HAKKAS, hiIkIkaz (Chin., stranger fami lies). An interesting class of people found in different provinces of Southern China, but chief ly in Kwang-si. Kwang-tung, and Fukien, whence they have spread to Formosa, Hong Kong. Hai nan (qq.v.), and even to the Straits Settle ments. Their origin is unknown, but for some unaccountable reason they appear to have been for over 2000 years the object of the most persist ent and inveterate hostility and persecution at the hands of the native or punti part of the popu lation of China. Hence they live in communities by themselves. In some districts they form the entire population, as in the prefecture of Kin ying Chow; in others they form two-thirds of the population. They are a hard-working, thrifty people, engaged in agriculture, and as quarry men, stonemasons, porters, barbers, etc. In dress and in customs they differ from the Chinese. The women are handsome, do not bind their feet, and are not secluded like the Chinese women. Their language is evidently Chinese, resembling more the Mandarin dialect of the north than any of the other dialects.
Tradition and their family records and regis ters place them in Shantung and other northern parts of China about the middle of the third cen tury B.C. It has been suggested that they may be the descendants of the aboriginal tribes found in Northern China when the Chinese themselves arrived in the country from their original home.
They seem to have incurred the displeasure of the first universal Emperor of China (c.250 n.e.), and a bloody persecution followed, in which some of the clans were wiped out. The remnant fled to the mountains, whence most of them began their wandetings southward in search of a per manent home; but persecution met them every where. Sometimes they were permitted to settle down quietly, and remain undisturbed for genera tions, as, for example, under the Han dynast', when some of them attained to high office, a cir cumstance, however, which led to fresh outbreaks, more slaughter, and renewed migrations. Dur
ing the 'Pang dynasty (seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries), they settled in the mountains of Fukien and the borders of Kw'ang-tung, where they were when Kublai Khan and his Mongol armies undertook to conquer China. Large num bers of the Hakkas joined the Imperial Army and fought for the native dynasty with the utmost bravery. During the disturbances incident to the expulsion of the Mongols, and the establishment of the Ming dynasty (1368), fierce persecutions again broke out and large numbers moved to K•ang-tung, whence smaller colonies have made their way into the adjoining regions. Kin-ying Chow, which is entirely Ilakka, is noted for its scholars, many of whom compete successfully with the Chinese in the public examinations. Hung HMI-eh-Ilan. the originator and leader of the 'I'ai-ping Rebellion, and all his principal gen erals, were Hakkas.
BtauouitAcnv. The literature of the subject is not extensive, but is interesting. Consult: "Ethnographical Sketches of the link-ka Chi nese," in Notes and Queries on China and Japan. vol. i. ( Hong Kong, 1867, and reprinted in the China Review, vol. xxi., London, 1894-95) ; "An Outline History of the Hakkas." in China Re view, vol. ii., and in the same volume, Pitou."On the Origin and History of the Ilakkas" (London, 1873.74) ; ['tie risite an pays des llakka dans In province de Canton (1892) ; Ball, Things Chinese (London, 1893) ; First Lessons in Reading and Writing the llakka Colloquial (Basel, 1860) ; Schaub, "Proverbs in Daily Use Among the Ilakkas," in China Review, vol. xxi. (London. 1894-95).