Hakka Migration
The History of Hakka Migrations
Authored by: Juan Huang
Translated by: Wally Chang
We Hakka people are a very special ethnic group. Other people call us “Guest People”, and yet we also call ourselves “Guest People”.
We, the “Guest People”, were however not treated by others with courtesy. Because being an uninvited guest, we could only inhabit at the land unwanted by the locals, making our livings under various harsh conditions. This is exactly the situation the Hakka people in Taiwan have been facing. Due to its minority status, they have been more or less discriminated against by the ethnic majority, therefore developed a sense of inferiority. Those Hakkas who work out of town often hide their Hakka status and were barely able to cling to the fringe of the society.
Nevertheless, Hakka is a very fine ethnic group. This fact was specially paid attention to by many people in the late 80’s when the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping鄧小平, Lee Denghui李登輝, the president of Taiwan, one of the four Asian little tigers, and Lee Kuan Yew 李光耀(and his successor Goh Chok Tong 吳作棟), the president of Singapore, another Asian little tiger, are all Hakka. Wasn’t it amazing that all leaders of the three ethnic Chinese countries at the same time were Hakka people?
Hakka people often inherit the family precepts of “Work when shine, Study when rain” (晴耕雨讀). They emphasize both pen and sword, therefore produced many notable persons in the Chinese history. They include the famous scholar Jhu Zhi朱子and Wang Yangming王陽明; military generals like Jhu De朱德 and Ye Jianying葉劍英(the Chinese Liberation Army); revolutionary politicians like Sun Yat-sun孫文, Hong Xiuquan洪秀全 and Shida Kai石達開 (the Tai Ping Tian Guo太平天國); and political leaders like Deng Xiaoping, Lee Denghui, and Lee Guan Yew, etc..
So, why such an outstanding ethnic group is called “Guest People”? Where are we from? Why did we leave our homeland to become permanent guests at other harsh places? Hakka people originated in the Yellow river area黃河流域 in central China, including Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces河北、河南、山西、陜西. Because of this, we are also being called “Central Plain Guest People”中原客家.
Hakka people left their homeland in central China mainly to flee from war, famine, and political instability. They migrated to the south to find foods – the south Yangtze River area has been the traditional major food origin of China.
Historically, there were six major Hakka migrations as described below:
The first migration during the Qin dynasty:
After Qin ShiHuangDi秦始皇帝 unified China, he sent a mighty military force to the north of Guangdong廣東 to prevent the barbarians from attacking from the south. The force was mostly comprised of Hakka people due to their brave and skillful in fighting. The Qin dynasty秦朝 was overthrown not too long after Qin ShiHuangDi died. The military people were unable to go back to their homeland at central China, therefore became the first group of Hakkas to leave the central China. They are called “North River Hakka北江”. North River is a branch of the Pearl River珠江
The second migration during “Wu Hu Luan Hwa五胡亂華” (five barbarians uprising) period in the East Jin 東晉 dynasty:
Due to the intrusions of the five barbarians into the central China, the Hakka people in the Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei area fled cross the Yellow River in groups to escape the disturbance. They came to Anhui安徽 first, then cross the Yangtze River長江 to settle in the north of Jiangxi江西.
The third migration near the end of Tang dynasty唐朝 due to the Huang Chao rebellion黃巢之亂:
In the end of the Tang dynasty, some disobeying governors of frontier provinces created political and economical disturbances that in turn caused the Huang Chao rebellion group to emerge, which further disordered the society. The Hakka people in the disastrous area had no choice but to move out from the north of Jiangxi江西 to the west and to the west and south of Fujian福建 and south and north of Guangdong廣東.
The fourth migration in the end of the South Song dynasty南宋:
At this time, the truculent Mongolian people蒙古 who had already occupied the northern China were pursuing their goal of conquesting China by relentless chasing of the Song royals. The Song royals abandoned the capital Hangzhou杭州 to move to Fuzhou福州, then to Aisan 崖山 of Guangdong. In order to fight for their country, the Hakka people in Jiangxi and Fujian moved to the north and east of Guangdong to participate in the volunteer army organized by the patriot Wen Tianxiang 文天祥who was also a Hakka. The volunteer army fought with the Mongols for several years futilely. In the end, Wen Tianxiang was captured by the Mongols and the emperor of Song committed suicide. The South Song dynasty finally collapsed. Wen Tianxiang wrote a famous Zheng Qige正氣歌during his captivity in jail is still admired by many these days. Many Hakka people nowadays still live in the mountains of Fujian and Guangdong.
The fifth migration in the end of Ming 明朝, beginning of Qing dynasty 清朝:
During the time when the Ming dynasty was collapsing, social uprising was wide spread. People in the Sichuan 四川province were almost all evacuated to flee from the bandit Zhang Xianzhong 張獻忠. After the revolt was suppressed, the Qing government started to recruit settlers to the Sichuan province with free land. Many Hakkas in the Fujian and Guangdong area participated in this “Moving West” movement, including the ancestors of Deng Xiaoping.
The sixth migration in the mid-Qing dynasty:
Due to the increasing Hakka population in the Taisan, Kaiping, and Sihue 台山、開平、四會等地areas of Guangdong, people started to move out to seek better life. In addition to the Hainan province海南島, many Hakkas migrated to Taiwan. This is the origin of the Hakka people of Taiwan.
The six migrations described above contributed to the current spread of the Hakka population.
After the late Qing dynasty, some Hakkas even move further to overseas. They mostly concentrate in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, but some even moved as far as Europe and North America. However, the magnitude of these migrations is far smaller than that of the six migrations. These migrations were not only sporadic but also with various reasons other than war and famine.