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Book details

Guest People

Hakka Identity in China and Abroad (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China)

by Nicole Constable

Published 2005284 pagesISBN 978-0-2959-8487-2

Unlike the many ethnic groups classified by the Chinese government as "minority nationalities," the Hakka are officially included as part of the Han Chinese majority. The Han label obscures Hakka identity in some ways. Many Hakka know - although few non-Hakka do - that numerous prominent Chinese are Hakka, including China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, Taiwan's president Li Teng-hui, and former Singapore prime minister Li Kuan-yew. Colorful images and stereotypes of the Hakka abound in folklore, popular literature, and tourist brochures, as well as in academic and missionary writings. But despite the obvious importance and distinctiveness of the Hakka, until now no detailed, comparative analysis of the meaning of Hakka identity has been published. . Guest People will be of interest to sinologists and scholars of Asian studies as well as to anthropologists, sociologists, and others concerned with ethnicity, migration, nationalism, and the cultural and historical construction of identity.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction

Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.

Content notes

No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.

These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.

Reading experience

Balanced tone · Steady pace

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Who it may suit

A good fit if…

Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.

At a glance

This book's DNA

A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.

ToneBalanced
LuminousDark

This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.

No plot details

Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.

Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
Guest PeopleNicole Constable
Powerful4.4/5

This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.

Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthA standard-length read284 pages in this edition
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 2005
Primary categoryNonfictionExplore similar books below
ISBN-13
978-0-2959-8487-2
Language
English
Edition record
OL9415840M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.