Looking for a holiday gift for someone with Hakka heritage? Consider The Hakka Cookbook, Chinese Soul Food from around the World. Named “Best Chinese Cuisine Cookbook” by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 2013, its relevance endures.
It’s a perfect gift for one who wants to learn more about their Hakka history, identity, and cuisine. The book traces their struggles and migration across the world. Hakka from all over the world share their stories and recipes. I wrote the book especially for people like me, Hakka who didn’t know much about the history or people. Writing this book, helped me find my Hakka identity.
Ginger-scented Squash, Peas, and Lily Bulbs. Art by Alan Lau
If you’re a Chinese food and history enthusiast, this book leads you to discover a relatively unknown group of Chinese known as Hakka (guest people.) Their unique history of a long migration shaped their strong survival characteristics, culture and cuisine. Even if you are not Hakka, you’ll find many history and food discoveries in the book. Art by my brother, Alan Lau, gracefully flows through the book.
I couldn’t believe that 186 people registered for this free event. Even if not everyone showed up, this promised to be a good crowd. After a short video from Cheuk and a slide show from me, Kevin guided our conversation about food and the Chinese diaspora. We talked abouteating in Peru, strong Hakka women, authentic food, Hakka-Indian restaurants, recording recipes, pork belly, and much more. Since Cheuk and I both traveled the world to eat Chinese food to research our books, it was a fun and spirited conversation. View the discussion here.
The audience was the BEST–attentive, interested, and responsive. Many Hakka asked questions or made comments. I’ve always felt a warm welcome from my Canadian audiences. Thank you Vancouver!
With the publication of the Chinese translation of The Hakka Cookbook in Taiwan, my audience grew. Recently the Taipei Hakka Cultural Quarterly, published by the Hakka Affairs Council of Taipei City Government asked me to write a personal story about family, Hakka cuisine, and memories. My story about my grandmother, ”My Hakka Savior” was just published in their online magazine.
I wrote about how my Hakka grandmother helped my family adjust and thrive in a small conservative town where we were the first and only Chinese. Her Hakka spirit with a strong work ethic, ability to adjust, and business savvy, guided our family to a path of survival in a difficult and stressful new environment.
I wrote the article in English and the magazine translated it into Chinese. Their design team cleverly worked visual elements of my story into the layout. If you can read Chinese, and would like to read the complete magazine, click this link.
To read a pdf that includes Chinese and English, download the following file or click this link.
Looking for the perfect gift for your Hakka family or friend? Consider The Hakka Cookbook. It’s a great primer for those who want to know more about their Hakka history and identity.
Popo, my grandmother, always told me, “You should be proud to be Hakka.” I never understood why. Long after she passed away, I wrote the book to find the answer. This book follows my journey to find my Hakka identity. It explores our unique history of migration and shows how it shaped the Hakka character and cuisine. I traveled around the world and interviewed many Hakka who shared their stories and recipes in this book.
Best Chinese Cuisine Cookbook in the World in 2012
You can order the book from your local bookstore. Or you can find it online at many outlets around the world such as Amazon and Kinokuniya. Click this link to find other sources for different areas. You can also buy the book directly from the publisher University of California Press.
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.
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?
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
