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Hakka people

Ethnic group native to southeastern China and Taiwan

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Through DNA profiling

The Hakka have settled throughout China and their presence is especially prominent in the landlocked border regions of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi.

Lo Hsiang-lin, a researcher in Hakka language and culture, argued that the Hakka mainly comprise descendants of Central Plains Chinese refugees fleeing social unrest, upheaval, and invasions. However, the Hakka were different in being late arrivals, moving from Central China into Southern China when the earlier groups of Han Chinese settlers in the south had already developed distinctive local identities and languages. Their migration path was also different, and they entered Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian via Jiangxi province, instead of traversing Hunan or moving along the Fujian coast.

Substantial numbers of Hakka Chinese have migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world. Primarily, Hakka Chinese migrated to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Others went further still to North and South America, the Caribbean, Mauritius and India. Indeed, Kolkata, Toronto, and Jamaica have a strong Hakka presence today and many maintain Hakka organizations.

Origin and identity

Migrations

The Hakka, a group of nomadic peoples originating from the North, arrived in southern China much later than other southern Han Chinese populations. These earlier waves of southern Han Chinese colonists settled fertile lowlands, assimilated non-Han locals and expelled others like Tanka on coast and rivers, formed distinctive cultural identities and dialects. Consequently, the Hakka were forced to locate their settlements on marginal territories and relatively infertile land.

Genetic findings

Studies show extensive unidirectional gene flow from the Hakka people to surrounding Han Chinese populations in the south resulting in a very close relationship. According to a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the Hakka people are principally of Han Chinese descent, exhibiting an average genetic difference of 0.32% with other tested Han Chinese persons. Nonetheless, compared with other southern Han Chinese groups, the Hakka genetic profile exhibits a slight skew towards northern Han people.

Cultural identity

The Hakka identify as Han Chinese and genetic studies show they are principally of Han ancestry, despite a recorded history of intermarriage with minority groups such as the Yao and the She. Furthermore, the Hakka language belongs to the Sinitic group of languages, being linguistically proximate to the Gan dialect of Jiangxi. The Hakka also exhibit traditional Confucian values, such as a respect for family, ancestor veneration, and a commitment to both learning and the ideals of a Confucian gentleman. Finally, they carry Han Chinese surnames and use Han Chinese naming conventions. Lingnan Hakka place names indicate a long history of the Hakka being Han Chinese. Like the Cantonese, they fiercely insisted on their Han identities and were principal movers of the Anti-Qing movement.

However, the Hakka differed in their lifestyles and their preferred mode of habitation - living in large communal fortress-like buildings (known as tulou) instead of residing in courtyard houses (or siheyuan). They also settled in marginal or hardscrabble hill land avoided by other Han Chinese subgroups, and in this regard, were considered similar to non-Han Indigenous peoples. They also exhibited gender egalitarianism to a greater degree than other southern Chinese. In fact, the Hakka Chinese, from southern China, did not bind their feet because their women had more social freedom, sometimes traveled, and needed to work.

Unlike other Han Chinese groups, the Hakka people are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city. The Hakka people generally have a distinct identity from the Cantonese people, even though 60% of Hakka people in China reside in Guangdong province, and 95% of overseas Hakka people's ancestral homes are in Guangdong. Hakka people from Chaoshan, Guangzhou, and Fujian may identify only as Chaoshanese, Cantonese, and Hokkien.

Distant origins

It is commonly held that the Hakka people are a subgroup of Han Chinese that originated in the central plains. To trace their origins, a number of theories so far have been brought forth among anthropologists, linguists and historians:

  1. the Hakka people are Han Chinese originating solely from the Central Plain;
  2. the Hakka people are northern Han Chinese from the Central Plain with some inflow of Han Chinese from the south;
  3. the Hakka people are southern Han Chinese with some inflow of northern Han Chinese from the Central Plain.

The theories indicating a descent from both northern and southern Han are the most likely and are together supported by multiple scientific studies into the genetics. Furthermore, research into the mitochondrial DNA of the Hakka indicates that the majority of their matrilineal gene pool consists of lineages prevalent in the southern Han. Clyde Kiang stated that the Hakka people's origins may also be linked with ancient neighbors of the Han, the Dongyi and Xiongnu people. However, this is disputed by many scholars and Kiang's theories are considered to be false.

Hakka Chinese scientist and researcher Dr. Siu-Leung Lee stated in the book by Chung Yoon-Ngan, The Hakka Chinese: Their Origin, Folk Songs And Nursery Rhymes, that the potential Hakka origins from the Northern Han and Xiongnu and that of the indigenous Southern She and Yue tribes, "are all correct, yet none alone explain the origin of the Hakka", pointing out that the problem with DNA profiling on limited numbers of people within population pools cannot correctly ascertain who is really the Southern Chinese, because many Southern Chinese are also from Northern Asia; Hakka or non-Hakka. It is known that the earliest major waves of Hakka migration began due to the attacks of the two aforementioned tribes during the Jin dynasty (266–420).

Definitional problems and disambiguation

The study of this population group is complicated by linguistic uncertainty and nomenclatural ambiguity in the historical record. The term Hakka (客家) is sometimes broadly used to refer to other southern Han Chinese groups during their southward migration. Imperial census statistics did not distinguish what varieties of Chinese the population spoke. Some family genealogies also employ the term Hakka (客家) to refer to their southward migration, even though they belonged to the earlier groups of Han Chinese settlers and did not speak a Gan-affiliated language. These clans would be properly regarded as belonging to local dialect groups due to the timing of their arrival, the language they spoke, the customs they practiced, and the route of their traversal. These families were not part of the groups of settlers today associated with the Hakka, who arrived in southern China at a much later date through Jiangxi province and who spoke a Gan-affiliated language.

For example, the study by Lo Hsiang-lin, K'o-chia Yen-chiu Tao-Liu / An Introduction to the Study of the Hakka people (Hsin-Ning & Singapore, 1933) used genealogical sources of family clans from various southern counties, leading to the inclusion of native southern Han Chinese families into the Hakka category.

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