österreichische Leo-Gesellschaft, Görres-Gesellschaft, Anthropos Institute |title=Anthropos, Volume 65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GacfAQAAMAAJ |year=1970 |publisher=Zaunrith'sche Buch-, Kunst- und Steindruckerei |page=249 |quote=Far better known are the Cantonese-speaking boat people. These are the groups known as "Tanka" (Mandarin "Tanchia") in most of the literature.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ |volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=13 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=into two major groups: Cantonese ("Tanchia" or "Tanka" – a term of hatred) and Hoklo. The Hoklo speak a distinctive dialect of South Fukienese (South Min, Swatowese)}}</ref> However, Tanka living in Fujian speak [[Min Chinese]].

"Boat people" was a general term for the Tanka. The name Tanka was used only by Cantonese to describe the Tanka of the [[Pearl River Delta]].

The Tanka Boat people of the Yangtze region were called the '''Nine surnames fishermen households''', while Tanka families living on land were called the '''Mean households'''.

There were two distinct categories of people based on their way of life, and they were further divided into different groups. The [[Hakka people|Hakka]] and Cantonese lived on land; the Tanka (including Hokkien-speaking Tanka immigrants often mistaken for being Hoklo) lived on boats and were both classified as boat people.<ref>{{cite book |author=James Hayes |author-link=James W. Hayes|title=Friends & teachers: Hong Kong and its people, 1953–87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FipFmG_WLUC&pg=PA23|year=1996 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=962-209-396-5 |page=23 |quote=Leaving aside the settled land population Hakka and Cantonese villagers, and the trickle of newcomers into the district, there were also the boat people, of whom the Tanka and Hoklo were the two principal groups. They were numerous and to be found everywhere in its waters}}</ref>

The differences between the sea dwelling Tanka and land dwellers were not based merely on their way of life. Cantonese and Hakka who lived on land fished sometimes for a living, but these land fishermen never mixed or married with the Tanka fishermen. Tanka were barred from Cantonese and Hakka celebrations.<ref>{{cite book |author1=David Faure |author2=Helen F. Siu |editor1=David Faure |editor2=Helen F. Siu |title=Down to earth: the teruritorial bond in South China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8AWyYywMn8C&pg=PA93 |year=1995 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-2435-0 |page=93 |quote=In the Hong Kong region, the existence of groups of sea fishermen other than Tanka was quite common. On nearby Peng Chau, both Cantonese and Hakka villagers undertook sea fishing..... However, in all such cases... occupational blurring did not mean... intermarriage between land based fishermen, who clung to their own kind, and the Tanka. ... the Tanka boat people of Cheung Chau were excluded from participation in the ...jiao festival.}}</ref>

British reports on Hong Kong described the Tanka including Hoklo-speaking Tanka boat people living in Hong Kong "since time unknown".<ref>{{cite book |author=Great Britain. Colonial Office, Hong Kong. Government Information Services |title=Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCcfAQAAMAAJ|year=1970 |publisher=Govt. Press |page=219 |quote=The Hoklo people, like the Tanka, have been in the area since time unknown. They too are boat-dwellers but are less numerous than the Tanka and are mostly found in eastern waters. In some places, they have lived ashore for several}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Hong Kong: report for the year ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-JHAAAAYAAJ |year=1970 |publisher=Government Press |page=219}}</ref> The encyclopaedia Americana alleged that Tanka lived in Hong Kong "since prehistoric times".<ref name="google474">{{cite book |author=Grolier Incorporated |title=The encyclopedia Americana, Volume 14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lAxZAAAAYAAJ |year=1999 |publisher=Grolier Incorporated |isbn=0-7172-0131-7 |page=474 |quote=In Hong Kong, the Tanka and Hoklo peoples have dwelt in houseboats since prehistoric times. These houseboaters seldom marry shore dwellers. The Hong Kong government estimated that in December 1962 there were 46,459 people living on houseboats there, although a typhoon had wrecked hundreds of boats a few months earlier.}}</ref><ref name="google2006">{{cite book |author=Scholastic Library Publishing |title=Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=igzYAAAAMAAJ |year=2006 |publisher=Scholastic Library Pub. |isbn=0-7172-0139-2 |page=474}}</ref><ref name="google1981">{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOUZAAAAMAAJ|year=1981 |publisher=Grolier |isbn=0-7172-0112-0 |page=474}}</ref>

==Geographic Distribution==
The Tanka people are found throughout the coasts and rivers of the following regions:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddcV_cGegX4C&pg=PA55|title = Maritime Sector, Institutions, and Sea Power of Premodern China|isbn = 9780313307126|last1 = Deng|first1 = Gang|year = 1999}}</ref>

*''Zhejiang: [[Zhoushan Archipelago]], Taizhou Bay, Wenzhou Bay, Sanmen Bay, [[Hangzhou Bay]], Xin'an River, Fuchun River, Lanjiang River<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqFeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|title=The Fisher Folk of Late Imperial and Modern China: An Historical Anthropology of Boat-and-Shed Living|isbn=9781317409663|last1=He|first1=Xi|last2=Faure|first2=David|date=13 January 2016}}</ref>''
* ''Fujian: [[Min River (Fujian)|Min River]] Mouth, Fuqing Bay, [[Xinghua Bay]], Quanzhou Bay, [[Amoy Bay]], Zhangzhou Water Front''
* ''Guangdong: Jieshi Bay, Honghai Bay, [[Daya Bay]], Dapeng Bay, [[Zhujiang River]] Mouth, Leizhou Bay, [[Lingdingyang|Lingding Sea]], Zhanjiang, Wanshan Archipelago''
* ''Guangxi: [[You River (Guangxi)|You River]]''
* ''Anhui: Xin'an River''
* ''Jiangxi: Gan River''
* ''Hainan: [[Qiongzhou Strait]], [[Sanya Bay]]''
* ''Beijing, Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan: [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqFeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5|title = The Fisher Folk of Late Imperial and Modern China: An Historical Anthropology of Boat-and-Shed Living|isbn = 9781317409663|last1 = He|first1 = Xi|last2 = Faure|first2 = David|date = 13 January 2016}}</ref>''
* ''Shanghai: city river''
* ''Hong Kong: [[Kowloon]]''
* ''Macau: Macau Bay''

==Origin==

===Mythical origins===
[[File:Tanka men on a boat.jpg|thumb|300px|Tanka in Hong Kong]]
Some Chinese myths claim that animals were the ancestors of the Barbarians, including the Tanka people.<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ|volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=13 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=Some are reasonable, some improbable indeed. In the latter category fall some of the traditional Chinese legends, such as the story of the descent of the "Tanka" (and other "barbarians") from animals. These traditional tales are}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Österreichische Leo-Gesellschaft, Görres-Gesellschaft, Anthropos Institute |title=Anthropos, Volume 65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GacfAQAAMAAJ |year=1970 |publisher=Zaunrith'sche Buch-, Kunst- und Steindruckerei |page=249}}</ref> Some ancient Chinese sources claimed that water snakes were the ancestors of the Tanka, saying that they could last for three days in the water, without breathing air.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wolfram Eberhard |title=China's minorities: yesterday and today |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhRHAAAAMAAJ |year=1982 |publisher=Wadsworth |isbn=0-534-01080-6 |page=89 |quote=Chinese sources assert that they can stay under water for three days and that they are descendants of water snakes. Not much else is said about them in Chinese sources, especially nothing about their language.}}</ref>

===Baiyue connection and origins in Southern China===
{{main|Baiyue}}
<!-- What is this? Who cares what somebody says? Please include some evidence of their relations with Yao or Yue.
-->

The Tanka are considered by some scholars to be related to other minority peoples of southern China, such as the [[Yao people|Yao]] and [[Li people]] (Miao).<ref>{{cite book |author=Tê-chʻao Chêng |title=Acculturation of the Chinese in the United States: a Philadelphia study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7b41AAAAIAAJ |year=1948 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania. |page=27 |quote=Among the aboriginal tribes, the "Iu" (傜) tribe is the largest, then "Lai" (黎), the "Yi" (夷)or more commonly called the "Miao" (苗), and the "Tanka" (疍家) The mixture of these peoples with the "Han" people therefore caused all the cultural variations and racial complexity}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=why is "Chinese in United States being used a source for HK|date=February 2021}} The Amoy University anthropologist Ling Hui-hsiang wrote on his theory of the Fujian Tanka being descendants of the Bai Yue. He claimed that Guangdong and Fujian Tanka are definitely descended from the old Bai Yue peoples, and that they may have been ancestors of the [[Malay race]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Murray A. Rubinstein |editor=Murray A. Rubinstein |title=Taiwan: a new history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHqMJSM6dAYC&pg=PA34|year=2007 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1494-0 |page=34 |quote=which modern people are the Pai Yueh"..,...So is it possible that there is a relationship between the Pai Yueh and the Malay race?...Today in riverine estuaries of Fukien and Kwangtung are another Yueh people, the Tanka ("boat people"). Might some of them have left the Yueh tribes and set out on the seas? (1936: 117)}}</ref> The Tanka inherited their lifestyle and culture from the original Yue peoples who inhabited Hong Kong during the Neolithic era.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mike Ingham |title=Hong Kong: a cultural history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIUL7Ab6tPwC&pg=PA2 |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531496-0 |page=2 |quote=In their turn the modern-day boat people of Hong Kong, the Tanka, have derived their maritime and fishing cultural traditions from this long lineage. Little is known about the Yue, but some archaeological evidence gathered from Bronze}}</ref> After the First Emperor of China conquered Hong Kong, groups from northern and central China moved into the general area of Guangdong, including Hong Kong.<ref>{{cite book |author=Michael Ingham |title=Hong Kong: A Cultural History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CWQevk29DJsC&pg=PT25 |publisher=Oxford University Press, US |isbn=978-0-19-988624-1 |page=2 |quote=of China following the Emperor Qin's conquests in the second century BC, Hong Kong, now integrated into the Donguan county of Guangdong province, started to be colonised or settled by non-indigenous peoples from further north|date=18 June 2007 }}</ref>

One theory proposes that the ancient Yue inhabitants of southern China are the ancestors of the modern Tanka boat people. The majority of western academics subscribe to this theory, and use Chinese historical sources. (The ancient Chinese used the term "Yue" to refer to all southern barbarians.)<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=Essays on south China's boat people |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_ZwAAAAMAAJ |volume=29 of Asian folklore and social life monographs Dong fang wen cong |year=1972 |publisher=Orient Cultural Service |page=2 |quote=Most scholars, basing themselves on traditional Chinese historians' work, have agreed that the boat people are descendants of the Yüeh or a branch thereof ( Eberhard 1942, 1968 ; Lo 1955, 1963 ; Ho 1965 ; and others influenced by them, such as Wiens 1954). "Yüeh" (the "[[Viet]]" of Vietnam) seems to have been a term rather loosely used in early Chinese writings to refer to the "barbarian" groups of the south coast}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Österreichische Leo-Gesellschaft, Görres-Gesellschaft, Anthropos Institute |title=Anthropos, Volume 65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GacfAQAAMAAJ|year=1970 |publisher=Zaunrith'sche Buch-, Kunst- und Steindruckerei |page=249}}</ref> The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, states that the ancestors of the Tanka were native people.<ref>{{cite book |author=Phil Benson |title=Ethnocentrism and the English dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WeuW7oy7-58C&pg=PA152|volume=3 of Routledge studies in the history of linguistics |year=2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=0-415-22074-2 |page=152 |quote=Tanka ... The boat-population of Canton, who live entirely on the boats by which they earn their living: they are descendants of some aboriginal tribe of which Tan was apparently the name.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Tanka, n.1 | work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |publisher=Oxford University Press|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197535?rskey=CRdtvD&result=1#eid |quote=Tanka, n.1 Pronunciation:  /ˈtæŋkə/ Forms:  Also tankia, tanchia. Etymology:  < Chinese (Cantonese), < Chinese tan, lit. ‘egg’, + Cantonese ka, in South Mandarin kia, North Mandarin chia, family, people.  The boat-population of Canton, who live entirely on the boats by which they earn their living: they are descendants of some aboriginal tribe of which Tan was apparently the name. Tanka boat, a boat of the kind in which these people live.  1839   Chinese Repository 7 506   The small boats of Tanka women are never without this appendage. 1848   S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom I. vii. 321   The tankia, or boat-people, at Canton form a class in some respects beneath the other portions of the community. 1848   S. W. Williams Middle Kingdom II. xiii. 23   A large part of the boats at Canton are tankia boats, about 25 feet long, containing only one room, and covered with movable mats, so contrived as to cover the whole vessel; they are usually rowed by women. 1909   Westm. Gaz. 23 Mar. 5/2   The Tankas, numbering perhaps 50,000 in all, gain their livelihood by ferrying people to and fro on the broad river with its creeks.|access-date=12 October 2014}}
Chinese repository · 1832–1851 (20 vols.).
Canton

Samuel Wells Williams · The middle kingdom; a survey of the geography, government … of the Chinese empire and its inhabitants · 1848.
New York

Samuel Wells Williams · The middle kingdom; a survey of the geography, government … of the Chinese empire and its inhabitants · 1848.
New York

The Westminster gazette · 1893–1928.
London [England]: J. Marshall

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197535?rskey=FwlmXQ&result=1#eid http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197535?result=1&rskey=FwlmXQ& http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197535?rskey=CRdtvD&result=1#eid http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/197535?rskey=CRdtvD&result=1&isAdvanced=false#eid</ref>

The Tanka's ancestors had been pushed to the southern coast by Chinese peasants who took over their land.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sun Yat-sen Institute for Advancement of Culture and Education, Nanking|title=T'ien hsia monthly, Volume 11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7VAAAAMAAJ|year=1940 |publisher=Kelly and Walsh, ltd. |page=342 |quote=But from the position of the sites it might be supposed that the inhabitants were pushed onto the seacoast by the pressure of other peoples and their survival may have lasted well into historic times, even possibly as late as the Sung dynasty (AD 960), the date, as we shall see, when Chinese peasants first began to migrate into this region. The Tanka might, in theory, be the descendants of these earlier peoples. They too are an ancient population living on the seaboard without any trace of their earlier habitat. But as we have seen in the first chapter they have been so}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Sun Yat-sen Institute for Advancement of Culture and Education, Nanking|title=T'ien hsia monthly, Volume 11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7VAAAAMAAJ |year=1940 |publisher=Kelly and Walsh, ltd. |page=342 |quote=and they were probably evolved as a result of contact with foreign peoples, even as late as the Portuguese.}}</ref>

During the [[History of Hong Kong#British lease of Kowloon and the New Territories|British colonial era in Hong Kong]], the Tanka were considered a separate ethnic group from the Punti, Hakka, and Hoklo.<ref>{{cite book |title=Middle East and Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLRxJEU49EC&pg=PA358|year=1996 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=1-884964-04-4 |page=358 |quote=When the British appropriated the territory in the nineteenth century, they found these three major ethnic groups—Punti, Hakka, and Tanka—and one minority, the Hoklo, who were sea-nomads from the northern shore of Guangdong and}}</ref> Punti is another name for Cantonese (it means "local"), who came from mainly Guangdong districts. The Hakka and Hoklo are not considered as Puntis.

The Tanka have been compared to the [[She people]] by some historians, practising Han Chinese culture, while being an ethnic minority descended from natives of Southern China.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Susan Naquin |author2=Evelyn Sakakida Rawski |title=Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cpfgQNWXpyoC&pg=PA169 |year=1989 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-04602-2 |page=169 |quote=The Wuyi mountains were the home of the She, remnants of an aboriginal tribe related to the Yao who practiced slash and burn agriculture. Tanka boatmen of similar origin were also found in small numbers along the coast. Both the She and the Tanka were quite assimilated into Han Chinese culture.}}</ref>

====Yao connections====
{{main|Yao people}}

Chinese scholars and gazettes described the Tanka as a "Yao" tribe, with some other sources noting that "Tan" people lived at Lantau, and other sources saying "Yao" people lived there. As a result, they refused to obey the salt monopoly of the [[Song dynasty]] (Sung dynasty; 960–1276/1279) government. The [[Gazetteer of Xing'an County|county gazetteer of Sun On]] in 1729 described the Tanka as "Yao barbarians", and the Tanka were viewed as animals.<ref>{{cite book |author=William Meacham |title=The Archaeology of Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZ-jF8sCV4YC&pg=PA162|year=2008 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=978-962-209-925-8 |page=162 |quote=Other sources mention "Yao" who also lived on Lantau. Chinese sources describe several efforts to bring these folk to heel and, finally, a campaign to annihilate them... Later sources refer to the Tanka boat people as "Yao" or "barbarian," and for centuries they were shunned and not allowed to settle on land. Even as late as 1729, the [[gazetteer of Xing'an County|Sun On county gazetteer]] recorded that "in Guangdong there is a tribe of Yao barbarians called the Tanka, who have boats for homes and live by fishing." These presumed remnants of the Yueh and their traditional way of life were looked down upon by the Han Chinese through the centuries,}}</ref>

In modern times, the Tanka claim to be ordinary Chinese who happen to fish for a living, and the local dialect is used as their language.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wolfram Eberhard |title=China's minorities: yesterday and today |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhRHAAAAMAAJ |year=1982 |publisher=Wadsworth |isbn=0-534-01080-6 |page=89 |quote=Not much else is said about them in Chinese sources, especially nothing about their language. Today, Tanka in the Canton area speak the local Chinese dialect and maintain that they are Chinese whose profession is fishery.}}</ref>

===Historiography===
Some southern Chinese historic views of the Tanka were that they were a separate aboriginal ethnic group, "not Han Chinese at all".<ref>{{cite book |author=Leo J. Moser |title=The Chinese mosaic: the peoples and provinces of China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VwZxAAAAMAAJ|year=1985 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=0-86531-085-8 |page=219 |quote=traditional response among the other peoples of the south China coastal region was to assert that the boat people were not Han Chinese at all, but rather a distinct minority race, the Tanka (PY: Danjia "dan people"), a people who had taken to the life on the water long ago. Often this view was embroidered with tales about how the Tanka had short legs, good only for shipboard life. Some stories alleged that they had six toes and even a tail. It was commonly asserted that they spoke their own aboriginal}}</ref> Chinese Imperial records also claim that the Tanka were descendants of aboriginals.<ref>{{cite book |author=C. Fred Blake |title=Ethnic groups and social change in a Chinese market town |url=https://archive.org/details/ethnicgroupssoci0000blak |url-access=registration |year=1981 |publisher=University Press of Hawaii |isbn=0-8248-0720-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ethnicgroupssoci0000blak/page/2 2] |quote=are therefore despised as local aborigines. Land people commonly call boat people "Tanka" ("egg folk"), which is a derogatory reference to their alleged barbarism. The aboriginal origin of boat people is alleged in imperial Chinese edicts (see chapter 2, note 6) as well as in}}</ref> Tanka were also called "sea gypsies" ({{lang|zh-hant|海上吉普賽人}}).<ref name="google2"/>

The Tanka were regarded as Yueh and not Chinese, they were divided into three classifications, "the fish-Tan, the oyster-Tan, and the wood-Tan" in the 12th century, based on what they did for a living.<ref>{{cite book |author=R. A. Donkin |title=Beyond price: pearls and pearl-fishing : origins to the Age of Discoveries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwYNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA200 |volume=224 of Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge |year=1998 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |isbn=0-87169-224-4 |page=200 |issue=Issue 224 of Memoirs Series |quote=the Southern Han (tenth century), government troops were sent to Ho-p'u to fish for pearls,121 it appears that operations were normally conducted, not by Chinese, but by one or other of the aboriginal (Yüeh) groups, notably the Tan. The Tan (Tan-hu, Tan-chia, Tanka) were ancient inhabitants of the littoral of South China. According to a twelfth-century source, those of Chin prefecture ( west of Lien) belonged to three groups, "the fish-Tan, the oyster-Tan, and the wood-Tan, excelling at the gathering of fish, oysters, and timber respectively."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=American Oriental Society |title=Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2q04AAAAIAAJ |volume=40 of American oriental series |year=1952 |publisher=American Oriental Society. |page=164 |quote=oyster-Tan, and the wood-Tan, excelling at the gathering of fish, oysters and timber respectively}}</ref>

The three groups of Punti, Hakka, and Hoklo, all of whom spoke different Chinese dialects, despised and fought each other during the late Qing dynasty. However, they were all united in their overwhelming hatred for the Tanka, since the aboriginals of Southern China were the ancestors of the Tanka.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bob Dye |title=Merchant prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawaiʻi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NETf7njQoocC&pg=PA31|year=1997 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=0-8248-1772-9 |page=31 |quote=But it also increased social contact between the three largest dialect groups, and that caused trouble, Punti.... treated Hakka .... as if they were uncultured aborigines... Hakka and Hoklo battled each other...as they fought Punti... All of these groups despised the Tanka people, descendants of aborigines}}</ref> The Cantonese Punti had displaced the Tanka aboriginals, after they began conquering southern China.<ref>{{cite book |author=Andrew Grzeskowiak |title=Passport Hong Kong: your pocket guide to Hong Kong business, customs & etiquette |year=1996 |url=https://archive.org/details/passporthongkong0000grze|url-access=registration |publisher=World Trade Press |isbn=1-885073-31-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/passporthongkong0000grze/page/25 25]}}</ref>

The Chinese poet [[Su Dongpo]] wrote a poem in which mentioned the Tanka.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Shi Su |author2=Burton Watson |title=Selected poems of Su Tung-pʻo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvgQAAAAYAAJ|year=1994 |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |isbn=1-55659-064-4 |page=130 |quote=Tanka. Aboriginal people who lived on houseboats on the rivers around Canton. 103, line j.}}</ref>

The [[Nankai University]] of [[Tianjin]] published the Nankai social and economic quarterly, Volume 9 in 1936, and it referred to the Tanka as aboriginal descendants before Chinese assimilation.<ref>{{cite book |author=Nan kai da xue (Tianjin, China). Jing ji yan jiu suo, Nankai University, Pa li-tai. Nankai Institute of Economics, Nankai University, Pa li-tai. Committee on Social and Economic Research |title=Nankai social and economic quarterly, Volume 9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MikVAQAAMAAJ|year=1936 |publisher=Nankai Institute of Economics, Nankai University. |page=616}}</ref> The scholar [[Jacques Gernet]] also wrote that the Tanka were aboriginals, who were known for being [[Pirates of the South China Coast|pirates (''haidao'')]], which hindered [[Qing dynasty]] attempts to assert control in Guangdong.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jacques Gernet |title=A history of Chinese civilization |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern|url-access=registration |edition=2 |year=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-49781-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/471 471] |quote=The Tanka were an aboriginal population of fishermen who lived permanently in their boats (hence the name ch'uan-min, 'boat people', sometimes given to them). They were famous pearl fishermen. Their piratical activities caused many difficulties to Shang K'o-hsi, the first military governor appointed to Kwangtung by the Ch'ing, and thus indirectly helped the Southern Ming resistance and attempts at secession.}}</ref>

===Scholarly opinions on Baiyue connection===
The most widely held theory is that the Tanka are the descendants of the native Yue inhabitants of Guangdong before the Han Cantonese moved in.<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ|volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=13 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=The most widely accepted theory of the origins of these people is that they are derived from the aboriginal tribes of the area. Most scholars (Eberhard, 1942; Lo, 1955, 1963; Ho, 1965; and others influenced by them) have agreed that the}}</ref> The theory stated that originally the Yueh peoples inhabited the region, when the Chinese conquest began, either absorbed or expelled the Yue to southern regions. The Tanka, according to this theory, are descended from an outcast Yue tribe who preserved their separate culture.<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ |volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=14 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=meant little more than "Barbarian." the Yueh seem to have included quite civilised peoples and also wild hill tribes. The Chinese drove them south or assimilated them. One group maintained its identity, according to the theory, and became the boat people. Ho concludes that the word Tan originally covered a specific tribe, then was extended like Man further north to cover various groups. At first it referred to the Patung Tan people, then to the Lingnan Tan, i.e.}}</ref>

Regarding the Fujian Minyue Tanka it is suggested that in the southeast coastal regions of China, there were many sea nomads during the [[Neolithic era]] and they may have spoken ancestral [[Austronesian languages]], and were skilled seafarers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chen |first1=Jonas Chung-yu |title=[ARCHAEOLOGY IN CHINA AND TAIWAN] Sea nomads in prehistory on the southeast coast of China |journal=Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association |date=24 January 2008 |volume=22 |doi=10.7152/bippa.v22i0.11805 |url=http://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/BIPPA/article/view/11805/10433}}</ref> In fact, there is evidence that an Austronesian language was still spoken in Fujian as late as 620 AD.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodenough |first1=Ward H. |title=Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific |url=https://archive.org/details/prehistoricsettl00good |url-access=limited |date=1996 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |location=Philadelphia |isbn=087169865X |ol=1021882M |page=[https://archive.org/details/prehistoricsettl00good/page/n49 43]}}</ref> It is therefore believed that the Tanka were Austronesians who could be more closely related to other Austronesian groups such as native Filipinos, Javanese or Balinese.

A minority of scholars who challenged this theory deny that the Tanka are descended from natives, instead claiming they are basically the same as other Han Cantonese who dwell on land, claiming that neither the land dwelling Han Cantonese nor the water dwelling Tanka have more aboriginal blood than the other, with the Tanka boat people being as Chinese and as Han as ordinary Cantonese.<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ |volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=13 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=and boat people are such as one would expect between groups leading such different ways of life. in culture, the boat people are Chinese. Ward (1965) and McCoy (1965) point out that the land people are probably not free from aboriginal intermixture themselves, and conclude that the boat people are probably not more mixed. As Ward states, "(l)... the boat-people's descent is probably neither more nor less 'non-Han' than that of most other Cantonese-speaking inhabitants of Kwangtung.}}</ref>

Eugene Newton Anderson claimed that there was no evidence for any of the conjectures put forward by scholars on the Tanka's origins, citing Chen, who stated that "to what tribe or race they once belonged or were once akin to is still unknown".<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ |volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=15 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=Neither theory for the origin of the boat people has much proof. Neither would stand up in court. Chen's conclusion is still valid today: "...to what tribe or race they once belonged or were once akin to is still unknown." (Chen, 1935:272)}}</ref>

Some researchers say the origin of the Tanka is multifaceted, with a portion of them having native Yueh ancestors and others originating from other sources.<ref>{{cite book |author=梁廣漢 |title=Profile of historic relics in the early stage of Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iktGAAAAMAAJ&q=tanka+aboriginal |year=1980 |publisher=學津書店 |page=57 |quote=Tanka – They are boat-dwellers. Some of the Tanka are descendants of the Yueh ( jgi ), an aboriginal tribe in Southern China. Therefore, these Tanka can be regarded as the natives in the area. However, some Tanka came to the area in a}}</ref>

=== Genetics ===
Fujian Tanka have customs similar to Daic and Austronesian people. They have a closer genetic affinity with Daic populations than with Han Chinese in paternal lineages, but are closely clustered with southern Han populations (such as [[Hakka people|Hakka]] and [[Teochew people|Teochew]]) in maternal lineages. It is hypothesized that the Fujian Tanka mainly originate from the ancient indigenous Daic people and have only limited gene flows from Han Chinese populations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Luo |first=Xiao-Qin |last2=Du |first2=Pan-Xin |last3=Wang |first3=Ling-Xiang |last4=Zhou |first4=Bo-Yan |last5=Li |first5=Yu-Chun |last6=Zheng |first6=Hong-Xiang |last7=Wei |first7=Lan-Hai |last8=Liu |first8=Jun-Jian |last9=Sun |first9=Chang |last10=Meng |first10=Hai-Liang |last11=Tan |first11=Jing-Ze |date=2020-08-06 |title=Uniparental Genetic Analyses Reveal the Major Origin of Fujian Tanka from Ancient Indigenous Daic Populations |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32767896/ |journal=Human Biology |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=257–277 |doi=10.13110/humanbiology.91.4.05 |issn=1534-6617 |pmid=32767896}}</ref> 

Another study on the Tanka concluded that the Tanka people not only had a close genetic relationship with both northern Han and ancient [[Yellow River]] basin millet farmers but also possessed more southern East Asian ancestry related to [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]], [[Kra–Dai-speaking peoples|Kra-Dai]] and [[Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong-Mien]] people compared to southern Han. Tanka people had their own unique genetic structure, but kept a close relationship with geographically close southern Han Chinese populations. The results supported that the Tanka people arose from the admixture between southward migration Han Chinese and southern indigenous people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=He |first=Guanglin |last2=Zhang |first2=Yunhe |last3=Wei |first3=Lan-Hai |last4=Wang |first4=Mengge |last5=Yang |first5=Xiaomin |last6=Guo |first6=Jianxin |last7=Hu |first7=Rong |last8=Wang |first8=Chuan-Chao |last9=Zhang |first9=Xian-Qing |date=2021-07-19 |title=The genomic formation of Tanka people, an isolated “Gypsies in water” in the coastal region of Southeast China |url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.18.452867v1 |language=en |pages=2021.07.18.452867 |doi=10.1101/2021.07.18.452867v1.full-text}}</ref>

==History==
===Sinicisation===
The [[Song dynasty]] engaged in extensive sinicisation of the region with [[Han Chinese|Han]] people.<ref>{{cite book |author=Eugene Newton Anderson |title=The floating world of Castle Peak Bay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N5qfAAAAMAAJ|volume=4 of Anthropological studies |year=1970 |publisher=American Anthropological Association |page=15 |isbn=9780598271389 |quote=and others, pers. comm.). Certainly the Sung court did do so (Ng, 1961), and may well have been instrumental in the settlement of the region. At the fall of the Ming Dynasty almost four hundred years later, in 1644 ad, loyalists are}}</ref> After many years of [[sinicisation]] and assimilation, the Tanka now identify as Han Chinese, though they also have non-Han ancestry from the natives of Southern China.<ref>{{cite book |title=Far Eastern economic review, Volume 24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afAnAAAAMAAJ|year=1958 |publisher=Review Pub. Co. Ltd. |page=280 |quote=Historically there can be little doubt that the boat-people and a few of the hill villagers are of non-Chinese origin, but all now regard themselves as Chinese and speak Chinese dialects, the only traces of aboriginal descent (apart)}}</ref> The Cantonese would often buy fish from the Tanka.<ref>{{cite book |author=Edward Stokes |editor=Edward Stokes |title=逝影留踪・香港1946–47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ8MAQAAMAAJ |year=2005 |publisher=Hongkong Conservation Photography Foundation |isbn=962-209-754-5 |page=141 |issue=Issue 5 of Harvard–Yenching Library studies |quote=The coastal dwelling Cantonese, more shrewd than the boat people, lived off – indeed sometimes battened onto – the needs and superstitions of the Tanka and Hoklo. The Cantonese marketed the boat people's fish, supplied their wants}}</ref> In some inland regions, the Tanka accounted for half of the total population.<ref name="Tanka">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vglAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT295|title=The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World|isbn=9781782393573|last1=Paine|first1=Lincoln|date=6 February 2014}}</ref> The Tanka of [[Quanzhou]] were registered as barbarian households.<ref>Asia Major,
Friedrich Hirth, pg 215</ref>

===Ming Dynasty===

The Tanka boat population were not registered into the national census as they were of outcast status, with an official imperial edict declaring them [[untouchability|untouchable]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/huji.html|title = huji 戶籍 (www.chinaknowledge.de)}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2021}}

====Macau and Portuguese rule====
{{main|Macau|History of Macau|Macanese people}}
[[File:Danjiayi1.JPG|thumb|upright|right|Traditional Tanka people clothes in a Hong Kong museum.]]

The [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]], who were granted [[Macau]] during the [[Ming dynasty]], often married Tanka women since Han Chinese women would not have relations with them. Some of the Tanka's descendants became [[Macanese people]].

Some Tanka children were enslaved by Portuguese raiders.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Ralph Boxer|title=Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550–1770: fact and fancy in the history of Macau|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kePUAAAAMAAJ|year=1948|publisher=M. Nijhoff|page=224 |quote=Some of these wants and strays found themselves in queer company and places in the course of their enforced sojourn in the Portuguese colonial empire. The Ming Shih's complain that the Portuguese kidnapped not only coolie or Tanka children but even those of educated persons, to their piratical lairs at Lintin and Castle Peak, is borne out by the fate of Barros' Chinese slave already}}</ref>

The Chinese poet Wu Li wrote a poem, which included a line about the Portuguese in Macau being supplied with fish by the Tanka.<ref>Chaves, p. 53: Wu Li, like Bocarro, noted the presence in Macau both of black slaves and of non-Han Chinese such as the Tanka boat people, and in the third poem of his sequence he combines references to these two groups: Yellow sand, whitewashed houses: here the black men live; willows at the gates like sedge, still not sparse in autumn.</ref><ref>Chaves, p. 54: Midnight's when the Tanka come and make their harbor here; fasting kitchens for noonday meals have plenty of fresh fish. . .The second half of the poem unfolds a scene of Tanka boat people bringing in fish to supply the needs of fasting Christians.</ref><ref>Chaves, p. 141: Yellow sand, whitewashed houses: here the black men live; willows at the gates like sedge, still not sparse in autumn. Midnight's when the Tanka come and make their harbor here; fasting kitchens for noonday meals have plenty of fresh fish.</ref><ref>Chaves, p. 53: The residents Wu Li strives to reassure (in the third line of this poem) consisted — at least in 1635 when Antonio Bocarro, Chronicler-in-Chief of the State of India, wrote his detailed account of Macau (without actually having visited there) — of some 850 Portuguese families with "on the average about six slaves capable of bearing arms, amongst whom the majority and the best are negroes and such like," as well as a like number of "native families, including Chinese Christians . . . who form the majority [of the non-Portuguese residents] and other nations, all Christians." 146 (Bocarro may have been mistaken in declaring that all the Chinese in Macau were Christians.)</ref>

When the Portuguese arrived at Macau, enslaved women from [[Goa]] (part of [[Portuguese India]]), [[Siam]], [[Indochina]], and [[Malay Peninsula|Malaya]] became their wives, rarely were they Chinese women.<ref>João de Pina-Cabral, p. 39: To be a Macanese is fundamentally to be from Macau with Portuguese ancestors, but not necessarily to be of Sino-Portuguese descent. The local community was born from Portuguese men. [...] but in the beginning the woman was Goanese, Siamese, Indo-Chinese, Malay – they came to Macau in our boats. Sporadically it was a Chinese woman.</ref> The Tanka women were among the only people in China willing to mix and marry with the Portuguese, with other Chinese women refusing to do so.<ref>João de Pina-Cabral, p. 39: When we established ourselves here, the Chinese ostracised us. The Portuguese had their wives, then, that came from abroad, but they could have no contact with the Chinese women, except the fishing folk, the Tanka women and the female slaves. Only the lowest class of Chinese contacted with the Portuguese in the first centuries. Later the strength of Christianisation, of the priests, started to convince the Chinese to become Catholic. [...] But, when they started to be Catholics, they adopted Portuguese baptismal names and were ostracised by the Chinese Buddhists. So they joined the Portuguese community and their sons started having Portuguese education without a single drop of Portuguese blood.</ref>

The majority of marriages between Portuguese and natives was between Portuguese men and women of Tanka origin, who were considered the lowest class of people in China and had relations with Portuguese settlers and sailors, or low class Chinese women.<ref>João de Pina-Cabral, p. 164: I was personally told of people that, to this day, continue to hide the fact that their mothers had been lower-class Chinese women—often even tanka (fishing folk) women who had relations with Portuguese sailors and soldiers.</ref> Western men like the Portuguese were refused by high class Chinese women, who did not marry foreigners.<ref>João de Pina-Cabral, p. 165: In fact, in those days, the matrimonial context of production was usually constituted by Chinese women of low socio-economic status who were married to or concubies of Portuguese or Macanese men. Very rarely did Chinese women of higher status agree to marry a Westerner. As Deolinda argues in one of her short stories,"8 should they have wanted to do so out of romantic infatuation, they would not be allowed to</ref>

Literature in Macau was written about love affairs and marriage between the Tanka women and Portuguese men, like "A-Chan, A Tancareira", by Henrique de Senna Fernandes.<ref>João de Pina-Cabral, p. 164: Henrique de Senna Fernandes, another Macanese author, wrote a short story about a tanka girl who has an affair with a Portuguese sailor. In the end, the man returns to his native country and takes their little girl with him, leaving the mother abandoned and broken-hearted. As her sailorman picks up the child, A-Chan's words are: 'Cuidadinho . . . cuidadinho' ('Careful . . . careful'). She resigns herself to her fate, much as she may never have recovered from the blow (1978).</ref><ref>Christina Miu Bing Cheng, p. 173: Her slave-like submissiveness is her only attraction to him. A-Chan thus becomes his slave/mistress, an outlet for suppressed sexual urges. The story is an archetypical tragedy of miscegenation. Just as the Tanka community despises A-Chan's cohabitation with a foreign barbarian, Manuel's colleagues mock his 'bad taste' ('gosto degenerado') (Senna Fernandes, 1978: 15) in having a tryst with a boat girl.</ref><ref>Christina Miu Bing Cheng, p. 173: As such, the Tanka girl is nonchalantly reified and dehumanised as a thing ( coisa). Manuel reduces human relations to mere consumption not even of her physical beauty (which has been denied in the description of A-Chan), but her 'Orientalness' of being slave-like and submissive.</ref><ref>Christina Miu Bing Cheng, p. 170: We can trace this fleeting and shallow relationship in Henrique de Senna Fernandes' short story, A-Chan, A Tancareira, (Ah Chan, the Tanka Girl) (1978). Senna Fernandes (1923–), a Macanese, had written a series of novels set against the context of Macau and some of which were made into films.</ref>

===Qing dynasty===
<blockquote>
Tanka. Tankia (tan'ka, tan'kyä), n. [Chinese, literally, 'the Tan family or tribe'; < Tan, an aboriginal tribe who formerly occupied the region lying to the south and west of the Meiing (mountains) in southern China, + kia (pronounced ka in Canton), family, people.] The boat population of Canton in southern China, the descendants of an aboriginal tribe named Tan, who were driven by the advance of Chinese civilisation to live in boats upon the river, and who have for centuries been forbidden to live on the land. "Since 1730 they have been permitted to settle in villages in the immediate neighbourhood of the river, but are still excluded from competition for official honours, and are forbidden by custom from intermarrying with the rest of the people. (Q&es, Glossary of Reference.)<ref>{{cite book |agency= Harvard University |editor= William Dwight Whitney |title= The Century dictionary: an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language, Part 21 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4hEDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA6180 |volume=The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language |year=1891 |publisher= The Century co. |page= 6180}}</ref></blockquote>{{why|reason=what's the point of this block quote here|date=April 2021}}

Attempts were made to free the Tanka and several other "mean" groups from this status in a series of edicts from 1723 to 1731.<ref>Correspondence, p. 55</ref> They mostly worked as [[fishermen]] and tended to gather at some [[bay]]s. Some built markets or villages on the shore, while others continued to live on their [[junk (ship)|junk]]s or boats. They claimed to be [[Han Chinese]].<ref>[http://www.gzlib.gov.cn/shequ_info/ndgz/NDGZDetail.do?id=275928 （水上居民）不见"连体船"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522010915/http://www.gzlib.gov.cn/shequ_info/ndgz/NDGZDetail.do?id=275928 |date=22 May 2011 }}. Gzlib.gov.cn (25 February 2008). Retrieved on 2 March 2012.</ref>

The Qing edict said "Cantonese people regard the Dan households as being of the mean class (beijian zhi) and do not allow them to settle on shore. The Dan households, for their part, dare not struggle with the common people", this edict was issued in 1729.<ref>Hansson, p. 119: An imperial decision in 1729 stated that "Cantonese people regard the Dan households as being of the mean class (beijian zhi liu ^i§;£. Jft) and do not allow them to settle on shore. The Dan households, for their part, dare not struggle with the common people.</ref>

As Hong Kong developed, some of the fishing grounds in Hong Kong became badly polluted or were [[Land reclamation in Hong Kong|reclaimed]], and so became land. Those Tankas who only own small boats and cannot fish far out to sea are forced to stay inshore in bays, gathering together like floating villages.<ref>http://m.khpost.com/article/Life_in_floating_village_of_Cambodia-36035.html {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>

====Lifestyle and culture====
<blockquote>
Always there is plenty to see, as the Tanka. the people who live in the boats, are full of life. They are an aboriginal tribe, speaking an altogether different language from the Chinese. On the land they are like fish out of water. They are said never to intermarry with landlubbers, but somehow or other their tongue has crept into many villages in the Chiklung section. The Chinese say the Tanka speech sounds like that of the Americans. It seems to have no tones. A hardy race, the Tanka are untouched by the epidemics that visit our coast, perhaps because they live so much off land. Each family has a boat, its own little kingdom, and, there being plenty of fish, all look better fed than most of our land neighbours. Christianity is, with a few rare exceptions, unknown to them. The only window of our Chiklung house gives the missioner a full view of the village life of some of the boat tribe. The window at present is just the absence of the south wall of the little loft to the shop. Wooden bars can be inserted in holes against robbers.<ref>{{cite book |author=Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Catholic Foreign Mission Bureau of Boston |title=The Field afar, Volumes 15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGrOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA18|year=1921 |publisher=Catholic Foreign Mission Bureau of Boston |page=18 |quote=The back door of our shop opens upon the river, making it handy for the dealer in ducks, who has his headquarters in the main room. We shall have no excuse for not enjoying a daily swim with the neighbours, and the stream gives an unlimited supply of not over-clean water for drinking and cooking. The fish and mussels, the latter unusually small, are being caught all day long right under our noses, for us and others. Nets, lines, and even bare hands are so busy that one wonders why the supply does nor fail. Frequently there is fishing V torchlight. Always there is plenty to see, as the Tanka. the people who live in the boats, are full of life. They are an aboriginal tribe, speaking an altogether different language from the Chinese. On the land the; are like fish out of water. They are said never to intermarry with lar.'ilubbers, but somehow or other their tongue has crept into many villages \r. the Chiklung section. The Chinese say the Tanka speech sounds like that of the Americans. It seems to ha.e no tones. A hardy race, the Ta>ii;i are untouched by the epidemics that visit our coast, perhaps because they live so much off land. Each family has a boat, its own little kingdom, and, there being plenty of fish, all look better fed than most of our land neighbours. Christianity is, with a few rare exceptions, unknown to them. The only window of our Chiklung house gives the missioner a full view of the village life of some of the boat tribe. The window at present is just the absence of the south wall of the little loft to the shop. Wooden bars can be inserted in holes against robbers.}}</ref>
</blockquote>
''Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America'' in 1921

<blockquote>
Before leaving the market, by special invitation we had a swim from off one of the sampans (a term used around Canton: here "baby boat" is the name). The water was almost hot and the current surprisingly swift. Nevertheless the Tanka men and boys go in several times a day, and wash jacket and trousers, undressing and dressing in the water. They seem to let the clothes dry on them. Women and girls also jump in daily.<ref>{{cite book|author=Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Catholic Foreign Mission Bureau of Boston |title=The Field afar, Volumes 15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGrOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA19|year=1921 |publisher=Catholic Foreign Mission Bureau of Boston |page=19}}</ref>
</blockquote>
''Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America'' in 1921

Masonry was unknown by the water-dwelling Tanka.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sun Yat-sen Institute for Advancement of Culture and Education, Nanking|title=T'ien hsia monthly, Volume 11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pk7VAAAAMAAJ|year=1940 |publisher=Kelly and Walsh, ltd.|page=336 |quote=The evidence of dwelling therefore supports the theory that one section of the population is culturally different from the other. On the one hand are the Tanka and Hoklo who do not know the use of stone in building, who live by fishing and who represent in fact a water culture. On the other hand is the culture of the wall-}}</ref>

====Canton (Guangzhou)====
The Tanka also formed a class of [[prostitution in China|prostitutes in Canton]], operating the boats in Canton's Pearl River which functioned as brothels. They did not practice [[foot binding]] and their dialect was unique. They were forbidden to marry land-dwelling Chinese or live on land. Their ancestors were the natives of Southern China before the Cantonese expelled them to their current home on the water.<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert Hans van Gulik |title=Sexual life in ancient China: a preliminary survey of Chinese sex and society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85M3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA308|year=1974 |publisher=Brill Archive |isbn=90-04-03917-1 |page=308 |quote=The prostitutes and courtezans of Canton belonged to a special ethnic group, the so-called tanka (tan-chia, also tan-hu), descendants of South- Chinese aborigines who had been driven to the coast and there engaged in fishing, especially [[pearl-fishing]]. They were subject to various disabilities, ia interdiction of marriage with Chinese, and of settling down on shore. They speak a peculiar dialect, and their women do not bind their feet. It was they who populated the thousands of floating brothels moored on the Pearl River at Canton.}}</ref>

===Modern China===
During the intensive [[land reclamation|reclamation]] efforts around the [[islands of Shanghai]] in the late 1960s, many Tanka were settled on [[Hengsha Island]] and organised as fishing brigades.<ref>White, Lynn T. III. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7qxBefeT9HAC&pg=PA262 "Shanghai–Suburb Relations, 1949–1966" in ''Shanghai: Revolution and Development in an Asian Metropolis'', p.&nbsp;262]. Cambridge University Press ([[Cambridge, England|Cambridge]]), 1981.</ref>

===British Hong Kong===
[[File:HongKongBoats.png|thumb|upright|right|Hong Kong boat dwellings in December 1970.]]
In 1937, Walter Schofield, then a Cadet Officer in the Hong Kong Civil Service, wrote that at that time the Tankas were "boat-people [who sometimes lived] in boats hauled ashore, or in more or less boat-shaped huts, as at [[Shau Kei Wan]] and [[Tai O]]". They mainly lived at the harbours at [[Cheung Chau]], [[Aberdeen, Hong Kong|Aberdeen]], Tai O, [[Po Toi]], [[Kau Sai Chau]] and [[Yau Ma Tei]].<ref>[http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401235.pdf W. Schofield: "The islands around Hong Kong (text of a talk given in 1937)", from ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch'', Vol. 23, 1983] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718174014/http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401235.pdf |date=18 July 2011 }}</ref>

Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew (1845–1917) and Katharine Caroline Bushnell (5 February 1856 – January 26, 1946), who wrote extensively on the position of women in the British Empire, wrote about the Tanka inhabitants of Hong Kong and their position in the prostitution industry, catering towards foreign sailors. The Tanka did not marry with the Chinese, being descendants of the natives, they were restricted to the waterways. They supplied their women as prostitutes to British sailors and assisted the British in their military actions around Hong Kong<ref>{{cite book |author1=Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew |author2=Katharine Caroline Bushnell |title=Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vv_qNljtPtUC&pg=PA11|year=2006 |publisher=Echo Library |isbn=1-4068-0431-2 |page=11}}</ref> The Tanka in Hong Kong were considered "outcasts" categorised low class.<ref>{{cite book |author=John Mark Carroll|title=A concise history of Hong Kong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D37ijXG-FykC&pg=PA36|year=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3422-3 |page=36 |quote=Most of the Chinese who came to Hong Kong in the early years were from the lower classes, such as laborers, artisans, Tanka outcasts, prostitutes, wanderers, and smugglers. That these people violated orders from authorities in Canton}}</ref>

Ordinary Chinese prostitutes were afraid of serving Westerners since they looked strange to them, while the Tanka prostitutes freely mingled with western men.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Maria Jaschok |author2=Suzanne Miers |editor1=Maria Jaschok |editor2=Suzanne Miers |title=Women and Chinese patriarchy: submission, servitude, and escape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5o_t7VxHYAC&pg=PA237|year=1994 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=1-85649-126-9 |page=237 |quote=I am indebted to Dr Maria Jaschok for drawing my attention to Sun Guoqun's work on Chinese prostitution and for a reference to Tanka prostitutes who served Western clients. In this they were unlike typical prostitutes who were so unaccustomed to the appearance of western men that 'they were all afraid of them'.}}</ref> The Tanka assisted the Europeans with supplies and providing them with prostitutes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Henry J. Lethbridge |title=Hong Kong, stability and change: a collection of essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hm4JAQAAIAAJ|year=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=75 |isbn=9780195804027 |quote=but another source of supply was the daughters of the tanka, the boat population of kwangtung}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Henry J. Lethbridge |title=Hong Kong, stability and change: a collection of essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hm4JAQAAIAAJ|year=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=75 |isbn=9780195804027 |quote=The Tanka, it seems, not only supplied foreign shipping with provisions but foreigners with mistresses. They also supplied brothels with some of their inmates. As a socially disadvantaged group, they found prostitution a convenient}}</ref> Low class European men in Hong Kong easily formed relations with the Tanka prostitutes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Henry J. Lethbridge |title=Hong Kong, stability and change: a collection of essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hm4JAQAAIAAJ|year=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=210 |isbn=9780195804027 |quote=In the early days, such women were found usually among the Tanka boat population , a pariah group that infested the Pearl River delta region. A few of these women achieved the status of 'protected' woman (a kept mistress) and were}}</ref> The profession of prostitution among the Tanka women led to them being hated by the Chinese both because they had sex with westerners and them being racially Tanka.<ref>{{cite book |author=Fanny M. Cheung |editor=Fanny M. Cheung |title=EnGendering Hong Kong society: a gender perspective of women's status |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E45DHTYdTmAC&pg=PA348|year=1997 |publisher=Chinese University Press |isbn=962-201-736-3 |page=348 |quote=twentieth century, in women doubly marginalised: as members of a despised ethnic group of Tanka Boat people, and as prostitutes engaged in "contemptible" sexual intercourse with Western men. In the empirical work done by CT Smith (1994)}}</ref>

The Tanka prostitutes were considered to be "low class", greedy for money, arrogant, and treating clients with a bad attitude, they were known for punching their clients or mocking them by calling them names.<ref>{{cite book |author=Virgil K. Y. Ho |title=Understanding Canton: rethinking popular culture in the republican period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7E39FgLbhcC&pg=PA256|year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-928271-4 |page=256 |quote=A Cantonese song tells how even low-class Tanka prostitutes could be snobbish, money-oriented, and very impolite to customers. Niggardly or improperly behaved clients were always refused and scolded as ' doomed prisoners' (chien ting) or 'sick cats' ('Shui-chi chien ch'a', in Chi- hsien-hsiao-yin c.1926: 52), and sometimes even punched (Hua-ts'ung-feˆn-tieh 1934)}}</ref> Though the Tanka prostitutes were considered low class, their brothels were still remarkably well kept and tidy.<ref>{{cite book |author=Virgil K. Y. Ho |title=Understanding Canton: rethinking popular culture in the republican period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7E39FgLbhcC&pg=PA249|year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-928271-4 |page=249 |quote=Even the tiny floating brothels on which the 'water-chicken' (low-class Tanka prostitutes) worked were said to be beautifully decorated and impressively clean (Hu P'o-an et al. 1923 ii. 13, ch. 7).42 A 1926 Canton guidebook also}}</ref> A famous fictional story which was written in the 1800s depicted western items decorating the rooms of Tanka prostitutes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Australian National University. Institute of Advanced Studies |title=East Asian history, Volumes 5–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bj9uAAAAMAAJ|year=1993 |publisher=Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University |page=110 |quote=In a late nineteenth-century popular novel, the bed-chamber of a 'saltwater girl ' (low-class Tanka prostitute who served foreigners), is described as nicely decorated with a number of Western household objects, which startles the young observer who is crazy about things western}}</ref>

The stereotype among most Chinese in Canton that all Tanka women were prostitutes was common, leading the government during the Republican era to accidentally inflate the number of prostitutes when counting, due to all Tanka women being included.<ref>{{cite book|title=East Asian history, Volumes 5–6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HYwAQAAIAAJ|year=1993 |publisher=Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University |page=102 |quote=Ethnic prejudice towards the Tanka (boatpeople) women persisted throughout the Republican period. These women continued to be mistaken for prostitutes, probably because most of those who peddled ferry services between Canton and}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Virgil K. Y. Ho |title=Understanding Canton: rethinking popular culture in the republican period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7E39FgLbhcC&pg=PA228 |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-928271-4 |page=228 |quote=though the possibility should not be ruled out that this rather alarming estimate was based on the popular misconception that most Tanka women (women from the boat-people community) worked as prostitutes}}</ref> The Tanka women were viewed as such that their prostitution activities were considered part of the normal bustle of a commercial trading city.<ref>{{cite book |author=Peter Hodge |editor=Peter Hodge |title=Community problems and social work in Southeast Asia: the Hong Kong and Singapore experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Qg5eR5xFYcC&pg=PA196|year=1980 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=962-209-022-2 |page=196 |quote=EJ Eitel, for example, selected the small group of Tanka people in particular as that section of the population among whom prostitution and the sale of girls for purposes of concubinage flourished. They were associated with the commerce and shipping of a busy and expanding entrepot,}}</ref> Sometimes the lowly regarded Tanka prostitutes managed to elevate themselves into higher forms of prostitution.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ejeas, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=NX61TsfZNqHY0QHj2I3SBw|year=2001 |publisher=Brill |page=112 |quote=A popular contemporary magazine which followed closely the news in the 'flower business' (huashi) so recorded at least one case of such career advancement that occurred to a Tanka (boat-people) prostitute in Canton.44 To say that all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Brill Academic Publishers |title=European journal of East Asian studies, Volumes 1–2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vG0MAQAAMAAJ|year=2001 |publisher=Brill |page=112 |quote=at least one case of such career advancement that occurred to a Tanka (boat-people) prostitute in Canton.44 To say}}</ref>

Tanka women were ostracised from the Cantonese community, and were nicknamed "salt water girls" (ham sui mui in Cantonese) for their services as prostitutes to foreigners in Hong Kong.<ref>{{cite book |author=Henry J. Lethbridge |title=Hong Kong, stability and change: a collection of essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=C1GwTpD3A82M-wbgw9mTAg|year=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=75 |quote=This exceptional class of Chinese residents here in Hong Kong consists principally of the women known in Hong Kong by the popular nickname " ham-shui- mui " (lit. salt water girls), applied to these members of the so-called Tan-ka or boat}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Peter Hodge |editor=Peter Hodge |title=Community problems and social work in Southeast Asia: the Hong Kong and Singapore experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=C1GwTpD3A82M-wbgw9mTAg|year=1980 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=962-209-022-2 |page=33 |quote=exceptional class of Chinese residents here in Hong Kong consists principally of the women known in Hong Kong by the popular nickname "ham-shui- mui" (lit. salt water girls), applied to these members of the so-called Tan-ka or boat}}</ref>

Tanka women who worked as prostitutes for foreigners also commonly kept a "nursery" of Tanka girls specifically for exporting them for prostitution work to overseas Chinese communities such as in Australia or America, or to serve as a Chinese or foreigner's concubine.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew |author2=Katharine Caroline Bushnell |title=Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vv_qNljtPtUC&pg=PA13|year=2006 |publisher=Echo Library |isbn=1-4068-0431-2 |page=13 |quote= or among Chinese residents as their concubines, or to be sold for export to Singapore, San Francisco, or Australia.}}</ref>

A report called "Correspondence respecting the alleged existence of Chinese slavery in Hong Kong: presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty" was presented to the English Parliament in 1882 concerning the existence of slavery in Hong Kong, of which many were Tanka girls serving as prostitutes or mistresses to westerners.

{{blockquote|1=
To understand the social bearings of domestic servitude as it obtains in Hong Kong, it must be observed that although the Chinese residents of Hong Kong are under British rule and live in close proximity to English social life, there has always been an impassable gulf between respectable English and Chinese society in Hong Kong. The two forms of social life have exercised a certain influence upon each other, but the result now visible is, that while Chinese social life has remained exactly what it is on the mainland of China, the social life of many foreigners in Hong Kong has comparatively degenerated, and not on'y accommodated itself in certain respects to habits peculiar to the system of •patriarchalism, but caused a certain disrespectable but small class of Chinese to enter into a social alliance with foreigners, which, while detaching them from the restraining influence of the custom and public opinion of Chinese society, left them uninfluenced by the moral powers of foreign civilisation.<ref>Correspondence, p. 54: To understand the social bearings of domestic servitude as it obtains in Hong Kong, it »must be observed that although the Chinese residents of Hong Kong are under British rule and live in close proximity to English social life, there has always been an impassable gulf between respectable English and Chinese society in Hong Kong. The two forms of social life have exercised a certain influence upon each other, but the result now visible is, that while Chinese social life has remained exactly what it is on the mainland of China, the social life of many foreigners in Hong Kong has comparatively degenerated, and not on'y accommodated itself in certain respects to habits peculiar to the system of  patriarchalism, but caused a certain disrespectable but small class of Chinese to enter into a social alliance with foreigners, which, while detaching them from the restraining influence of the custom and public opinion of Chinese society, left them uninfluenced by the moral powers of foreign civilisation.</ref>

This exceptional class of Chinese residents here in Hong Kong consists principally of the women known in Hong Kong by the popular nickname "ham-shui-mui" (lit. salt water girls), applied to these members of the so-called Tan-ka or boat population, the Pariahs of Cantonese society. These Tan-ka people of the Canton river are the descendants of a tribe of aborigines pushed by advancing Chinese civilisation to live on boats on the Canton river, being for centuries forbidden by law to live on shore. The Emperor Yung Ching (A.D. 1730) allowed them to settle in villages in the immediate proximity of the river, but they were left by him, and remain to the present day excluded from competition for official honours, whilst custom forbids them to intermarry with the rest of the people. These Tan-ka people were the secret but trusty allies of foreigners from the time of the East India Company to the present day. They furnished pilots and supplies of provisions to British men-of-war and troop ships when doing so was by the Chinese Government declared treason, unsparingly visited with capital punishment. They invaded Hong Kong the moment the Colony was opened, and have ever since maintained here a monopoly, so to say, of the supply of Chinese pilots and ship's crews, of the fish trade, the cattle trade, and especially of the trade in women for the supply of foreigners and of brothels patronised by foreigners. Almost every so-called "protected woman," i.e. kept mistress of foreigners here, belongs to this Tan-ka tribe, looked down upon and kept at a distance by all the other Chinese classes. It is among these Tan-ka women, and especially under the protection of those "protected '' T;in-ka women, that private prostitution and the sale of girls for purposes of concubinage flourishes, being looked upon by them as their legitimate profession. Consequently, almost every "protected woman '' keeps a nursery of purchased children or a few servant girls who are being reared with a view to their eventual disposal, according to their personal qualifications, either among foreigners here as kept women, or among Chinese residents as their concubines, or to be sold for export to Singapore, San Francisco, or Australia. Those protected women, moreover, generally act as protectors each to a few other Tanka women who live by sly prostitution. The latter, again, used to be preyed upon—till quite recently His Excellency Governor Hennessy stopped this fiendish practice—by informers paid with Government money, who would first debauch such women and then turn round against them charging them before the magistrate as keepers of unlicensed brothels, in which case a heavy fine would be inflicted, to pay which these women used to sell their own children, or sell themselves into bondage worse than slavery, to the keepers of the brothels licensed by the Government. Whenever a sly brothel was broken up these keepers would crowd the shroffs office of the police court or the visiting room of the Government Lock Hospital to drive their heartless bargains, which were invariably enforced with the weighty support of the Inspectors of brothels appointed by Government under the Contagious Diseases Ordinance. The more this Ordinance was enforced the more of this buying and selling of human flesh went on at the very doors of Government offices.

It is amongst these outcasts of Chinese society that the worst abuses of the Chinese system of domestic servitude exist, because that system is here unrestrained by the powers of traditional custom or popular opinion. This class of people, mustering perhaps here in Hong Kong not more than 2,000 persons, are entirely beyond the argument of this essay. They form a class of their own, readily recognised at a glance. They are disowned by Chinese society, whilst they are but parasites on foreign society. The system of buying and selling female children and of domestic servitude with which they must be identified is so glaring an abuse of legitimate Chinese domestic servitude that it calls for corrective measures entirely apart from any considerations connected with the general body of Chinese society.<ref>Correspondence, p. 55: This exceptional class of Chinese residents here in Hong Kong consists principally of the women known in Hong Kong by the popular nickname "ham-shui-mui" (lit. salt water girls), applied to these members of the so-called Tan-ka or boat population, the Pariahs of Cantonese society. These Tan-ka people of the Canton river are the descendants of a tribe of aborigines pushed by advancing Chinese civilisation to live on boats on the Canton river, being for centuries forbidden by law to live on shore. The Emperor Yung Ching (A.D. 1730) allowed them to settle in villages in the immediate proximity of the river, but they were left by him, and remain to the present day excluded from competition for official honours, whilst custom forbids them to intermarry with the rest of the people. These Tan-ka people were the secret but trusty allies of foreigners from the time of the East India Company to the present day. They furnished pilots and supplies of provisions to British men-of-war and troop ships when doing so was by the Chinese Government declared treason, unsparingly visited with capital punishment. They invaded Hong Kong the moment the Colony was opened, and have ever since maintained here a monopoly, so to say, of the supply of Chinese pilots and ships' crews, of the fish trade, the cattle trade, and especially of the trade in women for the supply of foreigners and of brothels patronised by foreigners. Almost every so-called "protected woman," i.e. kept mistress of foreigners here, belongs to this Tan-ka tribe, looked down upon and kept at a distance by all the other Chinese classes. It is among these Tan-ka women, and especially under the protection of those "protected '' T;in-ka women, that private prostitution and the sale of girls for purposes of concubinage flourishes, being looked upon by them as their legitimate profession. Consequently, almost every "protected woman '' keeps a nursery of purchased children or a few servant girls who are being reared with aj view to their eventual disposal, according to their personal qualifications, either among foreigners here as kept women, or among Chinese residents as their concubines, or to be sold for export to Singapore, San Francisco, or Australia. Those protected women, moreover, generally act as protectors each to a few other Tan-ka women who live by sly prostitution. The latter, again, used to be preyed upon—till quite recently His Excellency Governor Hennessy stopped this fiendish practice—by informers paid with Government money, who would first debauch such women and then turn round against them charging them before the magistrate as keepers of unlicensed brothels, in which case a heavy fine would be inflicted, to pay which these women used to sell their own children, or sell themselves into bondage worse than slavery, to the keepers of the brothels licensed hy Government. Whenever a sly brothel was broken up these keepers would crowd the shroffs office of the police court or the visiting room of the Government Lock Hospital to drive their heartless bargains, which were invariably enforced with the weighty support of the Inspectors of brothels appointed by Government under the Contagious Diseases Ordinance. The more this Ordinance was enforced the more of this buying and selling of human flesh went on at the very doors of Government offices. It is amongst these outcasts of Chinese society that the worst abuses of the Chinese system of domestic servitude exist, because that system is here unrestraired by the powers of traditional custom or popular opinion. This class of people, mustering perhaps here in Hong Kong not more than 2,000 persons, are entirely beyond the argument of this essay. They form a class of their own, readily recognised at a glance. They are disowned by Chinese society, whilst they are but parasites on foreign society. The system of buying and selling female children and of domestic servitude with which they must be identified is so glaring an abuse of legitimate Chinese domestic servitude that it calls for corrective measures entirely apart from any considerations connected with the general body of Chinese society.</ref>
}}

[[Ernest John Eitel]] claimed that all "half caste" people in Hong Kong were descended exclusively from Europeans having relationship with Tanka women, and not Chinese women. The theory that most of the Eurasian mixed race Hong Kong people are descended only from Tanka women and European men, and not ordinary Cantonese women, is backed up by other researchers who pointed out that Tanka women freely consorted with foreigners due to the fact that they were not bound by the same Confucian traditions as the Cantonese, and having a relationship with European men was advantageous for Tanka women. The ordinary Cantonese women did not sleep with European men, so the Eurasian population was formed only from Tanka and European admixture.<ref>{{cite book |author=Meiqi Lee |title=Being Eurasian: memories across racial divides |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVGd71y1Y-0C&pg=PA262|year=2004 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=962-209-671-9 |page=262 |quote=EJ Eitel, in the late 1890s, claims that the 'half-caste population in Hong Kong ' were from the earliest days of the settlement almost exclusively the offspring of liaisons between European men and women of outcast ethnic groups such as Tanka (Europe in China, 169). Lethbridge refutes the theory saying it was based on a 'myth' propagated by xenophobic Cantonese to account for the establishment of the Hong Kong Eurasian community. Carl Smith's study in the late 1960s on the protected women seems, to some degree, support Eitel's theory. Smith says that the Tankas experienced certain restrictions within the traditional Chinese social structure. Custom precluded their intermarriage with the Cantonese and Hakka-speaking populations. The Tanka women did not have bound feet. Their opportunities for settlement on shore were limited. They were hence not as closely tied to Confucian ethics as other Chinese ethnic groups. Being a group marginal to the traditional Chinese society of the Puntis (Cantonese), they did not have the same social pressure in dealing with Europeans (CT Smith, Chung Chi Bulletin, 27). 'Living under the protection of a foreigner,' says Smith, 'could be a ladder to financial security, if not respectability, for some of the Tanka boat girls' (13 ).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Maria Jaschok |author2=Suzanne Miers |editor1=Maria Jaschok |editor2=Suzanne Miers |title=Women and Chinese patriarchy: submission, servitude, and escape |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5o_t7VxHYAC&pg=PA223|year=1994 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=1-85649-126-9 |page=223 |quote=He states that they had a near- monopoly of the trade in girls and women, and that: The half-caste population in Hong Kong were, from the earliest days of the settlement of the Colony and down to the present day, almost exclusively the offspring of these Tan-ka people. But, like the Tan-ka people themselves, they are happily under the influence of a process of continuous re-absorption in the mass of Chinese residents of the Colony (1895 p. 169)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Helen F. Siu |editor=Helen F. Siu |title=Merchants' Daughters: Women, Commerce, and Regional Culture in South China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gM9cMIxjoVcC&pg=PA305|year=2011 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=978-988-8083-48-0 |page=305 |quote="The half-caste population of Hongkong were . . . almost exclusively the offspring of these Tan-ka women." EJ Eitel, Europe in China, the History of Hongkong from the Beginning to the Year 1882 (Taipei: Chen-Wen Publishing Co., originally published in Hong Kong by Kelly and Walsh. 1895, 1968), 169.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Henry J. Lethbridge |title=Hong Kong, stability and change: a collection of essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?ei=VbqxTpHrAarg0QGggaGoAQ|year=1978 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=75 |quote=The half-caste population in Hong Kong were, from the earliest days of the settlement of the Colony and down to the present day [1895], almost exclusively the off-spring of these Tan-ka people}}</ref><ref>Eitel, p. 169.</ref>

<blockquote>
The day labourers settled down in huts at Taipingshan, at Saiyingpun and at Tsimshatsui. But the largest proportion of the Chinese population were the so-called Tanka or boat people, the pariahs of South-China, whose intimate connection with the social life of the foreign merchants in the Canton factories used to call forth an annual proclamation on the part of the Cantonese Authorities warning foreigners against the demoralising influences of these people. These Tan-ka people, forbidden by Chinese law (since A.D. 1730) to settle on shore or to compete at literary examinations, and prohibited by custom from intermarrying with the rest of the people, were from the earliest days of the East India Company always the trusty allies of foreigners. They furnished pilots and supplies of provisions to British men-of war, troopships and mercantile vessels, at times when doing so was declared by the Chinese Government to be rank treason, unsparingly visited with capital punishment. They were the hangers-on of the foreign factories of Canton and of the British shipping at Lintin, Kamsingmoon, Tungkin and Hongkong Bay. They invaded Hongkong the moment the settlement was started, living at first on boats in the harbour with their numerous families, and gradually settling on shore. They have maintained ever since almost a monopoly of the supply of pilots and ships' crews, of the fish trade and the cattle trade, but unfortunately also of the trade in girls and women. Strange to say, when the settlement was first started, it was estimated that some 2,000 of these Tan-ka people had flocked to Hongkong, but at the present time they are about the same number, a tendency having set in among them to settle on shore rather than on the water and to disavow their Tan-ka extraction to mix on equal terms with the mass of the Chinese community. The half-caste population in Hongkong were, from the earliest days of the settlement of the Colony and down to the present day, almost exclusively the off-spring of these Tan-ka people. But, like the Tan-ka people themselves, they are happily under the influence of a process of continuous re-absorption in the mass of the Chinese residents of the Colony.
</blockquote>

During British rule some special schools were created for the Tanka.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Acton|first=T. A.|year= 1981|title=Education as a By-product of Fish Marketing|journal= Journal of the [[Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch]]|volume= 21|page= 121|doi= |url= https://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/f47bb899f060bcb1f2aa3ff0c8a30cb4.pdf|issn= 1991-7295|accessdate=|quote=How does it come about that this pleasing mixture of American Youth camp and English public-school sports day should come to represent" the emotional high point of the year for these fifteen schools which cater for the Shui-sheung-yan (water-folk), traditionally the lowest of all Hong Kong's social strata. Organised quite separately from them.}}</ref>

In 1962 a typhoon struck boats belonging to the Tanka, likely including Hoklo-speaking Tanka mistaken for being Hoklo, destroying hundreds.<ref name="google474"/><ref name="google2006"/><ref name="google1981"/>

During the 1970s the number of Tanka was reported to be shrinking.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bill Cranfield |title=All-Asia guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZo6AAAAIAAJ|edition=13 |year=1984 |publisher=Far Eastern Economic Review |page=151 |quote=The rural population is divided into two main communities: Cantonese and Hakka. There is also a floating population — now declining — of about 50.000 boat- people, most of whom are known as Tanka. In mid-1970 Hongkong seemed once again|isbn=9789627010180 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=William Knox |editor=William Knox |title=All-Asia guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfI5AAAAMAAJ|edition=8 |year=1974 |publisher=Far Eastern Economic Review |page=86 |quote=The rural population is divided into two main communities: Cantonese and Hakka. There is also a floating population—now declining—of about 100000 boatpeople, most of whom are known as Tanka. In mid-1970 Hongkong seemed once again}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Cheah Cheng Hye |author2=Donald Wise |title=All-Asia guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJs6AAAAIAAJ|edition=11 |year=1980 |publisher=Far Eastern Economic Review |page=135 |isbn=9789627010081 |quote=The rural population is divided into two main communities: Cantonese and Hakka. There is also a floating population—now declining—of about 100000 boatpeople, most of whom are known as Tanka. In mid-1970 Hongkong seemed once again}}</ref>

===Shanghai===
Shanghai, with its many international concessions, contained prostitutes from various areas of China, including Guangdong province, this included the Tanka prostitutes, who were grouped separately from the Cantonese prostitutes. The Cantonese served customers in normal brothels while the Tanka served customers in boats.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Bangqing Han |author2=Ailing Zhang |author3=Eva Hung |editor1=Ailing Zhang |editor2=Eva Hung |title=The sing-song girls of Shanghai |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFwzO-JzDiAC&pg=RA1-PT509|year=2005 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-12268-3 |page=538 |quote=Prominent among the regional groups were two from Guangdong province: the Tanka girls, who lived and worked on boats, and the Cantonese girls, who worked in Cantonese brothels.}}</ref>

====Commerce====
<blockquote>
...always enlivened by the fleet of Tanka boats which pass, conveying passengers to and fro, between the land and the Canton and Hong Kong steamers."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Matthew Calbraith Perry |author2=Robert Tomes |title=Japan and the Japanese: a narrative of the US government expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zu5kZqPKGKoC&pg=PA78|edition=2, reprint|year=1859|publisher=Trübner|location=ü LONDON : TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.|page=78|quote=of commercial activity, always enlivened by the fleet of Tanka boats which pass, conveying passengers to and fro, between the land and the Canton and Hong Kong steamers. The Chinese damsels, in gay costume, as they scnll their light craft upon the smooth and gently swelling surface of the bay, present a lively  aspect, and as they are looked upon in the distance, from the verandahs above the Praya, which command a view of the bay, have a fairy-like appearance, which a nearer approach serves, however, to change into a more substantial and coarse reality.  The Cave of Camoens, where the Portuguese poet is supposed to have written a portion of his Lusiad,}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Matthew Calbraith Perry|editor=Robert Tomes|title=The Americans in Japan: an abridgment of the government narrative of the US expedition to Japan, under Commodore Perry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zr1MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA78|year=1857|publisher=D. Appleton & co.|location=NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 848 BROADWAY LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN.|page=78|quote=of commercial activity, always enlivened by the fleet of Tanka boats which pass, conveying passengers to and fro, between the land and the Canton and Hong Kong steamers. The Chinese damsels, in gay costume, as they scull their light craft upon the smooth aud gently swelling surface of the bay, present a lively  aspect, and as they are looked upon in the distance, from the verandahs above the Praya, which command a view of the bay, have a fairy-like appearance, which a nearer approach serves, however, to change into a more substantial and coarse reality.  The Cave of Camoens, where the Portuguese poet is supposed to have written a portion of his Lusiad,}}</ref>
</blockquote>
''Japan and the Japanese: a narrative of the US government expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry'' in 1859

<blockquote>
Our next picture shows a Chinese tanka boat. The tanka boats are counted by thousands in the rivers and bays of China. They are often employed by our national vessels as conveyances to and. from the shore, thereby saving the health of the sailors, who would be otherwise subjected to pulling long distances under a hot sun, with a liability of contracting some fatal disease peculiar to China, and thus introducing infection in a crowded crew.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ballou's monthly magazine, Volume 8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BDZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA514|year=1858|publisher=Thomes & Talbot|page=514|quote=quered, gilded and ornamented. In Simoda, they take the place of horses, the latter being used only under the saddle. The third engraving represents the dinner given on board the Powhatan, in honor of the commissioners appointed by the emperor to conduct negotiations. Commodore Perry invited the officers of the squadron to meet the Japanese officials, of whom there were about seventy. A very excellent dinner was served up, to which the guests did ample justice. Toasts to the emperor and president were drank with all the honors, and the company did not disperse until a very late hour.  Our next picture shows a Chinese tanka boat. The tanka boats are counted by thousands in the rivers and bays of China. They are often employed by our national vessels as conveyances to and. from the shore, thereby saving the health of the sailors, who would be otherwise subjected to pulling long distances under a hot sun, with a liability of contracting some fatal disease peculiar to China, and thus introducing infection in a crowded crew.  On her voyage, the Powhatan touched at Singapore, the capital of a small island at the southern extremity of Malacca. The town stands on a point of land near a bay, affording a safe anchorage at all seasons, and commanding the navigation of the Straits of Malacca. While the Powhatan lay at anchor here, the captain permitted two jugglers to come on board to gratify the wishes of the sailors, by exhibiting their skill in legerdemain, which art they profess in a wonderful degree of perfection. The feat of swallowing a sword was performed, as exhibited in our fifth engraving. But as the weapon belonged to the juggler, the men suspected it was prepared for the purpose, and that the blade consisted of running slides, which, by the pressure of the tongue to the point, would be forced into the hilt. The Malay, however, was determined to confound the doubters, and taking up a piece of rough cast iron from the armorer's forge, swallowed it with as much ease and facility as he did the sword. The performances ended with a lively dance executed by two cobras, to the accompaniment of harsh sounds from a trumpet played by an assistant.  From Singapore lev us pasS to the Sandwich Islands, those gems of the Pacific. The arrival at the Sandwich Islands is always a welcome event in a cruise—the delicious climate, the abundance of fruits, the romantic scenery, the gentle manners of the inhabitants, render this portion of the globe peculiarly attractive. Our sixth engraving represents a group of Sandwich Island girls dancing the hula-hula to the intense delight of a group of Jack tars, who probably experience as much satisfaction at the exhibition, as was ever experienced by the refined Parisians at the efforts of Taglioni, Cerito, or Fanny Ellsler. The hula-hula was formerly a favorite dance among the Sandwich Islands, but has now become nearly extinct through the influence of the missionaries. There are still, however, a few Kanakas, who are addicted to their old amusement. The dance does not admit of much grace, each female going through her gyrations with the mechanical stiffness of an automaton.  The next port we shall touch at, pleading the privilege of a roving commission, is Cape Town,  the capital of the Cape of Good Hope, the well-known British colony at the Southern extremity of Africa. This point early attracted the attention of the Dutch, who saw that it was of the first importance as a watering-place for their ships. They accordingly established a colony there about the middle of the 17th century. They treated the native inhabitants, the Hottentots, with great severity, driving most of them beyond the mountains, and reducing the remainder to slavery. In 1795, it was captured by the English, but restored by the peace of Amiens, in 1802. In 1806, it was again captured by the English, and has remained in their possession since. It is defended by a castle of considerable strength, and contains many fine public buildings. The harbor is tolerably secure from September to May, during the prevalence of the southeast winds ; but during the rest of the year, when the winds blow from the north and northwest, vessels are obliged to resort to Fulse Bay, on the other side of the peninsula.  Our seventh engraving presents a sketch of a group of marketmen at Cape Town. We here see the native fish dealers and purchasers. A young negro in the foreground is feeding a pelican with a small fish which he has purloined from the bench. The principal market of Cape Town is not very attractive externally, but it is noted for the abundance and excellence of its fish, flesh and fowl, which supply the inhabitants and the ships touching at the port. The sales are conducted much after the manner of this country. The salesmen arc representatives of all quarters of the globe, and include specimens of the native Hottentot and the genuine Yankee, who is always found where money is to be made.  The eighth engraving is a view of the natives and their huts at St. Augustine's Bay, Madagascar. The inhabitants of this remarkably fertile island are composed of two distinct classes—the Arabs, or descendants of foreign colonists, and the Negroes, or original inhabitants of the island. The character of the inhabitants differs much in the different parts of the island, and the accounts of writers vary greatly on this subject. The island is off the eastern coast of Africa, separated from the continent by the Mozambique channel, and is about 900 miles long and 200 broad. Its surface is greatly diversified, and its mountain scenery is exceedingly grand. The name and position of this island was first made known to Europeans by Marco Polo, in the 13th century, though the Arabs had been acquainted with it for several centuries. It was visited by the Portuguese in the beginning of the 16th century. The French made several attempts to found colonies there in the middle of the 17th century, but abandoned them after ineffectual struggles with the natives. In 1745, they renewed their efforts with but little better success. In 1814, it was claimed by England as a dependency of Mauritius, which had been ceded to her by France, and some settlements were established. One of the native kings of the interior, who had shown himself eager to procure a knowledge of European arts for his subjects, consented, in 1820, to relinquish the slave trade on condition that ten Madagassees should be sent to England, and ten to Mauritius, for education. Those sent to England were placed under the care of the}}</ref>
</blockquote>
''Ballou's monthly magazine, Volume 8'' in 1858

<blockquote>
"Macao.

"We arrived here on the twenty-second, and dispatched a boat to the shore immediately for letters. I received three or four of those fine large letters which are the envy of all who see them, and which are readily distinguishable by their size, and the beautiful style in which they are directed. You cannot imagine the delight with which I devoured their costents. I am glad you wrote so much of our dear pet. 0, my Dita, the longing I feel to take the dear little thing to my heart is agonising! Yesterday I was on shore, and saw a beautiful child of about the same age as ours. I was almost crazy at the sight. Twenty months old! How she must prattle by this time! I fancy I can see her trotting about, following you around the house. What a recompense for the hardest toil of the day would it not be to me, could I only lie down on the floor and have a good romp with her at night!

"And now for Macao, and what I saw, felt, and did. You probably know that a very numerous Chinese population lives entirely in boots; some of them so small that one pities the poor unfortunates who live so miserably. They are born, grow up, marry, and raise children in these boats. You would be astonished to see mothers, with infants at the breast, managing the sails, oars, and rudder of the boat as expertly as any sailor. The Tanka is of very light draft, and, being able to go close in shore, is used to land passengers from the larger boats. As we neared the shore, we noticed small boats pulling toward us from all directions. Soon a boat, "manned" by two really pretty young girls pulling oars, and a third sculling, came alongside, calling out earnestly, 'Takee me boat!' 'Takee me boat!' They had beautiful teeth, white as ivory, brilliant eyes, and their pretty faces, so earnest and pleading, were wreathed in smiles as we gave them the preference over others that joined us from all quarters, clinging to the sides of our large boat, and impeding our headway. The boatmen tried in vain to drive them off. One brute of a fellow splashed repeatedly a poor girl, who. though not at all pretty, had such a depth of meaning and such a sad expression in her eyes and face as charmed me completely. It would have interested any one to hear her scold back, and to see the flashing of her eyes, and the vivid expression in every feature. When I frowned at our sailor, the sudden change in her face from anger to smiles, the earnest 'takee me boat,' as she caught evidence of sympathy from me, was beautiful. We were assailed with these cries from so many, and there was such a clamour, that, in self-defense, we had to choose a boat and go. The first-mentioned girls, on account of their beauty, won the majority, and their boat was clean and well furnished, which is more than could be said of many of them. I caught the look of disappointment which passed over the features of the girl I have described, and it haunts me even now. Trifling as it, appeared to us, such scenes constitute the great events in their poor lives, and such triumphs or defeats are all-important to them.

"Upon entering the Tanka boat, we found the mother of the young girls, and a young infant dressed heroically. The infant was the child of the prettiest one of the girls, whose husband was away fishing. The old woman was quite talkative, and undoubtedly gave us lots of news!

"They had a miniature temple on the bows of the boat, with Joss seated cross-legged, looking very fat, and very red, and very stupid. Before him was an offering of two apricots, but Joss never deigned to look at it, and apparently had no appetite. I felt a sincere respect, however, for the devotional feeling of these poor idolaters, recognising even there the universal instinct which teaches that there is a God.

"I called upon the commodore, who received me with great courtesy, and gave me a very interesting account of the voyage out, by the way of Mauritius, of the Susquehanna, to which I was first appointed. She has gone on to Amoy.

"I made the acquaintance of a Portuguese family, named Lurero. The young ladies are quite accomplished, speaking French, Spanish, and Italian, but no English. They came down to receive the visit of our consul and lady, who called while I was there. Mr. Lurero gave me some specimens of a soap-fruit, and showed me the tree. The fruit is an exceedingly fine soap, which, without any preparation, is used for washing the finest goods.

"We expect to hear of the sailing of the 'Japan Expedition' by the next mail. When Commodore Perry arrives, we shall be kept so busy that time will fly rapidly, and we shall soon be looking forward to our return home, unless Japan disturbances (which are not seriously anticipated) delay us.

"I did not tell you of my visit to 'Camoens' Cave,' the principal attraction of Macao. This 'cave' was the resort of the distinguished Portuguese poet Camoens, who there wrote the greater part of the ' Lusiad.' The cave is situated in the midst of the finest wooded walks I ever saw. The grounds are planted beautifully, and immense vases of flowers stand around. The grounds are not level, but lie up the side of a slope or hill, irregular in shape, and precipitous on one side. There are several fine views, particularly that of the harbor and surrounding islands."

I will here reproduce the following additional items regarding Camoens, from the pen of Walter A. Hose: —

"Macao had a particular interest for me as the first foothold that modern civilisation obtained upon the ancient shores of 'far Cathay,' and as the birthplace of one of the finest epic poems ever written. ... On one of those calm and beautiful nights peculiar to sub-tropical climes, I stood alone upon the white sea-wall, and no sound fell upon my ears save the whirring monotone of insects in the trees above the hills, the periodical chime of bells from anchored ships, and the low, sweet cadence of the incoming tide. I thought it must have been such a night as this that inspired Camoens when he wrote,<ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the U.S. and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog|year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n101 99] |quote=Macao.  "We arrived here on the twenty-second, and dispatched a boat to the shore immediately for letters. I received three or four of those fine large letters which are the envy of all who see them, and which are readily distinguishable by their size, and the beautiful style in which they are directed. You cannot imagine the delight with which I devoured their costents. I am glad you wrote so much of our dear pet. 0, my Dita, the longing I feel to take the dear little thing to my heart is agonizing! Yesterday I was on shore, and saw a beautiful child of about the same age as ours. I was almost crazy at the sight. Twenty months old! How she must prattle by this time! I fancy I can see her trotting about, following you around the}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the US and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog|year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n102 100] |quote=100 MACAO: TANK A BOATS.  house. What a recompense for the hardest toil of the day would it not be to me, could I only lie down on the floor and have a good romp with her at night!  "And now for Macao, and what I saw, felt, and did. You probably know that a very numerous Chinese population lives entirely in boots; some of them so small that one pities the poor unfortunates who live so miserably. They are born, grow up, marry, and raise children in these boats. You would be astonished to see mothers, with infants at the breast, managing the sails, oars, and rudder of the boat as expertly as any sailor. The tanka is of very light draft, and, being able to go close in shore, is used to land passengers from the larger boats. As we neared the shore, we noticed small boats pulling toward us from all directions. Soon a boat, "manned" by two really pretty young girls pulling oars, and a third sculling, came alongside, calling out earnestly, 'Takee me boat!' 'Takce me boot!' They had beautiful teeth, white as ivory, brilliant eyes, and their pretty faces, so earnest and pleading, were}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the U.S. and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog|year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n103 101] |quote=TANK A GIRLS. 101  wreathed in smiles as we gave them the preference over others that joined us from all quarters, clinging to the sides of our large boat, and impeding our headway. The boatmen tried in vain to drive them off One brute of a fellow splashed repeatedly a poor girl, who. though not at all pretty, had such a depth of meaning and such a sad expression in her eyes and face as charmed me completely. It would have interested any one to hear her scold back, and to see the flashing of her eyes, and the vivid expression in every feature. When I frowned at our sailor, the sudden change in her face from anger to smiles, the earnest 'tdkee me boat,' as she caught evidence of sympathy from me, was beautiful. We were assailed with these cries from so many, and there was such a clamor, that, in self-defense, we had to choose a boat and go. The first-mentioned girls, on account of their beauty, won the majority, and their boat was clean and well furnished, which is more than could be said of many of them. I caught the look of disappointment which passed over the features of the girl I have described,}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the U.S. and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog |year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n104 102] |quote=102 THE RELIGIOUS INSTINCT.  and it haunts me even now. Trifling as it, appeared to us, such scenes constitute the great events in their poor lives, and such triumphs or defeats are all-important to them.  "Upon entering the tanka boat, we found the mother of the young girls, and a young infant dressed heroically. The infant was the child of the prettiest one of the girls, whose husband was away fishing. The old woman was quite talkative, and undoubtedly gave us lots of news!  "They had a miniature temple on the bows of the boat, with Joss seated cross-legged, looking very fat, and'very red, and very stupid. Before him was an offering of two apricots, but Joss never deigned to look at it, and apparently had no appetite. I felt a sincere respect, however, for the devotional feeling of these poor idolaters, recognizing even there the universal instinct which teaches that there is a God.  "I called upon the commodore, who received me with great courtesy, and gave me a very interesting account of the voyage out, by the way of Mauritius, of the Susquehanna, to which I was first appointed. She has gone on to Amoy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the U.S. and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog|year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n105 103] |quote=SOAP-FRUIT. 103  "I made the acquaintance of a Portuguese family, named Lurero. The young ladies are quite accomplished, speaking French, Spanish, and Italian, but no English. They came down to receive the visit of our consul and lady, who called while I was there. Mr. Lurero gave me some specimens of a soap-fruit, and showed me the tree. The fruit is an exceedingly fine soap, which, without any preparation, is used for washing the finest goods.  "We expect to hear of the sailing of the 'Japan Expedition' by the next mail. When Commodore Perry arrives, we shall be kept so busy that time will fly rapidly, and we shall soon be looking forward to our return home, unless Japan disturbances (which are not seriously anticipated) delay us.  "I did not tell you of my visit to 'Camoens' Cave,' the principal attraction of Macao. This 'cave' was the resort of the distinguished Portuguese poet Camoens, who there wrote the greater part of the ' Lusiad.' The cave is situated in the midst of the finest wooded walks I ever saw. The grounds are planted beautifully,}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jeanie Mort Walker|title=Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the US and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...|url=https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog|year=1875|publisher=J. B. Burr Pub. Co.|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifecaptjosephf00walkgoog/page/n106 104] |quote=104 THE POET CAMOENS.  and immense vases of flowers stand around. The grounds are not level, but lie up the side of a slope or hill, irregular in shape, and precipitous on one side. There are several fine views, particularly that of the harbor and surrounding islands."  I will here reproduce the following additional items regarding Camoens, from the pen of Walter A. Hose: —  "Macao had a particular interest for me as the first foothold that modern civilisation obtained upon the ancient shores of 'far Cathay,' and as the birthplace of one of the finest epic poems ever written. ... On one of those calm and beautiful nights peculiar to sub-tropical climes, I stood alone upon the white sea-wall, and no sound fell upon my ears save the whirring monotone of insects in the trees above the hills, the periodical chime of bells from anchored ships, and the low, sweet cadence of the incoming tide. I thought it must have been such a night as this that inspired Camoens when he wrote,—}}</ref>
</blockquote>
''Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban martyr: Being a faithful record of his remarkable career from childhood to the time of his heroic death at the hands of Spanish executioners; recounting his experience as an officer in the US and Confederate navies, and revealing much of the inner history ...'' in 1875{{Long quote|date=April 2021}}

==Surnames==
The [[Fuzhou Tanka]] have different surnames than the Tanka of Guangdong.<ref>Hansson, p. 117: Unless a change of surnames occurred for some unknown reason, or unless the ' water names' are not the real names of the Fujian boat people, it would seem that the Dan people lacked Chinese-style surnames at the time the Fujian branch</ref> Qing records indicate that "Weng, Ou, Chi, Pu, Jiang, and Hai" (翁, 歐, 池, 浦, 江, 海) were surnames of the [[Fuzhou Tanka]].<ref>Hansson, p. 116: In a late Qing dynasty work which has a section on boat people that mainly refers to those in Fujian, common surnames are said to be Weng 翁 ('old fisherman'), Ou 歐, Chi 池 (pond), Pu 浦 (river bank), Jiang 江 (river) and Hai 海 (sea). None of those surnames is a very common one in China and a few are very rare.</ref> Qing records also stated that Tanka surnames in Guangdong consisted of "Mai, Pu, Wu, Su, and He" (麥, 濮, 吴, 蘇, 何), alternatively some people claimed Gu and Zeng as Tanka surnames.<ref>Hansson, p. 116: Some of them list the five names Mai 麥, Pu 濮, Wu 吴, Su 蘇 and He 何 The Huizhou prefectural gazetteer even states that there are no other boat people surnames, while others also add Gu 顧 and Zeng 曾 to make seven</ref>

==Dialect==
The Tanka dialect of Yue Chinese is similar in phonology with Cantonese, with the following differences:
* eu /œ/ is pronounced as o /ɔ/ (e.g. "Hong Kong")
* /y/ is pronounced as /u/ or /i/
* /kʷ/ is pronounced as /k/
* no final -m or -p, so they are replaced by -ng /-ŋ/ or -t /-t/
* /n/ is pronounced as /l/, like in some [[Proper Cantonese pronunciation|informal varieties of Cantonese]]
* they also have the tone 2 diminutive change<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhuang |date=2009}}</ref>

==DNA tests and disease==
Tests on the DNA of the Tanka people found that the disease [[Thalassemia]] was common among the Tanka. Tests also stated that the ancestors of the Tanka were not Han Chinese, but were native people.<ref>{{cite journal| doi=10.1016/0035-9203(71)90185-4 | volume=65 | title=Cooley's anaemia among the tanka of South China | year=1971 | journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene | pages=59–62 | author=McFadzean A.J.S., Todd D. | pmid=5092429 | issue=1}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tropicalmedandhygienejrnl.net/article/0035-9203(71)90185-4/abstract Cooley's anaemia among the tanka of South China, A.J.S.Â McFadzean, D.Â Todd]{{Dead link|date=June 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }}. Tropicalmedandhygienejrnl.net. Retrieved on 2 March 2012.</ref>

The Tanka suffer from [[lung cancer]] more than the Cantonese and [[Teochew people|Teochew]]. The frequency of the disease is higher among Tanka. The rate among the Teochew is lower than that of the Cantonese.<ref>{{cite book |title=Asiaweek, Volume 15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIIMAQAAMAAJ|year=1989 |publisher=Asiaweek Ltd. |page=90 |quote=Koo has found too that cancer rates differ among Hongkong's Chinese communities. Lung cancer is more prevalent among the Tanka, or boat people, than among local Cantonese. But they in turn have a higher incidence than [[Teochew people|Chiuchow (Teochew)]]}}</ref>

==Famous Tankas==
*[[Sinn Sing Hoi]]
*[[Henry Fok]], Hong Kong billionaire businessman and politician<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenewslens.com/article/10872|title = 白手起家、美女、兄弟鬩牆，所有戲劇元素都到齊：富可敵國的香港霍家傳奇|date = 5 January 2015}}</ref>
*[[Timothy Fok]]

==See also==
* [[Pang uk]]
* [[Fuzhou Tanka]]
* [[Aberdeen floating village]] in Hong Kong
* [[Yau Ma Tei Boat People in Hong Kong]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|40em}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |author=Chaves, Jonathan |title=Singing of the source: nature and god in the poetry of the Chinese painter Wu Li |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IbAjJ0B2OGoC&pg=PA53 |year=1993 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=0-8248-1485-1}}
* {{cite book |author=Christina Miu Bing Cheng |title=Macau: a cultural Janus |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-Gr51C1eS1oC&pg=PA173 |year=1999 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=962-209-486-4}}
*{{cite book|title=Correspondence respecting the alleged existence of Chinese slavery in Hong Kong: presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty Volume 3185 of C (Series) (Great Britain. Parliament)|year=1882|author=Great Britain. Parliament|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hswPjsESizYC&pg=PA55|publisher=Printed by G.E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O.|edition=reprint}}
*{{PD-old-text|title=Europe in China: the history of Hongkong from the beginning to the year 1882|year=1895|author=Eitel, Ernest John}}
*{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA39 |volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5}}
*{{cite book |author=Hansson, Anders |title=Chinese outcasts: discrimination and emancipation in late imperial China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ibp1RTW0AoC&pg=PA119 |volume=37 of Sinica Leidensia |year=1996 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=90-04-10596-4}}
*{{PD-old-text|title=The Century dictionary: an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language, Part 21|year=1891|author=Whitney, William Dwight}}
*{{PD-old-text|title=The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary ... prepared under the superintendence of [[William Dwight Whitney]] ... rev. & enl. under the superintendence of Benjamin E. Smith|year=1911|author=Whitney, William Dwight and Smith, Benjamin Eli}}
* {{PD-old-text|title=The Middle kingdom: a survey of the ... Chinese empire and its inhabitants ...|year=1848|author= Williams, Samuel Wells}}
* {{PD-old-text|title=The Field afar, Volumes 15–16|year=1921|author=Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, Catholic Foreign Mission Bureau of Boston}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Tanka people}}

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{{Han subgroups}}
{{Hong Kongers}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanka People}}
<nowiki>[[Category:Tanka people| ]]
[[Category:Fujian]]
[[Category:Guangdong]]
[[Category:Guangxi]]
[[Category:Hainan]]
[[Category:Hong Kong society]]
[[Category:Macau society]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Macau]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Vietnam]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in China]]
[[Category:Asian diaspora in Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Subgroups of the Han Chinese]]</nowiki>