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

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