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Association holds Hakka competition to encourage kids

Students from Jiantan Elementary School perform in a Hakka cultural event organized at the Hakka Culture Hall in Taipei County yesterday. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Concerned with the rapid decline in the use of Hakka, especially among children in Taipei, the Taiwan Hakka Association for Public Affairs hosted a Hakka cultural contest yesterday to promote interest in the language.

More than 100 children from 10 elementary schools in Taipei City and County took part in the contest in Banciao City (板橋). The children performed dances, songs, and some recited shulaibao (數來寶) in Hakka.

Shulaibao is a traditional form of entertainment in which the performer has to tell a story by reciting lines that are short and rhythmic. The theme of a shulaibao story is usually humorous.

Nationwide figures released by the Council for Hakka Affairs shows that 18 percent of Hakka children under the age of 13 are able to speak Hakka, but association chairman Huang Tzu-yao (黃子堯) estimated that only about 10 percent of Hakka children in the Greater Taipei area could speak Hakka fluently.

Although central and local governments have organized many events to promote Hakka culture, Huang said it was not enough.

“Governments spend millions of dollars organizing Hakka cultural festivals, Hakka expositions, or sponsoring Hakka opera performances — I don’t think any of these would stir the younger generation’s interest in the language,” Huang said.

The association then decided to hold the Hakka cultural contest for children.

“It’s not really a contest because all the participants will get some sort of prize, so there are no winners or losers,” Huang said. “The purpose is to get kids interested in Hakka culture.”

Huang’s strategy may be working as Yang Hao-yu (楊皓宇), a fifth-grader at Jiantan Elementary School in Taipei who performed shulaibao, said he had become more interested in Hakka after taking part in several similar events.

“I want to become a teacher of Hakka when I grow up,” he said.

For Yu Chai-tzu (游巧慈), a fourth-grade student from Jhonghu Elementary School in Shulin City (樹林), Taipei County, participating in such events helped sharpen her Hakka skills.

“My dad is Hakka and my mom is Hoklo,” she said. “I’ve been speaking Hakka at home since I was little, but I speak it better now with the help of Hakka classes in school and all these Hakka contests.”


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