The Hakka Chinese have been known to have attained important political offices in East and Southeast Asia and in South America. This paper contributes to the discussion of Hakka political leaders by analyzing the conditions of Hakka people in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Guyana, and the rise of a few of these Hakka individuals to top leadership positions in their respective country. The argument is that despite being a minority and initially political outsiders, some of their descendants have capitalized on their outsider position to climb to the top political leadership positions.

Introduction

One of the major ethnic groups in China are the so-called Hakka people (客家人, Kejiaren), who account for anywhere between 60 and 100 million people in the world, 90% of which are based in China (Zeng 2004). One of the distinguishing features of the Hakka people is that they are disproportionately strong represented in the ranks of political leadership both in and outside of China. Within China alone Hakka political leaders have been the backbone of many uprisings and revolutions, such as the Taiping rebellion (1850-64) and the Communist ascendance to power in 1949 (Christiansen 1998, 1; Erbaugh 1992; Wang 1992, 1994; Zhang 1994). Most previous studies have focused on Hakka politicians and military leaders within China (especially Erbaugh 1992; Leong 1997) or Taiwan (Christiansen 1998), since that is where most of the Hakkas are located in. And some studies have looked at Hakka people worldwide, but in rather general terms rather than in terms of their political contribution (Chan 2010). There have been a few limited accounts of several Hakka leaders in several Asian countries, but with a strong focus within China (Lee 2005). But there has never been a complete account of Hakka leaders in various other countries around East and Southeast Asia and South America. This study seeks to fill the gap in the literature.

There are many examples of famous political leaders, including the leader of the Taiping rebellion, Hong Xiuquan; former president of China, Sun Yat-sen1; former Chinese Communist party chairman, Deng Xiaoping. Outside of China, the Hakkas also had many leaders, including former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and his son and current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong; former president of Taiwan, Lee Teng-hui; current president of Taiwan, Ma Ying-Jeou; and former president of Guyana, Arthur Chung.2 There is even a Hakka Supreme Court chief justice, Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen, in the island of Mauritius.3 This article will describe the conditions of the Hakkas in their respective countries (in China and the diaspora), and lay out the rise of the different Hakka political leaders in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Guyana.

My argument is that the Hakka political leaders were initially political outsiders, but gradually fought their way into power. The Hakkas have struggled particularly hard to succeed economically and politically where they lived, and some of their descendants have been successful in occupying the most important political offices in their respective country. Before I can turn to a detailed examination of the Hakkas in the various countries, I will first start with some historical context and describe the Hakka origins.

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Hakka