“We’re one of a kind, so we try to produce programs to satisfy all demographics,” said Benjamin Tchang, director of the Taipei City-based TV station. With diverse content spanning from news and cooking to opera and community exploration, the channel is tailored to maximize its cross-generational appeal. “We want to help restore the confidence of older Hakka people who might once have hidden their ethnic identity, while also cultivating younger people’s interest in learning about their roots,” he added.
Animated series “Under the Persimmon Streetlight” is part of the station’s efforts to encourage children to pick up the language. (Courtesy of Hakka TV)
Tchang is especially proud of the channel’s programming for children and teenagers, noting that it produces at least 90 hours of such content every year. “The next generation of Hakka people will determine the future of our language, so we make products to capture their attention and encourage them to speak their mother tongue,” he said. These efforts include broadcasting dubbed versions of popular foreign cartoons like “Garfield” and “Doraemon” to further motivate youngsters to learn the language.
Hakka TV’s success owes much to its high-quality dramas, many of which draw inspiration from Hakka literature. A recent success story is the critically acclaimed “Roseki,” a 14-episode TV series depicting the life and works of Lu He-ruo, a novelist who became a communist supporter in the late 1940s. It scooped five Golden Bell Awards, the nation’s most prestigious broadcasting honor, including best leading actress and best writing in a television series.
Bayin musicians film a show for Hakka TV spotlighting the traditional genre. (Courtesy of Hakka TV)
Tchang has high hopes for the channel’s next drama series, titled “Survive.” It is adapted from the fiction and prose of Lai Ho, a Hakka writer active in the 1920s and 1930s whose works focus on the lives of Taiwan’s working class. “We’re a nonprofit station, which means the quality of our shows isn’t compromised by commercial considerations,” he said.
In addition to producing content, Hakka TV has created links with other ethnic TV stations from around the world. Since 2008, its news department has visited peers at organizations such as S4C, a Welsh-language channel in the U.K.; TV3, a Catalan-language channel in Spain; and Maori Television in Auckland for discussions regarding how media platforms can help preserve local languages and cultures.
Following on from these visits, Hakka TV is planning to launch a network for such channels worldwide. “Now we’ve got to know one another, we want to build closer relationships through seminars and maybe even co-productions,” said Paul Shiang, the head of Hakka TV’s news department. “I expect Taiwan to take a leading role in any such collaborations,” he added. (E) (By Oscar Chung)
Paul Shiang, center, head of Hakka TV’s news department, interviews a manager from Welsh-language channel S4C in the U.K. in May 2008. (Courtesy of Hakka TV)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw
(This article is adapted from “Media Matters” in the May/June 2019 issue of Taiwan Review. The Taiwan Review archives dating to 1951 are available online.)