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Taishan 台山
—  County-level city  —
台山市
Location of Taishan City (pink) within Jiangmen City (yellow), Guangdong, and the PRC
Taishan Location of the city centre in Guangdong
Coordinates: 22°15′N 112°47′E / 22.25°N 112.783°E / 22.25; 112.783Coordinates: 22°15′N 112°47′E / 22.25°N 112.783°E / 22.25; 112.783
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Guangdong
Prefecture-level city	Jiangmen
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code

Taishan (Chinese: 台 山; pinyin: Táishān; Taishanese: Hoisan [hɔ̀isān]; Cantonese: Toi⁴saan¹ [tʰɔ̭ːisáːn]), also spelled Toishan, is a coastal county-level city in southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. The city is part of the Greater Taishan Region.

The city is located in the Pearl River Delta, southwest of Jiangmen (to which it administratively belongs) and 140 kilometers west of Hong Kong. It contains 95 islands and islets, including the largest island in Guangdong, Shangchuan Island. It is one of Five Counties in Guangdong (was called Sze Yup with excluding Heshan).

Taishan is famous for being the birthplace of Chinese volleyball, that was brought to Taishan by overseas Chinese, and the city won many provincial and national championships. The city is also famous for being one of the birthplaces of Guangdong music^{[disambiguation needed ]}, the other being Guangzhou.

One quarter of the “Flying Tigers”, the legendary group of American volunteer airmen who fought the Japanese during the Second World War before the US entered it, came from Taishan.^[1]

History[link]

County history[link]

On February 12, 1499 in the 12th year of the reign of the emperor Hongzhi during the Ming Dynasty, Taishan was founded as Xinning County (新宁县) from land in the southwest of Xinhui County. Xinning has also been romanized as Sunning, Sinning, Hsinning, Hsînnîng, and Llin-nen.

From 1854 to 1867 a genocidal war broke out mainly in Taishan County between the Punti and Hakka people with disastrous results for both sides.

In 1914, Xinning was renamed Taishan to avoid confusion with the Xinnings of Hunan and Sichuan.^[2] Unfortunately it is now confused in English with Taishan (Mount Tai) in Shandong Province.

In March 1941, Japanese soldiers invaded Taishan's capital and killed nearly 280 people.

On April 17, 1992, Taishan's status was upgraded from county (县) to county-level city (县级市).^[2]

In 2010, parts of the movie Let the Bullets Fly were filmed in Taishan.^[3][4]

Overseas Taishanese history[link]

Owing to natural disasters and the colonization, Taishanese started to search for new lives overseas after the First Opium War.^[5] The migration of Taishanese to North America started with the Gold Rush. Many Taishanese came to California as contract labourers. Later, another peak happened during the construction of the transcontinental railways in the United States and Canada.^[6] In 1870, there were 63,000 Chinese in the United States, almost all in California.^[7] Due to discrimination and language barriers, the first Chinatown formed to allow Taishanese (or Chinese) to live along and help each other.

Education[link]

Education in the city of Taishan enjoys significant support from overseas Chinese professionals and businessmen. Many secondary schools were built and financed by Chinese living in the Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau) and various foreign countries, such as the US, Canada, and Brazil.

To honor their benefactors, these schools often bear their names or the names of their parents. An example is the Taishan City Peng Quan School (鹏权中学), which was constructed during 1999–2001, and is now integrated into the city's public school system. It is situated on the west side of the city, and was built by a Hong Kong businessman.^[8]

Below are some of the schools in Taishan:

University:

• Deng Xiaoping-era Television University (磐石电视大学).

High schools & middle schools:

• Taishan No. 1 High School (台山第一中学)
• Taishan Overseas Chinese Middle School (台山市华侨中学)
• Peiying Middle School (台山培英职业高级中学)
• Taishan Teaching School (台山师范学校)
• Taishan City Peng Quan School(台山市鹏权中学)
• Taishan Shi Li Tan Geng kai Jinian Zhong Xue (台山市李谭更开纪念中学)

Administration[link]

Taishan is under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen. In a jurisdiction of {{convert/{{{2}}}|3286km²|0|||||||r=re|d=LoffAoffDbSoff|s=}}, Taishan contains 16 townships (镇), which are subdivided into 313 village residential committees (村居委会) and 3,655 natural villages (自然村).^[2]

These townships (镇) are:

• Taicheng Subdistrict (台城街道): the seat of Taishan, formerly a town
• Baisha (白沙镇)
• Beidou (北陡镇): separated from the other townships by Zhenhai Bay (镇海湾) inlet
• Chixi (赤溪镇)
• Dajiang (大江镇)
• Doushan (斗山镇)
• Duhu (都斛镇)
• Guanghai (广海镇)
• Haiyan (海宴镇): contains an overseas Chinese farm (华侨农场)
• Duanfen (端芬镇)
• Sanhe (三合镇)
• Chuandao (川岛镇): including Shangchuan and xiachuan islands; Tourism Open Integrated Experimental Zone (旅游开发综合试验区)
• Shenjing (深井镇)
• Shuibu (水步镇)
• Sijiu (四九镇)
• Wencun (汶村镇)
• Chonglou (冲蒌镇)

These "natural villages" (自然村) include:

• An Nan Jiang Chao (安南江潮)
• Bi Hou (庇厚)
• Tang Mien Pao
• Jilong
• guanbuli (官步里)

Transportation[link]

Taishan is accessible by bus and hydrofoil ferry (require bus connection, ferry is not direct service). There is a bus station in Taicheng and a port at GongYi on the Tan River which flows into the Pearl River Delta. The ferry service from HK to GongYi has been discontinued.

Up until the Japanese War, there was a limited railway system constructed by Chen Yixi linking various parts of Taishan with Jiangmen. It was one of only three built, owned and run by Chinese during the years prior to the Communist Revolution of 1949.^[9]

Ferry service connects the mainland part of the Taishan county-level city with the islands of Shangchuan, which are also part of the same county-level city. The Shangchuan ferry runs from the Shanzui Harbor (山咀港) in Chuandao Town on the mainland to the Sanzhou Harbor (三洲港) on the Shangchuan island. There is also daily ferry service between Shangchuan's Sanzhou Harbor and the nearby Xiachuan Island (also part of Taishan county-level city). ^[10][11]

Language[link]

The main language of Taishan is Taishanese. While most Taishanese today use Mandarin in school or formal occasions, Taishanese is the de facto language. Taishanese is a dialect of Yue Chinese, a large group which includes, but is broader than, Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Thus Cantonese and Taishanese are related but distinct. Before the 1980s, Taishanese was the predominant Chinese language spoken throughout North America's Chinatowns.^[12] Cantonese (Guangdonghua) is also widely known in Taishan, as it serves as lingua franca of Guangdong Province.

Demographics[link]

Today, there is over 2.3 million Taishanese worldwide; some 1.3 million people living overseas can trace their ancestry to Taishan, outnumbering those who now live in Taishan, 1 million.^[13]

If considering the total Greater Taishan Region or Sze Yap Region, which includes Kaiping, Xinhui, Enping and Taishan, there is about 8 to 9 Million Taishanese people worldwide. According to American historian Him Mark Lai, approximately 430,000 or 70% of Chinese Americans in the 1980s were Taishanese according to 1988 data.^[14] Currently some 500,000 Chinese Americans claim Taishanese origins.^[14]

Taishan has a population of 1 million, while 1.3 million overseas Taishanese distributing in 91 countries and regions.^[15] It is estimated that over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese."^[12][16] As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.

An office of the local Taishan Bureau of Overseas Chinese can help to arrange visits of overseas Chinese people.^[17]

Climate[link]

List of notable people from or with ancestry traced back to Taishan[link]

Actors/actresses & singers[link]

• Danny Chan - Hong Kong singer.
• Flora Chan - Hong Kong actress and singer.
• Gordon Lam - Hong Kong actor.
• Tony Leung - Hong Kong actor.
• Yip Sai Wing - member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
• Wong Ka Keung - member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
• Wong Ka Kui - lead singer of Hong Kong band Beyond.
• Wong Koon Chung - member of Hong Kong band Beyond.
• Myolie Wu - Hong Kong actress and singer.
• Shawn Yue - Hong Kong actor and singer.
• Donnie Yen - Hong Kong Chinese martial artist and actor, film director, fight choreographer, and producer.
• James Hong - actor in United States famous for roles in Big Trouble in Little China, Balls of Fury and others.

Artists[link]

• Alan Chin - San Francisco Bay Area contemporary artist
• Tyrus Wong - painter, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer, designer and kite maker

Business[link]

• Norman Kwong - Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta & professional football player, president & manager of the Calgary Stampeders.
• Annie Wu Suk-ching - founder of Beijing Air Catering Ltd and member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. She is the daughter of James Tak Wu.
• James Tak Wu - founder of Hong Kong's famous Maxim's Catering Limited, which is Hong Kong's largest food & beverage corporation and restaurant chain. His ancestral town is Sijiu (四九).
• Jack Yan - magazine publisher in New Zealand.

Education[link]

• Chin Siu Dek (aka Jimmy H. Woo) - martial artist of Sanba and a Grandmaster of Kung Fu San Soo.
• Ken Hom - Chinese American chef, author and British television-show presenter. In 2009 he was awarded by Queen Elizabeth II with an honorary OBE for ‘services to culinary arts’.
• Kylie Kwong - Chinese Australian chef, restaurant owner, author and global television-show presenter.
• William Poi Lee - San Francisco author who wrote The Eighth Promise.
• Li Enliang - Chinese civil engineer and educator.

Historical figures[link]

• Chen Yunchang - a very famous Shanghainese actress. She starred some popular movies including Mulan Joins the Army. She is the 3rd "Chinese Film Queen"; while the 1st is Hu Die who is also of Sze Yap origin.
• Arthur Chin – America's first ace in World War II
• Raymond Kwok Chow (a.k.a. Shrimp Boy) -- San Francisco Chinatown mobster, Dragon Head of the San Francisco Chapter Chinese Freemasons
• Evan Low - the youngest Asian American mayor in the United States.
• James Wong Howe - master cinematographer of Hollywood.
• Anna May Wong - the first Chinese American movie star.
• Julian Mardock - WWII U.S. Air Force pilot - Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for combat duty in the ETO.

Government[link]

• Julius Chan - former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea of An Nan Jiang Chao village in Doushan.
• Margaret Chin - New York City-based American politician. A Democrat, she was elected to the New York City Council (First Chinese American elected to this position) on November 3, 2009, to represent District 1 in Lower Manhattan.
• Adrienne Clarkson (née Adrienne Poy]] - Governor General of Canada, 1999-2005.
• Hiram Fong (a.k.a. Hiram Kwong) (1906–2004) - former US Senator from Hawaii.
• Matt Fong (a.k.a. Matt Kwong) (1953–2011) - former Treasurer of the State of California.
• Bill Lann Lee - United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Clinton Administration.
• Gary Locke Governor of Washington State (1996–2006); Secretary of Commerce, US Ambassador to China (2011-)
• John Tsang - Financial Secretary of Hong Kong.
• Wong Kim Ark - defendant in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898).
• Leland Yee - California State Senator. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore.
• Patrick Yu - Hong Kong lawyer and Crown Counsel, and founder of its first law school.

References[link]

External links[link]

China portal

• China Taishan Web
• Taishan City Government
• Chinese Genealogy
• Map of Taishan
• Taishan Merchant Web
• Hoisanese to English Dictionary
• Taishan Culture & Loisirs (Association of the Taishan expatriate community)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taishan

Village People
from left: Randy Jones, Glenn Hughes, Felipe Rose, Victor Willis, David "Scar" Hodo, Alex Briley in 1978
Background information
Origin	New York City, United States
Genres	Disco
Years active	1977 – Present
Labels	Casablanca Records Black Scorpio RCA Polygram
Website	www.OfficialVillagePeople.com
Members
Felipe Rose Alex Briley David "Scar" Hodo G. Jeff Olson Eric Anzalone Ray Simpson
Past members
Victor Willis Randy Jones Glenn Hughes Ray Stephens Mark Lee Miles Jaye

Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics.

Originally created to target disco's gay audience by featuring popular gay fantasy personas,^[1] the band's popularity quickly brought them into the mainstream. Village People scored a number of disco and dance hits, including their trademark "Macho Man", "Go West", the classic club medley of "San Francisco (You've Got Me) / In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)", "In the Navy", "Can't Stop the Music", and their biggest hit, "Y.M.C.A.".

They have sold upwards of 100 million records world-wide.^[2]

History[link]

1977–1979[link]

The group was the creation of Jacques Morali, a French musical composer. He had written a few dance tunes when he was given a demo tape recorded by singer/actor Victor Willis. Morali approached Willis and told him, "I had a dream that you sang lead on my album and it went very, very big". Willis agreed to sing on the first album, Village People.^[3]

It was a success, and demand for live appearances soon followed. Morali and his business partner, Henri Belolo (under the collaboration Can't Stop Productions) hastily built a group of dancers around Willis to perform in clubs and on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. As Village People's popularity grew, Morali, Belolo and Willis saw the need for a permanent "group." They took out an ad in a music trade magazine which read: "Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache."^[3]

Morali met the first recruit, Felipe Rose (Native American), on the streets of Greenwich Village. Rose was a bartender who wore jingle bells on his boots. He was invited to take part in the sessions for the first album. Alex Briley (who started as an athlete, but eventually took on the soldier persona) was Willis' friend. The others, Mark Mussler (construction worker), Dave Forrest (cowboy), Lee Mouton (leatherman) and Peter Whitehead (one of the group's early songwriters) appeared on American Bandstand and in the video for the group's first hit, "San Francisco (You Got Me)". They were later replaced by David Hodo, Randy Jones and Glenn Hughes, who all had more experience as actors/singers/dancers. Hughes had first been spotted as a toll collector at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.^[3]

Because Morali could not speak English, songwriters Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead were brought in to write the lyrics for the first album. However, Willis wrote the lyrics to the group's biggest hits, including "Y.M.C.A.", "Macho Man," "Go West" and "In the Navy," and for other Can't Stop Productions acts such as Ritchie Family and Patrick Juvet.^[4] Likewise, Gypsy Lane (the Village People band) and their conductor, Horace Ott, provided much of the musical arrangements for Morali, who did not play any instruments.^[5]

The band's name refers to New York City's Greenwich Village, at the time known for its large gay population.^[6] Morali and Belolo decided to create a group of stereotypes based on the gay men of Greenwich Village, who often dressed in fantasy attire.

"Macho Man" brought them mainstream attention, and their 1978 recording "Y.M.C.A." became one of the most popular hits of the 1970s.

In 1979, the United States Navy decided to use "In the Navy" in a television and radio recruiting campaign. Belolo offered them the rights for free if the Navy would help them film the music video. The Navy provided them access to the San Diego Navy base, where the USS Reasoner (FF-1063), several aircraft, and the crew of the ship would be used. The Navy canceled the campaign after a short time.^[7]

The group's fame peaked in 1979, when Village People made several appearances on The Merv Griffin Show and traveled with Bob Hope to entertain U.S. troops. They were also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, Vol. 289, April 19, 1979. Willis left the group at the end of an international tour in 1979, and a decline in popularity followed.

1980–1985[link]

Ray Simpson, brother of Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson), replaced Willis for the group's highly anticipated 1980 feature film Can't Stop the Music, directed by Nancy Walker, written by Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard, music and lyrics by Jacques Morali (although Willis penned the lyrics to Milkshake and Magic Night) and starring Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, Jean-Claude Billmaer, Bruce Jenner, and Village People. By the time it was released, however, disco had waned and the movie won the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay prizes at the 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards in March 1981 and was nominated in almost all the other categories. Despite that, the song Can't Stop the Music became a Club Play chart hit and moderate radio hit. However, it too (Can't Stop the Music, the song) was nominated for Worst Original Song by the 1981 Razzies, and flopped by Village People standard in that it never obtained gold status as a single or album.^[8] The soundtrack also featured the talents of "David London", who under his real name Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen went on to become the future lead singer of Toto and one of the main contributors to the Village People's next album. The movie itself has since become a cult favorite, developing a worldwide fan base.

The group was one of the featured guests on a November 22, 1980 episode of Love Boat, (7th episode of season 4), entitled "Secretary to the Stars/Julie's Decision/The Horse Lover/Gopher and Isaac Buy a Horse". At the end of 1980, cowboy Randy Jones left the group and was replaced by Jeff Olson.

In 1981, with the popularity of disco having faded and New Wave music on the rise, Village People replaced its on-stage costumes with a new look inspired by the New Romantic movement, and released the New Wave album Renaissance. It only attracted minor, mostly negative attention and produced no hits.

Victor Willis returned to the group briefly in late 1981 for the album Fox on the Box, which was released in 1982 only in Europe but did have limited release in the United States in 1983 under the title In the Street. Miles Jaye had briefly taken over for Ray Simpson as lead singer by 1983 and contributed an extra track to In the Street. Mark Lee replaced David Hodo in 1982.

Their last album containing new material, the 1985 dance/Hi-NRG release Sex Over the Phone, was not a huge commercial success, but it fared better in sales and club play than their Renaissance album. The title track, when released as a single, was banned by the BBC because of its content - credit card dirty phone calls.^[9] In recent years, "Sex Over the Phone" has become a cult classic. Recently, an Associated Press declared "Sex Over the Phone" to be the "'Citizen Kane' of music videos." The Sex album featured yet another new lead singer, Ray Stephens (of The Great Space Coaster fame). Py Douglas came in to sub for Stephens for some of the group's live appearances in 1985.

In 1985, the group took a hiatus but reunited in 1987 with the line-up of Randy Jones, David Hodo, Felipe Rose, Glenn Hughes, Alex Briley and Ray Simpson.

Since 1988 the group has managed itself under the name Sixuvus Ltd. ^[10]

1990s to present[link]

Village People receive their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame September 12, 2008. L to R (front row: David Hodo, Felipe Rose, Jeff Olson / back row: Ray Simpson, Alex Briley, Eric Anzalone.

• November 15, 1991: Village People founder Jacques Morali dies from AIDS in Paris, France.
• 1993: the group makes a guest appearance on the hit show Married With Children in the episode "Take My Wife, Please".
• 1994: Village People join the German national football team to sing its official World Cup '94 theme Far Away in America.
• 1994: Cowboy Randy Jones sings Greg Brady's part on a punk cover of The Brady Bunch classic Time to Change.
• 1995: Eric Anzalone replaces Glenn Hughes as the Leatherman/Biker.
• 1996: Village People appears with Kelsey Grammer, Rob Schneider, and other cast members during the end-credits sequence of the film Down Periscope.
• 2000: The group releases new material under the name Amazing Veepers.
• 2001: Felipe Rose appears as himself on the game show To Tell the Truth.
• March 4, 2001: original member Glenn Hughes (Leatherman) dies from lung cancer in New York City.^[11]
• 2004: Village People perform as the opening act for Cher on her Farewell Tour until it ends in April 2005. It was a highly successful tour for both artists.
• May 7, 2004: Original Cowboy Randy Jones marries Will Grega, his boyfriend of 20 years.^[12]
• Summer 2004: Village People perform at Lincoln Center Out Of Doors.
• September 4, 2006: Village People perform on Jerry Lewis' MDA Telethon.
• August 31, 2007: Victor Willis gives his first live concert in 28 years in Las Vegas.
• October 23, 2007: Village People perform on the NBC game show The Singing Bee.
• November 17, 2007: Victor Willis weds long-time love, Karen, a lawyer and executive.
• July 15, 2008: At the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, Village People perform "Y.M.C.A." with the Yankees grounds crew during the 7th inning stretch.
• September 12, 2008: Village People receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• September 3, 2010: Village People perform at the American Music Festival in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• May 8, 2012, Victor Willis won a landmark ruling in the first case regarding the 1976 Copyright Act which allows recording artists and writers to reclaim their master recordings and publishing rights initially granted to record companies and publishers after 35 years.^[13]

Cultural references[link]

Star Wars characters, a Jawa, Greedo, Chewbacca and an Imperial Stormtrooper, take on the iconic roles of the Village People and lead the crowd in the "Y.M.C.A." dance at a Disney weekend event in 2007.

Due to their easily recognizable characters, the group have frequently been imitated or parodied in films, television series, video games and music. Numerous covers and homages of their songs have been recorded. The stereotypical masculine characters, particularly the leather-clad biker character with a horseshoe moustache, have also become a widespread pop culture icons associated with male gay culture and YMCA has become something of an anthem of the LGBT community.

The song "In the Navy" was featured in an episode of The Muppet Show and The Simpsons.

In the film Wayne's World 2, Wayne and his friends disguise themselves in order to spy on Wayne's girlfriend; Wayne dresses as a construction worker, Garth as a cop, Neil as a leather-clad biker and Terry as a sailor. They are then chased and end up on the stage of a men's club where their coincidental resemblance to the Village People becomes apparent to the DJ, who immediately puts on YMCA.

A 1993 episode of Married with Children had Peg disguising herself as the Indian, along with Kelly as the sailor, Bud as the construction worker and Jefferson as the biker in order to appease angry Halloween party guests of Marcy's, and a joke being they could only lip synch to one song, YMCA, as that was the sole Village People album Marcy owned. When the real Village People appear at the party, they start their concert with YMCA, causing the enraged women who were sick of the song to pelt them with toilet paper.

In 1995, a parody of the Village People was seen on the CGI show ReBoot with the group the Small Town Binomes singing "BSnP", a parody of YMCA They were seen in the ReBoot episode "Talent Night" and each individual was modeled after a singer from the Village People using the show's common Binome characters. Their song "BSnP" was a jab at ABC network's Broadcast Standards and Practices organization, which frequently edited content from the show which they deemed not suitable for its younger viewers (lyrics included "Oh, it's fun to play in a non-violent way").

Discography[link]

Main albums[link]

Compilations and other albums[link]

• Live: Seoul Song Festival (1984)
• Greatest Hits (1988)
• Greatest Hits '89 Remixes (1989)
• The Best of Village People (1994)
• The Very Best Of (1998)
• 20th Century Masters, The Millennium Collection ... The Best of Village People (2001)

Singles[link]

Lineup[link]

Temporary "People"[link]

• Peter Whitehead, who co-wrote the songs on the group's first record, briefly performed with the group in 1977.
• Py Douglas briefly replaced Ray Stephens in some television appearances during the group's 1985 European tour.
• Alec Timerman stood in for Alex Briley on occasion between 2001 and 2003.
• Bill Whitefield replaced David Hodo at some concerts in 2002 and 2003 and 2012.
• Richard Montoya also replaced Hodo on some 2008 dates.
• Angel Morales occasionally filled in for Felipe Rose between 2008 and 2009.

See also[link]

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
• List of artists who reached number one in Ireland

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Village People

• Official website of the Village People
• Village People at Rolling Stone