Category Archives: Hakka history/identity

The birth of Chino Latino cuisine

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In a recent article in Taste Cooking, Jess Eng writes about the history and spread of Chino Latino cuisine throughout Latin America. Now with a growing population of Asian-Latino immigrants in the United States, you’ll find chefs who recreate Asian-influenced foods they grew up with, adding their own signature to these dishes. Many came from Peru, Cuba, and Dominican Republic. Their fluid fusion cuisine began with the Chinese immigration to Latin America.

Chinatown in Lima, Peru

In 2007, I first encountered this blend of Chinese and Latin cuisines in Lima, Peru. I was there to research the Hakka diaspora for The Hakka Cookbook. Lima boasted the largest Chinatown in South America. A large concentration of Hakka once lived there. Lima’s Chinatown looked much like others throughout the world with it’s mix of markets, restaurants, temples, and gift shops. Shops sold Asian greens and vegetables stacked high, shiny mahogany-hued roasted ducks hanging from hooks, and fresh whole fish glistening with freshness. Yet a Latin vibe pulsated through the streets. Spanish signs and a mix of Spanish phrases with Chinese echoed a Latin American environment. A fusion of Chinese and Hispanic features showed in the faces of many vendors and customers.

Chinese change the Peruvian Diet


Professor Jorge Salazar (now deceased) explained how the Chinese changed the Peruvian diet. The first Chinese came as early as the 16th century, but the largest influx started in 1849, when over one hundred thousand Chinese migrants replaced the black workers. Most came from Canton (now Guangdong). Many were Hakka. They worked as contract laborers on sugar plantations, the railroad, and guano mines. Although they worked under exploitative contracts, the Chinese workers demanded rice, essential to their diet. This forced landowners to import and grow rice, a new food for this country. The Chinese also introduced Chinese vegetables and the wok with its stir-fry technique.


After surviving their contacts, the Chinese set up their own businesses. Some started restaurants that served traditional Chinese dishes. Others looking for a way to grow the business, created dishes that mixed local ingredients with Chinese cooking techniques and seasonings. This merger produced lomo saltado, a popular dish of stir-fried beef strips with French fries, tomatoes, and onions. Served with rice, this dish epitomizes a Chino Latino fusion dish with Chinese stir-fry technique and Chinese soy sauce with Peruvian potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers. These restaurants catered to the Peruvian tastes and were called chifas. Peruvians grew to love these brighter, colorful, sweeter dishes and the spread of chifas grew.


Now as these Chino Latino immigrants explore and expand on their cuisine in the United States, we can taste the strong impact of the Chinese immigrants in their homeland long ago. The influence of the Chinese immigration continues to spread around the world.

Searching for your Chinese family history

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Lately, I’ve been meeting friends who tell me they are trying to learn more about their family history. They want to explore their Chinese roots.


I had the same thoughts when I was in my late 50s. At that time, I had just left a long career at Sunset Magazine and now had the time to explore my family history and Hakka identity. This exploration led to the publication of The Hakka Cookbook. My research started with my Hakka family history. It grew to encompass the unique history and story of the greater Hakka migration. Here I share a few pointers I learned along the way as I looked for my family history.

Tips for searching for your Chinese family history

Identify people in old family photos. Record their names in Chinese characters as well as other English names they may have used. Find out how they are related to you.
  • Interview your family elders now. Record or video their interviews. I wish I had begun my research earlier when my family elders were still alive. It’s much easier to get the information first hand.
  • Ask your elders to identify people in old family photos and their relation to you. Have them write their names in Chinese characters as well as other English names they may have used after migration. Try to date the photos and include where the photo was taken.
  • Ask family members to share their stories about their birthplace, their migration, and their new home. What were their parent’s names? Did they have any siblings? If they migrated from China, ask for the village name. Get Chinese characters for all names. Also record any English names.
  • Can they teach you how to cook favorite family dishes? Many elders do not have written recipes, but if you can cook alongside and record the process you will learn a lot. Video their cooking lesson, so you can capture the process and approximate amounts of ingredients. In the video you can ask questions about the ingredients, the technique, how do they know when it is done, what it should taste and look like.
  • Collect documents. Official documents–birth marriage, citizenship, and death certificates, military discharge papers, school graduation certificates–all can help map a person’s life.
  • If your relatives immigrated through San Francisco check out the National Archives at San Francisco. They found the Angel Island interviews of my grandparents and documents certifying that my grandfather was a merchant.
  • Ask your family to share stories about their life and special memories. What was life like after they immigrated to a new home? How did your parents meet? How did they celebrate Chinese New Year? What was their favorite hobby or passion? Who was their best friend? Was there a key person who changed their life?
The Hakka Cookbook

If you’re Hakka and interested in learning more about your Hakka history, consider reading The Hakka Cookbook, Chinese Soul Food from around the World. It’s more than a cookbook. It includes the history and migration of the Hakka people. Read the stories from Hakka from India, Canada, Peru, Trinidad, Jamaica, Mauritius and more. You can ask your local bookstore to order from you or buy it online.

The Hakka Cookbook lives on

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The Hakka Cookbook was published in the fall of 2012. More than 10 years later, the book still lives on. A few months ago, Larry Chin from Vancouver, BC contacted me about selling The Hakka Cookbook on his website Chinatown Wonders. His online site promotes Vancouver’s Chinatown through the creations of local artists and creators. His mission is to build and strengthen cultural connections to Chinatown. On Chinatown Wonders, find videos about the history and culture of Vancouver’s Chinatown. Also shop for books, T-shirts and hoodies, cards, cups, and art prints–all created by Asians.


A few months ago, we met Larry and his family when they were visiting San Francisco. Over lunch at the Hakka Restaurant, Larry told me as a Hakka from Malaysia, he was so excited to discover the The Hakka Cookbook. He loved how the book captured the Hakka history and food culture and wanted to share it with the world.


Last week he called to share a story about an memorable encounter he had with a customer. At a recent pop-up event, he displayed a copy of The Hakka Cookbook. A young woman saw The Hakka Cookbook and instantly zeroed in and claimed the book as hers. She told him she was a Hakka from Trinidad. Larry opened the book and showed her the map and how the Hakka migrated throughout the world. They looked up Trinidad, her home country. To their surprise, they found her uncle, Winston H. Chang Jr., on page 161. I had interviewed the “self-proclaimed Hakkaologist” more than a decade ago in Toronto. He graciously shared his story and several recipes with me.

I’m so pleased that she found The Hakka Cookbook. I wrote the book especially for people like her–Hakka who wanted to know more about their history and culinary heritage.

The power of food

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A surprise awaited me in my pile of mail after a long trip. I opened the package to find five copies of the National Museum of Women in Arts (NMWA) catalogue, Reclamation, Recipes, Remedies, and Rituals. The exhibit showed the power of food bringing people together. I was so happy to receive a printed copy of the exhibit, now archived.


About two years ago I contributed a recipe and story to this project that focused on the cultural table. I shared my mom’s recipe for Steamed Black Bean Spareribs. I sent it with my story of growing up as the first Hakka Chinese family in Paradise, a small all-white town in Northern California.

With the museum closed due to covid and renovation, the exhibit transformed into an innovative online exhibit. It featured images and videos of women artists in their own kitchens. Paired with recipes and stories from the public, the exhibit brought different cultures and generations together. You feel the power of food connecting us through this exhibit.

A Hakka writer

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A chance encounter introduces me to a Hakka writer. In my last post, I wrote that I rarely found Hakka characters in books or stories. Recently I got an email message from Loren, a friend in New York. She met a Chinese woman, Jeannie Tseng, walking her dog in Central Park. As they talked, Tseng described her family history as a Hakka, migrating from China to India.

When asked about her cooking traditions, Tseng said her favorite cookbook was my book, The Hakka Cookbook. When Loren told her she knew the author, Tseng was so excited to meet a live connection to her favorite book. When Loren told me this story, I was surprised, flattered and honored. Stories like this make me feel that all my work was worthwhile.

The Hakka Cookbook

I find that Tseng is also a writer and a creative writing teacher. She shared some links to her stories about the Hakka. I love them because they offer a window into Hakka culture and family. Check out these stories. Wasted Rice Child published in The Massachusetts Review reveals generational differences in an immigrant family. Number Eight Daughter won first prize in the Fall 2021 Story Contest in Narrative. The story depicts the life of a girl born to poor parents who sell her to a rich family as a future wife to their son. Enjoy reading the work of this Hakka writer, Jeannie Tseng.

Hakka history

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Map of China shows the Hakka Heartland in 1550.
Shaded area indicates the concentration of the Hakka population in 1550.

For most of my life, I never understood what was so special about the Hakka. Popo (my grandmother) insisted, “You should be proud to be Hakka.” Research for my book showed me the answer–the Hakka history. As I learned about their long unique history of migration and how they coped with it, I began to understand how it shaped Popo’s independent, tenacious, hardworking spirit. And how these qualities taught her and other Hakka how to survive where others failed.

Our Hakka History


The ancestors of the Hakka originally lived in Henan, along the Yellow River, in north central China. This area was once considered the cradle of the Han, or Chinese culture. Around the 4th century B.C., invaders forced them out of their home. In a series of five mass migrations, war, flood, famine, and drought, sent the Hakka to the south and other remote regions.

The Hakka found shelter in Jiangxi, southern Fujian, and neighboring Guangdong Province. They lived there in relative isolation for almost 400 years (907 to 1279). During this period of relative seclusion they solidified their language, culture, and identity.

Dangerous bandits in Fujian forced them to move across the border to northern and eastern Guangdong Province. The local Cantonese had settled the fertile parcels of lowland. Only scraps of poor hillside land were left for the new migrants. They worked hard and were able to survive where others had failed. Locals labeled the unwelcome newcomers “Hakka” meaning “guest family.” By the sixteenth century, the Hakka began to call the area centered near Meixian in Guangdong and the Jiaying Prefecture (now Meizhou City) as their homeland.

The Hakka spread throughout Guangdong, central and eastern Sichuan, eastern Guangxi, and Taiwan. Through their hard work, they prospered and some become landlords. The local Punti (mostly Cantonese) resented their success. Fighting broke out resulting in the West River Wars and the Taiping Rebellion. This turmoil sent the Hakka all over the world. Now, their estimated worldwide population is over 75 million.

The Hakka Spirit

The history of the Hakka shaped their character and spirit. Chinese society long treated these homeless migrants with contempt. As a result, the Hakka became experts at pulling up stakes, moving on, and starting over. They established settlements in areas where others failed. Eventually they earned respect for their pioneering successes.

It wasn’t until 1933, that the status of the Hakka changed. For centuries, society persecuted the landless migrants. In 1933, Luo Xianglin’s genealogical work showed the Hakka are descendants of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 22 A. D.) the Chinese ethnic majority, the Han. This elevated the Hakka to the same status as those who treated them as lower class.

With a shared history of hardship, Hakka proudly see themselves as strong and independent. History tells them work and persistence will bring success.

Best Chinese cookbook in the world

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Give The Hakka Cookbook, Chinese Soul Food from around the World, recognized as the Best Chinese Cookbook in the World in 2012, to Hakka family and friends. The book outlines the Hakka history and defines Hakka identity. Or give the book to a cooking enthusiast who loves Chinese food and history. It’s a great holiday gift for the Chinese foodie.

The Hakka Cookbook awarded Best Chinese Cookbook in the World by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
The Hakka Cookbook was recognized as the Best Chinese Cookbook of the World by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2012.

Through recipes and stories told by Hakka from all over the world, discover the unique Hakka history, culture, and cuisine. Find 140 recipes, including Hakka classics such as stuffed tofu, lei cha, and salt-baked chicken as well as easy Chinese comfort food. The beginner cook will find sections on cooking techniques, equipment, and ingredients. Paintings created by artist Alan Lau gracefully illustrates the book.

Check this link for sources on where to buy The Hakka Cookbook. It is widely available online. Some of the major sellers are Amazon.com, Books Kinokuniya, and University of California Press. Or ask your local book store to order The Hakka Cookbook for you.

Hakka migration to Hawaii and California

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Chinese men with long braids are Cantonese. Men with short hair are Hakka. Photo from Generational Roots: 19th Century Chinese Migration to America. Part 1 Hawaii.

Want to learn about the 19th century Hakka migration to America? View these two webinars presented by Dr. Brian Dillon, professor, archeologist, author, anthropologist, and historian. He has studied Chinese-American history for decades, as did his father, Richard H. Dillon, a noted historian and author. Dr. B. Dillon, who is Irish, doesn’t speak or write Chinese. But he married into a Chinese family in Hawaii. His wife is Hakka. Dillon accompanies his narrative with a highly informative slide show.

Generational Roots: 19th Century Chinese Migration to America -Links to Chinese migration webinars: Part 1 Hawaii: Part 2 California:

Tsung Tsin Hawaii sponsored these presentations. Valuable resources and tips to find your own Chinese roots offer a path to your family history. Each webinar runs about one hour. They are packed with information about the Hakka migration and are totally worth your time.

Photo from Generational Roots: 19th Century Chinese Migration to America. Part 1 Hawaii.

Did you know in the 19th century Chinese migration…

  • Most Chinese immigrants came from the southern Guangdong province.
  • Hawaii welcomed the Chinese immigrants. Most were Hakka. Many settled and married Hawaiian women.
  • Chinese came to California to get rich. They were mostly Cantonese. The host society treated the Chinese badly.
  • California led the way with anti-Chinese sentiments.
  • Author Mark Twain defended the Chinese.
  • Author Jack London stole fish from Chinese fishermen.
  • The Chinese men in America who wore queues (long braids) were Cantonese (Punti) to show honor to the Emperor.
  • Chinese men with short hair (no braids) were Hakka. They were the rebels.
  • The Chinese in California built the railways, dry laid stone walls, and water tunnels.
  • Chinese cooks in California logging camps were considered the best in the business.

Register for Toronto Hakka Conference 2021

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Banner for Toronto Hakka Conference

I just registered for Toronto Hakka Conference 2021. You should too if you want to learn about your Hakka roots and unique history.

In 2004, when I first started research for The Hakka Cookbook, I scanned the internet looking for any information on the Hakka. Google results were meager, but yielded more leads than I had seen most of my life. Following leads and contacts, led me to my first Toronto Hakka Conference 2008.


As I sat in the auditorium filled with Hakka Chinese, I felt at home. I had never been surrounded by so many Hakka in one place. I grew up in a small town in Northern California, Paradise, where we were the only and first Chinese family. Even when I left Paradise and met other Chinese I still didn’t quite fit in. I couldn’t understand their dialect. Years ago many Chinese didn’t know who the Hakka were. Finally, at the Toronto Hakka Conference, I felt like I belonged. These were my people. We shared the same roots.

The Toronto Hakka Conference only takes place every 4 years. Due to COVID travel restrictions, the sixth conference scheduled for 2020 has been moved to July 11 to 12, 2021. This virtual conference will take place via Zoom so anyone from around the world can easily participate. Learn about the Hakka diaspora, genealogy, and meet Hakka from all over the world at the Toronto Hakka Conference 2021. Check out the preliminary program here.

I’ll miss the in-person networking but the broad virtual access greatly expands the audience. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your Hakka network and knowledge with so little effort. No travel expenses, just register in advance. There’s a low registration fee, around $50, with a reduced rate for students. Click here to register.

“Eat Bitter”, a new Hakka zine

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Hakka history, stories, and recipes

Page from “Eat Bitter” Credits: DESIGN- ROO WILLIAMS, PHOTOGRAPHY – LYDIA PANG, WORDS – LYDIA PANG

Recently I got a flurry of alerts from my blog to let me know The Hakka Cookbook had been mentioned in several posts online. Checking them I read a story introducing a new zine called “Eat Bitter” about a Hakka family and their food.

I was thrilled to learn that Lydia Pang, the creator of the new publication was a young Hakka woman. Pang, whose father is Hakka, grew up in Wales, a country without much cultural diversity. She had worked in more ethnically diverse London and New York and began to feel she didn’t know enough about her Chinese heritage. It was time to learn more. She decided to write about her family’s favorite foods and stories shared at the dinner table. The result, “Eat Bitter,” allowed her to explore her identity and preserve the culture and recipes of her Hakka family.

Page from “Eat Bitter” Credits: DESIGN- ROO WILLIAMS, PHOTOGRAPHY – LYDIA PANG, WORDS – LYDIA PANG

The title of her publication, “Eat Bitter,” reflects the Hakka history. The Hakka have long endured multiple migrations, hardship, and persecution. Called “guest people” because they often arrived to settled lands last, the Hakka got the meager leftovers. Through their hard work, they survived and flourished. Working through obstacles, whether in life or in the kitchen, makes the reward taste so much sweeter.

Page about Pang’s father’s Sunday sik fan from “Eat Bitter” Credits: DESIGN- ROO WILLIAMS, PHOTOGRAPHY – LYDIA PANG, WORDS – LYDIA PANG

The zine’s bold design and creative layout vibrate on the red and black saturated pages (sample pages shown above). With help from her family, Pang records recipes such as Ears &Thighs (steamed chicken thighs and wood ear mushrooms), Fatty Pork (simmered pork belly with garlic and black beans), and Paw Paw’s Sponge (steamed sponge cake.) Photos and sketches reveal the cooking process.

To pre-order her magazine visit eatbitter.co Pang will donate a portion of the sales to Welcome to Chinatown, a grassroots organization that provides resources to hard-hit businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown.