The Cabinet's Council for Hakka Affairs yesterday confirmed that a preliminary plan had been sent to the Ministry of Education for establishing departments for Hakka studies in national universities.
Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), chairwoman of the council, made the announcement at a meeting with scholars from the Taiwan Hakka Forum Association (社團法人客家論壇協會).
The scholars also discussed the possibility of setting up a Hakka university, which has been provisionally named Ni-ming University.
However, Yeh said establishing such a university would be very difficult and that it was important to set practical goals in creating educational institutions dedicated to Hakka or other cultures.
"It is unlikely that the Ministry of Education would consent to the establishment of a whole new national university due to the problem of funding and the allocation of educational resources," she said.
Nevertheless, Yeh urged the government to fulfill President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign promise of promoting and preserving Hakka culture and languages.
Yeh suggested that a more feasible plan would be to restructure the courses of an existing college, such as the National Hsin-Chu Teachers College or the National Lien Ho College of Technology.
Departments related to Hakka studies could also be set up and the colleges could be upgraded to national universities, Yeh suggested.
NHCTC and NLHIT are both close to the Hakka heartlands of Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli.
The council said that the proposed research centers would be similar in form to the College of Indigenous Studies at National Dong Hwa University.
Yeh warned that creating a university dedicated only to Hakka studies would alienate Hakka culture from mainstream ideology.
"Our aim is to enrich mainstream culture with Hakka culture and to enhance the visibility of Hakka culture through education," she said.
During the 2000 presidential election, Chen promised to promote and preserve Hakka culture by setting up the Council for Hakka Affairs and establishing Ni-ming University, an educational institute dedicated to Hakka culture studies.
The council was inaugurated in June last year, but planning for Ni-ming University is still in its preliminary stages.
Chang Wei-ang (張維安), a professor at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology of National Tsing Hua University, told the Taipei Times that compared to the centers for indigenous or Taiwanese studies at local universities, there had been too little emphasis put on the research of Hakka culture.
However, being a Hakka himself, Chang also questioned whether it was cost-effective to promote Hakka culture by establishing a university.
Chang also said he was wary of establishing a new university under the name of a certain ethnic group lest it cause controversy.
Chang agreed with the council's call for the establishment of research institutes or graduate programs in universities.
"[It is] a more ideal way to help preserve Hakka Culture through education, in a manner that does not burden the governments financially."
RSS