Why are Hunan and Jiangxi called cousins?

Because they are fellow villagers in the same province.

The word laobiao mainly refers to the appellation of Jiangxi people (Ganyu and Gannan in Jiangxi, excluding Wuyuan and Shangguangyu in northeast Jiangxi) to fellow villagers in the same province, which has a certain intimacy.

At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, many areas in eastern Hunan were deserted by war, and a large number of Jiangxi people moved to Hunan. Later, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of Jiangxi people moved in, and even nine out of ten households in some places came from Jiangxi.

When these descendants of Jiangxi people who moved to Hunan returned to Jiangxi to pay homage to their ancestral graves, they liked to call local Jiangxi people cousins, meaning cousins. This is the legend of Guan Hu Guang in Jiangxi, and it is also the most popular statement about the origin of the word Lao Biao.

Custom:

Including Lincang, Chuxiong, Kunming and other places, male friends who are familiar with them are generally called "old cousin", "A cousin" and "A cousin"; Female friends who are familiar with each other are called "cousins".

Especially the Yi compatriots in Lincang and Chuxiong will be affectionately called "A Cousin" or "A Cousin" if they are unfamiliar with their activities such as singing songs and losing packets during the Torch Festival. This kind of address is only used locally and is generally not used in written language.