Growing From The Traditional To The Modern: The Zigzagging Of The Maritime Culture Of Meihua Island

Meihua Island, which is located at the mouth of Minjiang River in Beixiang Changle County, has been harboring maritime culture since the early history. Since the Chinese Dynasties of Ming and Qing in the history, this island has witnessed two major movements of migrants which resulted in some influence on local economy, social and cultural lives and reflected the zigzagging way of development of the maritime culture on this island. In different times in the history, the maritime culture of Meihua Island took on various implications. In their traditions, the islanders of Meihua made living on fishing and sea ranching and they held sea defense as the priority of their own. The local communal orders were established on the basis of traditional values and local conventions. Their primitive fishing techniques led the islanders to develop diversified faiths in their maritime culture; however, the exterior exchanges did exist in some areas to some degree. When the exotic culture from the West infiltrated into the community, the cultural clashed did occur with the local culture. In the process of modernization, the livelihoods of islanders of Meihua have grown diversified with the economic development held as the priority of the local community. The local social orders have taken on some color of interventions from the state and the nationalism. At the same time, the spontaneity of the locals takes its rise, with the faith values of the locals take on the commercialized and individualized features. Now the overseas emigration trends thrive with the cultural imports from Western culture expanded and integrated with the local values. It is believed by the author that the variants of the social changes of Meihua Island include the follows as: the international environments, the national traditions, and western cultures, traditional and modern social elements as well as the self-adjustment of the local community. These elements have been pushing the mini-system of the local society to construct, split and re-integrate.