Hakka heritage

In the travel section of the NYTimes, I found this article on The Earthen Homes of Yongding County, in Fujian, China. I had seen a miniature version of this type of structure at "Windows on the World" in Taiwan. The Hakkas (I am ethnically Hakka on my father's side) have built these interesting earthen structures and they are now being considered for UNESCO heritage site designation.

On another Hakka note, I was sorting through a box of my dad's stuff last night and found our family genealogy handbook. I brought it to my mom, who helped me sort out how I should decipher the charts. Hakkas tend to favour male decendents and no where is it more obvious than in the family charts where only male decendents are listed. For example, our family tree shows my grandfather and my grandmother's name, below them, only their four sons names are listed, none of my five aunts are included. On the page where my family is listed, my father does not have any children listed under him (I have one other sibling, a sister) and my uncles who have sons have their names listed, but not their daughters. My mom commented that this was a heavy bias, maybe I should consider getting rid of the book!

(Photo by Barbara Koh from the NYTimes.)