The Hakka Public Communication Foundation on Wednesday touted its utilization of digital technology and social media in its bid to reach UNESCO cultural diversity targets for Taiwan.
Foundation chairman Chen Bang-jen (陳邦畛) spoke to an annual advisory conference of the government-run organization in Taipei, saying that the digital effort has raised the profile of Hakka culture since the group’s founding three years ago.
The foundation focuses on promoting Hakka culture through audio-visual media.
Photo: CNA
The group established Hakka Radio in 2018, while historical recordings of spoken Hakka are being digitized in a podcast format, he said.
The foundation has also produced films that were acclaimed at international film festivals and are available on YouTube, he said.
They include a docuseries on the masters of traditional Hakka crafts called Legend (傳、傳), which was nominated at the Singapore-based Asian TV Awards and US-based YoFi Fest, he said.
An animated series about the 18-century Hakka adventurer Luo Fang-bo (羅芳伯) was a semi-finalist at the Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival, he said.
A virtual reality (VR) film on the Pingtung village of Wugoushui (五溝水), titled Childhood Revisited (浮光童夢), was awarded “best VR film” at the Los Angeles Film Awards, he said.
The foundation is about to launch a Hakka-language news channel, with programs that could serve as teaching materials for language classes, he said.
“I hope that Hakka culture can break through barriers to be appreciated worldwide, which would go a long way toward making Taiwan a truly diverse society,” he said.
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