These earlier waves of southern Han Chinese immigrants occupied the coastal areas and fertile lowlands and had already formed distinctive cultural identities and dialects.

Intermarriage with aboriginal groups and the adoption of habits that diverged from the Han, such as communal fortress living, increased the Cantonese distaste for the Hakka and aroused suspicion.

However, the Hakka differed in their lifestyles and their preferred mode of habitation - living in large communal fortress-like buildings (known as tulou) instead of residing in courtyard houses (or siheyuan).

They also settled in marginal or hardscrabble hill land avoided by other Han Chinese subgroups, and in this regard, were considered similar to non-Han aborigines.

They also exhibited gender egalitarianism to a greater degree than other southern Chinese.Unlike other Han Chinese groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city.

[16][17][11] Furthermore, research into the mitochondrial DNA of the Hakka indicates that the majority of their matrilineal gene pool consists of lineages prevalent in the southern Han.

Some family genealogies also employ the term Hakka (客家) to refer to their southward migration, even though they belonged to the earlier groups of Han Chinese settlers and did not speak a Gan-affiliated language.

These clans would be properly regarded as belonging to local dialect groups due to the timing of their arrival, the language they spoke, the customs they practiced, and the route of their traversal.

These families were not part of the groups of settlers today associated with the Hakka, who arrived in southern China at a much later date through Jiangxi province and who spoke a Gan-affiliated language.

Hakka people built several types of tulou and peasant fortified villages in the mountainous rural parts of far western Fujian and adjacent southern Jiangxi and northern Guangdong regions.

[25] Another very popular architectural style in northern east Guangdong, such as Xingning and Meixian, is Wrapped Dragon Village (Chinese: 圍龍屋; pinyin: wéilóngwū).

Yong tau foo is a Hakka Chinese food consisting primarily of tofu that has been filled with either a ground meat mixture or fish paste.

Hakka hill songs are traditionally used by hillside farmers in parts of Taiwan and China, mainly for entertainment in the farming fields and courting practices.

This may have been driven by historical necessity rather than cultural differences, since the Hakka employed marginal hill lands which were less fertile than the river valley occupied by other Han subgroups, such as the Cantonese, the Teochew and the Hoklo people.

[31] On 27 August 1925, villages in a county belonged to the Hakka minority were attacked, Chiang's Punti (Cantonese) men and soldiers did not hesitate to rape their women and pillage their homes.

The Hakkas who settled in the mountainous region of south-western Fujian province developed a unique form of architecture known as the tulou (土樓), literally meaning earthen structures.

In the Song dynasty, a large number of Han Chinese migrated to the delta area as the Court moved southward because invasion of northern minority.

As with those in Sichuan, many Hakka emigrated to Xinyang Prefecture (in Southern Henan Province), where Li Zicheng carried out a massacre in Guangzhou (now in Huangchuan) on 17 January 1636.

Although there had been settlers originating from the mainland proper even before the Tang dynasty, historical records of those people are non-extant, only evidence of settlement from archaeological sources can be found.

Post war, males took the opportunity to seek work in Britain and other countries later to send for their families to join them once they sent enough money back to cover travel costs.

[42] Today, there are still Hakka villages around Hong Kong, but being remote, many of their inhabitants have moved to the post war new towns like Sheung Shui, Tai Po, Sha Tin and further afield.

Liu Mingchuan took measures to reinforce Tamsui, in the river nine torpedo mines were planted and the entrance was blocked with ballast boats filled with stone which were sunk on 3 September, matchlock armed "Hakka hill people" were used to reinforce the mainland Chinese battalion, and around the British Consulate and Customs House at the Red Fort hilltop, Shanghai Arsenal manufactured Krupp guns were used to form an additional battery.

Another group are Chinese immigrants to Southern Vietnam, known as Người Hẹ and is located around Ho Chi Minh City and Vũng Tàu.

Another notable Hakka was Yap Ah Loy, who founded Kuala Lumpur and was a Kapitan Cina of the settlement from 1868 to 1885, bringing significant economic contributions and was also an influential figure among the ethnic Chinese.

The Timorese Hakka diaspora can currently be found in Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia; in Portugal; in Macau; and in other parts of the world in smaller numbers.

The Australian government took some years to assess their claims to be genuine refugees and not illegal immigrants, as partially related to the political situation in East Timor at the time.

During the time he held office in Calcutta until the late 2000s, Yap Kon Chung, the Hakka ambassador, protected and helped the Chinese residents in India.

It encompasses their origins, identity, language, traits, architecture, customs, food, literature, history, politics, economics, diaspora and genealogical records.

The study of the Hakka people first drew attention to Chinese and foreign scholars, adventurers, missionaries, travellers and authors of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era.

When the People's Liberation Army had its rank structure from 1955 to 1964, the highest number of generals, totalling 54, came from the small Hakka county of Xingguo in Jiangxi province.