Hsinchu Liujia is a big residence for Taiwan Raoping Hakka people, where the language remains the same and become today’s Raoping Hakka mainstream. The junior corps interviewed the former president of Hsinchu Raoping Hakka Association Zhanglian Lin, who just retired in 2015. Mr. Lin said that he grew up in Hsinchu Liujia, where Raoping Hakka had been the majority. The Lins had been speaking Raoping Hakka for more than a hundred years. The Hakka Affairs Council was established decades ago, followed by Hsinchu Raoping Hakka Association and held the first Raoping Hakka Speech Contest in 1994. The 8th took place this year, though the contest was suspended for two years due to fund shortage.

Zhanglian Lin had never heard people speaking Raoping Hakka in Changhua. In September 2014, president Lin and his predecessor Guanghua Lin took 50 candidates to Zhuolan for the first National Raoping Hakka Story-Telling Contest. Young and senior candidates from Taoyuan, Hinchu, Miaoli and Changhua all gathered at the contest center. Though it was competitive, the atmosphere was family-like. There were young teenage group (22 candidates), teenage group (17 candidates), and adult group (26 candidates). Zhanglian Lin said he was a judge of the contest then, and the most impressive thing was that Mrs. Qiu took 5 parents and children to the contest and won remarkably. Lin indicated that it was just then he met Mrs. Qiu and learned that she knew nothing about Raoping Hakka a year ago, yet she passed the Hakka language teaching certification in just one year. She then set up classes and took teams to the national contests. She is indeed a diligent, excellent teacher. Mrs. Qiu has firm determination to pass down the culture and never asks for any favors.

Lin said the best thing he had this year is seeing the growing number of Mrs. Qiu's Changhua Raoping Hakka family students---from last year's 5 people to now 16 people. Not just that, the students' Changhua Raoping Hakka level has improved a lot as well, which makes the language shine on stage. It caught many people's eye in this year's contest. Hsinchu Raoping Hakka sees Changhua Raoping Hakka as one of their own, since about 200 hundred years ago, the ancestors of the Lins first came from Guangdong Raoping to Changhua Yongjing, then moved to Hsinchu. Therefore, Changhua Raoping is the original home for Hsinchu Raoping. In the Contest, the great performance of Changhua Raoping Hakka candidates’ speeches highlighted the whole event. It was an important historical moment, and Mrs. Qiu was the essential key.

The former president of Hsinchu Raoping Hakka Association, Mr. Lin, kept praising Mrs. Qiu as a great woman, who never stopped sharing her efforts on reviving Raoping Hakka language on Facebook, Line, YouTube, and blogs. She has posted enormous photos and videos as good evidence of the revival, which also gives Hsinchu Raoping Hakkas a head-up---they have to work harder on reviving the language! There are Zhuyin and Hakka Pinyin marked beside each Hsinchu and Zhuolan Hakka word in Mrs. Qiu’s teaching materials, which makes it easier for beginners to know more about Raoping Hakka.

Mr. Zhanglian Lin has been teaching Raoping Hakka in elementary schools since 2003. He is well experienced in teaching this language, and so the corps took out Mrs. Qiu’s teaching materials, pronouncing the words together with Mr. Lin. They found that Hsinchu Raoping Hakka and Changhua Raoping Hakka have many resemblances, the only difference is in stress sounds. Mr. Lin said that even there are differences between Taoyuan Raoping Hakka, Hsinchu Raoping Hakka, Miaoli Raoping Hakka and Changhua Raoping Hakka, the languages are passed down from Raoping ancestors. If Mrs. Qiu needs Hsinchu Raoping Hakka people’s assistance, they will be happy to support her. This interview was indeed fruitful and it also brought us and the Hsinchu Raoping Hakka people closer.