In a Saturday morning in October, Mrs. Qiu came to Renli community center in Puxin Township. She had been teaching the life learning class “Know Hakka, Speak Raoping” for a straight month on every Saturday morning. Seniors with grey hair sat in rows, and for the first time they started to speak their ancestors’ language---Raoping Hakka, with reading glasses. They spoke location names of the old settlements, surnames, chapel names and stories of the environments...it was very touching.

Mrs. Qiu’s Raoping Hakka lecture was proceeding smoothly while Chenyu Chang, Chief of Puxin Township, came to the center elegantly. He thanked Mrs. Qiu for coming all the way to teach his people speaking their ancestors’ language, emphasizing this kind of good lectures shall not cease. Then Mr.Chang was interviewed by the corps and learned some Raoping Hakka from them as an opening. It was surprising that Mr. Chang was a quick learner, and his pronunciation was correct. It turned out that he was a college lecturer as well as a community empowerment director of Changhua County. He had been promoting Hakka culture for years, so he already had a fair understanding about the Hakka culture thing in Changhua County. He said it is a shame that there are 400 thousand Changhua Hakkas who can’t even speak Hakka. Even though Puxin Township is Raoping Hakkas residence, he hardly heard anyone spoke Raoping Hakka.

Mr. Chang and the corps took Mrs. Qiu’s teaching materials and started to read the seniors’ names in Raoping Hakka. Then, they exchanged essential Hakka words for everyday life, such as “handsome,” “pretty,” “mother,” “grandpa,” “Earth God,” and “Earth Goddess,” etc. With Mrs. Qiu’s phonetic marks in Zhuyin and Pinyin, Mr. Chang soon spoke Raoping Hakka! So, Mrs. Qiu’s teaching materials were indeed the Bible for self-learning Hakka. Also, it was impressive that Mr. Chang could speak Raoping Hakka without any assistance, just by reading the materials.

One of the corps members, Mingyu Chen, performed a Hakka speech “The Story of Tianchuan Day”(天穿日來由, a Hakka traditional holiday) in front of Mr. Chang and the folks sophisticatedly. Mr. Chang thumbed up and said the corps is indeed the hope of Hakka. He also emphasized there would be a National Hakka Day Event held in Puxin Township on February 27, 2016. He would like to invite Mrs. Qiu, the Council member of the community empowerment, and the corps to make a speech on stage, to show the folks how to speak Raoping Hakka. The junior corps said yes happily. It was a success that they received the grownups support and applause; it was a big step for promoting Raoping Hakka.

While being asked about why inviting Mrs. Qiu to teach Raoping Hakka, Mr. Chang saidPuxin is a big residence for the Hakka, mainly Raoping Hakka, then Shao’an, so he believed language is key for passing down the culture. Inviting Mrs. Qiu to teach Raoping Hakka can not only arouse the folks’ sense of identity but also the place. He also said that he had promoted quite a few important plans for spreading Raoping Hakka culture with Mrs. Qiu. Mrs. Qiu had contributed a lot to the local history study, and won Mr. Chang’s praise as the essential bridge to pass down Raoping Hakka for Changhua County. He appreciated Mrs. Qiu’s devotion to promoting local Hakka culture and language in Puxin Township.

In the near futre, Mr. Chang would set up more Hakka teaching centers in Puxin communities to revive Raoping Hakka, continue the study of Hakka and compile the findings as teaching materials for the local, start with kids in kindergarten, and finally turn Puxin Township into a place full of Hakka friendliness. The junior corps was already looking forward to the events and activities that Mr. Chang would hold.

After the interview, junior corps stayed and listened to Mrs. Qiu. She talked about the residence history of Puxin and let the corps read Raoping Hakka. Besides that, she also let the six corps members with their parents read Hakka for the folks and teach the seniors to speak Raoping Hakka. It was a great experience to be Mrs. Qiu and teaching! Thank you Mrs. Qiu for teaching everyone Raoping Hakka with great patience, and giving the corps the chance to do something for the community, joining the team to reviving Changhua Raoping Hakka. All these are something that cannot be learned from the textbook.