Artifacts
The Hakka’s unique culture has created a variety of historical artifacts. We hope everyone can learn about the Hakka culture and artifacts and have a glimpse of Hakka life through this website.
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Religion and Ritual Items |
Agricultural and Measuring Tools |
The Hakka people used to rely on agricultural and measuring tools for living. Tasks such as planting, weeding, fertilizing, watering, harvesting, and drying represent the traditional farming life of Hakka.
Bamboo tools include winnowing fan, ox yoke, seed basket, etc. Tools for farming include rake, hoe, pitch fork, etc. Tools used after harvesting include winnower, grain picker, sieve, etc. |
TablewarePeople attach paramount importance to food. It can be discovered from Hakka tableware that, although the traditional Hakka cuisine ingredients are simple, they can be used to create variety of dishes.
The traditional bowls and plates are painted with blue and white patterns such as flowers, fish and shrimps, etc. The tableware of various sizes and shapes are filled with simple delicious Hakka cuisine. Every household has kitchenware include stove, rice bucket, ladle, cutting board, spoon, etc. In addition, there are variety of urns and clay pots, which are also important cookware for Hakka life. |
Clothing and Embroidery |
Traditional Hakka women only wear blue shirts in their lives, whether they are at home, outside, or being guests, showing the diligence and simplicity of the ancestors.
Hakka people use blue plants to dye the fabrics, and then used millstone to plant blue dyed cloth, and then use the millstone to soak and flatten the fabric. After that they cut the fabric and make the blue clothes. The artifacts include millstone, sewing machine, blue shirts, trousers, ornaments, clothes and other accessories for men, etc. Although the Hakka people don’t do weaving themselves, they have excellent embroidery techniques, which are displayed on the clothes of women and children. |
FurnitureTraditional furniture is mostly made with wood or bamboo, presenting natural texture with practical functions. Furniture such as Taishi chair (fauteuil) and cane chair are placed in the living room. Bedrooms have furniture like cypress bed, mirror stand, coat racks, wardrobes, etc. These furniture represent distinctive characteristics of an era.
The wooden furniture can reflect the family’s financial strength. Although the model may be the same, the material used in furniture can be different, for example, the wealthy family often use furniture made with cypress and lacquer painting. On the oher hand, average income family often use bamboo made furniture. |
CostumesDa-jin-shan and Three –grasp hairstyle
Embroidered slippers
Normally, Hakka women are barefoot, they only wear home-made embroidered shoes or heads-up shoes when going out or during nighttime. In Hakka wedding customs, the bride has to make new shoes for future parents in law as gifts, also being named as father-in-law/mother-in-law shoes. Traditional shoes of Hakka women come in two types, heads-up shoes and slipper. Hakke slippers feature embroidered vamp; some will even be embroidered with dazzling beads, which can still be found in Liouduai. As for the heads-u, so called the “Kou-Zui-Xie”(hook mouth shoes), are made in the form of sliooers or flat pumps with cotton leather soles.
Hakka Underwear
Hakka in Taiwan called it “belly apron”or “belly around”.Bellyband is usually made of thirty centimeters wide and long,diamond-shaped piece of cloth,by cutting the bottom into arc shape cutting off the corner on the top,sewing the straps onto two cutting-edges to tie in the neck. The rich people also use gold and silver chains. Left and right feet are tied with a cloth belt around waist,some of which are also embroidered with patterns. Bellybands different in the form and pattern.
Babes generally wear
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MusicHakka music can be divided into three categories of Eight Notes, Folk Songs and Artistic / Opera style Songs
What are the Eight Notes?The materials of Chinese musical instruments can be classified into eight categories: metal, stone, string, bamboo, fruit shell, earthenware, animal hide and wood.
After Hakka people moved to Taiwan, they combined music from different regions and integrated into their own music, developing a special tune called the Eight Notes. Eight Notes
It is the representative of Hakka music. It is a type of small wind-percussion band performance. The main base is drumming with suona horn as the main instrument.
Originally the music is performed for ritual and welcome ceremonies, but as time changes, it has gradually expanded for entertainment and funeral events. The performance style evolved from simple instrumental music to integration of folk songs and opera style singing. Hakka Eight Notes Instruments:
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Eight Notes Compilation
Performance Type: 1. wind-percussion instruments
2. string instruments 3. Xiaozi tune The main instrument is the suona. The play includes wind and percussion music, folk songs, and dramas. The number of musicians is typically between 4 to 8 people, with 6 being the most common. The compilation is different in northern and southern Taiwan. Hakka Hill Song
Another representative of Hakka music. The hill song is an art that conveys Hakka people’s life experience and feelings. It is also an agent that unites and binds the Hakka people together.
The origin The hill songs were created by Hakka people while farming or during their leisure time. Hakka hill songs are mostly about description of daily life, emotions, and love. Characteristics The melody has higher pitch voice to express the unrestrained emotions, emphasizing the charm of the voice. Types
Opera Vocal Performance The characteristic of Hakka opera is the unique melody and vocal performance. It is mainly composed with hill song and folk tune, there are two categories:
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LinguisticTaiwanese Hakka refers to Han Taiwanese recognized by the Hakka people, it is the second largest ethnic group in Taiwan.
Taiwanese Hakka dialect is spoke by Taiwanese Hakkas, mainly originated from eastern Guangdong and small part of western and southern Fujian. The main dialects are Sixian dialect and Hailu dialect. Other dialects include Dabu, Raoping, Zhao-an, Yongding and Changle. |
Taiwan Hakka DialectsSixian DialectIt is the Hakka dialect originated from Jiaying and nearby prefectures such as Xingning, Zhengping, and Pingyuan. It has six tones: yin-yang level tone, rising tone, yin-yang departing tone, entering tone. It is the most spoken Hakka dialect in Taiwan, and also the standard dialect for public broadcast such as railway and MRT.
Haiku Dialect
It is originated from Haifeng and Lufeng of Huizhou, Guangdong in Qing Dynasty. It has 7 tones. It is the second most spoken Hakka dialect in Taiwan. As it is mostly widely used in Hsinchu County, it is also called the Hsinchu dialect.
Dabu DialectIt came from immigrants from Chaozhou (now called Meizhou) Guangdong. It is most commonly used in Dongshi Dist (today’s Dongshi, Shigang, Xinshe, Heping districts in Taichung City). The dialect is also known as the Dongshi dialect.
Raoping Dialect
Originated from Raoping County in Chouzhou City, Guangdong.
Zhao-an Dialect
Mainly spoken by immigrants from Zhao-an County, Nanjing County, Pinghe County, and Yunxiao County. This dialect has preserved the most ancient Hakka tones and meanings. As the counties are located in southern Fujian regions, Zhao-an dialect shares many vocabularies with the Minnan language. The tone of Zhao-an dialect is almost the same as the Chaozhou dialect of the Minnan language.
Detail Dialect Distribution:
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