|
Updated Monday, October 26, 2009 10:21 am TWN, By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post New law ensures equality for HakkasMichener does not tell much of the story of the Hakka. They are a group of Han Chinese, who originated in central China and moved south to flee from war and famine in five major migrations. Almost all of those on Taiwan now are descendants of the Hakka in the last major migration during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from Guangdong and part of Fujian. The name Hakka (客家) is pronounced Kejia in Mandarin. They refer to themselves as Hakka-nin, the last word meaning “man” or “people.” Incidentally, they speak a Chinese dialect that belongs to China's largest language family of Mandarin. The forefathers of the Hakka in Taiwan settled first in Guangdong, where they could not become fully assimilated into the native population or Punti people (本地人). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when conditions in south China became very bad and land quite scarce, the Hakka often were involved in land feuds with the Punti people. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), which is said to have resulted in the death of more than 20 million people and completely shattered south China, initially grew out of these local conflicts. The rebellion was headed by Hong Xiu-chuan (洪秀全), a Christian Hakka who claimed he was a young brother of Jesus Christ. Many Hakka migrated to Taiwan then, and again remained unassimilated with the Hoklo majority. There is another famous Hakka, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the father of the Chinese republic. Still another is Deng Xiaoping, who put China on course to a top economic power in the world. An extremely industrious, shrewd people, the Hakka did much for the development of Taiwan, though they were more often discriminated against by the powers that be on the island. The governments, be they Dutch, Qing Chinese or Japanese, used to favor the Hoklo more than the Hakka. Assimilation started towards the end of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan, with the language of the rulers becoming a lingua franca between the Hakka and the Hoklo. Comments October 28, 2009 hft33362003@ Reference jakob.dempsey above. Between American James Michener and Jerry Norman who is more authoritative/authentic or for that matter who has the better facts. Joe Hung quoted Michener and you read Norman 1988 book. Don't tell you read better books than Joe Hung. Book written in 1988 does not give Norman better insight into the history of Hakka. Right? I speak Hakka, Cantonese, understand Hoklo, Teochew, Guangxi and Hainanese dialects. Besides the dialect Hakka which in most sounding and pronunciation similar to that of Mandarin I find that no other later mentioned dialects come near to Mandarin pronunciation. Joe Hung may have quoted and read the right facts. |
 Also in Joe Hung
Most Read
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sitemap | Top Stories | Taiwan | China | Business | Asia | World | Sports | Life | Arts & Leisure | Health | Editorial | Commentary
Travel | Movies | TV Guide | Classifieds | Bookstore | Getting Around | Weather | Guide Post | Student Post | English Courses | Terms of Use | Sitemap
I wonder who told you that the Hakka language belonged in the Mandarin group? Perhaps some half-educated Hakka who wanted to drive home the notion that Hakkas come from Northern China?
Why don't we look at the words of a linguist instead, i.e. Jerry Norman in his 1988 book "Chinese" which is widely used around the world. cf. p.210-214,221--: Hakka derives from Old Southern Chinese, just like Min & Cantonese.