The Paradigm of Hakka Women in History
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2021.9.1.31-64Keywords:
Hakka studies, Hakka woman, women practices, West FujianAbstract
Hakka studies rely strongly on history and historiography. However, despite the fact that in rural Hakka communities women play a central role, in the main historical sources women are almost absent. They do not appear in genealogy books, if not for their being mothers or wives, although they do appear in some legends, as founders of villages or heroines who distinguished themselves in defending the villages in the absence of men. They appear in modern Hakka historiography—Hakka historiography is a very recent discipline, beginning at the end of the 19th century—for their moral value, not only for adhering to Confucian traditional values, but also for their endorsement of specifically Hakka cultural values. In this paper we will analyse the cultural paradigm that allows women to become part of Hakka history. We will show how ethical values are reflected in Hakka historiography through the reading of the earliest Hakka historians as they depicted Hakka women. Grounded on these sources, we will see how the narration of women in Hakka history has developed until the present day.
In doing so, it is necessary to deal with some relevant historical features in the construction of Hakka group awareness, namely migration, education, and women narratives, as a pivotal foundation of Hakka collective social and individual consciousness.
Downloads
References
An, Guoqiang 安国强. 2015. Kejia da qianxi 客家大迁徙 (Great Hakka Migrations). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publishing House.
Ardizzoni, Sabrina. 2020. “Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan: The Gendered Concepts of Nei 内/Wai 外 and the Way of Women (Fu Dao 婦道).” Asian Studies 8 (3): 281–302. DOI: 10.4312/as.2020.8.3.281-302.
Barlow, Tani. 2004. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Durham NC: Duke University Press.
Blum, Susan D., and Lionel M. Jensen, eds. 2002. China Off-Center. Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
Brandtstadter, Susan, and Goncalo D. Santos. 2009. Chinese Kinship: Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives. Routledge Contemporary China Series. London: Routledge.
Bruckermann, Charlotte, and Stephan Feuchtwang. 2016. The Anthropology of China: China as an Ethnographic and Theoretical Critique. London: Imperial College Press.
Cai, Dengqiu 蔡登秋. 2004. “Lun Kejia wenhua goucheng de duoyuanxing 论客家文化构成的多元性 (On the Multiplicity of Hakka Culture Construct).” Journal of Sanming College 21 (3): 73–77.
Cao, Shuji 曹树基. 2018. “Qingdai qian Zhejiang shanqu de Kejia yimin 清代前期浙江山区的客家移民 (Pre-Qing Hakka Migration in the Zhejiang Mountains).” In Shijie Kejia Wenku 世界客家文库 (Collected Documents on Hakkas in the World). Accessed July 13, 2020. http://www.hakkaonline.com/thread-68199-1-1.html.
Ceng, Huidong 曾辉东, Fu Delu 傅德露, and Gao Xiaobin 高晓斌, eds. 2011. Minxi Kejia dadian 闽西客家大典 (Minxi Hakka Dictionary). Fuzhou: Haifeng Publishing House.
Chen, Ju 陈驹. 1992. Chuantong nüzi meng du xinbian 传统女子梦读新编 (New Edition of Traditional Readings for Girls). Guangxi: Guanxi Jiaoyu Chubanshe.
Chen, Xianzhang, ed. 2018. Kejia zudi yu quanqiu Kejia yanjiu taolunhui––Lunwenji 客家祖地与全球客家研究讨论会––论文集 (Acts of the Symposium for Ancestral Hakkaland and Global Hakka Studies). Longyan: Research Center for Mintai Hakka Studies.
Chen, Zhiping 陈支平. 1996. Fujian zupu 福建族谱 (Fujian Genealogy Books). Fuzhou: Fujian People’s Publishing House.
China Central Archive. 1989. Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji 中共中央文件选集 (Selection of Documents of the Chinese Communist Party). Beijing: Chinese Communist Party Publishing House.
https://www.marxists.org/chinese/reference-books/ccp-1921-1949/05/053.htm.
Cohen, Myron. 1968. “The Hakka or ‘Guest People’: Dialect as Socio-Cultural Variable in Southeastern China.” Ethnohistory 15 (3): 237–92.
——. 1996. “The Hakka or ‘Guest People’: Dialect as Sociocultural Variable in Southeast China.” In Guest People: Hakka Identity in China and Abroad, edited by Nicole Constable, 36–78. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
——. 2005. Kinship, Contract, Community, and State: Anthropological Perspectives on China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Constable, Nicole. 1996. Guest People: Hakka Identity in China and Abroad. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Dennys, N. B., ed. 1867. Notes and Queries on China and Japan, vol. I: January to December 1867. Hong Kong: Charles A. Saint.
——, ed. 1873. The China Review or Notes and Queries the Far East, vol. II: July 1873 to June 1874. Hong Kong: Kelly and Co.
Ebrey, Patricia. 1991. Chu Hsi’s “Family Rituals”. A Twelfth Century Chinese Manual for the Performance of Cappings, Weddings, Funerals and Ancestral Rites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ebrey, Patricia. 2002. Women and the Family in Chinese History. London and New York: Routledge.
Eitel, Ernest John. 1867 “Ethnographical Sketched of the Hakka Chinese.” In Notes and Queries on China and Japan, edited by N. B. Dennys, 65–67. Hong Kong: Charles A. Saint.
Eitel, Ernest John. 1873: “An Outline History of the Hakkas.” In The China Review or Notes and Queries the Far East, edited by N. B. Dennys, 160–64. Hong Kong: Kelly and Co.
Erbaugh, Mary S. 1992. “The Secret History of the Hakkas: The Chinese Revolution as a Hakka Enterprise.” The China Quarterly 132: 937–68.
——. 2002. “The Secret History of the Hakkas: The Chinese Revolution as a Hakka Enterprise.” In China Off-Center. Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom, edited by Susan D. Blum, and Lionel M. Jensen, 185–213. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
Fang, Xuejia. 2012. Kejia heliu 客家河流 (The Hakka People Flow). Canton: South China University of Technology Press.
Fang, Xuejia et al. 2012. Kejia funü shihui yu wenhua 客家妇女社会与文化 (Hakka Women Society and Culture). Canton: South China University of Technology Press.
Fang, Xuejia, and Huang Chongcai, eds. 2011. Jiedu Kejia lishi yu wenhua 解读客家历史与文化 (Interpreting Hakka History and Culture). Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House.
Faure, David. 1990. The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
——. 2007. Empires and Ancestors: State and Lineage in South China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Fei, Xiaotong. 1988. Plurality and Unity in the Configuration of the Chinese People. Tanner Lecture: Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Feuchtwang, Stephen. 2001. Popular Religion in China: The Imperial Metaphor. London: Curzon
Freedman, Maurice. 1958a [1970]. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. London: Althone Press.
——. 1958b. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London: London School of Economics.
——, ed. 1970. Family and Kinship in Chinese Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ge, Wenqing 葛文清. 1999. “‘Minxi’ he ‘Kejia’ gainian de jieding yu Song Yuan yilai Kejia qianyi 民系’ 和 ‘客家’ 概念的界定与宋元以来客家迁移 (The Origin of ‘Lineage’ and ‘Hakka’ Determined in Post-Song and Yuan Migrations).” Journal of Longyan University 1: 54–59.
He, Ying 何英. 2009. Fumo suiyue 抚摸岁月 (The Tenderness Years). Beijing: Writers’ Publishing House.
Hershatter, Gail. 2007. Women in China’s Long Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hu, Daxin 胡大新. 2009 [2006]. Yongding Kejia tulou yanjiu 永定客家土楼研究 (Yongding Hakka Earth Building Research). Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian Publishing House.
Hu, Hongbao, Wang Jianmin, and Zhang Haiyang. 2014 [2006]. Storia dell’antropologia cinese (History of Chinese Anthropology). Edited and translated by Andrea Pia. Torino: SEID.
Hu, Saibiao 胡塞表. 2019. Jimo de Hu Wenhu 寂寞的胡文虎 (Hu Wenhu, a Lonely Man). Hong Kong: Tianma Dushu LLC.
Huang, Hanmin. 2020. Fujian Tulou. A Treasure of Chinese Traditional Civilian Residence. Singapore: Springer.
Huang, Majin 黄马金. 1995. Kejia funü 客家妇女 (Hakka Women). Beijing: Women’s Publishing House.
Legge, James. 1885. The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism, part III. The Sacred Books of the East. Vol. XXVII. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Leo, Deow, and Dai Yifeng. 2000. West Fujian: Land and Migration 1910s–1940s. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.
Leong, Sow-Theng, and Tim Wright, eds. 1997. Migration and Ethnicity in Chinese History—Hakkas, Pengmins and their Neighbors. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Li, Yongji 李泳集. 1996. Xingbie yu wenhua: Kejia funü yanjiu de xin shiye 性别与文化: 客家妇女研究的新视野 (Gender and Culture: New Perspectives in Hakka Women Studies). Canton: Guangdong People’s Publishing House.
Lieberman, Sally Taylor. 1998. The Mother and Narrative Politics in Modern China. Charlottesville, London: University Press of Virginia.
Lin, Shangxiang 林尚祥. 2007. Tulou li de muqin 土楼里的母亲 (Mother of the Tulou). Fuzhou: Haixia Wenyi Publishing House.
Lin, Xiaoying 林萧影. 2006. Fujian minzu minjian chuantong wenhua: lishi, xianzhuang yu sikao 福建民族民间传统文化: 历史，现状与思考 (The People of Fujian and Traditional Culture: History, Current Situation and Thought). Fuzhou: Fujian People’s Publishing House.
Lin, Zhenghui 林正慧. 2015. Taiwan Kejia de xinsu licheng Qingdai zhi zhanhou de zhuisuo 台灣客家的形塑歷程清代至戰後的追索 (Historical Process of the Formation of Taiwanese Hakka: From the Qing Dynasty to the Post-War Period). Taibei: National Taiwan University Press.
Liu, Yonghua. 2013. Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers: Ritual Change and Social Transformation in a Southeastern Chinese Community, 1368–1949. Religion in Chinese Societies. Boston: Brill.
Luo, Xianglin 罗香林. 1989 [1933]. Kejia yuanliu kao 客家源流考 (Study on Hakka Origins). Beijing: The Chinese Overseas Publishing House.
——. 1992 [1933]. Kejia yanjiu daolun 客家研究导论 (Introduction to Hakka Studies). Shanghai: Shanghai Wenyi Publishing House.
——. 2018. Kejia yanjiu daolun—wai yi zhong 客家研究导论—外一种: 客家源流考 (Introduction to Hakka Studies—Added: A Study on Hakka Origins). Canton: Guangdong Peoples’ Publishing House.
Luo, Zhiye 罗志野. 2017. “Liji” Ying yi 《礼记》英译 (English Translation of the Liji). Nanjing: Eastern University Publishing House.
Malighetti, Roberto. 2014. Antropologie dalla Cina (Anthropologies from China). Torino: SEID.
Mauss, Marcel. 2002 [1934]. “Les Techniques du corps.” Journal de Psychologie XXXII 3–4: March 15–April 15, 1936. Document produit en version numérique par Jean-Marie Tremblay. http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/mauss_marcel/socio_et_anthropo/6_Techniques_corps/Techniques_corps.html.
Minxi Hakka Friendship Association Minxi Kejia Lianyuhui 闽西客家联谊会. 2013. Minxi Kejia waiqian yanjiu wenji 闽西客家外迁研究文集 (A Collection of Studies on the Migration of Hakka from West Fujian). Longyan: Haixia Wenyi Publishing House.
Pang-White, Ann. 2018. The Confucian Four Books for Women: A New Translation of the Nü Sishu and the Commentary of Wang Xiang. New York: Oxford University Press.
Piton, Ch. 1873. “On the Origin and the History of the Hakkas.” In The China Review or Notes and Queries the Far East. Vol. II: July 1873 to June 1874, edited by N. B. Dennys, 222–26. Hong Kong: Kelly and Co.
Research Center for Women Movement History of the All China Women Association. 1986. Zhongguo funü lishi ziliao: 1927–1937 中国妇女历史资料: 1927–1937 (Sources on Chinese Women History 1927–1937). Beijing: China Women Publishing House.
Rosenlee, Li-Hsiang Lisa. 2006. Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rošker, Jana S. 2016. The Rebirth of the Moral Self. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
——. 2017. “Between Tradition and Modernity: Modern Confucianism as a Form of East Asian Social Knowledge.” Asian Studies 5 (21) 2: 43–62.
Wang, Robin. 2003. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty. Indiandapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing.
Wu, Fuwen 吴福文. 2011. “Kejia funü de jiaose yu diwei 客家妇女的角色与地位 (Hakka Women’s Role and Position).” Journal of Longyan University 29 (3): 16–21.
Wu, Yongzhang 吴永章. 2012. Duoyuan yiti de Kejia wenhua 多元一体的客家文化 (Plural Unity of Hakka Culture). Canton: South China University of Technology Press.
Xie, Chongguang 谢重光. 2002. Minxi Kejia 闽西客家 (Fujian’s Hakka). Beijing: Xinhua Shudian.
——. 2003. Mintai Kejia shehui yu wenhua 闽台客家社会与文化 (Hakka Society and Culture in Fujian and Taiwan). Fuzhou: Fuzhou People’s Publishing House.
——. 2005a. Kejia wenhua yu funü shenghuo: 12-20 shiji Kejia funü yanjiu 客家文化与妇女生活: 12-20世纪客家妇女研究 (Hakka Culture and Women’s Life: A Research on 12–20th Century Hakka Women). Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House.
——. 2005b. “Kejia funü renwen xingge ji qi lishi chengyin 客家妇女人文性格及其历史成因 (Historical Reasons of Hakka Women Characteristics).” Journal of Fuzhou University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 2 (1): 86–91.
——. 2005c. Fujian Kejia 福建客家 (Fujian Hakka People). Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Publishing House.
——. 2005d. “Song Ming Lixue yingxiang xia Kejia funü shenghuo de bianyan 宋明理学影响下客家妇女生活的演变 (The Evolution of Hakka Women’s Lives under the Influence of the Lixue School during the Song and Ming Period).” Journal of Fujian Party School 5: 47–51. DOI:10.15993/j.cnki.cn35-1198/c.2005.05.013.
——. 2009. “Tulou zhi gen yu Tulou wenhua de jingsui 土楼之根与土楼文化的精髓 (Tulou Roots and the Quintessence of Tulou Culture).” Zhonggong Fujiansheng weidangxiao xuebao (Journal of Fujian Party School) 6: 77–81.
——. 2011. “Kejia wenhua de Zhongyuan qingjie yu caogen bense 客家文化的中原情结与草根本色 (The Sense of Belonging to Central China in Hakka Culture and Roots Issue).” In Jiedu Kejia lishi yu wenhua 解读客家历史与文化 (Interpreting Hakka History and Culture), edited by Fang Xuejia, and Huang Chongcai, 5–19. Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House.
——. 2012. “Guanyu Kejia yimin yu wenhua rentong ruogan wenti de sikao 关于客家移民与文化认同若干问题的思考 (On Hakka Migrants and their Cultural Identity).” Journal of Guangxi University for Nationalities 34 (3): 17–25.
Xin, Geng 心根. 1933. “Zhide zhuyi de Guangdong Kejia nüzi 值得注意的广东客家女子 (Notable Cantonese Hakka Women).” Funü gongming 妇女共鸣 (The Echo of Women) 2 (2): 22–30.
Xu, Weiqun 徐维群. 2016. Kejia wenhua fuhao lun 客家文化符号论 (On the Symbols of Hakka Culture). Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.
Xu, Yingying 徐莹莹. 2011. “Chuyi jiu zhi 《Lienü Zhuan》zhong de Kejia funü xingxiang—Yi Qianlong 《Tingzhoufu zhi》wei yanjiu shijiao 刍议旧志 《列女传 》中的客家妇女形象—以乾隆 《汀州府志》为研究视角 (On the Image of Hakka Women in the Biographies for Chaste Women: A Study Based on the Tingzhou Municipal Records of Qianlong).” Journal of Gannan Normal University 32 (1): 21–24.
Xu, Yuanlong 徐元龙, ed. 2015. Yongdingxian zhi—Minguo 永定县志—民国 (Yongding Gazette–Republican Era). Xiamen: Xiamen University Publishing House.
Yuan, Jiahua 袁家骅. 1983 [1960]. Hanyu fangyan gaiyao 汉语方言概要 (Outline of Chinese Dialects). Beijing: Language Reform Publishing House.
Zeng, Yueying 曾曰英. 1748. Tingzhoufu zhi 汀州府志 (Tingzhou Gazette). Accessed August, 2020. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=277120&remap=gb.
Zhang, Dingxiong 张定雄, ed. 1994. Yongdingxian zhi 永定县志 (Yongding Gazette). Xiamen: Xiamen University Press.
Zheng, Xincai 郑新彩. 2009. Yongding Kejia Tulou zhi 永定客家土楼志 (History of Yongding Hakka tulous). Yongding: Local Gazette Publishing House.
Zhou, Jinshui 周金水. 2018. “Manyue Lisu yu jinji 满月礼俗与禁忌 (Customs and Taboo for Manyue).” In Kejia zudi yu quanqiu Kejia yanjiu taolunhui––Lunwenji 客家祖地与全球客家研究讨论会––论文集 (Acts of the Symposium for Ancestral Hakkaland and Global Hakka Studies), edited by Chen Xianzhang, 537–44. Longyan: Research Center for Mintai Hakka Studies.
Zhu, Xiuhai 朱秀海. 2016. Kejiaren 客家人 (Hakka People). Nanchang: Baihua zhou wenyi chubanshe.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Sabrina Ardizzoni
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in journal Asian Studies by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
