Cháozhōu

The Teochew are Han Chinese of the Chaoshan plain, easternmost Guangdong, around Chaozhou, Jieyang and Chaoyang on the lower Han River, speaking Teochew, a conservative Southern Min dialect. Barely touched by the Qin conquest of 214 BC, the coast remained remote Yue country; in 591 the Sui named the prefecture Chaozhou.

Northern families drifted in through Fujian, many sojourning in Putian before entering between the Tang and Ming, giving Teochew its close kinship with Hokkien. In 819 the exiled writer Han Yu governed the prefecture briefly and promoted schools; the city river was later named Han River after him.

Under the Song and Ming the region became a crowded rice country of walled towns, sending traders and coolies overseas from the eighteenth century; by 1819 Teochew planters were already opening gambier estates in Singapore, and Teochew merchants became the largest Chinese group in Siam.