Taiwan’s Hakka Affairs Council launches ‘Water and Hakka Villages’ program

The paths of water offer a way into Hakka villages. Taiwan’s Hakka Affairs Council has launched a new program that uses waterways, ponds and springs to bring people closer to Hakka culture and local environments.

“Water and Hakka Villages” includes water activities, arts performances and video stories centered on water. The council is providing grants to 40 private groups across Hakka areas along Taiwan’s Provincial Highway 3, the Liudui region and Provincial Highway 9. From this month through November, participants will conduct research into local water history, train ecological tour guides and organize water-based experiences.

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Water is an important factor that influenced the Hakka people’s settlement and migrations.

The projects range from ecological walks and invasive-species removal at Bajia Pond in Pingzhen, Taoyuan, to a local tour linking Miaoli’s Chuanlong Irrigation Canal with the worship of Tudigong, a local earth deity. In Kaohsiung’s Meinong Lake, visitors can join a two-day, one-night experience featuring night observation of an ecological pond, aquatic plants and food-farming activities.

Other activities include a water-environment walk and traditional clothes-washing experience at Jiadong’s washing place in Pingtung, as well as a public irrigation-canal cleanup at Wugoushui in Wanluan. Hakka Affairs Council official Ku Hsiu-fei recalled playing in mud and irrigation channels as a child, experiences she said many children now have fewer chances to enjoy. The program presents water as a route to understanding Hakka settlement, migration, daily life and the community’s tradition of conserving water and living alongside the environment.

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When I was young, I lived in the countryside. I played in the mud in the fields and played in the irrigation channels. This kind of experience was very precious and is an important memory, but children today have fewer opportunities like this.