If you've been following my blog for a while now, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Taiwan's temples - I love the history, the art and the culture that goes into making them some of the most interesting places to visit in Taiwan. Of all the temples that I've introduced however, none of them have been as difficult to write about than Hsinpu's Yimin temple.

I have lived in an area of Taiwan for the last decade and that ispredominately populated by Hakka people and most of my friends, coworkers and food I eat are all Hakka. I have a great respect for the culture and feel like if I'm going to write about this temple that I'm going to have to do it justice.

This temple is most responsible for the preservation of Hakka culture in Taiwan and no matter how many hardships the Hakka's have experienced throughout their history - this temple has played an instrumental role in reminding them that it is okay to stand up proudly and tell the world "I am a Hakka".

The Baozhong Yimin Temple (褒忠義民廟) in the tiny village of Hsinpu (新埔鎮) has thus become a Mecca-like place of worship and celebration for the Hakka people of Taiwan where their culture, history, and cuisine have been carefully preserved over the last few centuries of Taiwan's development despite discrimination and persecution from other ethnic groups.

The Hakka (客家人) are an ethnic group which originated somewhere near the Yellow River (黃河) in what is now China's northern Shanxi (山西), Henan (河南) and Hubei (湖北) provinces. The early history of the group is shrouded in mystery and historical records aren't really clear as to their origin given that the earliest recorded history referring to the group was during the Song Dynasty (宋朝) between 960 and 1279.

They are part of the 55 different ethnic groups that makes up the Han people (漢族) and are genetically similar to the northern Chinese with the only distinguishable different being their language, culture and cuisine.

The Hakka are pejoratively known within China as the "Jews of Asia" due to the fact that throughout their recorded history they were forced to migrate en-masse on five different occasions mirroring that of the experience of the Jewish people in the Middle East and Europe. The problem with this comparison however is that the Jewish people often migrated due to the sheer hatred and racism directed towards them whereas the Hakka people migrated in order to escape the turbulence of China's warring states period and the political and social upheavals that occurred when there was a regime change in the Middle Kingdom.

Each migration found the Hakka people moving further and further south ultimately settling in areas such as Guangdong (廣東), Jiangxi (江西), and Fujian (福建) provinces and once again becoming some of the earliest Han people to migrate to Taiwan (as well as other parts of South East Asia) where they would find a permanent home. Today they are considered the most diasporic among all of the Chinese ethnic groups with a total population of around 80 million living in countries all over the world.

The Hakka people started immigrating to Taiwan in the 16th century and even though life on the island was tremendously difficult in the early years, they persisted due to their wealth of experience and their ability to adapt to new environments. Today the Hakka population in Taiwan is around five million which is about twenty percent of the entire population of the country. They live all over the country but have concentrated populations in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli as well as in the south of Taiwan in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties.