Huang Jung-luo, a veteran researcher of Hakka ethnology, discovered an old folk song in 1986 that had once been sung by early Hakka settlers toiling to build new lives in the foothills of Taiwan. The song hints at the terrors that these early immigrants faced: "Take some advice: Don't go to Taiwan! That way lies the gate to hell. Thousands go, not one returns.
千個人去無人轉，知生知死都是難，就是窖場（墳場）也敢去，台灣所在滅人山（必死無疑）… …」長期從事客家民俗採集的黃榮洛，在民國七十五年發現客家人移墾台灣的山歌詩「渡台悲歌」。