Re: Hakka in Mauritius

[teoh@cs.utk.edu]

>From Marc.Pichard@HQTRA01.SSC.ssc-asc.x400.gc.ca Mon Dec 16 10:26:15 1996
From: "Pichard, Marc" <Marc.Pichard@HQTRA01.SSC.ssc-asc.x400.gc.ca>
To: "'Hakka Global Network'" <teoh@cs.utk.edu>
Subject: Re: Hakka in Mauritius 

[moderator: Please cc a copy to fhakka@asiawind.com.  Thanks !]

Hello!

As the Swiss-born Canadian husband of a Mauritian-born Swiss-Canadian Hakka 
woman (?!?), I can tell you that, yes, the vast majority of Mauritian 
Chinese are Hakkas, and most of the Mauritian Hakkas who emigrated to 
Mauritius in the mid 40's in an exodus somewhat similar to the voyage of the 
Vietnamese boatpeople came from the Guangdong province (and most especially 
from the Meizhou/Meixian region).

The first language of most Mauritian Hakkas is the lingua franca of 
Mauritius, i.e. Creole (a French dialect dating back to the colonial times). 
 The first official language of Mauritius is English though (Mauritius was a 
British colony until 12 March 1968), the second official language is French. 
 Anyway, Mauritian Hakkas speak Creole, French, English and Hakka (depending 
on how hard their parents have tried to keep the Hakka language alive). 
 There are some Mauritian sites on the Internet, and some of them might give 
you information on Hakkas in Mauritius (I have the URLs somewhere at home, 
can e-mail them later this week... once I've found them!).  If you are 
interested, I have a list of books on Hakkas in Mauritius (most in English, 
some in French).

Many Mauritian Hakkas have emigrated to Canada.  Unfortunately, the younger 
generations do no longer learn Hakka (English has the upper hand).

Would anybody out there on the Hakka Global Network be willing to help me 
learn Hakka (phonetically, that is)?  Basic sentences, everyday 
conversation?  I would also like to add a few Hakka links to my home page 
(HGN will be one of them).  If you know of interesting sites (in English, if 
possible), please let me know.  Also, if anybody has a list of books, 
articles dealing with Hakka culture, history, language, etc., I would very 
much like to have this list   As I can't speak or write Hakka (yet), I would 
need books written in English (or French or German or Spanish or Dutch or 
Norwegian or Danish).

By the way, you might want to try

Thanks a million in advance.

Greetings from Ottawa, Canada
Marc

e-mail (1): marc.pichard@HQTRA01.SSC.ssc-asc.x400.gc.ca
e-mail (2): mpichard@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9601/
Fax No. (613) 723-2705

 ----------
There are many Hakka in Mauritius.  Almost all the Chinese there are Hakkas.
They usually speak French and Hakka maybe some English now.  On the 60th
Anniversary of Kheh Association celebration in Singapore in 1998.  There are
many representatives from Mauritius.

Rgds,
Nam Low