Celebrate Hakka!
July 5th, 2010 by Staff
Public lecture by Keith Lowe 9th July 2010
Hakka festival with insert of the Round Houses
The Hakka people are a branch of the Han Chinese who experienced several major migrations in their long history. They left the Yellow River region in northern China and moved southward in the Jin dynasty (晋朝 265 – 420 CE). Since then they made several other moves until they were settled mainly in the southern provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi, and other parts of China. As they were the late-comers in those provinces they were referred to as the Hakka, the guest people, by the local Han Chinese already established in those areas.
In more recent centuries, the Hakka made up a sizeable portion of the people from southern China who emigrated to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and Europe. During the second half of the twentieth century, some descendants of the early Hakka emigrants began to re-immigrate so that, for example, in Canada and the United States today there are vibrant communities of the Hakka who came from India, Jamaica and other countries.
Famous Hakka in modern Chinese history include: the leader of the Taiping Rebellion (1850) Hong Xiuquan, the father of the Chinese republic (1911) Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and the Communist leader Deng Xiaoping who introduced many reforms beginning in 1978.
At the festival there will, of course, be vendors of Hakka food. But the treat for the taste buds will not be just for one day. Ever generous to share what they have with others, the organizers of the Hakka festival will also distribute their recipes, complete with the names of the ingredients in Chinese and English, and where they may be obtained.
Besides food, visitors to the festival will enjoy many rich experiences. There will be short and quick instruction in the Hakka dialect and the standard Chinese Mandarin, a skit about the five major migrations of the Hakka people, demonstration of martial arts, performance by a band with ten Chinese musical instruments, and recorded music among which will be a symphony based on Hakka folk melodies. There will also be a booth where herbs used by the Hakka in their cuisine or as medicine will be explained.
According to the coordinator of the festival activities, Penny Chung Williams, the purpose of the festival is not only to share the Hakka traditions with others but also to pass on to the younger generations the Hakka values which have sustained the Hakka people through the centuries: endurance with indefatigable efforts to rise above adversities, generosity, education and an optimistic outlook.
Two days before the festival Dr. Keith Lowe will give a free public lecture on the Round Houses, known in Chinese as tulou (土楼) and shown in the poster above. Many centuries ago, the Hakka people who settled in Fujian province built round fortress-like dwellings of rammed earth that contained a whole village. As a unique architectural style, the Round Houses are designated today as a United Nations world heritage site. The public lecture will be held on Friday, July 9, in the East Asian Library, University of Toronto, at 2:30 pm.**
* Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto
5183 Sheppard Avenue East
Scarborough, Ontario M1B 5Z5
Organizers: 905-201-9387, 416-438-1543
** Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library
University of Toronto
Robarts Library 8th floor, 130 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A5
Phone: 416-978-1025
If there’s great food, I’ll be there.