Experts displayed a positive attitude towards Hakka TV but also suggested possible improvements at a Hakka seminar yesterday. They furthermore showed concern about the survival of the Hakka language in Taiwan.
Yesterday Taiwan Heart (台灣心會) together with the National Development Foundation (國家發展基金會) held a seminar called "Analyzing Taiwan's Social and Cultural Issues from a Hakka Viewpoint."
A few leading Hakka experts presented talks during the seminar, and they mostly focused on the continuation of Hakka culture and the interaction between the Hakka and other races in Taiwan, especially the Hokkien people.
"The greatest crisis Hakka people are facing is the decline of the Hakka language. Many young Hakka people cannot speak their own language and consequently their identification with their own ethnic group is weakened," said Hsieh Ai-chieh (謝艾潔), an associate professor in the National Central University's Graduate Institute for Hakka Social and Cultural Studies.
Peng Chin-ching (
"It would be too optimistic to say that current mother-tongue education can rescue the Hakka language. The government is only dealing with the issue superficially and it is still not able to provide schools with suitable teachers. The classes are also not well-planned," Peng said.
"Besides, the schools are not enthusiastic about Hakka classes either. Sometimes they would even refuse to offer Hakka classes because there are not enough students who want to learn the language."
Peng lamented that, compared with the craze to learn English, the Hakka language was getting too few resources.
He furthermore made suggestions regarding Hakka TV's usage of the language. He said that it was of the utmost importance that the language-teaching program should not contain one single mistake, but the program was experiencing some problems right now. He also appealed to the station to get rid of swearwords in its soap opera.
Meanwhile Fan Chen-chien (范振乾), a councilor from the Council for Hakka Affairs, defined the role Hakka TV should play in Taiwan society. He said that Hakka TV should present a Hakka contact-window to others and it should also be a platform for the presentation of contemporary Hakka culture.
Fan said that when he got in touch with a few young people who were interested in working with Hakka images last month, he found that their impressions about the Hakka were still mostly "negative" and "vague," similar to the typical viewpoints other races had about these people.
"Therefore we can see the pressing need for and the importance of Hakka TV," Fan said.
"Some people have been questioning the need for a Hakka television station because Taiwan has so many cable channels right now, but this only shows that society still has no clue about the meaning of pluralistic cultures and lacks due respect towards pluralistic cultures," he said.
"Hakka TV should serve as the Hakka people's contact with the world and present the Hakka people's true image to outsiders. Only by allowing all races to have a fair chance to present themselves to others will they understand each other correctly. It is an important step for a multiracial society like Taiwan's to eliminate misunderstanding and prejudice between ethnic groups, and develop mutual respect for each other," Fan said.
While most speakers mentioned the tension between Hokkien and Hakka people to a greater or lesser extent, Professor Chien Chiung-jen (簡炯仁) from Providence University offered a different opinion on the conflict between the two groups. He said the traditional concept that Hakka people had often been bullied by Hokkien people was not entirely correct.
"The fights between the Hokkien and Hakka people were often regarded as the domineering Hokkien bullying the minority Hakka, but people usually ignore the fact that this often happened because of manipulation by their rulers, Chien said.
He mentioned that during the Ching dynasty the government saw that the Hakka people were strong and they would solicit their cooperation to suppress rebellions from the Hokkien quarter. Later on when the Hakka quarter became too strong, the Ching government turned to the Hokkien for their cooperation in suppressing the Hakka. Hence, hate between two groups escalated.
"If we overemphasize the point that the Hakka is a minor group that often gets bullied by the Hokkien, it would not only present their history in a partial light but also damage the relationship between the two groups," Chien said.
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