Along with the national identity debate — arguably the biggest issue in Taiwanese politics over the past two decades — the cultural identities of the nation’s ethnic groups have also undergone a prolonged revival during this period, and the Hakka community that accounts for 15 percent of Taiwan’s population is no exception.
Last month’s Taipei Hakka Yimin Festival celebrating Hakka culture and traditional arts featured cultural and religious organizations from across the country, with the main ceremony hosted by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). Leading Taipei mayoral candidates independent Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Sean Lien (連勝文) also attended.
While the annual festival drew thousands of participants and considerable media attention, the event also sparked an ongoing debate about its name and direction.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“When the Hakka Yimin Festival is hosted in Taipei, it occurs without the practicing of the Yimin faith,” said Luo Lieh-shih (羅烈師), a professor at National Chiao Tung University who specializes in Hakka studies.
The word “Yimin” — meaning “righteous people” or “martyrs” — is an honorific from the Qing Dynasty era bestowed on loyalists who died fighting against local uprisings.
The Yimin Temple in Hsinchu County’s Sinpu Township (新埔) is one of the most important religious sites for Hakka people in northern Taiwan. The temple pays tribute to Hakka militiamen slain in battle in the 1780s during a campaign to reclaim Hsinchu from forces led by Lin Shuang-wen (林爽文).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The temple is well-known as the site of the annual Sinpu Fangliao Yimin Festival, held on the 20th day of the seventh lunar month, which usually falls in August.
The festival sees Hakka communities around Hsinchu and Taoyuan competing to offer the largest “divine pig” (神豬) as a sacrificial offering to the Yimin Lord, with the massive pigs often weighing more than 1,000kg.
The event’s reincarnation in Taipei was first launched by Hakka organizations in 1988 as a way for Hakkas living away from their heartland to observe their Yimin faith, with the Yimin Lord invited from Sinpu for worship.
As Hakka affairs began gaining more national attention around the mid-1990s, the Taipei festival eventually became an official event sponsored by the city government, gradually increasing in scale as Yimin temples from around the country were invited to take party and many traditional performance arts were added to the event lineup.
While the festival retained its official English name, in 2008, its Chinese name was changed from “Yimin Festival” (義民祭) to “Yimin Carnival” (義民嘉年華), reflecting its goal of attracting a wider audience.
“Although many experts have raised doubts on whether it is appropriate to celebrate the Yimin Festival with a carnival, this year the event was again essentially that: a carnival,” Luo said.
Luo said he interprets the festival as having been inaugurated 26 years ago as a way for Hakka in Taipei to connect with each other and reaffirm their heritage, with the Yimin faith chosen as a symbol for their culture.
However, the urban setting of Taipei had a great impact on the nature of the event, leading to a series of changes to its format over the years.
“After all, there are no Yimin temples in Taipei,” Luo said, adding that he suspects the “Yimin faith might not play a role in the daily lives of some of the event’s main organizers.”
One of the changes that has led to lingering controversy was when the date of the festival was switched from the seventh lunar month to the ninth in 2008.
The date was changed to placate concerns that slaughtering the massive “divine pigs” in the heat of July might be unhygienic, as well as to avoid confusion between the Yimin Festival and Chungyuan (中元節), or Ghost Festival, which is held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, Luo said.
“Since many people in Taipei were unfamiliar with the Yimin faith, Hakka Yimin Festival organizers decided to bow to pressure coming from all sides and change the date,” he said.
Cultural events often walk a fine line between autonomy and government sponsorship, as illustrated by the shifting nature of the Hakka Yimin Festival from a religious gathering to an official cultural event.
“The aim of Hakka cultural policy shouldn’t be for the government to host grand events, but to cultivate and strengthen Hakka cultural organizations, with the training of new talent as its primary goal,” Luo said, adding that the current incarnation of the festival in Taipei has already developed an unhealthy reliance on government funding.
While in rural settings cultural events are usually hosted by regional organizations and based on village ties, holding the festival in the capital meant civic and cultural organizations play a more important role, he added.
Despite these concerns, the Taipei Hakka Yimin Festival might yet go through more changes and find a unique path in forging a Hakka identity in the multicultural adopted home of many of the group’s members.
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