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Urban life a threat to Hakka culture

While urbanization and economic development improve living standards, they also pose a threat to the survival of Hakka culture in Taiwan and in many other countries, panelists told a forum on urban Hakka yesterday.

“To make a better living, many Hakka migrated from their hometowns to the cities, notably Taipei and Kaohsiung,” public administration professor at National Taipei University Chiu Chang-tai (丘昌泰) — who himself is Hakka — said. “However, as they move into cities, they become ‘invisible.’”

The forum was hosted by National Central University’s College of Hakka Studies and the Taipei County Hakka Affairs Bureau in Taipei yesterday.

Using Taipei City as an example, Chiu said that although many people do not feel there are many Hakka living in Taipei, “studies by academics show there could be as many as 497,000 Hakka in Taipei, or about 20 percent of the population.”

Most Hakka in Taipei are migrants from rural areas in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties who came to search for a better life, Chiu said.

“Hakka in Taipei intentionally conceal their ethnic identity and learn to speak Hoklo and Mandarin so they won’t be any different from their neighbors and will not become targets of discrimination,” he said. “In fact, when my team and I conducted field research on Hakka in Taipei, most people were reluctant to admit they were Hakka and some even showed hostility we asked if they were Hakka.”

The situation among Hakka in Kaohsiung is similar, he said.

“The Kaohsiung Hakka Affairs Commission said there are as many as 270,000 Hakka — or one sixth of the population — in ­Kaohsiung City, but people continue to view it as a predominantly Hoklo city,” Chiu said, adding that the invisibility of Hakka is more serious in Kaohsiung than Taipei.

“I visited several Hakka associations in Kaohsiung and was surprised to find that their members usually talk to each other in Hoklo,” he said.

Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences Center for Hakka Studies professor Chen Shisong (陳世松) said the Hakka community in Dongshan (東山), a suburb of the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu, is facing the same challenge.

Chen said that when young Hakka from rural Dongshan move into the city in the hope of finding a better life, “they lose the environment in which they could pass on Hakka culture and live as Hakka.”

“A Hakka living in the city is no different from others if he doesn’t use Hakka and thus becomes ‘invisible,’” Chen said. “As such, the biggest impact urbanization has had on Hakka is that many are forgetting their mother tongue — the only symbol of Hakka identity.”

This isn’t because Hakka consciously want to abandon their heritage, he said, “but the environment they live in forces them to.”

Vorasakdi Mahatdhanobol, an academic at Chulalongkong University in Thailand, said that most Hakka in Thailand — especially those who live in Bangkok — have lost their culture.

“The few Hakka communities that have managed to keep their traditions are those who live outside Bangkok,” he said.
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