Chikan (Chinese: 赤坎; pinyin: Chìkǎn; Jyutping: cek3 ham2; Taishanese: cok4 ham1) is a town in Kaiping (開平), Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, China.

[3] As a riverport, Chikan became a center for emigration from the Tan river catchment area in the late 19th century, pushed by increasing population pressure, rural poverty and civil disorder, and pulled by opportunities elsewhere and overseas.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Chikan was a regional market town, a center for emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese, "Huaqiao" (華僑).

Seven Situ Clan (司徒族) members fought against Japanese invasion into Chikan atop Nan Lou for 7 consecutive days.

[16][17] Yinglong Lou (迎龙楼, literally, greeting the dragon tower), one of the earliest Diaolou in Kaiping, was built by the Guan clan (关族) during Jiajing years of the Ming dynasty (1522-1566)[18] in the village of Sanmenli (三门里) in northeast Chikan township.

Unlike the thousands of high tower diaolous constructed later in the 20th century, Yinglong Lou is a massive three-storey rectangular fortress with one-meter thick walls and is not influenced by western architectural styles.

[19] Chikan town was originally largely ran by two clans, the Situ (司徒族) and the Guan (关族), who resided in the lower and upper reaches, respectively, of the Tan River.

In 1978 major reforms in economic, cultural, and overseas Chinese policies were adopted to promote rural modernization, which led to a partial revival of the clan institutions.

With the perseverance of the Kaiping clan members, at the approval of the government, and upon a massive wave of support and donations from overseas Chinese in the 1980s, the two lineage libraries were re-opened.

As Chikan's population has mostly emigrated, with twice as many abroad than in town, a hope is that development would relieve rural poverty and attract overseas Chinese to return.