Print

Mail

wiki links

Contest boosts local languages

In an effort to promote the indigenous languages of Taiwan, the Government Information Office (GIO) has for the second year running joined efforts with the Council of Hakka Affairs and the Council of Indigenous Peoples to present a mother-tongue songwriting contest with prize money totaling more than NT$2 million, to celebrate Taiwan's linguistic diversity through music.

"The GIO, Hakka and Aboriginal councils have been working together to promote the cultural and linguistic diversity in Taiwan in creative ways. I think music would be a simple yet friendly approach to expose more people to the beauty of local languages," GIO Minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said at a press conference announcing the contest.

The second annual "Taiwan Mother-Tongues Songwriting Contest" will be divided into Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal-languages groups. Entries are accepted from today until Aug. 1. The award ceremony will be held on Sept. 17 in Kaohsiung.

Taiwan's mother tongues, or local languages, refer to Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal languages.

Speaking at the press conference, the Hakka council's vice-chairwoman Chuang Ching-hua (莊錦華) talked about the difficulties facing artists from minority groups.

"Although Hakka artists swept up many prizes in this year's Golden Melody Awards, Hakka singers or songwriters as well as artists from other minority groups receive little attention and have been walking a lonely road," she said.

"Through the mother-tongues contest, I hope that the public will recognize these artists' talent and appreciate their music despite the language differences," Chuang said.

Chuang also shared some thoughts on the choice of the term "Taiwanese" (台語) to represent one of the three local languages in the contest.

"The term `Taiwanese' should refer to all the languages used in Taiwan. It would be biased to refer to the Hoklo (河洛) or Hokkien (福建) language as Taiwanese and exclude Hakka and Aboriginal languages," Chuang said.

Yao later announced that the GIO will replace the term `Taiwanese' with `Hoklo' in recognition of that language.

Singers and songwriters from Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal communities were invited to perform their works and share their love of music.

Xie Yu-wei (謝宇威), winner of the best Hakka singer prize at last year's Golden Melody Awards, invited music lovers to express their love of this land through songs in different languages.

"I've been writing Hakka songs since I was in college. I think it is important for me to write songs in my mother tongue because the Hakka language inspires me so much culturally, and makes my work unique," Xie said.

To encourage more people to join the contest, the GIO announced that it will award NT$500,000 to the winner of each of the three language groups. The second and third prizes will be NT$300,000 and NT$150,000, respectively.

Contestants can submit their works to the Kaohsiung County Government up to Aug. 1. For more information, visit the county government's Web site at: www.kscg.gov.tw/index.asp.

In addition, the GIO is looking for an official name for the awards. Submissions for the awards' name should be sent to the Taiwan Television Company (TTV) before July 22. The winning entry will receive NT$20,000. For further information, go to www.ttv.com.tw/.
This story has been viewed 2135 times.