Why did he not emphasis hard body-conditioning, detailed kata practice and application, and sparing with bare-hands and feet? Why did he ignore the Okinawan spirituality that imbues all that island’s (Chinese originated) martial arts?
Category: Hakka Ethnography
Chinese Syncretism & Hakka Taiping Uprising (Email)
In the 19th century, the Hakka people rose-up against the Qing Dynasty (Taiping Uprising), combining Missionary Christianity, with Chinese Cosmology – with a ‘new’ Chinese ‘Son of God’.
Post-Modern Hakka (Letter 21.6.2016)
I noticed then that even the traditional Hakka clothing was nolonger worn, and the language spoken was a mixture of Hakka and Cantonese (with the occasional English word). Those who have left this village have spread all-over the world and changed in the new environments they have encountered, and yet there is something distinctly ‘Hakka’ that holds it all together!
Blond Hakka?
I think that given the right circumstances, any group of human-beings can migrate anywhere if they need or have to do it. After-all, a small group of homo sapiens left Africa around 140,000 years ago, and eventually populated the entire planet! I mention this because there are three issues of Hakka identity that are curious to me, 1) recurrence of blond hair throughout Hakka-Chinese populations, 2) Hakka women are equal to Hakka men, 3) Hakka women never had ‘bound’ feet.
Hakka DNA – Part I
However, again I am of the (as of yet unverified) opinion that a ‘high’ percentage of this small amount of European DNA probably occurs in an unusually ‘high’ amount amongst Hakka populations. This is all speculation on my part, and more research is required.
Hakka Farming: Natural Pest Control and Fertilisation of the Land
This means that the entire human – ox interaction, and the ploughing process itself, must be of a ‘naturally’ relaxed and co-ordinated manner. The oxen will walk in a straight line just as long as the Hakka farmer keeps his hands on the plough-handles (as this reassures and guides the ox). When uneven mounds of earth are encountered, the Hakka farmer assists the ox by pushing the plough (with the hands and occasionally with a foot) into the contours of the land. As the ox understands this process, it is willing to pull the plough up and down the field until all the uneven mounds are fully ‘turned’.
