The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday launched its first televised Hakka camapign advertisement highlighting the DPP administration's efforts to preserve the language and cultural assets of the Hakka people, who have been showing weak support for the party and are deemed a crucial element for the DPP's electoral prospects.
The TV advertisement depicts non-Hakka people learning to speak the now infrequently spoken language for the purpose of better ethnic integration. It shows President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) speaking Hakka with a strange accent, which is what happens when non-Hakka people learn the language.
DPP campaign spokesman Wu Nai-jen (
"The Hakka TV channel itself is a major pioneering project to keep the Hakka language and its cultural assets alive, and this is something the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hasn't been able to do for the past five decades," Wu said.
Hakka is considered a minority language and according to statistics from the Council for Hakka Affairs, less than 10 percent of Hakka teenagers can speak fluent Hakka.
Wu, whose wife is a Hakka, said the Hakka TV channel has made it easier to learn the language.
"I remember the hard way my children learned to speak Hakka with their mother. My wife would pretend she didn't hear the children's words if they were not spoken in Hakka. But now, with the Hakka channel, I believe other Hakka families experiencing a similar struggle in passing down this language heritage would find it easier to keep their mother tongue alive," Wu said.
National Policy Advisor Liang Jung-mao (梁榮茂), also a Hakka, said yesterday that from 1945 until 2000, the KMT government had seriously ignored the development of the Hakka communities and even oppressed the survival of the dialect.
People First Party (PFP) legislator Chung Hsiao-ho (
Chung said the idea of setting up a Hakka TV station had been initiated during the premiership of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
"Without the help of opposition parties reviewing the Hakka-related budgets, those initiatives can never succeed," Chung said.
However, earlier this month opposition lawmakers were criticized by the Hakka people for trying to block 80 percent of the annual budget for the Council of Hakka Affairs.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS