The Hakka People

The Hakka people are said to have migrated South from north central China in as early as the 1400s due to times of war and famine. Not being the original people of the lands they came to inhabit; they were known as the "guest people," which is the meaning of Hakka (in Chinese 客家 Kejia). Hakka communities can be found in Guandong, Jiangxi (Eliza's provence), Fujian, as well as other parts of China (including, of course, Hong Kong), all around the South China Sea, and even in Australia and the US. In some articles they are referred to as the gypsies of China.  The Hakka of the mid-1900's were a unique people... due in part to speaking their own dialect, not practicing footbinding of women, in a fondness for education, and in their unusual living structures and cuisine. Though known for their hospitality, some Hakka clans previously resided in round fortress-type multi-story, earth homes called tulou. A tulou could house hundreds of individuals all sharing a common family name. The Hakka people were typically farmers, though there may have been fisherman among them as well. Hakka women worked the fields while the men sought jobs in the cities or as soldiers. 


Hakka cuisine traditionally reflect the lifestyle of the ancestors. Being migrants, they were constantly on the move, so they used salt to preserve their food, hence salt features strongly in their dishes. A classic Hakka dish is salt-baked chicken. Rice wine is another common ingredient in Hakka dishes. Rice wine was a popular beverage of the Hakkas in northern China as it helped them fight the blistering cold of the north. Hakka cuisine also features many meat dishes, which reflects the fact that many Hakkas were farmers and they ate a lot of meat to provide nourishment and to bolster their strength for the back-breaking work on the farm.  Certain dishes are also specific to the province that the Hakka immigrants came from. For example, suan pan zi or "abacus seeds", a dish consisting of flattened pieces of yam fried with tiny pieces of shrimp, mushrooms, beancurd strips and minced pork, originated from Dapu in southeast China.  This and other traditional Hakka dishes would often be served at the Lunar New Year reunion dinner. If the Hakka family practices a Chinese religion or ancestral worship, the dishes would be placed at the ancestral shrine (or on a table at the entrance of the house if the shrine is too small) for the ancestors as well. Families would usually spend the afternoon on the eve of the Lunar New Year, just before the reunion dinner, paying their respects at the shrines.


Some internationally recognized Hakka include actor Chow Yun-Fat and former government leader of the People's Republic of China Deng Xiaoping. There are actually many others as well.  These "guest people," though often left with the least desirable land, living in poverty, and looked down upon; seem to have a persistent, patient will to triumph over their circumstances.