Betel nut trade: According to Guo Shengsheng, betel nut has played an important role in the social life of southern China. The trade volume of betel nut is also very large, covering a wide range, not only in domestic provinces, but also involved in import and export trade. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, according to the "Historical Materials of China's Old Customs", there were more than 30 ports for the import and export of betel nuts in China, covering Liaoning, Tianjin, Henan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Hunan
Areca trade: Hainan Areca is sold everywhere
According to Guo Shengsheng, betel nut has played an important role in the social life of southern China. The trade volume of betel nut is also large, covering a wide range of areas, not only in domestic provinces, but also involved in import and export trade.
In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, according to the "Historical Materials of China's Old Customs", there were more than 30 customs outlets for the import and export of betel nuts, covering Liaoning, Tianjin, Henan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and the whole Lingnan region. In 1905, the total import of betel nut in China was 60631 tons.
"On the whole, the betel nuts imported from Hong Kong and Macao by all customs in China are more than 160 times the number of betel nuts imported directly from abroad by all customs. Hainan is one of the two major sources of betel nuts." Guo Shengsheng said that according to the statistics in the Historical Materials of the Old Customs of China, the source of betel nuts in Hong Kong, Macao and other places was first imported from Hainan Qiongzhou Customs. In 1905, Qiongzhou Customs exported 12786 kilograms of betel nuts, More than 60% of them are exported to Hong Kong and Macao, especially Hong Kong, followed by domestic exports, while few are exported abroad.
This shows that Hong Kong and Macao is a huge betel nut transit station. In addition to the direct trade between the customs and the import from Hainan and other places, the betel nuts required by the mainland customs are mostly imported from Hong Kong and Macao to Hainan or indirectly imported from Hong Kong and Macao to foreign countries.
"In 1905, the number of areca exports in China was far less than the number of imports from abroad. Although Hainan exported about 20000 cwt of areca, it still could not meet the demand of the domestic areca market." Guo said that Tianjin, Hankou, Niuzhuang and Changsha Customs imported a large number of areca, some even more than Guangzhou Customs. These places import a large number of betel nuts. In addition to medicine, there may be a custom of chewing betel nuts. Therefore, the custom of chewing betel nut was not limited to the provinces in the south of the Five Ridges.
However, although the custom of chewing betelnut among Lingnan residents was very strong in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of chewing betelnut declined significantly in the Republic of China. Although betel nut is still an indispensable cultural carrier in marriage customs in some places, and many restaurants treat guests with betel nut, except for a few places in Hainan, Taiwan and Hunan, the habit of chewing betel nut in other places has gradually faded.
From 1936 to 1943, the quarterly magazine Folklore of the Republic of China published an article about the custom of eating betel nuts by the author Yun Xin, There is a good record of this: "I heard my grandmother said that Yi had eaten a lot of betel nuts, and that my father and uncles had eaten a lot of betel nuts... It can be seen that this custom has gradually changed since our generation was born... Now there are fewer betel nuts, and olives have replaced them."
