Global Hakka Chinese Overseas HISTORY, LITERATURE, and SOCIETY
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Global Hakka Chinese Overseas HISTORY, LITERATURE, AND SOCIETY Chief Editor Wang Gungwu Subject Editors Evelyn Hu-DeHart, David Der-wei Wang, Wong Siu-lun Editorial Board Ien Ang, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Liu Hong, Frank Pieke, Elizabeth Sinn, Jing Tsu Volume 10 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cho Global Hakka Hakka Identity in the Remaking By Jessieca Leo LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Olga Polunin (www.olgapolunin.com). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leo, Jessieca, 1953- author. Global Hakka : Hakka identity in the remaking / by Jessieca Leo. pages cm. — (Chinese overseas ; volume 10) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-30026-2 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30027-9 (e-book) 1. Hakka (Chinese people) 2. Hakka (Chinese people)—Ethnic identity. 3. Hakka (Chinese people)—Migrations. I. Title. DS731.H3L45 2015 305.8951'7—dc23 2015020188 Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all rights holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1876-3847 isbn 978-90-04-30026-2 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30027-9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For My mother Chew Mooi 鄒妹 (a.k.a. 鄒蓮娣 Hk. Tseu Lian Tai) (b. 1920) My father Leow Fook 廖福 (a.k.a. 廖連福 Hk. Liau Lian Fuk) (1917–1992) ∵ Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgements xi Illustrations and Photos xiv Glossary xv Introduction 1 1 Hakka Identity Going Global: Methodology and Problematics 16 2 Hakka Research and Identity-Making in Hakka Texts 46 3 Migration Models 78 4 Ethnicity, Han, Chineseness, and Overseas Chinese 116 5 Hakka Identity Past, Present, and Future 154 6 Hakka Cultural Markers 203 7 Conclusions 349 Appendices Appendix A: Global Hakka: A Case Study 361 Appendix A.I: Summary of Hakka Cultural Markers 382 Appendix A.II: Questionnaire for the Hakka Project 384 Appendix A.III: Summary of Interviews 387 Appendix B: Extract from the 廖氏大宗譜 Liaoshi da zongpu (The Complete Genealogical Register of the Liao Clan) 389 Appendix C: 班次 banci Hk. pan tshu, 派輩 paibei Hk. phai pui or 派字 paizi Hk. phai tshu (Generation Poem of a Liao Lineage) 400 Appendix D: 月光光 Yueguang Guang Hk. Nyet Kong Kong (The Moon Shines) 401 Appendix E: 孝順父母理應當 (Xiaoshun fumu li yingdang) Hk. Hau sun fu mu li yin tong (The Reasons Parents Deserve Filial Obedience) 407 viii contents Appendix F: 人家日用 Renjia riyong Hk. Ngin ka nyit yung (People’s Daily Needs) 413 Appendix G: 山歌九首 Shange jiushou Hk. San ko khiu tsiu (Nine Mountain Songs Collected by Huang Zunxian 黃遵憲) 439 Appendix H: 蕃人曉著褲 Fanren xiao zhuo ku Hk. Fan ngin hiau chok fu (When Natives Learn to Wear Trousers) 443 Appendix I: 亞婆買鹹菜 Yapo mai xiancai Hk. A pho mai ham tshoi (Granny Buys Salted Vegetables) 444 Appendix J: 我是客家人 Wo shi kejiaren Hk. Ngai he hak ka ngin (I am a Hakka Person) 448 Appendix K: 我是客家人 Wo shi kejiaren Hk. Ngai he hak ka ngin (I am a Hakka Person) 450 Appendix L: 客家母親河 Kejia muqinhe Hk. Hak ka mu tshin ho (Hakka Mother River) 453 Appendix M: 海邊看飛機 Haibian kan feiji Hk. Hoi pien kon fui ki (Watching Aeroplanes on the Beach) 455 Appendix N: A Survey on the Definition of Migration, Emigration, and Immigration 460 Appendix O: Hakka Language Skill Survey: Chinese Methodist Church Kindergarten, Beruas Class 2009 468 Bibliography 471 Index 521 Foreword We can say that beginning with the 19th century, the Hakka became an impor- tant part of the global Chinese communities. Having been the ‘guest people’ in certain regions of the Chinese empire over a long period, Hakka people then became ‘guests’ in even more remote places like Southeast Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean. Migration did not end in the 20th century. With the trans- fer of Hong Kong under the sovereignty of PR China, Hakka people once more, as well as other Chinese ethnicities, moved into the overseas communities. Globalization now provides new challenges for Hakka communities around the world. Community bonds dissolve and ‘being guests’ turns into an obsolete epithet in a time where economic, political and social stimulations and pres- sures dislocate families and communities daily. Although the group identity and history of the Hakka people refer to emigration and settlement, migration in the era of globalization entails new conditions and appearances for life and identity in ethnic communities. Societies change, constructions of cultural and ethnic identity too. Most research on Hakka identity focuses on local communities and identifies varia- tions in social habits, linguistic practices and cultural narratives, thereby per- sisting in writing about Hakka identity along the lines of ethnic history. But how can cultural or ethnic identity be described when personal living con- ditions and social environments cease to provide a constant framework in a local community, where ethnic and cultural identity is reflected in and can be observed in interactive situations and social communication? Jessieca Leo’s study offers a quite different approach. It provides a new per- spective of Hakka identity in the context of a global society. In short, Hakka identity becomes personalized. Rather than the life and culture of ethnic communities, the multifaceted world of the individual serves as the base for describing cultural and ethnic identity. The global context sets new parameters for identity constructions. This does not mean that traditional cultural proper- ties for identity construction have to be abandoned, rather their significance changes. They become part of the greater process constructing the personal and social identity of the individual. The status of some of these ethnic identi- fications and cultural markers, like language and values, shift into contingency, which means that I may relate my personal identity to a certain ethnic identity, although my cultural background and linguistic biography may define my per- son in a quite different way. Thus, besides the insights in constructions of Hakka identity in the global world today, the present study offers new views on how we should think about x foreword concepts like ethnic and cultural identity. Is ethnic identity a property of my personal identity and does it belong to the constituent parts that make me the person I am? My personality may change and I may deny or accept, strengthen or reduce the importance of how ethnic relationship defines my personality. Otherwise, living in an open society, my relationship with my ethnicity may be observed in my social interactions, but it may have no real significance in con- stituting my social identity. And my personal cultural socialization might differ from the social and cultural formations my ethnic relationship is commonly related to. This makes ethnic identity a flexible concept, which still maintains its significance albeit within a wider frame of reference. We need new concepts to describe the manifold processes which shape our identity and allow us to refer to an ethnic identity without being forced to relate to certain properties and values. A concept like ‘Hakkaness’ gives credit to the various interactions between individual determinants and social adher- ence which underlie identity construction in different cultural contexts. It rec- ognizes, too, the impact of values and habits of other cultures and societies which transform the ethnic identity of an individual in certain ways—making his or her perception of his or her own ethnic identity different from other regions and localities. A person who lives abroad and comes back to her or his hometown after a long time may be astonished by some of the transforma- tions in the local habits not known to her or him before, while local persons already accustomed to these modifications see them as the vital testimony of their own tradition. On the other hand, some habits and values that she or he may have imperceptibly adopted while living abroad may offend traditions from the others’ point of view. Perceptions of the same identity become un- identical, yet persist to be interrelated with each other. In the global context, ethnic identity becomes personal-centered, flexible, and elastic to the various cultural settings and social conditions which an indi- vidual is faced with. Flexibility and elasticity do not mean that ethnic identity does not play a significant role today, rather that they show its prominence in the construction of personal and social identities in the global world. Hence, it is quite fascinating to see how Hakka identity prevails even when people are dislocated and dispersed through different parts of the world, where tradi- tional forms of communitarian life have changed dramatically. Dennis Schilling Professor Ludwig Maximilian University Munich Acknowledgements My interest in Chinese Studies started at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.