Hakka Studies | 客家大學堂

Hakka Studies(HK)

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Hakka Studies Ltd is a non-profit making organisation established in 2023 dedicated to preserving and promoting the Hakka language and culture. Before its establishment, Professor Lau Chun Fat/ Liu Zinfat, the founder, tirelessly promoted Hakka through various means. He has been writing books, conducting academic research, lectures, Hakka classes and guided tours. Above all, he has been producing videos about Hakka communities worldwide.

Background:

The Hakka language and culture is facing a serious crisis in modern society. The number of Hakka speakers is diminishing, and the language is at the risk of extinction. To preserve and promote this precious cultural heritage, Professor Lau Chun Fat/ Liu Zinfat has been exploring Hakka communities worldwide, documenting his experiences in ca. 250 videos, which use Hakka as the language medium. The videos have been uploaded onto Youtube under the channel Hakka Studies, which now has nearly 25K subscribers and over 4M views.

As interest in Hakka has been growing through these videos, the public desire to participate in various activities such as Hakka classes and traditional Hakka events. Recognizing the increasing demand, Professor Lau decided to register Hakka Studies as a guaranteed limited company so as to provide more activities.

Objectives:

1. To preserve and promote Hakka, a precious cultural heritage, enabling the public to understand Hakka people, their language and culture.

2. To preserve and promote the Hakka language by offering Hakka classes and learning materials.

3. To foster Hakka identity and community cohesion by liaising with different Hakka people worldwide and recording their past and present lives.

4. To enhance social awareness to value cultural diversity.

Areas:

1. We are offering Hakka language courses in both face to face and online classes.

2. We are organising and joining cultural activities such as Hakka festivals, Hakka customs and traditions.

3. We are organising events, seminars, competitions and exchange programs to facilitate collaboration between Hakka communities all over the world.

4. We are producing videos about Hakka people, villages, cuisines and cultural activities all over the world. Hakka is used as the sole medium.

Founder:

Professor Lau Chun Fat/ Liu Zinfat, ancestrally Hakka from Danshui, Huizhou, was born and raised in a Hakka village in the N.T. of Hong Kong. He initially studied Biology, obtaining a bachelor and master degree in Biology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. degree in Biology from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He returned to Hong Kong in the early 1990s. Witnessing the decline of Hakka language in the New Territories, he shifted his interest to linguistics. He obtained a master and Ph. D. degree in Chinese Linguistics from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Then he worked as Assoc. Professor and later Professor at

Xiamen University until his retirement. His teaching and research areas included Chinese dialectology, phonetics, Chinese historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics, with a particular emphasis on endangered languages in and around Hong Kong. He has published eight books and ca. 100 academic papers. In 2008, he co-founded the Association for Conservation of Hong Kong Indigenous Languages. In 2023, he founded the Hakka Studies Limited.

Professor Lau Chun Fat is a renowned linguist. Apart from his expertise in academic research, he is proficient in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, English and German; plus a basic fluency in Japanese. He dedicates most of his time to the study of Hakka and is currently one of the top authoritative scholars of Hakka.