Hakka Americans

Hakka Americans
客家美國人
hak-kâ mî-koet-ngìn
Total population
20,000+ (Taiwan)
Regions with significant populations
California, Hawaii, New York City, Florida
Languages
American English, Mandarin, Hakka, Cantonese, African American Vernacular English, Jamaican English
Related ethnic groups
Chinese Americans, Asian Americans, Taiwanese American

Hakka Americans (客家美國人 or 客裔美國人[1]), also called American Hakka,[2] are Han people in the United States of Hakka origin, mostly from present-day Guangdong, Fujian, and Taiwan. Many Hakka Americans have connections to Hakka diaspora in Jamaica, the Caribbean, South East Asia, Latin America, and South America. The Han characters for Hakka (客家) literally mean "guest families". Unlike other Han ethnic groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city. The Hakkas usually identify with people who speak the Hakka language or share at least some Hakka ancestry.[3] The earliest Hakka immigrants to what is now the United States mostly went to Hawaii, starting when the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent sovereign state. After the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943, the Hakka began to come to the US from Taiwan and to a lesser extent Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Jamaica and the Caribbean.

  1. ^ "海外客家文化繼承的課題 訪美有感". Hakka Affairs Council, Taiwan. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  2. ^ "American and French Hakka Returned to Hometown for Investigation". Mezhou Government, Guangdong, China. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 11 Aug 2016.
  3. ^ "A Small Chinese Minority Group Finds a Home in DC | Asian Fortune". asianfortunenews.com. 18 October 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2016.