Thoughts on the origin of certain Hakka trades and skills - a perspective from Hakka town bias.

By Lee M Lock

I was born in 1936 of Dapu Hakka parents in a little town called Masjid Tanah (population about 1000) which is 18 miles to the west of old Malacca. Here I spent my childhood years, up to age eleven. Then I moved to Tampin (population about 3000), a bigger town 25 miles north of Malacca, for my English school education, from age eleven to nineteen.

This reflection about the character of the two Hakka towns I grew up in is linked to the thoughts I have on the origin of certain Hakka trades and skills, based mainly on the observations of the Dapu Hakkas I have known since childhood.

In many ways, both Masjid Tanah and Tampin are like similar Chinese townships that dot the landscape of West Malaysia, but with this difference: the Hakkas here are in the majority, and most of them speak the Dapu dialect.

Malaysia, or Malaya as it was known before independence in 1957, is a relatively young country with a large population of immigrants who came mostly at the turn of the 20^th century, having been under British rule for about 150 years. The British opened up Malacca for development only in late 19th century, cutting down its forests and introduced rubber plantation in their place. Most of the immigrants came from south India or south China, from around 1900 to 1930s, until and up to the onset of World War II.

Because of the country’s relatively recent history, it is possible, with some luck, for one today to still find some surviving first generation pioneer Chinese in towns like Masjid Tanah and Tampin ; however, most of the residents would be second or third generation Chinese.

Shop houses amidst kampongs.

The majority of the Chinese in such towns live in two-story shop houses made of brick; in some cases, the shop houses are one- story zinc or attap roof shacks ; these dwellings are usually located in settings where there are large communities of Malays, who live in separate Malay Reserves in clusters collectively called "Malay kampongs"; such kampongs are often widely dispersed within a radius of about 5-10 miles from a Chinese township, but within the township itself, there are usually very few Malay families.

The hub of commercial life i.e. the supplying of daily necessities, buying and selling, would be the shop houses set up in the towns; the ground floors of such shop houses are normally for business use; the upper floors, or the back of the shop if it is a one-story building, are for dwelling.

Each town has a history of its own - for example, how it came to be and what community or dialect group predominates in the town i.e. whether they are mainly Hokkiens, Teochews, Hakkas, Cantonese, Foochows or whatever.

For the story of Masjid Tanah and Tampin, the Hakkas are in the majority and they dominate in the running of the businesses there; so Hakka is the main dialect spoken.

Occupation pattern.

The following description outlines the main occupation pattern of the Chinese community in each of the two towns:-

1. Masjid Tanah( population about 1000).

Dialect Groups ** Main Occupations

1. Hakkas (and their subgroups in decreasing order):

i) Dapu : i) Medicine shop, including sinsehs ;

(majority ) ii)pawnshop;

iii)blacksmiths;

iv)tinsmiths;

v)cloth, clothing and general store;

vi)tailors;

vii)dried food provisions

viii)registered dentist, watch repairer, resident

pastor, shop assistants;

ii)Meisien i)goldsmith;

ii)photo studio;

iii) shoe smiths ;

iv)medicine shop;

v)school teachers;

iii)Fui Chew i)dry food provisions shop;

ii)planks and timber materials suppliers;

iv)Hoilufoong i)pig-breeding and vegetable farmers;

2. Hokkiens i)dry rubber sheet traders

ii)pork sellers, fishmongers, and hawkers;

iii) pig breeders, rubber tappers, farmers;

iv) school teachers;

3.Cantonese i) goldsmith and dentist.

ii) vegetable sellers;

4.Hainanese i) coffee shop.

5.Hockcha i) bicycle shop;

ii) barbers;

** decreasing order

B.Tampin ( population about 3000 ).

The general occupation pattern noted for Masjid Tanah above emerges once again for Tampin. This town is 3 times larger than Masjid Tanah, and lies some 25 miles away, inland towards plantation and forests .

Here are many more shops, more people and more chances among the different Chinese dialect groups to speak their own dialect among themselves, but the Dapu dialect predominates in the town.

Another reason other dialects are also frequently used is: the Dapu community often choose to speak other people’s dialects for business and practical reasons; so their Dapu dialect is not forced on, and therefore generally not spoken by Chinese of other dialect groups; and definitely not by non-Chinese.

There is often a confusion between Tampin and Pulau Sebang, because Tampin sits astride the boundary of the state of Malacca and the state of Negri Sembilan.

The Hakkas live mostly on the Malacca side, called Pulau Sebang, Tampin.

On the Negri Sembilan side, however, called simply "Tampin" , the Hokkiens are more numerous; this is probably because of their preeminence in the rubber retail and plantation business, or their closer historical links with government officials.

The government district office for Tampin is located on the Negri Sembilan side; however, on the Malacca side of Tampin, there is no district office , this being located in another town called Alor Gajah, about 10 miles away towards Malacca Town .

Pulau Sebang (or simply Tampin as it is better known) is the bigger brother of the siamese twins – here are more people, more shop houses and more Hakkas. As to the reason why there were (and still are) more Hakkas, particularly Dapu Hakkas, in Masjid Tanah and Tampin, compared with say a majority of Hokkiens in Malacca Town, the following reasons are suggested:

1. The Hakkas were more recent arrivals from China (mostly around the1920s-30s ??);
2. not being able to find competitive openings or opportunities in and around Malacca Town, they have therefore taken the Hobson’s choice of settling in newer but farther inland townships.

Thoughts on certain trades and skills of Dapu Hakkas

But the point to be emphasized is not so much the history of their settlement in these towns but why the Dapu Hakkas were (and still are) especially strong in certain trades and skills, in some cases almost their monopoly , not only in these two towns but also in other towns in Malaysia where they have settled, such as operating:-

i) Chinese medicine shops and as Chinese sinsehs;

ii) Pawn shops ;

iii) Cloth shops;

iv) as blacksmiths; and

v) as tinsmiths;

Not widely known but definitely a very special Dapu know-how is the making of taufu ,and in particular, a special kind of taufu which is flat, dry and compressed, called ‘taufukon’, a favorite with Dapu Hakkas.

Today in Malaysia, this ‘taufukon’ is reportedly only made in Seremban by a Dapu Hakka family, who supplies these to other states from there.

In travels to China, this writer has tasted something very similar to this product in a city, of all places, far north above Beijing- in the former summer imperial resort city of Chengde, some 100 miles northeast of Beijing. This suggests a Hakka link to northern dishes.

While on the subject of food, a local fare that is a hot favorite among Hakka residents there (and also, by now, residents of other dialect groups) is its special version of "Hakka mee", which can only be described as "Dapu authentic". (Mee is believed to be of "northern " origin).

For this mee , the Dapu diehards are prepared to endure long queue at one particularly famous hawker stall there . During Chinese New Year celebrations (1^st-15^th), when most or all Chinese businesses are closed, this stall, by special pleas and request, is open for business, just to satisfy the hunger and urge for this mee by old Tampinites who work in other cities or towns and return to Tampin for family reunion!

Ordinary or extraordinary trade skills?

Now to highlight the significance of the following trade skills of the Hakkas:-

i) Pawnshop business

This is a very ancient ‘city business’ indigenous to China, and is a form of early banking; pawn shop business is not something easily learnt, practiced and passed on ; like kungfu and the practice of Chinese medicine, it usually is a closely protected or guarded family secret or business.

To my knowledge, only the Dapu Hakkas operate pawnshop business in Malaysia and Singapore. The question is why?

ii) Black-smiths (the making of parangs, knives, changkuls, bullock cart metallic wheel frames, etc).

Again, this is no easy skill – one could even say it was high -tech skill of yesteryears. Although this trade in Malaysia is a dying one, if not dead already, it appears to be the preserve of Dapu Hakkas in the following places I have seen practiced: Malacca, Muar , Singapore and of course Masjid Tanah also; again, why?

3. So are tinsmiths- the making of utility tin or zinc cans and containers, and other household items , zinc roofings , gutter pipes, etc.

A related trade which is now an industry in the state of Selangor is pewter business. From very humble beginning as a family business, it has now become a big business still under the control of the same Dapu Hakka family.

4. Cloth shops

v) Chinese medicine shops and sinsehs

That the Dapu Hakkas , coming from such impoverished circumstances, have the know how to practice the trades and skills mentioned above is indeed a marvel, and could only come about because :

Indeed, it speaks well of the resilience and resourcefulness of the Dapu Hakkas as a people, to be able to retain these trades and skills over long periods of their exile in the southern outback of China ; it seems to be an unambiguous confirmation of the story that they (and other Hakkas) have truly migrated from greater cities further north; and put paid the lies or doubts that this story of their origin from the north is a fabricated one, as one account has it.

On the question of whether the Hakkas were ever the nobility from the north, it is more than likely that some of the Hakkas could indeed have aristocratic blood, as loyalists, scholars and nobility of lost causes in the saga of deposed dynasties.

At the very least, they must have been city residents before, working as artisans and merchants; otherwise how else could one explain their unusual trade skills wherever they have settled?

One - the Hakkas as a people were without doubt migrants or refugees from the north;

Two - among the Hakkas, the Dapu people appear to have been better endowed, trained or equipped in the time honored traditional skills, as evidenced from the above account;

Three- they represent the cream of old China -not the only cream , but a cream nevertheless-that has survived the rise and fall of changing dynasties and political power.

It would, of course, be interesting and helpful to ascertain whether :-

1. other sub groups of Hakkas( for example the Meisiens, the Fui Chews, the Hailufoongs, the Horpors,etc) ;or
2. other southern Chinese, like the Hokkiens and the Cantonese,

are equally and similarly skilled in the ancient trades of pawn shops, medicine shops, blacksmith, tinsmith etc, in their home county or anywhere else.

This writer looks forward to, and indeed, welcomes any feedback, comments, views and reactions from other readers on the above subject.