Just because the Hokkien people were called "barbarians" does
not mean they are barbaric. The Chinese used to call westerners
barbarians and vice versa (perhaps they still do).
Anyway, here is something about the history of Fujian people in
ancient China. It looks like they have their own kingdom
(civilization) before they were conquered by the first emperor of
China.
________________
Minyue was a de facto kingdom until the emperor of Qin Dynasty, the
first unified imperial Chinese state, abolished the status. In the
aftermath of the fall of the Qin Dynasty, however, civil war broke
out between two warlords, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang; the Minyue king
Wuzhu sent his troops to fight side-by-side with Liu Bang, and his
gamble paid off. Liu Bang was victorious, and founded the Han
Dynasty; in 202 BC he restored Minyue's status as a tributary
independent kingdom. Thus Wuzhu was allowed to construct his
fortified city in Fuzhou as well as a few locations in the Wuyi
Mountains, which have been excavated in recent years. His kingdom
extended beyond the borders of contemporary Fujian into eastern
Guangdong, eastern Jiangxi, and southern Zhejiang. By this time
Minyue was being sinicized and had a combination of aboriginal
(possibly Austronesian) and Han Chinese elements.
