If anyone sees a similarity between Jews and Hakka, raise your hand. Good class. There are a lot of similarities between the two tribes. Both have a huge, varied and active diaspora. Both have been hounded wherever they go. Both have faced persecution, risen to power, been accused of nefarious schemes and been sold into slavery. There are a couple of major differences, though, and in this case, the exceptions help clarify the rule. Besides having endured an organized attempted genocide, the Jewish tribe has one other thing the Hakka do not: an organized religion that binds where language, geography and memory cannot. Then what binds the Hakka together, if not a spiritual connection to an all-knowing Father in Heaven? We have seen that DNA and blood are poor guidelines for identity and tribe. Although the Hakka claim bloodlines to one another, our path to the Truth shows us that bloodlines tend toward murkiness. So what we have are the following:
a shared memory; the story of flight and re-settlement
a shared language, once the preeminent language of nobles and poets
outposts in the wilderness, like the Hakka town south of Chengdu, Luodai (Luò Dài, 洛带), and the tǔ lóu settlements of Fujian (土楼)
family trees
an active diaspora
