Ethnicity And Regionality: A Study On Hakka Education In Sichuan

Accompanied the migration of Hakkas from Jiangxi ,Guandong and Fujian to Sichuan during Qing Dynasty, Hakka culture propagated to Sichuan and obtained tenacious succession and rejuvenation since then, In this procedure, Hakka education played an important role. The miracle of the Hakka culture is also that of Hakka education. It is worthy to be studied that how Sichuan Hakkas whom be thought laying great emphasis on education cultivated their descendants in the immigrantion society . Although the research on Hakka education is very weak in the acdemic by now,but it helps us not only slove the puzzle of Hakka culture in Sichuan, but also find the breakthrough on the research of regional education because the Hakka culture is the typical regional culture.On the basis of the theories such as regional culture and the ethnic theory and methods such as fieldwork and comparative study, the thesis expounds the ethnicity and regionally of Hakka education in Sichuan,and discusses about laying great emphasis on education of Hakka. Comparing Hakkas with Huguangrens(the descendants immigrant from Hunan and Hubei province),the paper analyzes the role and function of Hakka education in Sichuan. Comparing compact community with sparse community of Sichuan Hakka, at the same time, the Hakka area in Sichuan and in Jiangxi,Fujian and Guangdong, the research expounds the regional characteristics and the time and space differences of Hakka education in Sichuan, and analyzes the development mode and features of Hakka education in Sichuan, thus draws the outline of history of Hakka education in Sichuan.The paper consists of six chapters as well as introduction and conclusion. In the introduction, the author defines the objects of research,and gives the practical and the theoretical significances of the research on Hakka education made by academic circles, introduces the former results and the present state of the research,and points out the chief contents and methods of the research.Chapter One, "Hakka Culture in Sichuan", analyzes the proportion and distribution of Hakka immigrations in Sichuan, and sorts the type of immigration cultures in Sichuan into graft culture and transplant culture according to the relation between culture and education. The thesis analyzes the characteristic of Hakka culture comparing Hakkas with Huguangrens in Sichuan, which is the foundation of the research on the education of Sichuan Hakka.Chapter Two, "Educational Outlook of Sichuan Hakkas and its Influence", discusses the educational outlook of Hakkas and its characteristic of clannish,practical and traditional, which influences on the outlooks of Hakkas' marriage, profession, the living environment and social custom. All these reflected Hakkas' laying great emphasis on education .Chapter Three, "Farming and Schooling of Sichuan Hakkas", analyzes the thought and practise about farming and schooling of Sichuan Hakkas. As the ethnic characteristic of Hakka, Sichuan Hakkas excels in agriculture and thinks highly of education at the same time. Hakka immigrations started from scratch in Sichuan during early-Qing Dynasty by renting land or doing business and then made a fortune in Sichuan, until they became the cultural aristocratic families. By cherished heritage of part-time learning in a peasant family, Sichuan Hakkas cultivated the talents who past the imperial examination in the third generation since Hakka immigrations to Sichuan, which was earier than in their ancestral homes such as Fujian.Chapter Four, "The Education of Hakka Cultural Self-identification", discusses the education of Hakka cultural Self-identification. Hakka immigrates emphasis on the education of cultural self-identification, which reflects Hakka laying great emphasis on education. In order to enhance collective memory and cultural self-identification, the Sichuan Hakkas not only strengtened the education of immigrate history(such as the education of family history, ancestral home and starting an undertaking) with the typical model such as The History of Immigration to Sichuan and Zhang Xingwan's Autobiography, but also,they abided by the ancestor teaches of Preference of Mother Tongue Over Real Estate and paid more attention to the education of mother tongue and the moral cultural with the typical model of Hakka special Children's folk rhymes of Hakka in Sichuan. All these educational measures guaranteed the succession of Hakka culture in Sichuan.Chapter Five, "Hakka Clan Hall and Patriarchal Clan's Education in Sichuan", introduces the Hakkas' ancestral temple in Sichuan and the patriarchal clan's education, elaborates the Sichuan Hakkas how to finance students or give awards to students. Hakkas has the intense sense of patriarchal clan and its patriarchal clan's education was a little developed compared with the Huguangrens during Qing Dynasty and Republic of China. Fan Ancestral Temple's education in Longtan town was the type of Hakka patriarchal clan's education in Sichuan.Chapter Six, "The Level of Hakka Education in Sichuan", analyzes the level of Hakka education in Sichuan by introducing Hakka talents and schooling, and points out the level of Hakka education in Sichuan was not inferior to that of the Huguangrens', although the economical condition of Sichuan Hakkas was inferior to that of Sichuan Huguangrens, the quantity and quality of the private schools hold in Sichuan Hakka was superior to that in Huguangrens' area. But comparing Sichuan Hakkas with those of their ancestral home(the Hakka area in Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi), we can find the overall level of development of Hakka education in Sichuan was not optimistic, the regional difference of Hakka education in Sichuan was obvious.There are two reasons as follows, In the terms of economic, the farmlands owned by a clan in Sichuan Hakka area was not developed because of the small scale of ancestral organizations and the disperser pattern; In the terms of the environment, the ethnic relations and the social convention in Sichuan Hakka area were different from those in their ancestral home.In conclusion, generally summarizes the features of Hakka education in Sichuan and its shortcomings.The features of Hakka education are given below. First ,make full use of educational resources such as Hakka folk song .Then, emphasize the education of cultural self-identification. But influenced by the traditional Confucianist culture, Hakkas thought conduct was so more important than fame that they over-emphasized moral education, and they seriously neglected feminine education. Because of highly valuing the agriculture than the trade, the economy of Hakka area in Sichuan is backward, which restricts the development of Hakka education. At last the author puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to these problems.