Across the Pacific

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Hakkas crossed the Pacific to Peru, Hawaii, and Tahiti. They came as contract or indentured workers. In Peru and Hawaii, the need for laborers at sugar plantations brought the first wave of immigrants. Most came from the Pearl River Delta.

In Tahiti, the first Hakkas arrived in 1865 to work for a cotton plantation. When the plantation went bankrupt, some workers stayed on to develop businesses while many others returned to China. The unrest in China brought a new wave of Hakka immigrants in 1907. Women were included and a family society took root, establishing a sizeable Hakka community on this Pacific island.