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A unique cultural-ethnic minority in China, the Hakka (or Kejia, meaning "guest families") were originally Han residents of north and central China. Around the tenth century, they migrated en masse to south and southeast China to escape nomadic invasions and political chaos in the north. Scattered in the coastal areas, including Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, and Taiwan, these "guest families" have since retained much of their northern customs and dialects and refused to be assimilated by the southern people. They insulated themselves from the surrounding population and maintained a kind of clannish existence. As time passed their northern lifestyle gradually disappeared even in the north, yet was still preserved in the southern Hakka communities.