Hakka

For the language (or the dialect), to see Hakka (language). The Hakkas 客家人 (hakka: hak-ga-ngin; Mandarin: kèjīarén) or “invited families” is Chinese alive Han in the south of China, which are regarded as the downward distances of refugees originating in the provinces of the Henan, of the Shanxi and the north of the Hubei. Driven out in successive waves as from the 3rd century by the wars accompanying the dynastic changes in the area surrounding the old capitals by Luoyang and Chang' year, the ancestors of Hakkas would have ended up moving, after a stopped migration of halts, into a zone located at the meeting of the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangxi, where they accepted their current name. There exist also habitats hakkas in the Hunan, the Guizhou, the Guangxi and the Sichuan. Constantly in the search of better grounds, some set out again for Hainan and Taiwan or one of the many Chinese enclaves throughout the world. They constitute, for example, the majority of the population of Chinese origin of the departments and French territories of Overseas, like Tahiti or the island of the Réunion.

Always slightly behind compared to the general movement of expansion of Han towards the south, they often had to be satisfied with the least good grounds, which determined a certain number of their cultural characteristics, like frugality and the heat with work. With few prospects for prosperity of land origin, the men hakka turned more often than the others to the military career, the itinerant trade or the studies for a Mandarin station, leaving to the women most of work of the ground. Very present in the army, the administration and more educated on average, Hakkas had a significant influence on the Chinese Histoire to which they gave many political leaders and revolutionists. The women hakka almost never had the bandaged Pieds.

The dialect hakka, which includes/understands some phonological alternatives , very clearly differs from the Cantonese or the Minnan spoken by the populations close to Hakkas. The shape of the district of Meizhou was selected like standard. Joined together, the dialects hakka would count between 90 and 100 million speakers.

Migration, myth founder

One considers that the first displacement of population towards the south since Zhongyuan (central plain), geopolitical center of old China extending around the average basin and lower yellow Fleuve, occurred shortly after the fall of the empire Han, between the middle of the 3rd century and the middle of the 5th century. Others followed to the fall of almost each important dynasty: end of the Tang (10th century), falls of the Song of North (12th century) then of Song of the South (fine of the 13th century, finally falls of the Ming (17th century).

The first two waves are particularly important for the definition of the identity hakka which often implies, before even the use of the dialect, the claim - not always verifiable - to go back to an ancestor who left North between IIIe and Xe century. The oral folklore of the emigration hakka the fact of leaving at the time of the period when “the five cruel people sowed the disorder among the Chinese”, is in IIIe century. This date seems too moved back with the majority of the modern researchers who rather consider a departure towards the south between the end of Tang (Xe S.) and the end of Ming (XVIIe S.). Nevertheless, certain families claim to hold genealogical lists going back to a member of the aristocracy or a civil servant of the Dynastie Han living with the Henan or the Shanxi. Indeed, the myth/to remember the geographic origin is often accompanied by that of a formerly high social origin, reinforcing the aspiration with a public career. In many areas hakka, the central room (room of the ancestral worship) of the dwellings bears to the pediment the name of the area of origin. It happens that it is not located in the valley of the Yellow River, as in the case of the families Xu 徐 which post Donghai in the Jiangsu. Nevertheless, the interested parties consider that it is about a halt in way and that they are quite downward ancestors of Zhongyuan.

Late formation

Many aspects of the culture hakka, in particular in the fields vestimentary, religious, social, family and musical, unquestionably testify to the influence of the Han culture of the medieval time. Nevertheless, of recent research seem to indicate that those which are identified as Hakkas result only partially ancestors come from the valley from the Yellow River. The immigrants of origin autochtones crossed areas or other migrants joined, whereas some left the group to be melted within the local populations. In the province of Guangdong, it happens that hakka families and Cantonese divide the same ancestors. Genetic research, seeking to highlight differences between Hans of north and the south of China, showed that Hakkas are not distinguished in this respect from the unit from Hans from the South. Like the majority of them, they absorbed members of other people, like the Yao or the She which they cotoyés. The final form of the name Hakka was fixed in the south of China at the 17th century only, even if the practice to name ha (Mandarin: ke ) the moved families is attested as of the 4th century. The official term was kehu , whose kejia would be the oral version. Used by the populations of older establishment to designate the newcomers, the latter would have taken it again on their account about the middle of the Dynastie Qing. Some make go up the popularization of this term to the reign of the emperor Kangxi (1652-1722), who had called upon immigrants to repopulate the littoral facing in the island of Taiwan, evacuated under its orders ten years to before cut the reinforcements to the army of Koxinga.

In fact of their particular dialect, of their often mountainous habitat, Hakkas were sometimes regarded as non Hans by the inhabitants of the areas where they settled, confused with the ethnos groups which shared the same zones of habitat and with which they could besides borrow certain elements. To the XIXe century, the discrimination whose they were the object on behalf of the Cantonese speakers, their image of eternal immigrants in the search of a point of fall, their investment in the studies for lack of grounds led certain Westerners to establish a parallel between them and the Juif S. Nevertheless, Hakkas basically have a culture Han and any religious specificity which would place them at the variation; they, moreover, never were persecuted, even if they had to fight to seize grounds or to preserve them.

Cultural characteristics

In addition to the myth of the Scandinavian origin, the strong feeling of identity of Hakkas rests on the experiment of communities having had to fight in order to cut a field in too populated areas or the mountainous areas still in waste land. This situation imposed, in addition to frugality and the heat with work already evoked, a direction even acuter of the community than at other Han, being reflected in various fields:
  • religious Rites: a particularly important place is granted to the worship of the ancestors, Hakkas not having always in the vicinity a village where to find a temple dedicated to a divinity; a worship is returned besides to the members of the clan died in the ethnic fights to which testify, for example, the “temples of the pioneers” of Taiwan.
  • Architecture: The most remarkable example is the you lou of Fujian, Community habitat sheltering of many families, sometimes a whole village. They were strong round-offs or squares having a single entry. With rez-of roadway the animals as well as a well were; the attics and reserves of weapons were located at the first stage and the residences, the only ones to have windows, with the second with the room of the worship of the ancestors. Some are still inhabited nowadays.
  • Genealogy: the possession of genealogical lists recalling fastening to a common ancestor is rather widespread.

L `investment of the men in the careers soldier and administrative as well as the increased role of the women in the absence of many men left to the army or absorptive by the studies were evoked in the introduction. Often living on the heights where the is cultivated, Hakkas are also known for their “songs of mountain” or “songs of gathering”.

Hakkas in China

Sixty pourcent of popular Hakkas of China live in the province of Guangdong, particularly the districts of Xingning and Meixian. The district of Huizhou is the cradle of 95% of Hakkas d' Outre-mer. The Guangxi is the second Hakka province of China. They constitute 15% of the population of Taiwan, where clashed for the possession of the grounds four competitor groups: different the indigenous, two rival groups of Han come from the Minnan and Hakkas which once again had to be fixed close to the mountainous areas, as a majority in the counties of Hsinchu, Miaoli, Chongli and Taoyuan, in North, Kaohsiung (Meinong) and Pingtong in the South. A minority settled in the East in the counties of Hualian and Taitung.

In popular China as in Taiwan, more and more of Hakkas live in the large metropolises.

Hakkas in the world

One finds of Hakkas everywhere where there exists a Chinese diaspora, but the majority of Hakkas d' Outre-mer reside in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and with Singapore. In Indonesia, they settled mainly with Borneo along the Kapuas river (attracted at the XIXe century by the prospect to find gold there), with Pontianak and Singkawang, like on the islands of Bangka and Belitung where their language was deeply influenced by the local languages. Hakkas of Eastern Timor took refuge in Australia after 1975.

They are largely majority among the ethnic Chinese of the departments and French territories of Overseas.

Some Hakkas famous

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