RE: hakka: Earthquake in Taiwan

[K C Wan <wannie@hkstar.com>]

Hi,

I just got back to Hong Kong from the mainland after travelling there for 
over 2 months. The earthquake occurred during this time and I remember 
reading about China Aid to Taiwan in the China Daily. I know China 
newspapers are often very biased in there reporting so I thought I'd tell 
you what they wrote, didn't know how much was true at the time.

They wrote about aid in donations and had accounts set up for people to 
send their money in at, I believe the Agricultural Bank of China. You could 
go in, or call a number and deposit money into the accounts.  They also 
wrote that they had seismology experts and advanced equipment to study and 
give advance warning of further quakes. These people and equipment were 
waiting for Taiwanese permission to enter, according to the news. The date 
of this article was 24th or 25th September.

So how bad was this story then?

On another note, who can I email about my surname? I would like to find out 
more about it and remember my friend finding out about his from the hakka 
newsgroup. We have family history going back, apparently to people in a 
royal court or something like that but I have never seen the records. 
Someone in my close family is supposed to have them, and others in our 
village and sister villages I have met have told me similar things about 
how we migrated from where, to where and what our ancestors did (One of my 
friends says he has actually seen his branch of the ancestral tree). I also 
looked through your website, which is very interesting now, and found my 
surname listed in the geneology part.

Finally, in China I met a few Meizhou hakka and hakka from Guangdong on 
trains. At the time I couldn't speak mandarin at all and we talked in 
Hakka, but I found they had strong Mandarin accents and they also used 
Mandarin type pronounciations which sometimes made it difficult to 
understand. How many types of Hakka language are there? and what type is 
the hakka spoken in Sha Tau kok, Hong Kong? I also found that mandarin 
speakers more often understood my meaning when I used Hakka rather than 
Cantonese, and also that I picked up mandarin from understanding nothing to 
being able to have ok conversations on trains in less than 2 months. Other 
overseas cantonese people I met could barely understand after more time in 
China than me.  Is this because my first Chinese language is hakka? I only 
learnt to speak Cantonese in Hong Kong in the last 3 years and remember 
many people saying that it's easier to learn cantonese and mandarin from 
knowing hakka, and more difficult the other way - from mandarin or 
cantonese to learn hakka.

Thanks for you help, and keep up the good work on your site.

Regards,

K C Wan

-----Original Message-----
From:	sllee [SMTP:sllee@asiawind.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, September 29, 1999 11:00 AM
To:	hakka; hakka@mini.brooklaw.edu
Subject:	hakka: Earthquake in Taiwan

Dear Friends,

I have been watching the news all the times on the earthquake and my heart 
goes
to all ther suffering people in Taiwan.  What hurts me more is the attitude 
of
both sides of the Strait in politicizing the situation. I don't know why 
Beijing
only dontates $100,000 in cash and $60,000 in materials, or if there is any
error in this figure, or this is only a partial figure. It is ridiculously 
low
in any case. Nonetheless, it is an expression of compassion. Lee Teng Hui 
first
accepted and then later refused it. Hong Kong sent out a team to help 
rescue but
all they got was a cold shoulder. They were not given any duties and 
finally
they returned to HK empty handed. This was a team from Hong Kong's people, 
not
mainland via HK.

In a local fund raising meeting, a student from Beijing came and 
represented
the student bodies of mainalnd to express their concern. He was given a
lecture by one of the organizing people to stay out of Taiwan's affair.

The natural disaster is far less damaging to our people than the
generations-deep animosity that tears us apart and for no reason other than
political ambition and status quo.  When do we see a reconciliation and 
true
brotherhood of our people?

During this moment of great sorrow, we need to reflect on what our people 
really
needs and forget about all the conflicts planted by the past generations.

SL Lee
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