Re: Hakka, Hebrew, and survival

[kaihsu@ugcs.caltech.edu (TE Khai-su)]

> Tang poetry 
> 
> Of course, everyone knows that Tang poetry was written in Hakka!  I hope
> this list is not so desperate that we would claim Tang poetry as yet
> another example of our cultural legacy. 

Everyone but me I guess?  I am not a Hak-ngin but a Ho-lo-lang, and I have
also heard (from some Ho-lo-oe "orthodoxist") that Ho-lo-oe is _the_
language Tang poetry was written in.  The bottom line is: the Tang poetry
is not written in any modern language!  It is something that was used a
few hundred years ago and you can't expect that language to be the same
as Hak-fa.

The written Han characters can be interpreted in different spoken
languages.  And I would assume basically any southern Han-related
languages can rightfully "claim" that Tang poetry is "readable" in their
tongue.  Even northern Han-related languages such as Mandarin can claim
such, with just a bit loss in final stopping consonants.

> To explain what I meant by my analogy.  Until recent times, the
> socioeconomic elite of China, in every dynasty, studied classical poetry,
> which is a purely literary, written language, although some attempts to
> reconstruct how it "sounded" have been made.  An ambitious elite person's
> intelligence was measured through his/rarely her ability to write in
> classical language, and to quote from and allude to the ancient poetry and
> histories.  The judges had much leeway in determining which candidate was
> the "most Chinese," most respectful of the (Han) Chinese past, etc., in
> order to choose appropriate people for government jobs. The judges could
> use their discretion, and their subjectivity to disqualify candidates.

Indeed, there are two things we have to distinguish: the Literati, and the
People.  

The Literati were those who studied Han characters and learned classical
poetry which was in written form.  The written things in Han characters
could be read in Ho-lo-oe, in Hak-fa, in Cantonese, or in any Han-related
languages with minimal mismatch in their major specialties such as rhyming
and parity.  This sort of provided the basis on which the "Han
conglomerate" was built on.

The People knew nothing about these literary forms.  Say we are in
Moi-yen. The People there communicated in Moi-yen Hak-fa, sang san-ko-e.
When someone from Amoy came to their community, they think that s/he was
strange and an "outsider", because s/he spoke a different language which
no one understands.  This was where the idea of "ethnic group" came from.

Now we have jumped out and see what is going on, we can choose one which
we want to promote.  We can choose to promote Tang poetry and thus have a
homogeneous Han community, or we can choose to promote san-ko-e and thus
have a Hak-ka community.

The PRC has been working very hard to achieve the former.  There is a
magazine called "Hak-ka-ngin" published in Moi-yen, but almost all the
stuff inside is written in Mandarin.  Hak-ngin is just another subgroup in
the homogenizing "Han nationality".  There is nothing worth
preserving in Hak-fa and san-ko-e, because there is a greater thing 
to pursue: the great, unifying language of Mandarin ("Modern
Han'yu") with lineage from Tang and Song ("Middle Han'yu") and the happy,
big family of "Han people" and "Zhonghua Minzu".  Beijing does not seem to
be so far away.

> I believe that today in Taiwan the college entrance exams still require
> competence in classical Chinese. In the sense that classical, i.e.,
> LITERARY Chinese was, and is still useful for certifying a person's level
> of intelligence and refinement, classical Chinese has been successfully
> preserved.

I was educated in Taiwan until I was 18, and was prepared to participate
in the College Entrance Exam, and I was expected to be competent in
classical "Chinese".  But I don't see how intelligence and refinement
necessarily associate with something that is a few hundred years old.

[Actually, the High School education in Taiwan _fails_ to prepare their
students for College: instead of encouraging them to learn English well
(which will help most of them in their future career), they fill students
with useless (sorry if this offends you) garbage of ancient times which
they will in any way forget once they get over with the Entrance Exam.
What comes out is a bunch of graduate students who can hardly read
English!  Let me give you a hint: if you want to pass your freshman
physics in some Taiwan college, write your exam in English.  No TA will
ever understand you because their English sucks.  They are reluctant to
admit it so they just give you full credit.  This is a tried and proven
method (by me in National Taiwan University).]

> Hebrew, Jewish written language

> I do not think that Israel a modern nation requires the prime minister to
> be skilled in reading and writing Hebrew, nor are the Jewish socioeconomic
> elite of the U.S. required to know Hebrew.  And American Jewish culture is
> a much-debated topic: will it survive because Jews are the chosen people,
> and there is an innate Jewish essence, or will it wither away due to
> interethnic marriages, abandonment of Jewish religious rituals, lessening
> of oppression, and television?  Time will tell. 

Nowadays, Israeli People value Modern Hebrew a lot.  I don't think any
prime minister can be incompetent in Modern Hebrew and win the election.
See Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' introduction at
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/facts/culture/fcult2.html

Language is _very_ important in ethnic identity.  Don't overlook it.