Decline of Hakka in Malaysia?

[Dixie Dixie <dixie1999_2000@yahoo.com>]

Following extracted from soc.culture.malaysia

On Wed, 03 May 2000 20:35:44 +0800, Velan
<velan@pl.jaring.my> wrote:
>
>
>Vince Mammoth wrote:
>
>> AS far as I know, Hokkien is the lingua franca of
the chinese
>> community in the northern and southern part of
peninsular M'sia
>> and S'pore. Cantonese is the common chinese
language in the
>> middle part of the peninsular.
>>
>
>O uh , I am getting confused. OK , let me summarize
my question. What would the
>most common language used to converse orally among
the Chinese in Malaysia
>generally?
>
 
 
1. Malandrin  (almost every Malaysian Chinese can
speak this Chinese dialect)
 
2. Cantonese (in middle 70's less than 1/2 Malaysian
Chinese can speak Cantonese, but due to the influence
of Hong Kong media in these 25 years, more than 80%
Malaysian Chinese can speak Cantonese), the only
region that is still resisting Cantonese is probably
Eastern Sarawak. 
 
4. Hokkian, 1/2 of Malaysian Chinese are Hokkian.
 
3. Hakka, even though Hakka are famous for resisting
assimilation by local population wherever they go,
(They fled from area around LuoYang 2 thousand years
ago, for example they live in Canton for hundreds of
years but refuse to be assimilate by Cantonese, they
live in Hokkian but refuse to be assimilate by
Hokkian) a lot of Hakka in Middle Peninsular Malaysia
had lost their mother tongue, and speak Cantonese
instead.
 
I heard that there is historical background for Hakka
assimilation into Cantonese in Malaysia, can anybody
talk about it?
 
456789 Teochew, Fuchew, Toishan, Hainanese,
Shandongnese and
Shanghainese.
 
In 1980's Population Census (Banci) they ask Chinese
about their mother tongue, and this is the result:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Opera/4307/chinese.html
 
Mother tongue        Peninsular S'wak  Sabah Total
Southern Min(Hokkian) 1824741    84280  37677 1946698
Hakka                786097    109060  90478 985635 
Cantonese            704286    24640  19184 748010 
Eastern Min(Fuchew)  85368      120645  0    206013
 
If they do that again in the next census, a lot of the
descendent of those Hakka would answer "Cantonese"
this time.
 
>Thank you anyway for your response

 
  


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