The fourth annual Tung Blossom Hakka Festival kicked off yesterday with a concert, drum show and a dancing performance in celebration of Hakka culture, held at a mountain resort of Miaoli County.
The ceremony, held at the Westlake Resortopia in Miaoli County, marked the beginning of a month-long festival sponsored by the Council of Hakka Affairs to promote Hakka culture. The festival's symbol is the tung blossom, a flower that blooms from mid-April to late May in central and northern Taiwan.
Acting chairman of the Council of Hakka Affairs Lee Yung-de (李永得) promised this year's festival to be bigger and better than ever.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"Within four years, the Tung Blossom Festival has become one of the most successful cultural events in Taiwan. With new activities, festival train services and special tour guides for English and Japanese-speaking travelers, we hope to transform the Hakka festival into an international cultural event," Lee said yesterday.
Senior presidential adviser and former Hakka council chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) attended the ceremony to invite the public to experience the rich Hakka culture through the festival.
"The Tung flower represents the purity of the Hakka people. I am here to invite all the people in Taiwan to visit the Hakka communities, listen to the beautiful Hakka dialect, and enjoy the amazing scenery of the white Tung flowers," said Yeh.
To express the Hakka community's gratitude to the mountains, Lee and Yeh joined with representatives of major Hakka communities to stage a special ritual to honor mountain deities. Items offered at the altar to deities included traditional Hakka rice cakes, ginger, brown sugar, tea leaves, green onions, mochi and sweet potatoes, representing foods that come from the mountains.
Pop-rock band MayDay performed popular songs from their albums and invited the young crowd to sing along. Hakka performing arts groups, including Nanzhung Dragon Dance Group, Wayao Valley 3 band with lead singer Lin Sheng-hsiang (林生祥) -- a vanguard of the movement for the revival of Hakka culture through its music -- also spread their love of Hakka culture during the ceremony.
Fu Shin Elementary School of Hsinchu County performed the theme song for this year's festival, Tung Flowers, written by the Hakka folk song singer-songwriter Chen Yung-tao (陳永淘).
Over 106 Hakka communities from Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung and Nantou counties joined this year's festival with more than 600 cultural events that were designed to boost tourism in Hakka communities.
The council will provide a "Tung Blossom Festival Train" every weekend between Taipei and Changhua County in hopes of easing the burden of traffic.
"Taiwan's railway administration has partnered with the council this year. With better transportation services, we believe the festival will attract more local visitors, as well as international friends," Taiwan Railway Administration Director-General Hsu Ta-wen (
Ceramic workshops in Maioli County welcomes visitors with tung flower products and pottery activities. During the month-long festival, the public is invited to visit the 21 "tung blossom sightseeing paths" that have been created in the six counties hosting the festival. The tung trees often grow close to Hakka communities, and used to be an important source of income.
Last year's festival attracted 2.7 million visitors and generated NT$500 million in revenue. This time around, the council invited travel agencies from Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Japan to visit the festival, expecting them to boost the local tourism.
For more details on festival activities and sightseeing paths, visit the council's website at www.hakka.gov.tw. For train service inquiry, call 02-2381-5226, ext. 2538.
‘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
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS