Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), along with several Hakka activists, yesterday urged the Miaoli County Government to halt a project to build a tourist information center outside the planned high-speed rail station in Houlong Township (後龍), saying that its chosen architectural style has no cultural connection to Hakkas living in Miaoli.
In order to leave an impression of Hakka culture on travelers arriving at the station, the county government plans to build a tourist information center in front of the station in the tulou style (土樓) — a traditional fortress-like communal residence found in mountainous regions in the southern parts of China’s Fujian Province.
While tulou architecture is not uniquely Hakka, the architectural style is considered Hakka by many, since most remaining tulou are found in Hakka villages.
Photo courtesy of Chien Hung-wei
However, for Hakkas in Taiwan, the architectural style is as foreign as it is to many non-Hakkas.
“Chinese tulou have no cultural or historical connection to Taiwanese Hakkas, [a tulou in Miaoli] is like something that fell from the sky — it doesn’t belong to Taiwan or Miaoli,” Ceng Nian-you [曾年有], a Miaoli-based Hakka culture and history researcher, told a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. “We have our own culture in Miaoli, why is the county government not using local cultural elements for the tourist information center?”
He said that for local Hakkas, the traditional residential building is a huofang (夥房) — literally “communal house” in Hakka — which has a square layout, with a courtyard in the middle for agricultural activities such as sun-drying rice or vegetables, or for banquets, and a hall for religious use.
“I don’t understand why the county government had to tear down century-old kilns that once stood on the site of the high-speed rail development, and replace them with something that has no local connection,” Ceng added.
Chern Ban (陳板), a visiting professor at National Taiwan University of Arts and a Hakka from Miaoli, said that there are no tulou buildings in Taiwan due to its unique society and culture, and there is no need to build one now.
“Tulou in Fujian were built for security reasons, and when Hakkas moved to Taiwan, they didn’t feel the need to build any, because, on one hand, they didn’t feel threatened, and on the other hand, the humid climate and frequent earthquakes do not suit earth buildings,” Chern said.
Ayu Huang (黃連煜), a Hakka musician from Miaoli, said that while all Hakkas may share something in common, each Hakka community has unique elements.
“Hakkas in Fujian build tulou, but most of the Hakkas in Miaoli trace their ancestry to China’s Guangdong Province, so tulou are not only unfamiliar to us, but also would have been to our ancestors,” he said. “As a musician, I would be concerned if the Miaoli County Government imported traditional Hakka music from China and called it local music.”
Wu added that if Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻), who has come under severe criticism over his handling of controversial demolitions in Dapu Borough (大埔) last week, cares enough about Hakka culture, he should read research by the Hakka Affairs Council. This found that there are no tulou in Taiwan, and confirmed that the most representative Hakka architecture in Taiwan is the huofang.
“If he doesn’t know what a huofang looks like, he should go to Hakka villages in the county and he would easily spot some,” Wu said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS