History of Taiwanese Hakka

As I was having quite an animated conversation with Gil last night, I, (I am myself a Hakka), shared with him about the Taiwanese Hakka. In fact, very little is known about the Taiwan's history. It was believed that Taiwan (Formosa) was occupied by aborginese who were living in the mountaineous and coastal areas, surviving on subsistence farming and fishing. Until when there was a huge conflict between Hakka and other dialect groups in Southern China, it forced Hakka to flee to Taiwan and other countries as these Hakka were always picked on by the other local dialect groups. Hakka were always seen as "Guest people" who were considered to have no right to live together with the other dialect group.

Around 1,500 years ago (around 7th century), these Hakka fled from Hunan province to Taiwan, contributing to the first wave of immigration from Mainland, bringing their Hakka identity and language. It was reported that because of the migration of Hakka to Taiwan, it caused numerous conflicts with the aborgines in Taiwan, driving them to the mountains and most of the lands were occupied by Hakka Chinese.

Then from 15th century, Chinese from Fujian provincen began to migrate to Taiwan, contributing to second wave of immigration from Mainland, and most of them spoke Hokkien. And these groups of people contribute to the present majority of the Taiwanese while Hakka consists of 15% of the Taiwanese.