Our story begins with the migration of the Hakka from central China in Henan to the south from about the Third century A.D. They first entered Jiangxi, then during the Tang and Song periods to Southwest Fujian. The migration continued into Guangdong Province. By the 18th and 19th centuries the areas of northeast Guangdong were pure Hakka. They settled as tenant farmers in the Cantonese areas and pushed into Sichuan and Taiwan.
The Hakka were Han Chinese yet they did not associate with other Han Chinese. The Hakka spoke a distinctive Sinitic language. They exhibited a set of distinctive set of cultural characteristics. Some of these features had to do with the poor areas they settled and the need to supplement agriculture with other odd jobs. The Hakka women had unbound feet which allowed them to work outside the home in the rice fields.
The Hakka men sought brides from the tribal She population. The She people were thought to be one of the earliest tribes to migrate into Southern China during the Neolithic period (6000-2200 B.C.) They were not Han Chinese.
Hakka men sought alternative modes of work. These include mining, handicrafts, trade, scholarship and as professional soldiers. However, one thing seem to set them apart and this was the willingness to perform hard manual labor.
They had a strong physical stamina which was lent to pioneering work. This trait also promoted the Hakka to fight with their neighbouring Chinese.. Their fighting was unique in that they believed all members of society join in the fighting rather than having a separate class. This is was demonstrated in the Cantonese and Hakka fighting in the 19th century in Kalimantan.
The Hakka, as a group, were poorer than other Chinese and this factor tended them to stick together. They developed a Hakka style that they took overseas with them. Gold mining seemed to be what attracted them to Sambas in southwestern Borneo.
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, the Hakka migrated from the hilly areas Guangdong province, through the port of Swatow. The reasons for the migrations seem to be the Hakkas had nothing to lose. They were poor dirt and tenant farmers with very little at stake in the Chinese homeland.
Another reason could be the land they were born on could not support the additional family members. Therefore, the sons were required to move off the land and to seek their fortunes elsewhere. When the population increased to where there was no more land available, then overseas migration was their only option.
When they arrived at Sambas, they moved immediately to the gold fields by passing the coastal trade areas occupied by the Teo Chu. They became part of the kongsi that ruled the area. They were given shares of the gold mined by the kongsi which reduced their one year obligation to pay for their passage.
The Hakka were organized in the kongsi, not by their language, but by their origins in China. There were two divisions were the Meixian/Dapu Hakka from the eastern interior of Guangdong and the Huilai/Dapu Hakka of the Guangdong coast. These two divisions were to enter into conflicts in the gold mining areas.
Hakka men married the Dyak women instead of the upward mobile Malay girls. They incorporated the women into their own culture and language. Had they married the Malays, they could have become more upwardly mobile learning the Malay language and customs and becoming part of Malay society.
The Hakka tended to preserve Chinese culture. They provided Chinese education for their sons and established Chinese Hakka schools even in the most rural areas. When two missionaries attempted to build schools for them, in 1839,they declined preferring the medicines they offered.
When the gold mines ran out of work, the Hakkas tended to become part of the agricultural community rather that joining the trading class. The Hokkien worked with the forest people and acted as traders.In 1850 there was war between two Kongsi, the Thaikong and the Samtiaokioe. The Thaikong over ran the positions at Sepang, Seminis, Sebawi and the harbor town of Pemangkat. Over 4000 members of the Samtiaokioe fled to Sarawak and into Bau.
Prior to 1853, the Dutch maintained small forces in Sambas and Pontianak Then, in March, 1853, military reinforcements from the Dutch brigade arrived. They entered Sepang and occupied this prized mining area. The Thaikong struck back and re took a devastated Sepang. The Dutch demanded surrender but the Thaikong refused. The Dutch sent an additional 1700 troops while the Malay Sultanate contributed 1400 coolies to help transport Dutch equipment while the Sultan of Pontianak contributed sea going vessels.
he Dutch conquest was swift. As colonial masters they imposed a tax of three guilders on each person. Payment was required to obtain papers which were required for work. Vaccinations were required although the Chinese had their own form of inoculation.
Increasingly, the Dutch forced the Hakka off their farms and into settlements. Patrols of Dyaks and Dutch police burned huts and homes. Hunting down the remnants of Samtiaokioe, who they thought were members of a” secret society”, members escaped across the border into Sarawak.
Meanwhile in Sarawak, Rajah James Brooke tried to enforce a government opium monopoly. People from the Samtiaokioe kongsi were already established in Bau . The rebellion broke out soon after a group of refugees arrived from Lumar in 1856. One historian states they were Thaikong diehards who had forced to leave Mandor and Landak.
The rout of the Hakkas by the Malays and Dyak troops forced the entire population south into Kalimatan. Many of them headed for Pemangkat where the valleys became fertile with rice fields. Some of the Hakka Chinese went back to Bau to work in the gold fields only to return with their riches to Indonesia. The border was porous, as it is today.
Sources:
Carstens, Sharon Histories, Cultures, Identities: Studies in Malaysian Chinese World Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2005
Heidhues, Mary Golddiggers, Farmers and Traders in the Chinese Districts of West Kalimatan, Indonesia : Ithaca: Cornell University, 2002
