Culture
Seafarers, including pirates, were looked down upon as uncouth and uncivilized. From the opposing end, sailors and sea dwellers also separated themselves from the culture of the land because the hardships each group of people experienced daily was quite different. The dominant traditions on land, such as lineages, ancestral halls, and written genealogies, had no meaning to seafarers. 'Water people' shared a recognized culture. They consumed the same types of food and drink, had the same pastimes, and had similar religious beliefs and rituals. They worshipped gods of the sea, not gods of the land, and they had a unique speech that was a combination of a complicated mariner’s vocabulary and a dialect. Mariners wore distinctive clothing and hairstyles, and women at sea did not bind their feet in order to be able to perform tasks such as sculling and taking care of the sails without hindrance. Women worked alongside men onboard the junks.
Free time onboard was spent sleeping, eating, and washing and mending clothing. Common pastimes included song, card games, and liquor. Some sailor and even fishermen passed the time by fishing and others told stories or recited ditties. There are some accounts of curious sailors such as Guo Podai who kept a library on his junk and was often found reading. When in port, sailors would spend their time in opium dens, gambling parlors, or brothels.
Quarrelling, as an outlet for aggression and violence, was a daily occurrence for pirates. Children were often forced to grow up quickly. In some ports, such as Jiaotang and Shawan, parents encouraged children to compete in street fights as a form of play activity. Other coastal villages in southern Fujian and Taiwan carried out intravillage rock fights as a popular sport. Seaman, and pirates in particular, lived in a brutal and dangerous world in which fighting was a requisite skill for survival.
Although seafarers were from all different regions and origins, they needed a common language through which to interact. The most important terms to convey were terminology regarding sailing and weather conditions. This speech was direct and unpretentious and considered vulgar by non-seafarers. "It was a working-class language with its own vocabulary and cant, fused with cursing and swearing, which bespoke their defiance of polite society."1 Learning the language served as a sort of initiation into an alternate culture.
Gambling, on board and on land, was a favorite amusement for pirates. It served as a relaxation and had the added bonus of holding the promise of some extra earnings. In Amoy and Fuzhou, there were streets and markets packed with gambling houses. Popular games included fantan, majiang, and quail fighting. Losing could mean pawning clothing and going into debt, and if they were not able to pay off these debts, these sailors often ran off to sea to become pirates. Laws against gambling were impossible to enforce and local officials often tolerated gambling.
Drinking to excess was not unusual for pirates and sailors ashore and aboard. Sailors often enjoyed drinking games as a way to pass the time. A favored drink was a blue liquor called "bee-chew" that was served in small cups. In addition to being a vice, alcohol was important to sailors diets because it provided essential calories for a generally poor diet. Additionally, pirates and sailors also indulged in smoking opium and chewing betel nut. These were all available to pirates through cargo and plunder.
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