After a full year of preparations, the Global Hakka Studies Alliance (全球客家研究聯盟) was established with subsidized help from the Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) at the College of Hakka Studies in National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) on Dec. 10, 2019.

Eleven academic institutions from seven countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), including Taiwan’s Hakka Academic Development Commission of HAC (客委會客家學術發展委員會), NCTU, National Central University, National United University, and National Kaohsiung Normal University, as well as Indonesia’s Petra Christian University, Japan’s University of Hyogo, Malaysia’s University of Malaya, National University of Singapore, Thailand’s Mahidol University, and San Francisco State University from the United States.

Professor Chang Wei-an (張維安) of NCTU’s Department of Humanities and Social Sciences stated that HAC offered assistance to form the alliance to integrate different perspectives from a variety of fields, promote international exchanges, increase the research capacity of Hakka studies, and position Taiwan as a global authority on Hakka studies.

At the opening ceremony, HAC Minister Lee Yung-de revealed the goals of the alliance, which is aimed at carrying out Hakka-related research projects and international exchanges through interdisciplinary academic collaboration and comparative studies to raise the worldwide visibility of Hakka culture, adding that HAC will continue to support such scholastic endeavors.