Siu-Leung Lee’s Hakka site has a section on the language: “This section is a collection of notes of my own experience and thoughts about the Hakka dialect and other language/dialects. Except where cited, many of my non-linguist viewpoints are unproven hypotheses. Discussions holding similar or contrary views, as well as supplementations are cordially welcome.” The modesty is welcome; for a more organized take on the subject one can check the Wikipedia article and its links, but this is one Hakka’s take on his own culture and language and interesting as such. Dr. Lee’s biography can be read here; on his own site he says “I was born in a Hakka family, but I knew little about Hakka. Brought up in Hong Kong, I had little use of the Hakka dialect except to understand the conversation of my father’s friends and employees. My parents spoke to me in Cantonese…. In the early 1990s, I spent 4 years back in Hong Kong. Browsing in a bookstore, I picked up a book about Hakka. Only then did I start to learn more about what Hakka meant to me…” Thanks for the link, Paul!
One wonders how much legend there might be in this L’Express article…