The Guest Families

In 2010, I made my first visit to the Hakka (客家人), the guest families of Yongding county. A subgroup of the Han ethnic group, they migrated to Fujian more than a thousand years ago, fleeing the instability of wars and invasions in their homeland.

MY PATH CROSSES WITH THE HAKKA

The bus stopped in the middle of the road, and the driver told me to get off. A local was waiting with a van, but there was nothing there — just forest and mountain. After hesitating for a moment, I got in the vehicle with the stranger, despite the risk it carried. The rest of the story you can already see in the images I’m sharing.

Luis Gómez - Documentary Photographer - Hakka round building, from my collection "The Guest Families"

I remember they dropped me off in a village, where I slept in a Tulou (土楼) alongside local people — not a hotel, my bed was a wooden board with a sheet over it, no bathroom in the room, and I didn’t even know where I was.

I traveled through the villages hitchhiking, just walking the road with my camera, and people would stop to pick me up without me ever asking. No one spoke English there, and I didn’t speak Chinese — so that first time, I understood little of the incredible culture I was visiting. Even so, you could sense it.

Hakka local people inside of his building, from my collection "The Guest Families"

Hakka Tulou, the interior of round building, from my collection "The Guest Families"

Hakka man's portrait, from my collection "The Guest Families"

Hands of local playing Hakka cards - from my collection "The Guest Families"

Hakka old Woman's portrait, from my collection "The Guest Families"

Room of local Tulou with Mao's picture on the wall - , from my collection "The Guest Families"

Childs stay with grandparents - from my collection "The Guest Families"

LIVING AN ANCESTRAL CULTURE

I went back to the area several times after that, this time speaking Chinese. I looked deeper into their religion and cosmology, and learned that for them, life is bound to the invisible forces that surround us. Their architecture rooted in Feng Shui, their rituals, life and death — all part of the same reality, woven into the everyday passing of days.

Luis Gómez - Documentary Photographer -From my collection "The Guest Families"

I won’t describe everything I experienced or everything I learned from the Hakka (KeJiaRen) here. But I’ll leave you with a glimpse of my documentary photography — enough, I hope, to spark curiosity to discover more about them, and maybe, to take the step of letting other cultures become part of ours too.