2016 Taoyuan Hakka Tung Blossom Festival Builds a New Base for the Hakka Renaissance Movement

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan pointed out at the municipal meeting on the 23rd that last year's Taoyuan Tung Blossom Festival took a community-based and association-based approach; this year it will combine the strengths of last year's activities, retain the advantage of community participation, and incorporate Hakka cultural and creative industry guidance, getting a head start on the future establishment of a Hakka cultural and creative center.

Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan stated that this year the Hakka Affairs Council is subsidizing 6 million yuan in funding, and Taoyuan will create distinctive highlights for the Hakka Tung Blossom Festival, combining tung blossom cultural and creative products, offering Tung Blossom Festival limited-edition merchandise, and also bringing together hotels, homestays, restaurants, souvenir shops and tourism factories in cross-industry collaboration, coordinating with the citizen card to offer discount activities and increase public participation.

Director-General of the Department of Hakka Affairs Jiang Jie-an stated that this year's Hakka Tung Blossom Festival activities aim to deepen culture, revitalize industry, boost tourism, activate Hakka villages and promote international marketing, and will carry out corporate cooperation, landscape art, industry guidance, themed activities, association activities, integrated marketing and public participation, building Taoyuan into a new base for the Hakka Renaissance movement.

Director-General Jiang Jie-an also pointed out that this year's themed activities include a tung blossom art exhibition, a tung blossom nursery rhyme competition, a tung blossom green space picnic, a tung blossom viewing hike, a tung blossom carnival, a Hakka music competition, and a tung blossom cultural and creative merchandise display at Airport MRT A21 Huanbei Station.

In addition, for the first time a landscape art project will be carried out at Taoyuan Airport, and a tourism service counter will be set up, using landscape art to enhance the beauty of Hakka villages and strengthen public interaction. The tung blossom carnival will invite local college and university associations to perform, while the tung blossom green space picnic is organized in conjunction with the Language Center of National Central University and will invite 200 foreign youths to participate.