Transmission and education of Hakka folk songs in Hong Kong: Distinctiveness and commonality in local, national, and global contexts

The Hakka community has long been known as a large population distributed mainly over southern China and to different parts of the world. The Hakkas are among the larger Han Chinese communities with their own dialect. The unique cultural heritage of the Hakka inhabitants in Hong Kong, such as walled villages, feng shui woodlands, and Hakka cuisine, has drawn increasing attention. However, non-material Hakka cultural heritage such as music remains unnoticed. This chapter deliberates specifically the transmission of Hakka folk songs in the Hong Kong cultural context. The essence and characteristics of the musical structures of various local Hakka folk songs are compared with those folk songs known in the wider Hakka community to determine the presence of a connection or distinctiveness. The educational value in the conservation, inheritance, and development of the Hakka folk song genre provides insights into learning and understanding other oral traditional folk music. Copyright © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.