Is There a Transnational Hakka Identity?: Examining Hakka Youth Ethnic Consciousness in Malaysia

Abstract

Researches on transnational activities held by Chinese voluntary associations around the world claim that there is an emergence of a ”transnational Chinese community”. The globalization process of Chinese voluntary associations stimulates or encourages the preservation and promotion of Chinese cultures and traditions in their adopted countries. If this is so, we can logically say that there will be a cultural revival among the various dialect groups of Chinese in countries outside China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In this article, we employ data collected from Hakka youth in Malaysia, and focus our discussion on language usage in their private and public domains. The result is that the globalization of Chinese voluntary associations (in this case, the Hakka associations) does not automatically or naturally mean that all Chinese are globalized. The Hakka youth in our study show their Hakka cultural consciousness through their localized perception of the places they inhabit rather than the globalization force which, by and large, utilized by Chinese entrepreneurs to acquire social, economic, political and cultural resources outside the country they reside. Local limitations and situations have confined the Hakka youth to manifest their Hakkeness through the usage of Hakka language.