Hakka must preserve their culture: Pang
Published on: Monday, March 30, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The Hakka community must preserve their culture especially among the younger generation to prevent it from diminishing over the passage of time. According to Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Datuk Pang Yuk Ming, the Hakka community in Sabah has a long history, a rich and colourful culture. "I hope our older Hakka generation will help us to educate the younger generation in order for the Hakka community culture and tradition to be handed down and preserved by the next generation," he said.
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He also explained that many of the younger generation nowadays are not aware of the Hakka culture and tradition."If there is no serious effort taken to preserve the Hakka culture and tradition among the younger generation, the community will lose its heritage due to globalisation," he said representing Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun at the Sabah World Hakka Unicorn Convention 2015 welcoming dinner at the Hakka Hall here.According to Pang, the Hakka traditions, including dialect, cuisine and unicorn dance are not well promoted among the younger generation and many of them are not aware of such practices."We must teach our children to speak Hakka at home … I notice most of them fail to speak the dialect as they are taught to converse in Mandarin at school."
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He said the presence of the Hakka community in Sabah can be traced back to the 1800s and this was why today some 60 per cent of the State's Chinese community speak the Hakka dialect."The Hakka community does not only contribute to the development of the State's economy but have also played an influential part in the State's politics as out of the three Chinese chief ministers since 52 years of Sabah independence, two of them are Hakka (Datuk Peter Lo and Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee)," said Pang.
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He said the Hakka community should be proud of their achievements as they also produced prominent world leaders such as Sun Yat Sen, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China in 1912.Also, Deng Xiaoping, who was the president of China from 1978 to 1992 and opened up its market and Lee Kuan Yew, the founding and first prime minister of Singapore, he added. Towards the end, he also congratulated the organiser for organising the convention as the participants not only come from Sabah and peninsula-based unicorn troupes but also from as far as New York, Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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