The Hakka in Modern Chinese Revolution: A Study of the Role of Hakka People in the Taiping Rebellion and Xinhai Revolution
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Manouchehr, Ghorbani-Koshkaki
Abstract
This study adopts a social anthropological approach to explore the formation, development and practice of revolutionary consciousness among the Hakka minority in modern China, focusing on the Taiping Rebellion and Xinghai Revolution. Formation of revolutionary consciousness is examined through theories of ethnic group marginalization and stigmatization. The Hakka migrants from other parts of China generally didn’t possess adequate arable land to make a decent living and thus were forced to move from place to place in search of a better life. Traditional Chinese attitude toward such migration were negative and associated it with poverty, crime and armed conflict over limited resources. These attitudes engendered a discourse which stigmatized the Hakka as “barbarian”, or at least as ethnically impure Han Chinese. This discourse created a crisis of identity among the Hakka who found themselves on the margin of Chinese society and of so called Chineseness . These two negative attributions the; stigma of not being “normal Han” and socio-economic marginalization created fertile ground for the formation of revolutionary consciousness among the Hakka. Revolutionary consciousness developed as a by-product of the process of avoiding or escaping stigma. Social practices developed as a mean to escape stigma including the “passing” (for common people), self-aggrandizement based on “pure” Hakka origin (among Hakka elites), and conversion to new religions such as Christianity which provided an alternative identity. But when these practices did not serve as adequate means of escaping marginalization and stigmatization, revolution assumed a prominent role in Hakka culture. The Taiping Rebellion is a good example of how the Hakka struggle to escape stigma led to revolutionary action. The leader of the rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, escaped ethnic stigmatization by creating a Christian sect called the “god worshipers” and declaring himself prophet and the “son of God”. Similarly Yang Xiuqing the “East King” and commander- in – chief of the Taiping rebellion, claimed to possess supernatural powers to intermediate God and people, and gave himself various self-aggrandizing titles. For Hakka common people, the rebellion and its concept of a “common treasury” provided an opportunity to escape the stigma of socio-economic marginalization by overturning the system of land ownership and wealth distribution. In the Xinhai Revolution and the life of its leader Sun Yat-sen, one finds a similar theme of Hakka striving to escape marginalization and assume a central role in mainstream Chinese society. Early in his life, Sun’s attempts to recommend reforms to Qing government officials and mainstream Chinese elites all met with failure. Revolution provided a vehicle for Sun to overcome stigmatization of his ethnic as well as economic, educational and religious background. Sun’s efforts to escape stigma played out on several level from the personal level to the comrade level, i.e., in (his interaction with those with similar backgrounds and experiences) to the national level struggle of the Hakka community within the Chinese nation and the international level struggle to overcome China’s stigma as “the sick man of Asia.""
Subjects
stigma
Taiping Rebellion
Xinhai Revolution
Sun Yat-sen
Hakka
Type
thesis
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