RE: HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic

[teoh@cs.utk.edu]

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Please post my letter before your answer.   Thanks  Jen-yih Chu      Date:  10/04/1996  06:40 am  (Friday)  
      From:  <teoh@cs.utk.edu>
        To:  CONNECT2.PEDS1(albert-c),INTERNET.SLUVCA(chuj)
   Subject:  RE: HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic



>From alchu@i1.net Fri Oct  4 06:39:01 1996
From: al chu <alchu@i1.net>
Subject: RE: HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic p


Dear Dr. Lee:
 I will answer your other point of:   
  What is the definition ofTaiwan Minzu? 
        
        As I said before, the Han, Zhonghua MinZu or Taiwan Min-Tsu are all
political terms.  Simailar definition used for Han, Zhonghua Minzu can also
apply  for Taiwan Min-Tsu.  Similarly, definition of China or Chinese also
various among different people.  Many people did not agree with your definition.
        I know many people from Tibet or Sin-Tsiang (at least those using
Tungusic languages) won't called themself Chinese or Zhonghua  Minzu nor
many people from Singapore.  I heard the following story from a friend from
Singapore.  When the Chinese primister Li visited Singapore, he said
something like"I am so proud that Chinese people built such a wonderful
country" in one of ceremony. Mr. Lee Kuang-yew answered him  right away "We
are not Chinee, we are Singi".
        What is Han? Mr. Lo sian-lin said "a mixture of many different
Min-tsu resided in East Asia" in his book. In his book also mentioned many
stories about the  biasis of others calling Hakka non-Han. The high
officials in Kwangton government called Hakka with the Chinese characters
with "dog"  on left side and "ke" (Hakka) or "chi" (like the first word of
Chi-Kai, the beggar) on the reight side. One of article even used "In the
mountains are many wild tribes and backward people such as Hakkas and .."
        As late as 1950s, in one of magazine published by Kuangtonese
association in Taiwan still had similar sentiment.  In an articke about
Kwangton, one reporter said ".. other than Han Min-tsu, there are other
Min-tsu in Kuangton such as Hakka, Hoklo, She,---etc".  Of course, that
article caused a lot of protest from Hakka people.
        To tell the truth, the most important thing is how to continu the
Hakka language and culture trditions to the next generations. The origin and
Han or not is not that important to me. From the reading and observation
about Hakka in China and Taiwan, I am quite pesmesstic. Hakka need work
harder to achieve that goal.
        Thank you for you attention. This one is much longer than I expected.
                                                                            
        Jen-yih Chu