"Deep Around the Dragon: Three Hundred Years of Hakkas in Meizhou" focuses on the historical changes of the Hakka community in Meizhou over the past three hundred years. It uses a Wailong House that carries family memories and regional culture as the core clue to connect the struggle, inheritance and perseverance of the Hakka ancestors on this land.
The story begins with a group of Hakka ancestors migrating to Meizhou during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Carrying the imprint of the Central Plains culture, they reclaimed wasteland in the unfamiliar Lingnan mountains. They used wisdom and sweat to build the original dragon houses, forming a unique settlement model. The work takes the fictional Hakka family "Zhong" as the protagonist, and through the fate of several generations, it shows the core characteristics of Hakka culture that focus on farming, unity, and adhering to the ancestral precepts - the hardships of the ancestors working hard for the family's foundation, the persistence of the children who studied hard in poverty and the pursuit of fame, the warmth of the clan members holding together for warmth in the face of natural and man-made disasters, and the pain of the collision between tradition and the new trend in the changing times.
From the details of the construction of the Weilong House to the melodiousness of Hakka folk songs, from the folk etiquette of weddings and funerals to the inheritance of family tradition of advocating culture and education, the novel delicately outlines the life picture and spiritual core of the Hakkas in Meizhou against the grand historical background. It is not only a history of the rise and fall of the family, but also a hymn to the inheritance of Hakka culture, allowing readers to feel the endless vitality and profound humanistic heritage of this land between the lines.
Intention: Hakka