The Kejia (Hakka) are the famous 'Guest People' of China, a dialect group without a home, spread widely over China and anywhere there are Chinese in the world. As their name implies, they came to many provinces in China as late as 1000 years ago, driven to move by war and famine, planted themselves down, and to the annoyance of the locals, never left. As a result of their outsider status, and to protect themselves, their homes are famous as self-contained communities- the famous 'Hakka Castles'. Many were built in a circular shape, with rammed earth walls, and housing up to a 1000 people inside (depending on the size of the 'castle'). They usually have four levels, all facing a central open-air courtyard. The bottom floors are for daily living- the cooking, cleaning, and animal rearing are done here. The second floor are for the young and the elderly. The next two floors are the other residences, and for guests. These famous round (and sometimes square) buildings are very distinctive in China, and have long been a source of fascination for everyone else. The Americans even were convinced for a while they were secret missile silos, owing to their massive size and round shape with a hole in the centre, looking for all they knew like missile silos on their spy satellite imagery.
Basically, if you imagine a huge stadium with rooms instead of seats, that's what the basic model looks like. All have some unique characteristics, of course. The one we visited had an internal ring as well, with a hall in the centre instead of a large courtyard. The size varies greatly as well, as does their age. The newest were only about a hundred years old, but the oldest was over 1,200 years old- and has been continuously inhabited since it was built in the Tang Dynasty.
We had a typically Hakka lunch, a home cooked meal by a local chef who took great pride in his work, wearing a tie and dressing up for tour groups which pass through. Like all other peasant fare in China, it was extremely robust and filling, extremely fresh, and very oily. Hakka communities being self-sustaining, it was also grown around the corner, fertilised by local manure and fed by local farmers. It certainly gives a city person like me a new perspective on my food when one walks past fields reeking with human waste and sees vegetables growing in them, and knows that one will be eating vegetables that only a short time ago was in the same position.
We were given a tour by yet another young and pretty tour guide, who was extremely fluent with the architecture and history of the buildings. Why are so many of our tour guides young and pretty? Is it luck? I certainly saw some less attractive tour guides showing other people around. But they still looked pretty good. Perhaps it is because China has 1.2 billion people, and with so many people looking to get a leg up and advance themselves, they use every single means they have at their disposal- including, of course, their looks. With that many people, you're bound to have an extremely large number of attractive people working in the tourist and service industries, as those are the industries where charisma matters. Either way, I didn't complain. I talked with her for a while and learnt she was also born in the Goat year but just after Chinese New Year, making her roughly 10 months older. She had worked as a guide in the area for just over two years already, and had assumed I was a lot younger given my propensity for clowning around (my mugging for the camera when we were taking photos made a big impression on her apparently!). In fact, she was quite surprised to learn I am a teacher.
"I supposed you get on very well with the kids," she chuckled, "Do they see you as one of them?"
Lacking the capability to be witty in Chinese, I merely laughed in response. I'm lousy at flirting in a language I am fully proficient and familiar with the colloquialisms and slang; I had no hope in a language I only use for conducting business transactions, arguing with taxi drivers and ordering food.
Posted by pj at October 23, 2004 02:39 PMAre you Kejia too? I am, as far as linguistic heritage is concerned. All of my grandparents spoke what I understand to be a variant of Fui Chiu Hakka at home, though my maternal grandfather actually came from a Fujianese-speaking family from Guangzhou. My actual blood heritage is pretty mixed up, and most records were believed to have been lost during the war or passed on to family branches we never meet anymore. Geneology sounds fascinating, especially with diasporan people like us.
Posted by: Wei Yi at October 27, 2004 03:07 AMNope; my family is from Guangxi, near the border with Guangzhou. We speak Cantonese, as far as I can tell. Linguistic heritage is very confusing- I was more fluent in Hokkien than Cantonese as a child because my nanny spoke Hokkien. My lineal blood descent is pretty clear though, with good records preserved. You might say we're in opposite situations.
Posted by: PJ at October 27, 2004 03:55 AMI guess growing up in S'pore or Penang, you'd tend to speak Hokkien first. Cantonese doesn't have much space in modern S'pore, with HK serials dubbed into Mandarin and Hokkien as the common vernacular.
In M'sia, it really depends on region. Even within the Klang Valley, while Hokkien dominates in Klang town near the coast, Fui Chiu hakka takes over in the inland areas near Ampang and south of KL. KL itself is a Cantonese area, as are most older Chinatowns worldwide. Other Kejia enclaves that I know of here in the Peninsula are Ipoh (mix of many types, actually), Sg. Lembing in Pahang and most of Sabah. Many Chinese here in KL speak or understand about three dialects - usually Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese. Where you settled down often determines the dialect you use at home, rather than what you actually spoke back in China.
I barely pass muster in Cantonese, and probably won't be able to carry on a business discussion with a Hong Konger. I can also barely make out the news broadcasts in formal Hakka over the radio, owing to my limited vocab. Give me the BBC or Guardian Online anytime.
Posted by: Wei Yi at October 27, 2004 07:43 AMI'm guessing that you grew up under the National Education Policy, were taught in Malaya and so don't read or write Chinese? Not that it matters; ten years of learning it in Singapore and I can barely read or write it either.
Posted by: PJ at October 27, 2004 10:11 AMTill now, I'm wondering whether we actually have any semblance of an education anymore. In 1982, I was a part of the pilot batch for the KBSR (new curriculum for primary schools) which was only carried out in specific schools. Highlights of this policy were the dumping of primary school science, history and geography into a mixed social sciences subject. By the time we got to secondary school, it was clear that the unified curriculum concept was falling apart, and new ideas were being injected on an ad hoc basis without considering the overarching structure and goals of the original overhaul. And what a confused bunch of kids we were.
Anyway, back to the topic - yes, we did not learn Chinese in the non-vernacular schools. We could have taken it in Saturday classes, but at much more basic levels than in Chinese schools. I suspect that the lack of direction in non-vernacular schools prompted a mass exodus of chinese children into Chinese schools - by the time I finished secondary schooling, my old primary school had hardly any Chinese pupils left. And at the same time the Chinese schools have been bursting at their seams since, while vernacular teachers are drastically short in supply.
Vernacular schools are the sacred cow of the Chinese community. The government cannot eliminate them due to the influence of chinese voters. Blueprints from the Merdeka era have always called for an eventual unified education system, something like what S'pore has done, but political expediency has led to this policy remaining on the backburner indefinitely.
Judging from blogs, I can see that young S'poreans generally do not appear to be too happy with Chinese and usually "send it back" when they finish secondary school. The reason is simple - saturation level use of English and over exposure to American Culture. It's the same reason why Bahasa Melayu has failed to take hold in the urban popular culture and commercial arenas here. I only know formal Malay and would sound like a stiff nerd if I tried to have a conversation with a native speaker.
But I have to write my thesis in Malay!
Posted by: Wei Yi at October 27, 2004 10:37 AM