"We are kay-lang, but we don't want to be lang-kay," says Chung Chun-lan (鍾春蘭) in her rapid-fire, serious-faced manner. In the Taiwanese dialect, kay-lang refers to the Hakka ethnic minority group, while lang-kay means "visitors" or "guests." Chung's play on words points out a long-standing source of friction for Taiwan's largest minority population. The Hakka's history as a migrant group in mainland China earned them a reputation as outsiders—often unwanted outsiders. (Even the name Hakka means "guest" in Cantonese.) The image has continued for the Hakka who moved to Taiwan. Chung seeks to change that.
Chung, now 43, grew up in a Hakka town in northern Taiwan's Hsinchu county. But after leaving to attend National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, her life had little connection to her ethnic roots. With flawless Mandarin and Taiwanese, no one guessed her ethnic background unless she told them.
Out of school, her distance from Hakka culture began to bother Chung. After graduation, she spent several years working as a reporter for women's magazines and daily papers in Taipei. Through work, she formed a circle of Hakka friends and they soon began discussing ways they could promote Hakka culture and ethnic pride.
"My Hakka friends felt that we were being oppressed by the government's language policy and by the public's misperceptions about the Hakka," Chung says. "We were unhappy, so we decided to do something about it." She explains that a negative stereotype of the Hakka as a close-knit group that is overly tight with money and closed to outsiders has persisted and continues to affect the way non-Hakka think of the group, and the way Hakka perceive themselves. She says this image has been especially damaging in the working world. "Business circles, where Taiwanese are the majority, do not welcome the Hakka," she says. "People are under the wrong impression that all Hakka are stingy and will do anything to make money."
Building an understanding and appreciation of the Hakka has become Chung's primary mission. In 1987, she and a group of ten other Hakka journalists founded Hakka Wind and Clouds, a monthly magazine on Hakka news and culture. "Our financial situation was poor," Chung says, "but the staff was very enthusiastic." Hakka communities warmly received the magazine, but in 1989, Chung and several of the original founders left the publication. The splinter group felt the magazine was becoming too political, detracting from the coverage of ethnic issues. (The magazine, which has continued regular publication, was renamed Hakka Monthly in 1990.)
Chung and the other former editors decided to take a more direct approach to strengthening Hakka culture. With martial law lifted in 1987 and many social movements starting up, the timing seemed right to launch a public campaign promoting the Hakka language. "The use of the mother tongue is the most basic and essential factor in the preservation of a culture," Chung says. "So, I think the Hakka language movement is currently the most basic and essential thing we need."
She explains that the Hakka language has dwindled alarmingly over the past few decades because of a combination of the government's Mandarin promotion policy, intermarriage, and the efforts by the Hakka themselves to blend into mainstream Taiwan culture by speaking Mandarin and Taiwanese. Chung herself is a prime example of this trend. She married a local Taiwanese, and her own children speak little Hakka. "There is no difference between the appearances of Hakka people and non-Hakka people, thus language is the only identity," Chung says. "If the Hakka do not want to speak Hakka and are ashamed of their ethnicity, the culture is finished."
Chung helped launch the "Give Back Our Mother Tongue" movement, which culminated in 1988 when a crowd of ten thousand people marched through Taipei. Participants included Hakka, Taiwanese, and mainlanders (those who moved to Taiwan with the government in 1949). Although the march did not bring about an immediate response, Chung believes that it led to gradual changes in the general perception of the Hakka. Several public figures, including TV host Hu Kua (胡瓜), have recently come forward and publicly announced their Hakka roots. "We were touched by people's support," Chung says. "And we are proud that more and more people are no longer afraid to admit their Hakka identity."
But old fears die hard, and Chung stresses there is a great need to build ethnic pride. "Many people don't want to let people know that they are Hakka," she says. "There is no advantage to being a Hakka, and worse, there may be disadvantages."' Chung tells of one Hakka doctor who recently agreed to give financial support to the language movement, but on one condition. Donating money was no problem, but he did not want his name publicized. "He told me he was afraid that many of his patients would go to other doctors if they found out he was a Hakka," Chung says.
In December 1990, Chung and a group of Hakka writers, lawyers, professors, and business people founded Taiwan HAPA (Hakka Association for Public Affairs). The group sponsors about a dozen public seminars and lectures in Taipei and elsewhere each year. Recent discussions covered Hakka TV programming, the political future of the group, ethnic songs and poetry, Hakka historical relics, and the language movement. For the past four summers, HAPA has also hosted cultural camps with activities geared for children, teenagers, and adults. The four-day retreats include Hakka speech contests, field trips to Hakka historical sites, and classes on history, language, music, drama, and architecture. To date, the camps have attracted nearly eight hundred participants, including a growing number of non-Hakka.
When she's not working for HAPA, Chung does freelance public relations copywriting, mainly for nonprofit social groups. She views her activist efforts as a way to ensure that the Hakka continue to enrich the cultural environment of Taiwan far into the future. "Five hundred years from now, there may not be any distinct groups of Hakka, Taiwanese, or mainlanders," Chung says. "When that day comes, we hope that the new lifestyle will reflect the best parts of the Hakka language and Hakka culture."