migration,hakka,She, tsu-p'u etc

[Jen-Yih Chu (Jen-Yih Chu) <CHUJ@wpogate.slu.edu>]

Dear John, Sherman and Dr. Lee:

Thank you very much for your comments about my last posting. 
 
As an academic physician, we teach medical students and young
physicians the science of medicine, evidence-based medical practice
and we also teach them how to update themselves of future
development.  We do research in order to find new informations to
improve and to correct the old inaccurate knowledges with new
evidences. I have same attitute for Hakka.

I believe evidences, not rhetoric.  To be Hakka is trying hard to preserve
and to promote Hakka culture and language what you can. We have fund
raising in North America, and we support Hakka research and activity in
Taiwan and Taiwanese Hakka community in North America. We gave
more than $7,500 grants and awards to promote Taiwanese Hakka last
year. 

If someone post information I believed is questioable or incorrect, I try to
let people know, regardless China or Taiwan.  My time is limited, I only try
to point out what I know.  I know Taiwanese  Hakka better, and I have no
time to check validity of other areas that much.

My hobby in Hakka is experimenting writing of Hakka mainly.  Therefore,,
Hakka is a language not a dialect.  As language, Hakka should be able to
be written not just spoken.  You are welcome to visit my Hakka
Taiwanese newsltter. You need Big-5 but there is one article in every
issue written in alphabetes using the system of  Hakka Bible ( no Big-5 is
needed for romanized Hakka). The address is:
http://www.i1.net/~alchu/hakka/hakkafa1.htm
I also send the printed version (much better and easier to read) to those
made any donation to our fund (NATPA). A bound 72 page book of 1997
issues was recently published and we also mailed this to those made
donation.  If you have question, please let me know.  (alchu@i1.net)

The purpose of this posting is to further comment about 5 migratons of
Hakka and the relationship of Hakka to She.

My information came mainly from China.  In comparison to previous Ching
imperial and Kuomingtang(Nationlist) governments (ROC), the
communist(PROC) treats the minority the best.  Because of this policy,
there are more studies done about the origin of Hakka and other minority
in China.  Many books are not available outside of China before are
avialbe now.  These new informations explain better than the theory of
Mr. Lo Hiong-lim  65 years ago about the origin of Hakka. 

Massive migration is possible and it is true for Lo's  4th and 5th migration
but unlikely  the first and second migration.  Please read my website and
the  references I posted before and Prof. Lo Hiong-lim's original books.  

To be brothers and sisters of She people (meaning we have same
ancestors) is not a  shame.  Actually an article in Hakka magazine few
years ago based on the information from China was published with  the 
title "She and Hakka are Brothers".

Robert Ramsey's book " The Language of China" can be easily bought in
Book store or found in Library. That book has a lot interesting information
about language and anthropology.  His reference came mainly from
China.  Before you lost patient, I will conclude with one paragraph from
Ramsey's book (his information from PROC) about the validity of
self-claimed family origin (Tsu-p'u).

" Under the old Nationalist regime, it was now claimed, the Zhuang had
hidden their identity out of fear of government suppression.  Their
language had been insulted, ridiculed, and even banned by the
reactionary ruling classes," the new Chinese leader maintained, but now
the dignity of this people would be restored.  Accodringly, in their first
survey of the minorities, communist researcher found many more millions
of Zhuang than had ever been known to exist.  Zhuang families and
clans were brought protesting out of the Chinese closet.  in one study of
152 clans conducted a few years earlier, not a single family admitted to a
Southern origin.  Those with the surname Zhao claimed Chinese
ancestry that stemmed from the palace retinue of the Song court.  Those
with the surname Wei said that their genealogical lineage went back to
the son  of the great general Han Xing; when the father was executed
they explained , the son had fled south and, in order to conceal his
identity, had deleted the left half of the character of his surname Han,
leaving a differnt characteer pronounced  Wei.  Yet in spite of such
imaginative attempts to conceal their identity, these Southern families
were all registered as Zhuang. " (page 235)

Not only Hakka, Min and Cantonese were also southern origin primarily. 
In page 233 of that book " One ethnographer has estimated that at least
60 percent of the Cantonese people must be descened from an aboritinal
Tai-speaking population. " The ethnorgrapher is not named but I think is a
Chinese scholar.

Thanks you, if you have patient to read to here.

Albert Chu