"吾兜嘅客家話" Nga deu ge Hakkaness : the struggles to preserve Hakkaness in Hong Kong and lessons to be learned from Taiwan’s, Macau’s and New Zealand's dialect preservation

Abstract

Hakka (客家) was once the largest indigenous group in Hong Kong with Hakka dialect being the most widely used dialect in New Territories. Hakka dialect fell victim to extermination policy when the official language policy was implemented by the colonial government. The language spectrum has gravely shrunk - a major language shift has been found from various indigenous dialects to Cantonese and English. Hakka people were thus coerced to forgo their language as Hakka dialect is partially forbidden in society. Post-colonial government has recognised the importance of Hakka dialect and its culture by listing some of them on the ICH list. Despite the government’s attempts in preserving Hakka culture in Hong Kong, Hakka dialect and culture are jeopardized by being endangered. This paper aims to examine and compare the role played by the local government and other prominent stakeholders in preserving Hakka culture in the hopes of offering sound suggestions on current government conservation policy. Three case studies on indigenous language preservation in Taiwan, Macau and New Zealand would be carried out to bolster the argument.