TORONTO, December 20, 2000 -- Senator Vivienne Poy will open Canada’s first national conference on Hakka Heritage and Culture December 29-30 at York University, sponsored by York’s East Asian Studies Program and six Hakka Chinese community associations.

The conference will feature recent scholarly research on the history and the current situation of the Hakka diaspora, believed to be the most widely dispersed of any cultural group in the world. The meeting will also focus on strengthening the community of 35,000 in Canada, with individual presentations on experiences adapting to Canadian life, and information on returning to one’s ancestral Chinese village and tracing a family tree.

Keynote speaker Prof. Eriberto Lozada of Butler University in Indiana, one of the few western scholar’s conducting field research on the Hakka, will present his latest findings. Other featured speakers include: Fang Xuejia, deputy director of the Hakka Research Department at Jiaying University in the Hakka heartland of Meizhou in Guangdong province; Dr. Liu Fuan, a Hakka from Jamaica who returned to China in 1947 and will relate his experiences of the major social transformations in China in the last half-century; and Pietro Giordan, York University professor of Chinese language and literature, who will analyze how the individual memories of contemporary Hakka interact with archaic collective Hakka memory in the epic poem on the Hakka diaspora Le Grande Chant Hakka by Joseph Tsang Mang Kin.

"With the advent of globalization there is a greater need in each of us to know and understand our heritage and the cultural ties that anchor us and give us a sense of community," says Gordon Anderson, conference co-chair and professor of East Asian studies at York University. He notes that the Hakka, which means "guest people" in Chinese, as a community were often marginalized by mainstream Chinese society yet have produced many of China’s more prominent leaders and rebels, businessmen and cultural figures, including former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the former prime minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew, and the celebrated Chinese writer Han Suyin.

What is known about the origins of the Hakka, the basis of their migratory patterns and their ability to maintain unique customs such as living in circular, communal housing and not binding the feet of women, is still a mixture of history and myth. Anderson says much more academic research is needed to truly understand and appreciate the roles the Hakka have played, both in China and throughout the world.

Ontario education consultant and conference co-chair Dr. Keith Lowe points out that the Hakka have been major players in the many social transformations in China from the Taiping rebellion to the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, the Hakka history of dispersement has made them experts in dealing with the duality of culture and place, the need to adapt and the desire to preserve cultural traditions.

"There is a strong desire in the Hakka Canadian community to be a cohesive group, but the conference will also be looking at how the community can move forward as Canadians," says Lowe, adding that the prosperity associated with technological advancements and globalization have not only enhanced communication among the Hakka worldwide, but also opportunities for the younger generation to visit their ancestral homes and trace their roots.

The conference will convene in the Main Hall of Vari Hall at York University, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St., on Friday, December 29 at 9 a.m. For a conference schedule, please check the Web site at http://members.home.net/hakka.

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For further information, please contact:

Prof. Gordon Anderson
Dept. of East Asian Studies
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 33556
ganderso@yorku.ca

Dr. Keith Lowe
(416) 325-2142
(416) 686-4688 (home)

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
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