Led by Mrs. Qiu and Principal Huang, the corps went to Hsinchu for the National Raoping Hakka Speech Contest. Besides that, they also visited the famous Raoping house Dafu House in Liujia, followed by an interview with Hsinchu Raoping Hakka experts.

During the interview, Dr. Wenzhi Deng, the president cf Hsinchu County’s Raoping Hakka Cultural Association, said that the Association has been existing for 13 years and has held National Raoping Hakka Speech Contest for the last 8 years, with only 30 candidates in the first year and over 200 for this year. Before, no one had ever heard of Changhua Raoping Hakka, but this year, Mrs. Qiu guided 16 parents and children to join this Contest, which is a historical turning point. It proves that Hsinchu and Mrs. Qiu have certain influence on the promotion of Raoping Hakka. Hope more and more people pay attention to the relatively minor Raoping Hakka and its culture.

Apart from that, Mrs. Qiu talked about the culture of Yuanlin Yongjing Raoping Hakka with every detail at the Visit Changhua Raopingi Hakka Villages event held in 2015. Also, she promoted Raoping Hakka speeches and held discussion seminars every Saturday night. Mr. Deng said that in 2004, Raoping Hakkas from Hsinchu organized together and went to Guangdong Raoping, China to seek their own roots. They also had some field trips there and learned that Raoping Hakka still existed in the following places in the central and northern Raoping Mountain: Shangshan Town, Shangrao Town, Raoyang Town, Jianrao Town, Xinfeng Town, Jiucun Town, Dongshan Town and Yucun Town. In general, Guangdong Raoping Hakka and Taiwan Raoping Hakka share similar phonetic systems, there are only few differences in everyday vocabulary.

When asked about how he sees Mrs. Qiu’s success in reviving Raoping Hakka, Mr. Deng said that Mrs. Qiu has done a good job in preserving our own culture, which goes the same as the global trend. Just like Formosan Black Bear and Sika Deer, which are listed as endangered species and are well protected, Raoping Hakka language deserves the same! Mrs. Qiu has contributed greatly to the revival and promotion of Raoping Hakka. Hope this language can keep thriving in Taiwan.

In order to know more about the differences between Hsinchu Raoping Hakka and Changhua Raoping Hakka, the corps took out Changhua Zhuolan Raoping Hakka Teaching Material written by Mrs. Qiu and asked Mr. Deng to pronounce the words simultaneously. To their surprise, they all understood the Hsinchu Raoping accent. There were not many tone differences, only in words like “Money” (錢, qian) and “Flat” (平, ping). In Hsinchu Raoping Hakka, “money” is 55 plain tone, while it is 51 stress tone in Changhua Raoping Hakka. Also, words like “Cold” (冰, bing), “Front” (前, qian), and “Money” (錢, qian) pronounce “in” in Hsinchu Raoping Hakka, while it is “en” in Changhua Raoping Hakka. These minor differences don’t really effect the communication, so basically they are very similar.