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HAKKAS (" Guests," or " Strangers ")

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 828 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HAKKAS (" Guests," or " Strangers ")  , a See also:people of S.W . See also:China, chiefly found in Kwang-Tung, Fu-Kien and See also:Formosa . Their origin is doubtful, but there is some ground for believing that they may be a See also:cross between the aboriginal Mongolic See also:element of See also:northern China and the See also:Chinese proper . According to their tradition, they were in Shantung and northern China as See also:early as the 3rd See also:century B.c . In disposition, See also:appearance and customs they differ from the true Chinese . They speak a distinct See also:dialect . Their See also:women, who are prettier than the pure Chinese, do not compress their feet, and move freely about in public . The See also:Hakkas are a most industrious people and furnish at See also:Canton nearly all the See also:coolie labour employed by Europeans . Their intelligence is See also:great, and many noted scholars have been of Hakka See also:birth . Hung See also:Sin-tsuan, the See also:leader in the Taiping See also:rebellion, was a Hakka . In Formosa they serve as intermediaries between the Chinese and See also:European traders and the natives . From See also:time immemorial they seem to have been persecuted by the Chinese, whom they regard as " foreigners," and with whom their means of communication is usually " See also:pidgin See also:English." The earliest persecution occurred under the " first universal See also:emperor " of China, Shi-Hwang-ti (246—210 B.C.) .

From this time the Hakkas appear to have become wanderers . Sometimes for generations they were permitted to live unmolested, as under the Han See also:

dynasty, when some of them held high See also:official posts . During the Tang dynasty (7th, 8th, and 9th centuries) they settled in the mountains. of Fu-kien and on the frontiers of Kwang-Tung . On the invasion of Kublai See also:Khan, the Hakkas distinguished themselves by their bravery on the Chinese See also:side . In the 14th century further persecutions drove them into Kwang-Tung . See " An Outline See also:History of the Hakkas," China See also:Review (See also:London, 1873-1874), vol. ii.; Pitou, " On the Origin and History of the Hakkas," ib.; See also:Dyer See also:Ball, Easy Lessons in the Hakka Dialect (1884), Things Chinese (London, 1893) ; Schaub, " See also:Proverbs in Daily Use among the Hakkas," in China Review (London, 1894-1895), vol. xxi.; Rev . J . Edkins, China's See also:Place in See also:Philology; See also:Girard de Rialle, Rev. d. anthrop . (See also:Jan. and See also:April, 1885); G . See also:Taylor, "The See also:Aborigines of Formosa," China Review, xiv. p . 198 seq., also xvi . No .

End of Article: HAKKAS (" Guests," or " Strangers ")
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