A singular quest: hakkas and burakumin
day one.
We enter the fray with a quest on the Chinese Hakka.
A first glimpse into the matter shows they belong to discriminated peoples in a way or another in China. We have not a iota of knowledge about any common ethnic lineage but we will try to delve into the similarities and differences.
Luckily the website on the hakka was quite large, so we started to develop a rough idea. Some questions began to pop in my thoughts: can we find a definition for these folks?
Is the Hakka group based on language, as it seems, or family origin (from the male line, obviously)? As I keep rereading some parts, mixing with local population was possible. To me, Han is a mixture of numerous tribes or ethnic groups that resided in East Asia. Intermingling along 2000 years is impossible to halt. day two. A fresh start.
Learning about them took longer because i sopared a couple of hours between much work had to be done and time was running short.
Days 2-3.
Painstaking work. Cut and paste skills. I dedicated my work at following my inspiration at various websites. Much of the hakka references come through language input! Our google search day 5 goes through Taiwan. Webpages are more likely in English and not government controlled. We are lucky as results start to crop in.
Books quoted: The History and Geography of Human Genes by L.L Cavalli-Sforza, P. Menozzi and A. Piazza (Princeton University Press, 1994) "The Languages of China" by S. Robert Ramsey (Princeton University Press, 1987) Guest People: Hakka Identity in China & Abroad by Constable, Nicole (Washington University Press Seattle 1995)
hakka sources
www.unescocat.org/cultmon/en/dossiers/hakka5.html www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/.html www.chinalanguage.com/Language/Hakka/Survival/Grammar/intro.html http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/3847/sapienti/hakorig.htm
http://www.asiawind.com/pub/forum/fhakka/mhonarc/msg00255.html http://home.i1.net/~alchu/hakka/toihak2.htm buraku sources: http://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic22/sawako/9_2002.html http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/burak.html http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/printout/0,9788,104138,00.html
This vast pool of information needed to be digested in the days to come.
day four.
Butting into the subject matter. A. Shadows and distortions.
My surprise spurred when I read the following “Many Hakka know - although few non-Hakka do - that numerous prominent Chinese are Hakka, including China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, Taiwan's president Li Teng-hui, and former Singapore prime minister Li Kuan-yew.” At the end of the 1980’s a Hakka ethnic feeling began to show which arose in Taiwan and is now spreading to mainland China.
Hakka dialect (language) is the thread that holds people together. Unlike the many ethnic groups classified by the Chinese government as 'minority nationalities', the Hakka are officially included as part of the Han Chinese majority. The Han label obscures Hakka identity in some ways. The characteristics of Hakka people are they all claim to be Chinese and there is no provincial difference to divide them. In their diaspora, they have set up roots in their new country of choice, some into their third or fourth generations. Those pioneers are called “Lao Fa Kiao” (Old Chinese Abroad). And their decendents see themselves as Chinese, because they have strong ties to their roots and bound by a common language.
B. A true believers accounting job. A daunting task to have a clear-cut question in any census. The hakka sources say about 35 million: 25 in mainland, 4 in Taiwan and 6 in the diaspora. Other sources offer higher quantities: About 7% of the 1.2 billion Chinese clearly state their Hakka origin or heritage and roughly 50 million to 75 million Hakkas all over the world. However, the actual number may be more as many Hakka Han who settled along the path of migration assimilate with the local people. The Hakka identity is gradually lost.
C. Current geographic distribution.
Hakkas distributed all over the world. The hakka gradually migrated and mixed. In China, Hakkas can be found in the provinces Kwangtung, Fukien, Kiangsi, Kwangsi, Hunan, Szechwan, Sikiang, Kweichow, and Hong Kong. Outside, Hakkas can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Indo-China, Taiwan, Brazil, Trinidad, Surinam, Canada, USA, Holland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and East-Africa.
day five.
The negative effects on real individuals. Zero Tolerance policies.
A. The contemporary context
Prejudice towards Hakka has been always close.
By the mid-nineteenth century Hakka had emerged as a distinct linguistic and social group, and often clashed violently with Cantonese-speakers over land and other resources. They had a different evolution in the next 50 years. To compare, read this “The Hakka were called “guest people”when they began migrating into Yue-speaking territory, and the exotic name seems to have stuck quite simply because, until fairly recently, many Cantonese and Min mistakenly thought that the Hakka were not Chinese at all, but rather some kind of strange non-Han "barbarians" like the Tai or the Miao.” (quoting Robert Ramsey).
Not all the groups called Hakka accept changes in their way of life. Comunism offered real chances of access to education and in the 80’s some research tried to prove old certainties. Isolation and backwardness comes from rural backgrounds. Urban settlements have proven a good way of levelling opportunities to Hakka in all there dwellings.
B. A taste of history 111 years ago. Two personal stories.
A Hakka Chinese immigrate.
Zheng Ping-Yuan and Ping-Sheng were born in a little Hakka village in the district of Dong Guan, Guangdong Province, China; the year was 1858AD. Their parents were poor peasants who had no land of their own - instead they rented about an acre of land from the landlord in the village. By planting rice and some cash crops in the field they managed to escape starvation. The produce from the rented acre of land had to support a family of four, including the rent to the landlord. Life was a constant struggle for them, but somehow they managed to scrape through year after year.
Ping-Sheng Ping-Yuan never had any formal education but they knew that life was tough, and as farmers, they could not rid themselves of the fate of poverty. But the time they were in their teens, the brothers had already begun helping their parents tilling the land; they disliked farming, but they were too young to anything else.
day six.
The Hakka language is also referred to as Hak-fa, Hak-ka-wa, K'ak-wa, or Makkai-wa. How and why the name Hakka was adopted? He believes that the population pressure in original Hakka areas is the key. When Hakka tried to expand to other areas because population grew and conflict between Hakka and non-Hakka developed after they settled in non-Hakka areas. Hakka was used by other ethnic groups because they were essentially the “ guest “ people to the non-Hakka areas.
In order to unify among themselves, the identity using the most commonly used name of " guest " (i.e. Hakka) developed. The name of Hakka started to appear in literature only after XVIIth century, at the same time of conflict between Hakka and non-Hakka began. In absence of a proper name to refer to themselves, groups tend to get together in their language: “Deutsch” means “the people” (where our Catalan translation “alemanys” goes back to IV century “alemannes” “=all men”), “euskera” means “those who speak our language”. Similarly, all those who are fortunate to still master the Hakka tongue would find a lot of "Tziga Ngin" (our own people) anywhere in China and abroad. B. Euphemisms for hatred utterances. In the 1920’s Cantonese were calling Hakka "barbarian" tribes. Cantonese even used the Hon character with "khien" (ch'yuan in Mandarin, dog next to the "Hak" character or called Hakka "ch'i", a Hon character with the "dog" sign in a clear derogative way. Other terms used in the past showed the specific non-friendly relationship with these outcasts.
Day seven.
Bouncing back to Southeast China. Migration causes a poverty curse.
A. Contrasting Western sources Western reference work was an early start.
Encarta says: “term applied to a migratory people of southern China." The more I read they had been around for many centuries. Many moved to less populated areas because of the pressure of population growth. Most of them living in the farming community. And the CD-rom continued: “"They are thought to be descended from the Burmese or Thais or from the aboriginal inhabitants of northern China. The Hakka have always been persecuted by the natives of the regions in which they have settled." The New Encyclopedia Britannica said that "group of North Chinese who migrated to South China, especially Kwangtung and Fukien provinces, during the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1279), when North China was occupied by Inner Asian tribesmen." Some modern biological studies (see Cavallo Sforza’s book) indicated Hakka are primarily southern Mongoloid groups not northern groups as all the genetic trees and maps demonstrate that Southern Chinese is distant from Northern Chinese.
B. On the move Tradition goes back at five migrations. But the record of the first two stages probably are merely "legendary". It is also possible the people that really migrated from northern and central China are really small in number. Before the Five-Dynasty, there was almost no record in history about the activities in Hakka areas. After Sung dynasty, more literature regarding current Hakka area can be found. Professor Fong called "Era the Hakka Stepping into History". Hakka systematically migrated for the 3rd time to further south, west and other areas began in Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
The 4th migration (1700-1800) was not due to the war. This migration is more recent and is much better documented. For example, at the beginning of Ching dynasty, Hakka people started to move to Sichuan. This migration was secondary to the pressure of population increase. The areas where Hakka inhabited were primarily mountainous areas and very few farming land are available. Hakka started to move to areas with less population. Sichon (Sichuan) was less populated because of revolts at the end of Ming dynasty. Some moved to Hunan and Kongsi provinces.
Some started also to migrate to Taiwan. For the record, the only state that the Hakka people ever possessed was the Lan Fang Republic. Kwangtung Hakkas briefly established a Hakka state in Western Kalimantan in 1777 and lasted until 1884. The first of ten presidents was Low Lan Pak, a Meixian Hakka. In 1884 the Dutch attacked the republic and after 4 years of battle the Hakkas were defeated and fled to Sumatra. From there they moved to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where they contributed significantly to the establishment of the state of Singapore. The 5th migration of Hakka from eastern Kuangtung to other parts of Kuangtung and Kongsi provinces. Migration to Taiwan, other parts of Asia, Pacific islands, central America and Africa became more and more common. Many Hakka communities were established in those areas.
Researchers try to find answers to some questions raised: how history is used to create a sense of Hakka Chinese identity within the Hakka diaspora? how Hakka identity is linked with social class and economic factors; how strong Hakka presence has influenced culture in Malaysia. day twelve. Folk-lore does not rhyme with wisdom. Colourful images and stereotypes of the Hakka abound in folklore, popular literature, and tourist brochures, as well as in academic and missionary writings. To rescue Hakka culture from simple folksiness or from becoming a mere tourist attraction (as in the case of the tulous), what is needed is coordinated, ambitious action which, especially in mainland China, is still a long way away. How Hakka gender roles and communal egalitarian values have shaped Hakka culture. Peculiar dwellings mainly due to group defence reasons; and women free from menial jobs inside the house, agriculture painful work model some special characteristics.
day eight.
Hakka identitykit. A. On the Hakka language. For no matter what the ethnic origin of the Hakka, the group is linguistically Southern Chinese. The Hakka dialects are historically allied to the other Southern dialects around them. The have some unmistakably Northern features, but they are actually not much more like Mandarin than Cantonese is.
Hakka is one dialect of the Chinese language. It has approximately thirty-three million speakers world wide. However, there are sub-dialects of Hakka. This is due to the geographical distribution and local influences on its speakers. The Moi Yen (Meixian) dialect is considered to be the standard dialect. Meixian is a city in the northeastern region of Guandong Province in China. Other sub-dialects of Hakka differ tonally and phonetically. Professor Chen argues that “the only real unique part about Hakka is the language. If the Hakka migrated to a new area and Hakka language transplanted to the new areas successfully then all population there became Hakka. If the Hakka language is not established in the new area, then immigrants disappeared and adopted the new identity of the ethnic group of other language. But keep in mind that the origin of dialect or language groups are mostly emotional and political rather than logical and scientific. Urdu-Hindu and lately Serbo-Croatian are good examples. The two "languages" are almost mutually intelligible, but the speakers claim that they are different languages which can distinguish both groups. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are also very similar in phonology, vocabulary and grammar. On the other hand, the Hainan dialect, Chaozhou dialect, Taiwan dialect and Southern Fujian dialects are grouped together as a "Minnan" dialect, but when a Xiamener goes to Haikou in Hainan and speaks his mother tongue, he is in a much worse position than a Cantonese going to Meixian. Therefore, don't view the dialect difference as "scientific" as genetics, and it is far more than an issue of "pure" linguistics.
day nine.
B. Hakka identity bonds. Half truths and other white lies. The Hakka identify themselves as Northern Chinese and no doubt this gives extra bonus at group pride (old dynasties were all from north, Huang-ho river and surrounding, weren’t they? Hakka scholars claimed Hakka were originally from northern China whose ancestors migrated by stages to southern China because their "homeland" was occupied by "barbarian" tribes. They claimed the Hakka was the most authentic Han. But the interlocking migration pattern between Hakka and non-Hakka repeated again and again in both directions as professor Chen states. History shows that they were open to their new society.
Christianity has been incorporated into Hakka identity in Hong Kong; Hakka identity has experienced a reawakening in Taiwan during the 1980s and early 1990s, and was of relevance in the Chinese communist revolution and continues to be important in contemporary China. Hakkas tend to be perceived by other Chinese as standoffish, clannish, frugal, determined, and almost dour people. One reason for the perceived Hakka standoffishness is they probably were standoffish –as one Hakka wrote on the net. Many Hakkas have a pride in their culture which arises from the fact that they migrated from the North i.e. the 'cradle of Chinese civilisation' and therefore perceive themselves to be culturally superior to the 'Southern yokels' they settled amongst. The North-South divide in China is no different from the North-South divide in Europe (also Italy!), India or the US. To end with, we quote Nicole Constable words: “But despite the obvious importance and distinctiveness of the Hakka, until now no detailed, comparative analysis of the meaning of Hakka identity has been published.” day fifteen.
Prospectives (dark and bright).
The first Asiawind Hakka Forum started on September 2, 1996, and was later replaced by a new forum format on Jan 12, 2001. The forum has facilitated the Toronto Hakka Conference 2000, which was the first international Hakka conference held in N. America with the participation of more than 300 friends. Asiawind's forum links Hakkas from all over the world to reminisce their hometown lives in China and away from China. I am glad that such a small corner of the Internet has brought so much joy and meaning to all participating. Since the mid 80’s progress in Taiwan has been slow but steady, with the emergence of communications media and an incipient normalisation in the teaching of the Hakka language in state schools, political representation, the birth of cultural associations, etc. A reaction has also taken place on the mainland and Hakka studies have reached some universities in Kwangtung province.
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