On Studying Interethnic Communication between the Hakka and Other Ethnic Groups in Taiwan

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Intercultural Communication Studies XXI: 3 (2012)

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ee

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On Studying Interethnic Communication 

between the Hakka and Other Ethnic Groups in Taiwan

Meihua L

ee

National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Abstract:  It was not until the lifting of the martial law in 1989 that Taiwanese society 

has begun to recognize the importance of multiculturalism and the existing minority 

ethnic groups including Hakka, Indigenous Peoples, Waishengen, and Hsinchuming. 

The Hakka ethnic group, Taiwan’s second largest ethnic group, has been “invisible” 

for many years until the Hakka Language Movement in 1988 (Lee, 2009). Drawing 

from the theory of a contextual model of interethnic communication proposed by Kim 

(2005), the current study examines the interethnic relationships between the Hakka and 

the other ethnic groups in the present Taiwan. Methods of social survey and in-depth 

interview are employed. Seven hundred and seventy-seven Hakka respondents filled in 

the survey containing questions about their interethnic interactive behaviors. Twenty 

Hakka respondents participated in the in-depth interviews. The results verify Kim’s 

contextual theory of interethnic communication.  Limitations of the current study and 

suggestions for future research as well as how to improve interethnic relationships in 

practice are discussed. 

Keywords: Hakka; intercultural communication; contextual theory of interethnic 

communication