The Cabinet's Council for Hakka Affairs' first global culture conference kicks off in Taipei today. The theme of the conference is "globalization, localization and Hakka's new age."
The World Hakka Culture Conference 2002 is being held at the Taipei International Convention Center and will last for five days.
Activities for the first three days will include seminars and Hakka song performances. For the last two days of the conference the council has arranged a tour of Hakka tribes in northern and southern Taiwan for the convention's participants.
According to the council, conference-goers include overseas Hakkas as well as local Hakka elite and club representatives.
Overseas Hakkas from more than 24 countries applied to join the conference. The conference has attracted around 400 people, according to council.
The major topics up for discussion are multiculturalism and public policy, Hakka identity, national identity and relations between ethnic groups, community activities and cultural renewal, and unification of Hakkas in the age of globalization, the council said.
"The Council for Hakka Affairs will continue promoting Hakka language and culture in Taiwan," council chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) said at a press conference yesterday. "However, the council is also working toward the goal of making Taiwan the world's center of Hakka cultural."
Hakkas will do their best to cooperate with the government's efforts to promote localization and globalization, according to Yeh. "How local and overseas Hakkas can strike a balance between localization and globalization is an important issue."
"Hakkas all over the world care about how they can create a new age for their culture," Yeh said.
Both President Chen Shui-bian
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