Members of the Taiwan-based Consortium of Global Hakka Studies (GHAS) renewed a memorandum of understanding to continue their commitment to boosting academic examination of Hakka culture Dec. 14 in the northern city of Taoyuan.
Deputy Minister Fan Tso-ming of the Hakka Affairs Council said the GHAS was created to connect local institutions of higher learning with their global counterparts to expand Hakka and other ethnic studies, and organize conferences to enhance global visibility of Hakka issues and share Taiwan’s relevant experience with the rest of the world. Fan added that the renewed MOU is expected to further enhance the quality of cultural promotion.
According to H.H. Michael Hsiao, chair of the HAC’s Hakka Academic Development Commission, two international biennial conferences and three youth camps have been staged by the GHAS in the past five years. He added that the consortium will continue to carry out its role as a key promoter of Hakka academic development in the coming years.
Another highlight of the event was the presentation of dissertation awards to five graduate students from Taiwan whose study topics included the choice of language by a Hakka community in Malaysia and the evaluation of an immersive approach to learning Hakka for preschool children.
Created Dec. 10, 2019, the GHAS comprises the HAC and 10 universities in Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. The organization was initially managed by the College of Hakka Studies at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in the northern city of Hsinchu, but the responsibility has now passed to National Central University’s College of Hakka Studies. (SFC-E)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw
from Taiwan Today – Top News