No Subject

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.joinet.net.au>]

Dear Hakka Friends,

I was born in a small Hakka town called Pusing in Malaysia. Most of
the residents of Pusing are the offspring of the immigrants from the 
ancestral Hakka village called Feng Gang in Dongguan county which is about
45 kilometers north of Hong Kong. Feng Gang is developing fast into a
modern town now as the new highway from Hong Kong to Guang Zhou is passing
through it. Due to the tin-ore rush, about 100 years ago our ancestors
came and settled down in this what they called the land of tin-ore,
Pusing.    

In the 1930's tin-ore was discovered in an area at the foot of a hill 
near the Siamese (Thai) border, north of Malaysia. Eventually this area
was named Kaki Bukit (Foot Hill) which is about 400 kilometers north of
Pusing. Again, a tin-ore rush was on as far as the Pusing folks were
concerned. Many of them went there to seek for their fortune. Ultimately,
they lived there permanently. It seemed that at that time only the Hakka
People in Malaysia are interested in tin-ore.

Kaki Bukit is a hybrid of Pusing and Feng Gang. Many of the folks of these
three towns are related and they speak the same type of Hakka; Dongguan
Hakka.
 
I had been to Kaki Bukit three times and the people always told me that
their parents or grandparents were originally from Pusing. My niece works
in Hong Kong and she visits our ancestral place two or three times a year
because my family has some investment there. Many a time she e-mailed me
talking about some of the similarities between the Hakkas in Pusing and
Feng Gang. She said all the Pusing Hakka slangs were originated from Feng
Gang. 

I had been to China twice but unfortunately I did not visit the ancestral
place.

Yoon-Ngan.