AHC: Cantonese Taiwan

In a POD after 1368 (establishment of the Ming Dynasty), how can we have Taiwan become populated by Cantonese people rather than Hokkien speakers from Fujian?

It's still part of my draft in my Portuguese Asia TL where the Portuguese colonize Formosa in the early 17th century and its ethnic demographics are basically half Japanese and half Cantonese with a significant Ryukyuan minority and a Eurasian elite class similar to the Kristangs of Malacca that intermarried with the Taiwanese Aborigines. I also took note of Joao97's post (#13) from this thread.
 
Fujian is just a strait away from Taiwan, hence the Hokkien/Min Nan, most of whom men, had able to migrate in the 17th century and raised mixed families with their Austronesian spouses*. On the other hand, the Hakka-dominated eastern region was the nearest area of neighboring Guangdong to reach Taiwan, thus it was more probable of a Hakka-dominated (western) Taiwan than Yue-speaking.



As Taiwan was the surviving part of the area where proto-Austronesian language and culture had thrived (alongside Fujian, Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu), I sensed that the Fujianese people in general, which included Hokkien/Min Nan (as well as the people of Jiangnan region), were a product of intermarriages between the Chinese and proto-Austronesians, accompanied by acculturation to the former, but that's quite certain of a hypothesis.
 
Britain or America nabs Taiwan and brings folks over from Hong Kong, where the American consul was and many British and American companies were.
 
Find a way to convince the Chinese people to colonize Taiwan earlier than they did. State intervention, already unlikely since you picked the Ming, is unnecessary, as every other Chinese "colony" is proof of.
 
Find a way to convince the Chinese people to colonize Taiwan earlier than they did. State intervention, already unlikely since you picked the Ming, is unnecessary, as every other Chinese "colony" is proof of.

The idea I bounced around ages ago was that some fluke discovers the jade deposits in Eastern Taiwan, which were historically mined by hand tools in the 1950s before mechanization. The Chinese love jade and brought up whatever was available.
 
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Thing is first, the Cantonese didn't exactly exist at the time large scale Chinese settlement began on Taiwan; second, the Cantonese didn't have much incentive to leave the Pearl River basin.

First, to clarify: Taiwan was not settled by the Hokkien. It would be more accurate to say that Taiwan was settled by both the Min-nan (the Hokkien plus the Teochew), and the Hakkas, both of which are from Eastern Guangdong Province and Southern Fujian Province. Taiwanese history often refers to the Hakkas as "Yue (Cantonese)", though this is kind of an error.

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Min-nan in orange, Hakka in brown, Yue ("Cantonese") in Green. See how Min-nan and Hakkas dominate Taiwan.

Cantonese at the time was the prestige language of the gentry along the cities of the Pearl River Delta, more specifically the city of Guangzhou (or Canton, which is where the language gets its name). The precursors of the modern Cantonese people didn't speak Cantonese, but rather spoke mutually unintelligible dialects of Cantonese--Punti, Taishan etc, most of which have been assimilated by the overarching Cantonese culture by today. Contrast that with the Hakka or the Min-nan, who were relatively united both linguistically and had somewhat of a rivalry based on cultural lines.

Second, the Cantonese essentially sit on China's most arable land in the Pearl River Basin, and can easily expand further West into Guangxi if need be. The Min-nan sit on mediocre land, and the Hakka in unproductive highlands. This disparity attracted several waves of Hakka migrations into traditionally Cantonese areas. In fact, the Pearl River Basin was such good land that the Cantonese gentry thought that there was enough land to go around, and welcomed Hakka immigrants into the Basin, who served as cheap tenant farmers (guest families if you will, the literal meaning of Hakka) for their Cantonese betters. Near what is today Hong Kong, where Hakka and Cantonese cultural borders meet, Cantonese village gentry (specifically the Punti) would often have subordinating Hakka villages, who then formed coalitions of villages to fight each other (for extended reading). Eventually, the Cantonese sought to expel the exploding Hakka population in the Pearl River Basin, and upon succeeding would solidify their dominance of the Pearl River Basin. Rather than emigration, the Cantonese are far more likely to face problems with immigration.

To answer OP's question, I think a Cantonese Taiwan is extremely unlikely, even with an earlier settlement PoD. In fact, I think if China settled Taiwan earlier in its history there'd be fewer Cantonese on the island. One plausible answer I could think of is for the Hakkas to adopt Cantonese cultural practices then move to Taiwan (perhaps a more united Cantonese cultural identity better assimilates the Hakkas?), or Ming China has bigger population problems, provoking overpopulation, conflict and emigration in the Pearl River Basin a century or so earlier.
 
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A few surprising responses, to say the least.

As I mentioned earlier with more detail, my original idea for my ideal demographics for Portuguese Formosa in my future TL is that the Portuguese use settler colonialism by settling Yue/Cantonese from Macau, Xiangshan and surrounding areas into Formosa south of the Zhuoshui river, and Japanese Catholics from Kyushu north of the said river, with a significant Ryukyuan minority around OTL Keelung and a mixed Portuguese-Taiwanese Aboriginal Mestiço elite similar to the OTL Kristang people in the main cities.

Either my idea would stand (even though it's very unlikely like Xianfeng said) or I'll just stick with Min-nan/Hakka settlers as OTL but they convert to Catholicism due to the Vatican siding with the Jesuits in the Chinese Rites controversy. Another idea is getting people from Northern Luzon/Celudão (shoutout to @kasumigenx) if the Portuguese has possession of that land somewhere around the mid-16th century.
 
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A few surprising responses, to say the least.

As I mentioned earlier with more detail, my original idea for my ideal demographics for Portuguese Formosa in my future TL is that the Portuguese use settler colonialism by settling Yue/Cantonese from Macau, Xiangshan and surrounding areas into Formosa south of the Zhuoshui river, and Japanese Catholics from Kyushu north of the said river, with a significant Ryukyuan minority around OTL Keelung and a mixed Portuguese-Taiwanese Aboriginal Mestiço elite similar to the OTL Kristang people in the main cities.

Either my idea would stand (even though it's very unlikely like Xianfeng said) or I'll just stick with Min-nan/Hakka settlers as OTL but they convert to Catholicism due to the Vatican siding with the Jesuits in the Chinese Rites controversy. Another idea is getting people from Northern Luzon/Celudão (shoutout to @kasumigenx) if the Portuguese has possession of that land somewhere around the mid-16th century.

Yes, Portuguese Northern Luzon is a possibility if Bruneians fail to convert Northern Luzon to Islam after they sacked Tondo, I think that would be a good base for Portuguese missionaries such as Francis Xavier to Japan and a refuge for the Javanese Hindus, the area was the center of the Trade between Present day Indonesia and Ryukyu.
 
I don't think the Japanese and Chinese Luzon scenarios in this AlternateHistory forums is possible because the Chinese and Japanese erased Northern Luzon from their map during 1300's and Pangasinan only made contacts with china when Majapahit had a civil war...however Spain selling Northern Luzon to Portugal between 1570's to 1670 is plausible especially due to Maniago revolt or having it Pull a Trebizond Majapahit which may end up as a puppet of Portuguese because the direct line of Majapahit might still exist there, the descendants of Empress Sasaban and Angka Wijaya.

And second if the Portuguese get Northern Luzon immigrants to Taiwan there will be a guaranteed friction as they don't mix with the Chinese, the chinese immigration there only happened in late 1700s/early 1800's due to famines where in they mixed with Ilocanos.
 
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Portuguese Northern Luzon can be named as Zambales/Celudao and the Portuguese parts of the Philippines including the outlying islands can be called as Xavierinas after Saint Francis Xavier.
 
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