Hakka country

Known as kèjiārén in Chinese (“guest families”, or hak-kâ ngin in the Hakka language), the Hakka (客家人) are an ethnic sub-group of the Han Chinese family, with their own language, customs and traditions. Originally from the northern Chinese provinces of Henan and Shanxi, Hakka people began coming to Taiwan in the seventeenth century and have since developed a particularly strong identity. At first, Hakka migrants settled in Taipei county and along the western plains, but by the nineteenth century they had moved to the areas in which they predominate today: the mountainous parts of Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, and in the Kaohsiung-Pingdong area. Though few Hakka are farmers today, they’re still regarded as hard workers and have a reputation for producing some of the island’s top scholars and writers: famous Hakka people include ex-president Lee Teng-hui, Soong Mei-ling (Chiang Kai-shek’s wife) and film director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Mainland Chinese leaders Sun Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping were also Hakka.

Hakka people subscribe to the same religious beliefs as other Chinese groups in Taiwan, but they also have their own special gods and festivals. The worship of the Yimin (義民; yìmín; mostly in north Taiwan) is unique to Taiwan, while the island also has around 145 temples dedicated to the Three Mountain Kings (三山國王; sānshān guówáng), protective spirits of the Hakka and a tradition that came from Guangdong.

The Council for Hakka Affairs was created by the government in 2001 to help preserve Hakka culture on the island, and to ensure its language survives: there are several dialects spoken in Taiwan, with sìxiàn being the most important, and the one you’ll hear on train announcements. Hakka TV (客家電視台; kèjiā diànshìtái), a 24-hour station, has been on air since 2003.

One of the most controversial of Taiwan’s traditional religious practices is the rearing of “God Pigs” (神豬; shénzhū) – unfortunate hogs that are fed to grotesque size, often so large they can no longer walk. The pigs are used as offerings to the gods – it’s a particularly Hakka custom, used mostly at the Yimin Festival when literally hundreds are sacrificed. Pigs are killed the day before, by knife, and the carcass stretched over a metal cage so that it looks disturbingly similar in size to a small bus. It doesn’t take much imagination to work out why animal rights activists get upset about this: cases of force-feeding, alleged ill-treatment and the relatively simplistic method of slaughter have led to increased calls for a ban over the years. Hakka groups say that it’s a traditional part of their culture and that the pigs are well cared for. While it’s true that the tradition of offering pigs goes back to the 1830s, the official “contest” to see who has the biggest and intensive, modern factory methods are relatively new; many pigs are actually bought by Hakka families at the end of the fattening process (which can take two years) when they already sport monstrous proportions.

Beipu is the best place in Taiwan to sample léichá (擂茶), or “ground tea”, a popular Hakka drink with origins in ancient China. Its modern incarnation is one hundred percent contemporary Taiwan however; a green tea mixed with a paste of peanuts, sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. It’s delicious and very filling (it’s sometimes called “cereal tea”), but the twist is that you get to prepare it yourself. DIY sessions are offered at most of the teashops in town, and in general you are expected to at least have a go, the staff sometimes reluctant to pitch in. After a few minutes you’ll understand why; the raw ingredients are placed into a ceramic bowl and must be pounded into an oily paste with a giant wooden pestle, a process which takes a strong arm, or preferably, several. The tea is usually served with Hakka-style muaji (máshŭ in Mandarin), sticky rice rolled in ground peanuts.