The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese people whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hainan and Guizhou. The Chinese characters for Hakka literally mean guest families. Unlike other Han Chinese groups, the Hakkas are not named after a geographical region, e.g. a province, county or city. The modern day Hakkas are usually identified with people who either speak the Hakka language or share at least some Hakka ancestry. The Hakkas are thought to have originated from the lands bordering the Yellow River . In a series of migrations, the Hakkas moved and settled in their present areas in Southern China, and from there, substantial numbers migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world. As the most diasporic among the Chinese community groups, the worldwide population of Hakkas is about 75 million. The Hakka moved from northern China into southern China at a time the Han Chinese people who already lived there had developed distinctive cultural identities and languages from their northern Han Chinese counterparts. The Tunbao and Chuanqing people are other Han Chinese subgroups that migrated from north China to south China while maintaining northern Han Chinese traditions which differentiated them from their southern Han neighbors. The Hakka people have had significant influence on the course of modern Chinese, overseas Chinese history; in particular, they have been a source of many revolutionary, government and military leaders.
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