ABSTRACT
Awareness of the grinding poverty of most peasants in Wuhua is essential both to understanding Hakka society and to appreciating the appeal of Christianity. The nineteenth-century name of the district, Changle, means "constant joy," but Lechler wrote that it was commonly said to be ''yu ming er wu shi" (a name without reality).) Even under the best conditions, mountainous northeast Guangdong was by its very geography poorly endowed for agriculture. It was commonly described as seven-tenths mountain, two-tenths river, and one-tenth farmland. Three of the poorest counties of Guangdong were located in Meizhou: Wuhua, Xingning and Fengshun.2
