The influx of immigration of Chinese to California and other parts of the West coast moved as laborers in the railway construction. They were among the merchants to move to California. Some Chinese opened stores and restaurants there, later, thousands of peasants migrated from the Guangdong area to the U.S. They were treated as slave laborers. They did not intend to stay there for long but shortly, just to get some money so that they can go back to their families. With time, they started competing for jobs with the whites. (Lynn Pan 1949)
According to Thomas and Etzold in their article Aspects of sio- America Relations since 1784, the first Chinese migration from Guangdong took place in the densities of North and South when people who lived in central plains did cross over the yellow and the Yangtze Rivers who later moved to Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces. The major purpose of their movement was to avoid the chaos that was caused by war or rather the inversion of the alien’s races,
The second migration came about when the uprising peasants from Huangchao during the late years of the Tang Dynasty, to run away from the war had to migrate to the provinces of Southern Jiangxi and Western Fujian of which some had to enter in other provinces like Faraway Guangdong. This followed the third migration that came towards the end of Song Diversity. This was the time when Mongolian cavalries moved to the south. It is in the provinces of Fujian and Guangdong where the emperor flew in panic. Some Hakka’s who had settled in Jiangxi and Fujian had to move to the south into the provinces of Eastern and Northern Guangdong at the time.
The rate of multiplication amongst these people was growing at an alarming rate. This was happening in the boundaries of Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi. Since this population was giving a threat to the Government, it had to come up with policies on immigration and immediately implement them. This policy forced the Hakka’s to move to South and West extending to the provinces of Eastern and Western Guangdong, Hunan, Sichuan, Taiwan, and Yunnan. This happened during the fourth migration.
In the middle and late 19th Century the Hakka Population sharply went up. The conflicts amongst the indigenous residents multiplied every other day and finally leading to large numbers of fights. There was no peace amongst the indigenous members and since the government could not sit back and watch, it had to stop and look for ways of solving the same problem. In this case, the Government forced some of the Hakka’s to another side of Mountainous regions in the provinces of Western Guangdong, Hainan Islands, Peninsula, and Guangxi. So many Hakka’s started crossing the Ocean to look for greener pastures. This fifth migration made the hakkas to be distributed all over nowadays but their compact communities are still there. Presently, there are over 280 Hakka countries with Jiangxi, Fijiana, and Guangdong being central. The approximate number of Hakka’s is 58.1 million including 49.2 living on the mainland, 6.8 million are in Taiwan, 2 million are in Hong Kong and 100 thousand live in Macao. (Tanshan H, 1929)
The Han people are the pillars of the Hakka community and they keep moving from and to the yellow rivers, they have been able to carry the Hakka culture and transmit it to the Central Plain in culture. However, as Hakka’s continue to mingle with the Yue and Yao they get to share and learn each other’s culture. They absorb what they can as well as retaining their own. As a consequence of this, there has developed a distinct culture among the Hakka’s that is quite different from the original one.
Further still, the construction of the residential buildings does vary among the Hakka’s. Those from the southern Jiangxi have square storied, those at the western Fujian have the round storied and those at Meizhou are encircled and have unique features that are both in Chinese and the architectural world of history.
The Hakka’s love singing their folk song: ”there is one hundred kilogram burden on my shoulder and it will be lighter as long as we sing a song climbing the hill” ”everyone has got something to worry them but they become happy once they join the singing.”
The Hakka’s enjoyed who lived in inhibited places enjoyed the sweetness of the folksong that goes like this; “the song is heard in the rivers where fishermen are, is spreads all over the slopes for the herdsmen and flow to where woodmen are on the mountain roads.
The Hakka’s spirit of solidarity, patriotism, and valuing the education has been a result of them running away altogether to the south to avoid the chaos that was being caused by war and going an extra mile to venture into remote areas looking for something to do. Since ancient, this spirit has made Hakka’s remain united and did everything as a united community. They believed achievement come about if people come together in huge numbers (Tanshan H, 1929)
In a nutshell, this migration occurred because of the following major issues; firstly, there was the signing of the treaties because of the declining Chinese economy. China signed some unequal treaties with some nations in the West. When it came to the payment, it forced the Qing government to raise the tax that raised a big burden to the Chinese. Secondly; the agrarian economy of China had disintegrated. This was due to the opening of the Chinese trade sport. Thirdly, western imperialism affected various occupations in the provinces of Guangdong. Fourthly, there was social unrest in the form of rebellion by peasants in the Qing dynasty. Several peasant rebellions were being directed towards the much oppressive Qing government. Several issues like the commercialization of agriculture, much competition from imports, natural disasters and famine, the coming up of local manufacture amongst other issues contributed so much to the migration.
Lastly, there was an impact of Western Imperialism, as far as political and diplomatic issues on Chinese immigration. Traditionally, Chinese law did not allow emigration. The provincial government of Guangdong then in 1859 was then forced to allow Chinese laborers to be recruited. Moreover, the Beijing treaty that was signed in the years before sanctioned the acceptance of the central government to accept large-scale emigration. The Qing government could not protect it against its traditional laws.
References
Etzold, Thomas H. Ed. Aspests of sio- America Relations since 1784.p.7.
Lynn Pann, 1949: A history of the Chinese Diaspora, ISBN.
Tanshan H, 1929: “huaqiaoshi” section 1. Quoted in June Mei “socio-economic of Emigration: Guangdong to California, 1850-1882.”