The Hakkas are descendants of the Han nationality migrating southward from Central China in ancient times. In their long southward migration, the Hakka people have formed their own & unique customs and habits. These retain the heritage of the Central China culture as well as those formed gradually in the course of their southbound migration.

From generation to generation, these customs & habits have been transmitted and today the mottos of the Hakka people can be summed up as: ?Be an upright & honest man, be a winner on hard effort and give up the forefathers land rather than what they said?. These special features are clearly demonstrated in the memory of the Hakka people for their forefathers and patriarchal clan as well as in their disposition of self-confidence, self-reliance and independence, their respect to teachers & women and their love for cleanliness. The Hakkas were the only group of the Han nationality who refused to bind the feet of their women.

The customs and habits retained from central China are the traditional holidays observed by the Hakkas, the wedding customs, the folk songs and the architecture. The traditional holidays are mainly the Spring festival, the Lantern festival, Pay Homage to the deceased festival, Dragon Boat festival, Mid Autumn festival & Double Ninth festival.

Wedding customs of the Hakkas are related to the feudal rites of the Han people of Central China. Basically, it is an arranged marriage, following the parents? final say and the matchmaker?s good offices. Two types of arranged marriage existed: ?Grown-up girl marriage? and ?child bride?.

The traditional holidays are mainly the Spring festival, the Lantern festival, Pay Homage to the deceased festival, Dragon Boat festival, Mid Autumn festival & Double Ninth festival.

The grown-up girl marriage was a complicated process, starting from the young couple?s first encounter, engagement arranged by parents, accepting betrothal gifts, welcoming in the bride, wedding ceremony of kowtowing to parents-in-law, making fun of the newly-wed on wedding night and home return of the bride & husband. The two families had to be well matched in their social & economic status and the harmony of the two animals representing the year of birth of the young couple was also required. The wedding celebrations were sumptuous and costly and they were beyond the economic power of ordinary families.

Ordinary families therefore turned to the form of ?child bride?. When a boy was born into a family, the parents took a girl from a nearby family of another surname to marry their son when he grew up. Although this kind of marriage was not as costly as the first one, the two families still needed to go through the process of engagement, accepting betrothal gifts and the exchange of information on the year of birth of the would-be couple. When the latter reached marriage age, they would choose a propitious date for the wedding. A wedding ceremony and a feast were not a must. If the grown-up child bride was unable to marry the boy for certain reasons, she became the family?s adopted daughter and the mother was authorized to marry her out.

Nowadays, arranged marriage has gone forever in the Hakka areas of modern China as well as among the overseas Hakka communities. Traditional rites however still have a strong impact.

■ Folk songs

Known as ?San Kor?, these folk songs are extremely popular in Hakka areas both in China & overseas. Gone are the days when in the nineteen fifties & sixties, these songs could be heard every night in the China town of Port Louis.

With a history as long as the Hakka people, the Hakka folk songs came to southern China together with the first immigrants. They are created orally and sung by the working people. When cutting firewood in the mountains, or taking a break during work, young people will sing in antiphonal style with high voices. Their songs are about the land, work and life. Love songs are also popular. A typical song will consist of four lines with seven Chinese characters in each line. The first, second and fourth lines end in ryhme, mostly level-tone rhyme.

■ Architecture

It is recognized as one of the five major architectures in China. It also employed the most advanced building techniques of the Han people in Central China. It is a multi-storey enclosed or ?barrel type? building made of clay, fine gravel, reinforced bamboo and straw bars. The outside wall is one meter thick, the inner diameter varying from a dozen to several dozen meters whereas the 4-5 storey building can rise as high as 10-20 meters. Fully equipped, it is able to accommodate a big clan of several hundred people.

It was these barrel type buildings that the American spy satellites have mistaken for missiles and nuclear launching sites in Fujian province, targeting Taiwan.

The customs and habits that the Hakkas have formed in their southbound migration are: their funeral customs and part of their culinary style.

■ Funeral customs

The funeral customs of the Hakkas are unique among the Han nationality. They differ from others mainly in three aspects: (i) the addressing of the female on the tombstone, (ii) the custom of twice burial & (iii) the tomb structure.

The deceased Hakka women are all called ?Ruren?, a title only conferred on the mother or wife of a court official in feudal society. They are also fully dressed up as an official?s wife when they are buried. According to the legend, Emperor Zhao Bing of the Southern Song Dynasty conferred this title of ?Ruren? to all Hakka women. The emperor, who was blocked in Songkou Town in Meixian while fleeing the troops of the Yuan, was saved by a group of Hakka women who organized his safe escape at the peril of their life. Afterwards, the Emperor gave to those women rescuers gold, silver & jewels as a token of thanks, but these were declined by the Hakka women. Greatly moved by their loyalty & boldness, the emperor conferred on them the title of ?Ruren.? Twice burial is another custom inherited by the Hakkas during their southbound migration.

The deceased was first buried as in any ordinary burial. Three years later however, the remains of the deceased were unearthed, collected in a pottery vessel and buried in a new place, with a new tombstone erected. This practice can only be explained by the constant move of the Hakka people. For centuries, the forefathers of the Hakkas were constantly on the move. Whenever they were on the road again, they would unearth the remains of their deceased dear ones and carry them along to a new dwelling place and bury them there. The point was to keep the remains of their dear ones close to their residence.

The Hakka people are very particular about the structure and location of tombs. Most of the tombs are in dome shape and have to be built high up in the hills, the higher the better for obvious social hierarchy reasons. The structure of the tomb is similar to the early-stage residence i.e. the enclosed house. It is higher in the back & lower in the front and is enclosed.

■ Culinary style

The stuffed beancurd (nion teokon) was a typical culinary adaptation made by the Hakkas during their long southbound migration. Central China people normally made jiaozi (dumplings with meat and vegetable stuffing) at festival times. While moving toward the south, the forefathers of the Hakkas were short of flour to make jiaozi. To adapt to the new conditions, they made stuffed beancurd: each small piece of beancurd was filled with ground meat and then they were all fried until they became brown. Finally they were put into a pot for cooking.

Dr Edouard LEUNG SHING