Ask about the history of Xinghua in Taizhou.

1. Taizhou and Xinghua are at least close to each other and are the cities closest to each other culturally

Xinghua County was established in 920 AD, and a part of Taizhou was separated to establish Xinghua County. Therefore, Taizhou and Xinghua are originally one, and Taizhou came first and Xinghua came later.

There are certain differences between Taizhou dialect (urban) and Xinghua urban dialect. But in a big way, they are very similar. The national dialects are divided into 8 major dialect areas. Xinghua dialect belongs to the northern dialect area, Jianghuai sub-dialect (Jianghuai Mandarin), and Tairupian. Although Xinghua has been affiliated with Yangzhou for a relatively long time, in terms of dialect and folk culture, Taizhou is closer to Xinghua than Yangzhou.

An important reason why Xinghua people despise Taizhou is the dialect. Because Taizhou dialect is close to Xinghuanan dialect. Xinghua people always despise it as "country dialect". This is a serious exposure of one's own vulgarity. There is no distinction between high and low dialects. It is a bad habit of the past for city people to despise rural people, so to despise neighboring cities is a sign of being a frog in a well!

To be honest, when everyone in other places speaks Mandarin, the influence of the inherent accents of various places on Mandarin is only the Taizhou people and the Xinghua people who are closest to each other, and it is even almost indistinguishable.

Some people are also proud that many families in Xinghua migrated from Suzhou and have genes from Jiangnan culture. If you look at it from this perspective, Taizhou must have more Suzhou people than Xinghua. The so-called Suzhou immigration mainly refers to the large-scale migration of residents from Suzhou (Soochow) to the Jianghuai area by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Dynasty, which is known as the "Hongwu Dispersion" in history. Most of them were driven to Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, and a small number went to northern Jiangsu. The cause of this incident was Zhang Shicheng. In total, Zhang Shicheng was from Xinghua, but history books generally record him as a native of Caoyanchang, Taizhou. More importantly, after Zhang Shicheng's uprising, he spent a short time in Xinghua City and a long time in Taizhou. There were more Taizhou people among his subordinates, and more of them followed him to Suzhou. Therefore, more of them fled back to Taizhou after the failure. It can be seen that these historical facts are not only insufficient to explain that Xinghua is superior to Taizhou, but the opposite - just don't say it.

2. Are "Xinghua people Western-style and Taizhou people old-fashioned"?

History aside, Taizhou has always been a city, while Xinghua has long been a county. Although Taizhou City is a county-level city, it has a long history. At least since liberation, most of the time it has been a city.

Taizhou's industrial products cannot be compared with those of Shanghai and Nanjing in the past planned economy era, but they are still very famous in Yangzhou and Nantong along the river in northern Jiangsu. I remember that many daily light industrial products were produced in Taizhou in the past. When you can't get "Shanghai-made" products, it's still unsatisfactory. At least it can be compared with Qingjiang (Huaiyin City). At that time, the light industrial products in Nantong were also good, but the products in Yangzhou were much worse. The local daily necessities industry in Xinghua had not started at all!

The Santai area (Taizhou City, Tai County, Taixing County) is a relatively active area in history, and its economic level has always been higher than that of Xinghua. Even in the era of "taking grain as the key link", Xinghua has some advantages as an agricultural and grain-producing area, but the maternal yield is still higher in Santai area. I remember that the agricultural development goal in the 1970s was "super program", with a mother's yield of 800 catties (the program target in Jiangnan was 1,000 catties, and in areas north of the Huaihe River, the mother's yield was 600 catties). The advanced example of the super outline is Santai's Heheng Brigade. The slogan at that time was: "Learn from Dazhai, catch up with Heheng, and go beyond the outline!" As a grain-producing area, Xinghua did not feel anything wrong at all in learning from the advanced Heheng. Recently, I saw on the Internet that Heheng is worthy of being an old pioneer. The current ecological zone construction is very impressive and it is still a model.

As for the rise of Taizhou’s economy in the great wave of economic development since the 1980s, a number of large enterprises such as Chunlan were born, which have great influence across the country. This is the result of Xinghua Institute It's incomparable.

In Xinghua, Nanxiang is also wealthier than Beixiang. Dai Nan's wealth has a history. Dainan is a cotton-producing area and has always been relatively wealthy. Of course, in the development of township enterprises after the 1980s, Dai Nan did better, and the economy reached a higher level.

In contrast, Zhaoyang Town, the county seat, established a large industrial base in the 1960s and 1970s. By the early 1980s, there were no less than ten enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, such as tractor factories, gear factories, Meat joint factory, fertilizer factory, phosphate fertilizer factory, cement products factory, Jinling Shipyard, Xinxing Glass Factory, Textile Machinery Factory, Qingfeng Glass Factory, Electric Motor Factory, Component Factory, Instrument Factory, etc. There are also enterprises directly under the county that are not in the county seat. There are not many large-scale enterprises left such as Anfeng Cotton Mill and Anfeng Bearing Factory! The euphemistic name is reform and restructuring, but it is actually a "return to the system" and most of them went bankrupt. What a pity!

In terms of the economic situation of the county, in the 1970s, Xinghua may not be worse than the county in Santai area, but now it pales in comparison! I have seen the rankings several times, whether it is the ranking of economic indicators or the ranking of educational indicators. As a Xinghua person, I always blush and my heart beats. Because it is really far different from surrounding cities! The economic indicators rank almost at the bottom of the province (there are still a few counties at the bottom of Xinghua)!

Xinghua’s so-called foreign style is probably related to the atmosphere of the 1970s. At that time, Xinghua was greatly influenced by Shanghai, and its clothes were very fashionable. Xinghua people are very proud of it. But we have not carefully inspected the Santai area. Aren't their counties catching up with the trend of Shanghai? Judging from the current level of economic development, the living standard in Santai area must be far higher than that in Xinghua. Now that the economy has developed and aesthetic concepts have become more diversified, it may be a bit uncomfortable to look at others based on their own habits. I think it is basically an illusion to think that others are rustic.

The "Santai people" we see are basically farmers. Therefore, the impression of farmers that is often applied to people in Santai City is actually ridiculous and shallow.

Xinghua people have a narcissistic complex. I think everything is good locally, except Shanghai of course! An old saying goes: Since ancient times, Zhaoyang likes to avoid soldiers. Xinghua is a water network area, the traffic is very congested, and the vision is not wide enough. Xinghua people really lack the courage of Santai people to go out and conquer the world. Hopefully now that traffic has improved, this ideology can be changed.

3. Being subordinate to Taizhou is a historical regret for Xinghua

In 1982, Jiangsu first implemented the merger of prefectures and cities. Xinghua was changed from a subordinate county in Yangzhou area to a subordinate county in Yangzhou City. Yangzhou is a nationally famous historical city, and it has also been the prefectural city that has governed Xinghua for a long time in history. Being a "Yangzhou native" is something that most Xinghua people are willing to do. But later when Yangzhou and Taizhou separated, Xinghua returned to Taizhou, which was a great regret.

There is another reason for this regret. When discussing the original plan, Xinghua was also considered for upgrading. If Xinghua, Gaoyou, Baoying, Dongtai and Dafeng were formed into a prefecture-level city, it would be possible for Xinghua to be the seat of the municipal government. The only shortcoming is that Xinghua's economic situation is very poor, almost struggling on the edge of a poor county, and it is difficult to shoulder the important urban responsibilities of a local city. A closer look shows that Xinghua's own economic decline caused its political decline, and it was not something that could be blamed on others. In the 1970s, Gao (Gaoyou) Baoying (Baoying) Xing (Xinghua) was a region in Yangzhou, and Xinghua was often the leader. For example, the tractor factory is a regional collaboration, and the final assembly is located in Xinghua, which means that the focus is on Xinghua. It's a pity that the tractor factory in Xinghua did not develop into a car manufacturing factory, but only became an extension of Fortune Alley and turned into a residential area!

The regret after being subordinated to Taizhou is not only the gossip of ordinary people, but also the subject of complaints among many cadres. They often refer to "city-governed counties" as "city-controlled counties." The most significant thing is that the dialect spoken in the courtyard of the city government (formerly the county government) is not the local dialect, but the Dainan dialect. Even cadres born and raised in this city have to change their tone when they enter the big courtyard, which is really awkward. The reason here is, of course, the "radiation power" of Dainan's economy, but also the motivation of the main leading cadres coming from Santai.

In fact, everything is a process and everything changes. The fundamental problem is economics. As long as the economy develops, other issues do not seem to be very important.

4. Confusion about self-identity: Am I from Taizhou?

If you conduct a questionnaire survey, how many people will say that they are from Taizhou when introducing themselves to their place of origin? I'm afraid the percentage is very low.

The problem is that Xinghua’s belonging to Taizhou is a fait accompli, and it is an administrative regional affiliation that cannot be easily changed. Starting from the concept of Greater Taizhou, we are indeed "Taizhou people".

Of course, from the perspective of small Taizhou, we "Taizhou people" are not authentic enough.

However, this issue is not very important in other places, especially in other provinces. From the perspective of people from other provinces, you are Taizhou people! In fact, it is enough for them to know that they are from Jiangsu!

As a prefecture-level city, Taizhou is still a new city and is also under construction. And due to the factors of corruption, Taizhou City has received special attention from the government departments. Taizhou Railway Station is an example. It can be expected that Taizhou has huge development potential. Taizhou will surely become the economic center city along the river in northern Jiangsu.

My fellow villagers in Xinghua, please stop complaining. What has gone by is always gone, but what comes is especially important to pursue. Come to Taizhou quickly to look for development opportunities! If you really love your hometown of Xinghua and have accumulated capital and experience in Taizhou, it is not too late to come back to Xinghua. The development of Xinghua is also inseparable from the overall economic environment construction of Taizhou. In other words, the development of Taizhou is a historical opportunity for the development of Xinghua