Shirley Hsieh (Sheau-Li Hsieh)

PERSONAL BACKGROUND



My name is Shirley Hsieh and I am a Moi Yan Hakka who was born and raised in Calcutta, India. I came to Canada from India with my family when I was thirteen. My parents operated a tannery in a small town near Calcutta called Tangra. About 90% of the population in Tangra are Hakka people from the Moi Yan area in China. The name Tangra was derived from the name tannery which is the business that almost all Hakka people run and it was the primary economic base for this town. Hakka people have lived in Tangra for as long as three or four generations, most of them having moved to India in early 1900’s for business reasons. Both my parents were also born in India, but my father went back to China for his schooling and helped farm in our hometown of Moi Yan. All my relatives on my father’s side are still in China living in areas across Guongdong Province. Relatives from my mother’s side of the family are scattered everywhere from India, Hong Kong, US, and Canada.

I come from a very big family, seven children including myself, six girls and one boy. All members of my immediate family are living in Toronto, Canada, except for one sister who still resides in Calcutta, India. Like many Hakkas in India, my family came to Canada to gain greater opportunity, especially for the children, and to escape the growing discrimination against Chinese people in India. Many of my parent’s Hakka customs and beliefs are still intact here in Canada, but are assailed by many western ideas.

Neither one of my parents speak English which can be seen as both a negative and a positive influence: negative in that the language barrier isolated them socially from people of other cultures and physically from getting around by themselves; the positive influence is that their inability to understand English has forced all of us children to maintain certain fluency in Hakka in order that we can communicate with them. Also, in many respects, my parent’s communication barrier has helped preserve many of our Hakka traditions and practices and has created a stronger social tie with other Hakka people in the community. I strongly believe that the situation my parents are going through in adapting to new environments is common with many immigrants, if not Hakka people alone. I feel fortunate for my parents and myself that we belong to the Hakka culture, a culture that we are proud to belong to and identify with.

I am currently living in Guelph, Ontario, Canada completing the last year of my Masters program in Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph. It is a three year program accreditted by the LA professional association. Previously, I completed a degree in Honours Bachelor of Environmental Studies at University of Waterloo, Canada, majoring in Urban and Regional Planning. I have had several years of experience working in the government and private sectors in related fields of Planning, Urban Design, Civil Engineering, and Architecture.

I hope that you contribute to my research by participating in my survey. Thanks, Shirley