Growing up Hakka, around a language that few dared to speak publicly

When I was growing up in the Caribbean, I knew three things about my identity: I am ethnic Chinese, I was born in Hong Kong and I have Hakka heritage.

Who are the Hakkas, some of you might be wondering. They are a Han Chinese subgroup originally from China’s central plains, who migrated further and further south – to Jiangxi province, then Guangdong and Fujian – centuries ago, during turbulent periods in Chinese history. They also moved to provinces including Hunan and Guangxi, and as far west as Sichuan. Hakkas have a reputation for adaptability and resilience, given that past generations, as new arrivals, often had little choice but to put down roots in remote pockets of their adopted provinces.

In more recent times, they have also settled in Hong Kong, Taiwan and diasporic communities across Asia, Europe and the Americas. My family moved to the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago as part of a migration wave in the 1970s and 1980s. The local Chinese community was small, rather tight-knit and dominated by Hakkas from Guangdong.

Through my father, I knew many of them as family friends and remember them as an upbeat, outgoing bunch: some ran supermarkets, restaurants and such, and they were a constant presence at house parties my family attended. It’s largely thanks to them that I’ve had a good impression of mainland Chinese since I was young.

In Taiwan, where I now live, Hakkas make up about 20 per cent of the population and all subway stations are announced in languages including Hakka. Yet there is little chance of overhearing a conversation in the dialect in Taipei and other cities.