This open access book presents multidisciplinary research on the cultural history ethnic
connectivity and oceanic transportation of the ancient Indigenous Bai Yue ( ) in the
prehistoric maritime region of southeast China and southeast Asia. In this maritime Frontier of
China historical documents demonstrate the development of the barbarian Bai Yue and Island Yi
( ) and their cultural interaction with the northern Huaxia ( ) in early Chinese civilization
within the geopolitical order of the Central State-Four Peripheries Barbarians-Four Seas.
Archaeological typologies of the prehistoric remains reveal a unique cultural tradition
dominantly originating from the local Paleolithic age and continuing to early Neolithization
across this border region. Further analysis of material culture from the Neolithic to the Early
Iron Age proves the stability and resilience of the indigenous cultures even with the migratory
expansion of Huaxia and Han ( ) from north to south. Ethnographical investigations of
aboriginal heritage highlight their native cultural context seafaring technology and
navigation techniques and their interaction with Austronesian and other foreign maritime
ethnicities. In a word this manuscript presents a new perspective on the unique cultural
landscape of indigenous ethnicities in southeast China with thousands of years' stable
tradition a remarkable maritime orientation and overseas cultural hybridization in the coastal
region of southeast China.
