Author: wuming
Date: 03-20-03 03:17
Dear all,
First of all, please pardon my lousy english, as english is my third language.
When this thread first appeared 3 months ago, I was eagerly waiting for the forumites to respond. Sadly to say, not very many had replied. Perhaps people has run out of idea about this issue. I could only relate this topic with personal observation, not in the scholar manner or any big dream like having the chinatown/ hakka town or hakka entrepreneurs international correlation movement. So i took up the courage to write something........
Perhaps we should look into the question in reverse manner, "How much one hakka has lost the hakka culture?" How to define hakka culture in general sense? As a chinese, I think the first impression/noticeable mark one person gives to others in order others could recognise him as hakka is the hakka spoken language. No doubt hakka culture comprises other elements as well, but how many people especially the new young generation could clearly define the other hakka values [besides hakka language]? Just list them down one by one, or even define chinese culture. The other chinese dialects groups also could have the same culture characteristics like chingming [paying respect to the death], dumplings or chinese new year, this more like COMMON CHINESE culture. To me, without knowing to speak hakka, the hakka culture has lost greatly to roughly 70% of the hakka characteristics.
The easier way to preserve the hakka language is to start teaching the kids when they were born. Provided you still have the capability to speak the language or someone around home [grandpa/grandma] to speak the language. Most of the young chinese couples in South East Asia have started the trend to speak only mandarin or english with their kids even in the infant period. Personally i think the much more a person has improved in the social state whether in the education or wealth, they tend to lost the dialects or even lost the chinese literated skills. The reason, very simple. English is the commercialised language.
My mum only studied for two years in the primary chinese school due to some harship [my grandpa [mother's father] was killed by tiger when he tapping the rubber in the rubber state], my dad studied only 6 years in chinese primary school, that's it, that was during 50s. Both of them are hakkas. Luckily we only converse in hakka in the family. My grandpa grandma [father side], aunties/uncles [both father and mother side] happened to marry a hakka spouse, all the family members conversing with each others in hakka only. No matter where we go or meet, spontaneously will converse in hakka when the family members meet. That's an unwritten NATURE basic instinct rule for our family.
The place I grew up didn't have that kind of cantonese hostile towards other dialect speakers mentioned by the forumites here. During primary school at 80s, the classmates and I spoke in mandarin, out of school time, playing around with neighbouring pals with speaking in cantonese [most of the time ] or mandarin. Back home, only speaking hakka with family members and relatives. So , the use of hakka language most of the time only confines within the family members.
I have a classmate, his parents both are teachers and chinese literated as well. They gave the reason that not to burden the kids with languages, so they sent my classmate to malay school to study. It ended up that my classmate only capable in speaking his dialect hokkien, malay and english. No doubt his english and malay language abilities is far beyond excellent. Since he only speaks the hokkian dialect and most of the chinese classmates don't speak hokkian, and our english spoken skill was not that great, so we ended up conversing among ourselves in malay language, be it in the school, or after school time. That's a kind of social oddity if chinese conversing in malay language with chinese especially privately or in the public domain. On one occasion we were having lunch in a local pizza hut. We walked in early in the morning and sat there for more than few hours chitchat in malay language. That morning there was only us in the pizza hut, no other customers. Because we chatted so loud in malay, at the end we noticed the malay waitresses there staring at us with amazement. How come two chinese speaking in malay in public domain!!!! That is an social oddity to the eyes of other in the general public view.
I relate the above story with the hakka issue. From the beginning due to the classmate incapability to speak mandarin/cantonse, we [classmates] compromised to speak in malay with him in the first place. As time goes by, we ourselves had development that kind of habit and seeing this issue with no big deal [ actually there is no big deal speaking in malay among chinese for me , just a kind of oddity]. Started from the first hakka generation who with 100 % speaking hakka ability and this capability has decreased gradually the many next generations to come, one generation by one generation. We COMPROMISE a bit one generaion after another generation. Now some may say not able to speak hakka is not the necessary factor to be recognised as hakka, at least has a hakka heart. I know some don't have the supporting environment to let them to learn the hakka, especially when they were kids, that can be excused [Provided their parents already have lost the ability to speak hakka]. But what if, WHAT IF, their parents in the first place have looked down upon the hakka language and NOT willing to teach them when their children were born. That's cannot be torelant, and no excuses will be accepted. Just as the above example, many chinese parents nowasday only speak with their kids in english and mandarin, some even only speak english. [ The above matter only confines to both parents are chinese]
I have two nieces, a-yun [5 years] and a-ying[4 years]. a-yun's father is a hokkian. a-ying's father is a hakka too. Both of their parents speak only mandarin with them. My mum looked after a-yun for sometime, during this time, a lot of time i urged my mum and dad to speak only hakka with a-yun, not with their lousy mandarin pronunciation. Luckily my parents follow my need, and most of the time [90%], they will speak hakka with a-yun. Sometimes i urged my sisters and brothers-in-law to speak with their kids in hakka/hokkian, they just ignoring and doing nothing. During the times under my mum's care, a-yun had grasped some basic hakka. But now she is staying with her parent and not with her grandma anymore. Whenever wherever a-yun speaks to me, I will only reply in hakka. When ever or wherever a-yun asks me to do her favour, I will only ask her to ask them in hakka until she asks it correctly in hakka, then i will fulfill her request. When ever wherever I heard my family talk with a-yun in mandarin, whether in the phone or whatever, I will urge them to speak in hakka with a-yun. a-yun watches the cantonese drama series, now she is picking up the cantonese, and let her learn the mandarin and english properly in the kindergarten school. With a little bit more guide during her primary school day, i believe a-yun could pick up the malay and english as well and mandarin too.
a-yun now can speak hakka without problem in daily conversation, but still lack of vocabularies, a little more persistence during her childhood, that would lead her to a life-long usage of hakka language, which cannot be bought with money. a-ying is a bit shy, luckily she is staying with her grandmum [my brother-in-law's mother], and her grandma only speaks hakka with a-ying. Even thought I seldom heard a-ying speak hakka, but i do know she listen to the hakka very well. Since a-ying seldom comes over to my place, I cannot watch over her, hopefully one day a-ying will open-up her mouth and speak in hakka, actually i even seldom hear her speaks mandarin as she is the shy and quiet type.
Sometimes i walked into the night-market stalls at the roadside, if i heard the hawkers speaking in hakka, then i will take the initiative to start the conversation in hakka, not asking for a reduced price credit, just to keep the hakka language alive. No matter where i go, if i hear the correspondants speaking in hakka, them i will start the converstion in hakka.
Come back to the question, how to preserve hakka culture, to me speaking hakka is almost comprising 70 % of the culture value. If one could speak hakka, and read the chinese, he could look up the other 30 % hakka value in the libraries. To preserve the hakka language, one has to start even during infant period. Try to maximise the usage of hakka at your daily life, especially within family, people you encounter daily, etc etc. Don't underestimate the kids abilities to pick up languages, kids could easily cope with lauguages before 12 years.
Hopefully we still could roar in loud "Ngai hei Hakka Ngin", but not "I am hakka", 100 years from now............. Let the hakka and chinese dialect grow like a kaleidoscope, not to be a monotonous society.
World Peace !
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