 Hakka History
The word "Hakka" means 'guest families.' The pinyin (Chinese ideograms transliterated into the Roman alphabet) for Hakka is 'kejia.'
I am telling you this because I was surprised not many Chinese even know who or what Hakka is! The Hakka people in China acquired this name because in the past, Hakka families have had to migrate southwards within China due to plunderers from the North. There has been a total of four great Hakka migrations. Of course, now Hakka people are all over the world.
Hakka are most famous for their Hill Songs, one of which I included in this site. At McMaster University, where I received my Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineeering and Management, I met a few people (including my wife!) who spoke a dialect of Hakka similar to that in the song. However, my Hakka is a bit different in tone. I also learned that Yip, Yep, Yap, Yeh and Ye were all represented by the same character in Chinese!
Most Hakka people can speak either Cantonese or Mandarin so they do not speak a lot of Hakka. Not in public at least! So often I am not able to tell who is Hakka in a group of say Taiwanese people.
Hakka women are known for not binding their feet like other Chinese women in the past. During the migrations, they were known to take care of the safety of their families while the men were at battle.
Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, etc. are all Chinese languages and/or dialects. The reason they are lumped together as Chinese is because they all share the same written language. There is an interesting story about how the Emperor of China once destroyed all written forms of Chinese expect one to unify the Chinese language.
The majority of Hakka people in the world live in the Guangdong province of China. The capital city is Guangzhou. Hakka families outside of China can, in one way or the other, trace their ancestry back to Guangdong.
Guangdong is also called Canton which immediately reminds one of Cantonese but Cantonese and Hakka are again two different languages!
I have always wanted to visit my grandparent's village of Moiyan (Meixian in Mandarin). If any one reading this has had the chance to go there, please write in with your experiences, recommendations and travel tips! My parents visisted Moiyan recently. I will try and post an update soon.
Websites on Guangdong:
Guangdong - Travel China Guide
Eastern Guangdong
The Land of China - Guangdong
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