Today was officially day 1 of my research!  So my grandma and I took the bus to Longtan, where we visited the Taoyuan Hakka Culture Hall.

First we went on a tour of the museum, which featured famous Hakka people of Taiwan who made great contributions in literature and music.

The outside of the museum was decorated with posters featuring Hakka dishes, and Hakka lanterns hung from the ceiling. My grandma (who is Hakka) said that the Hakkas often use floral-print cloths for lanterns, clothing, tablecloths, etc.

It was fascinating to learn about the contributions to music and literature of Hakka people in Taiwan, and I am especially interested in learning more about the poet Du Pan Fang-ge, one of the most influential female poets in Taiwan.  She wrote poems in Mandarin, Hakka and Japanese.  Apparently, she currently lives in Zhongli (where I’m living now). Here are a couple poems she wrote in Hakka, translated to English:

After the tour, we went to the Taoyuan Department of Hakka Affairs, and I interviewed Liang Cheng Liang, Deputy Director-General of the Taoyuan Department of Hakka Affairs.  Taoyuan has the largest population of Hakka people, where 40 percent of people are Hakka.  Before the interview, he and my grandma chatted in Hakka, and turns out, my grandma’s cousin was his teacher!  Anyway, during the interview, he talked about how it is rare for young Hakka people to know how to speak Hakka.  Only 13 percent of people under 13 can speak Hakka.  Liang talked about how he spoke to a young person who did not know he was Hakka, but later on realized his identity and that the language his grandparents spoke was Hakka.  The culture park and Department of Hakka Affairs are trying to encourage more young people by holding events, but it is usually difficult to find young people to come to the events.  Usually, the events they hold have an audience of older Hakka people. They also try to encourage learning the Hakka language with contests.  Currently, they are holding a contest for Hakka young people to create Hakka films, which will run this entire summer.  Liang emphasized the importance of preserving this language, culture and identity as it is declining, and he said without the Hakka language, there is no culture.

Now comes the hard part: transcribing (which will be even harder in Chinese)!

Anyway, after the interview, I walked around the culture park and took some photos, and then my grandma and I ate lunch at a nearby restaurant.  We ate pumpkin noodles, beef with mangoes and tofu with oysters and black beans.

Since our bus ticket allows us unlimited bus rides the entire day, we decided to go to the Shimen Reservoir.  When we got there, we realized we had to walk up a tall hill.  Fortunately, we hitched a ride up and got to walk around and view the reservoir.

Also fortunately, we were able to hitch a ride back down.  We saw a fruit stand on the side of the road. The vendors had grown the crops themselves.  We bought some white peaches, dragon fruits and vegetables called kong xin cai, which means empty heart vegetable.  Finally we took the bus home.  While we waited for the bus, my grandma taught me some Hakka phrases.  It’s a bit similar to Mandarin.  For example, “hello” is ni ho and “thank you” is xi mo ni.  I’ll definitely have to learn more Hakka from my grandma this summer, especially since my research is all about how nowadays, fewer young Hakka people know the Hakka language and culture.

Overall, it was a productive day, and we even got some fresh produce! (Even though they were a pain to carry home).  Tomorrow, I will be going to National Central University in Zhongli to interview a professor.

I didn’t know I could sweat so much.  I want to know how many cups of sweat I’ve sweat today because literally I feel like this entire day I’ve been covered in sweat.  It’s so hot here.

Anyway, today was a pretty chill day.  In the morning I walked with my grandma to where she works, and she bought me shao bing you tiao for breakfast with soy milk.  I went back to her apartment to eat it and pretty much just did some things I needed to do, like confirm interviews.  At around lunchtime, my grandma’s friend picked me up, and we ran some errands.  I got a SIM card for my cell phone, so thank goodness, my cell phone finally works.  I also bought a voice recorder.  Usually I use my phone to record interviews, but it’s good to have another recorder as a backup.  I plan on using both to record, and in case one gets lost, I have another file as a backup.  I also changed some U.S. dollars to Taiwanese dollars.  Before going home, my grandma and I bought shaved ice, which was topped with taro cakes, ai-yu, peanuts and beans.  I’m not the biggest fan of beans, but otherwise, it was good.  We went back home and ate, and I had dried tofu, chicken claw, dumplings and mango beer.  During this time, it started to rain, so when my grandma and I walked outside to pick up medicine at the pharmacy, it felt a lot cooler. We walked through the park, where kids were playing basketball and old men gathered under a gazebo to play Chinese chess.

After dinner, the son of one of Grandma’s friends came over.  I’m actually going to be interviewing him on Saturday.  We chatted for a while, and then he left.

Right now, I’m working on translating my interview questions to Chinese, and I need to pack for tomorrow.  Tomorrow, my grandma and I will go to Longtan and visit a Hakka cultural center.  We have to wake up early to take a bus there, but hopefully going there and talking to the people there will help my research!

I’m finally in Taiwan!  I arrived on July 2.  In no particular order of priority, I’m here to do research, visit my grandma and to eat a lot of food.

My research will focus on Hakka cultural preservation and Hakka youth.  To give you a quick rundown, the Hakka are a Chinese ethnic minority in Taiwan, and their culture and language have been declining in use in Taiwan as the generations pass.  In recent years, the Hakka Affairs Council in the Taiwanese government has been established to make efforts to preserve the language and culture, such as through education and media.  I plan on interviewing Hakka studies professors and other experts and most importantly, Hakka youth ages 18-25 about their background and perspectives on Hakka cultural preservation and their Hakka identity.  I became interested in this project because my grandma is Hakka, and I realized how little my mom and I knew about the Hakka language and culture.

I’m also in Taiwan with my younger sister Isabel, who is in Taiwan for a monthlong volunteer program called AID Taiwan.  I also did this program three years ago.  Volunteers teach English to young students in Taiwan, and the Taiwanese government basically pays for everything, including a weeklong tour of Taiwan.

I will be officially starting my research on Tuesday , July 7, and meeting with interview subjects, but in the meantime, I’ve been hanging out with family and friends and setting up interviews.  So warning, none of the rest of this blog post is about the actual research, but stay posted for my next blog post for research updates and information from my interviews!

July 2 – Isabel and I flew to Taiwan.  The wait to check in at Manila was long, but everything else (including the flight) was fortunately short and uneventful.  When we landed at the Taoyuan airport, my grandma’s friend picked us up and drove us to her house.  When we got to her house, she ran out and hugged us.  It’s been years since we’ve seen her, and I will be staying with her this summer.
Grandma cooked dinner for us, and let me tell you, she is the best cook ever (also, she cooks Hakka-style cuisine). I especially loved her bamboo shoot soup and fish.  You can’t find many bamboo shoots in the U.S.  After dinner, we went for a walk near her house and passed by some stores.  She lives by a river, a park, a mall, a Buddhist temple and more.
July 3 – For lunch, Grandma took me, Isabel and two of her friends to an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Afterwards, we drove to Yang Ming Mountain, which is where my grandfather and uncle are buried.  My grandma, Isabel and I walked up the stony hills to pay respects to my grandfather.  It was very beautiful up there, with a view of the mountain and Taipei.  My grandfather’s grave has beautiful pine trees growing by it.  We burned incense and my grandma told him about us.  Afterwards, we went to my uncle’s grave, and his was a bit more difficult to get to.  My grandma was very exhausted by the time we got there.  We also burned incense, and my grandma told him about us.
I’ve never meet my grandfather or uncle because they both passed away while my mom was still young.  Still, I wonder about them, what they were like.
Anyway, afterwards, we went to a park with a beautiful view of the green mountains.  Cows were grazing there, and also, three couples were getting their wedding pictures taken there.  The breeze there was also nice, compared to the heat that is prevalent throughout Taiwan.
Finally, we drove home.
July 4 – So I forgot it was independence day yesterday. Anyway, today Isabel and I went to Taipei to meet with my mom’s friend and her two daughters.  We met them at the Taipei Main Station and then went out to lunch at a soup dumpling restaurant.  Soup dumplings are famous in Taiwan.  In Chinese, they are called xiao long bao. They are basically these small dumplings with meat and soup inside, so when you eat them, you have to take a small bite and suck out the soup (or drain it into your spoon to drink), and then you eat the dumpling.
Afterwards, we walked around Taipei and checked out some cute little shops.  It was really hot outside, so then we got shaved ice.  Shaved ice is another famous food in Taiwan, which is shaved ice with fruits and ice cream on top.  I got mango ice, which was refreshing in the heat.
Finally, we went to the mall because there’s air conditioning there, and plus we were tired of walking.  We sat down at a cafe and got some refreshments while chatting. Isabel and I took the train back to Zhongli to have dinner with my grandma.  After dinner, Grandma and I took a walk.
July 5 – Today Grandma and I took Isabel to Taipei to drop her off at Chientan for AID.
After we dropped her off, Grandma and I went to a cafe in Ximen to eat almond tofu, which was cool, refreshing, sweet and light, especially since it was so hot outside.  Then we browsed the shops outside, and she bought me a dress.  Finally, we went to another food shop where we bought hu jiao bing, which means something along the lines of pepper cake.  It is a baked flat bun stuffed with pepper-seasoned pork and scallions.
We took the bus home and ate it on the way.  By then, my legs were about to fall off.
Tomorrow we’re going to take it easy and I’m going to prepare for my research, and on Tuesday I’m going to start!  My plan tomorrow is to buy a new voice recorder, confirm interviews, learn directions to different places and make other general preparations.  My research will take me around Zhongli (where I’m living), Taoyuan, Taipei, Hsinchu and more.  In the meantime, I’ve been setting up many interviews, so I’ll be busy.