This article was extracted from The Hakkas of Malaysia to 1970 by Phin-Keong Voon from Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies 2024 (13)137-59. © 2024 Reprinted with permission. The entire article may be found at http://doi.org/10.6993/MJCS.202406_13(1).0003
The Hakka of Borneo
The ancestral homeland of the Hakkas was the uplands of the Guangdong-Fujian-Jiangxi border region. Hence the popular saying of “No Hakkas without uplands and no uplands without the Hakkas”. In these mountainous environments the Hakkas eked out a living on mining and agriculture From this ancestral heartland, the Hakkas spread to other parts of south China to form sub-groups such as the Jiaying, Huizhou, Dapu, Hepo, Fengshun and even “Teochew Kheh.”
The Hakkas were attracted to the mining areas of West Borneo, the tin mining islands of Bangka and Billiton of the Netherlands East and the tin fields of Perak and Selangor in Malaya. When rubber planting spread across the west coast of Malaya, these areas were similarly appealing to the Hakkas. The Hakka arrivals were unfamiliar with Malaya and tended to enter areas where similar dialect groups were well-established. This in turn influenced their livelihood and identity and enhanced their ties based on dialect affinities. In contrast, the Hokkiens and Teochews who lived along the coast of Fujian and parts of Guangdong provinces moved into the ports and coastal locations to engage in maritime trade and related businesses.
The Hakkas tended to settle down among groups from the same native villages or surname groups. In the 1740s, the Hakkas from Chaoyang, Jieyang, Haifeng, Lufeng, Jiaying and Huizhou were engaged in gold mining in West Borneo.
In Sarawak, the Hakkas were dominant in the gold mining area of Bau. In other parts of the state and in Sabah, the Hakkas were more dispersed in areas surrounding the emerging towns to engage in rubber planting and agricultural production. The distribution of the Hakkas then showed three main characteristics: an inclination to move away from the coast towards inland areas; a preference for areas on the outskirts of towns and rural areas; and a tendency to congregate among settlers from the same ancestral villages and sub-dialect affiliations.
From the mid-19th century, Hakkas from West Borneo migrated to the gold mines in the Bau area of western Sarawak to escape persecution by the Dutch. By 1885, the Chinese population in Bau had increased to 4,000. In the early 20th century, the Brook Authority encouraged Chinese immigration to boost agricultural production in Sarawak.
The authorities had to rely on immigrants to open up the vast expanses of virgin land. Considered the most suitable labour were the Chinese, Indians, and the peoples from the Netherlands East Indies. The colonial rulers of Sarawak and North Borneo offered attractive conditions to recruit Chinese settlers to perform the physical work of development.
Malaya soon turned out to be a highly-paying colonial possession of the British. During the 20th century, Malaya yielded the highest per capita revenue in the British empire. In view of the tropical location of Malaya and the Borneo states and assumed insalubrious climate, these territories were not considered suitable for settlement by white settlers
In the Kuching district along the Kuching-Bau and Kuching-Serian roads, the Hepo Hakkas were spread along these roads: the Lufeng Hakkas were concentrated near Bau, the Huizhou near Kuching, and the Jiaying in the Serian area. In the rubber trade, Hakka dealers operated in rural areas to supply the Hokkien dealers in Kuching.
In North Borneo, the Chartered Company in 1882 recruited the first batch of 1,000 settlers and subsequently turned their attention to recruiting Hakka Christians. From 1910 onwards, Hakkas and Shandong settlers were recruited to open up areas along the west coast. In the Malay States, the Methodist Missionary brought in Foochews into Sitiawan in Perak to pioneer agricultural development.
Between 1898 and 1911, the Rajah Brook administration of Sarawak brought in Hakkas, Foochows, Cantonese, and Henghuas to open up four different areas between the Kuching and the Rejang rivers. Although the actual numbers were small, the official plan was to “bring in thousands of future Chinese migrants” as Sarawak was regarded as capable of accommodating 5 to 10 million people.
Traditionally, the Hakkas “emphasise righteousness and look lightly on profits; emphasis was on agriculture and to look lightly on business”. In Sarawak, the Hakkas in the Kuching district were known as the shanding or “hill-top” people.
In 1947, Hakkas and Foochows became the largest dialect groups with 45,409 and 41,948 persons respectively. A similar policy was adopted by the Chartered Company of North Borneo which engaged Christian missionaries in 1881 to recruit Chinese to open up agricultural land. Each adult was granted 0.4 hectare (1 acre) of land and the young received 0.2 hectare (0.5 acre). The land enjoyed permanent tenure on a quit rent of 10 cents per 0.4 hectare.
In 1960, more than half the Chinese of Sabah and 30% of Sarawak were Hakkas. They were rather widely dispersed while the Foochows were clustered in the Sibu area. The initial recruitment of the Foochows was undertaken by Wong Nai Shiong (1849–1924) and later by the Methodist Missionary while the Basel Missionary was largely responsible for bringing in the Hakkas into Sabah.
In North Borneo, the Hakkas contributed significantly to educational development by establishing a school in every town. In Sarawak, the Hakkas established Chinese schools in several small towns, the first one being in Bau in 1870.
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