Minister Yiong stated that 9 Hakka-language works were featured in this year's Golden Melody Awards and were shortlisted for 19 trophies. If we consider the different language categories as the minor league and the more general categories as the major league, it'll become noticeable that all the Hakka-language nominees are already getting into the major league draft, or from another perspective, our minor league increasingly resembles the major league in caliber. It is hoped that Hakka musicians will continue to exert their utmost effort for Taiwan's music to become ever more diverse in terms of language and culture.
Vincent Fang was invited by HAC to present the Golden Melody Award for Best Hakka Album. He remarked that a search through Wikipedia will reveal that there are approximately 80 million Hakka people in Taiwan and abroad. Taiwan alone has roughly 4 million Hakka, around one in every 20 people. Nonetheless, their contribution to popular music of our times is enormous. This 5% of the population has made amazing achievements, no easy feat. He felt honored to be a guest at this event celebrating the Hakka people.
Ting Hsiao-wen, in turn, was invited to present the Golden Melody Awards for Best Album Design, Best Album Producer, and Best Band. Laughing, she said that she had the chance to come into contact with many Hakka songs in recent years due to work. Hakka music is full of pleasant surprises, exciting and heart-touching! She looks forward to joining the ranks of Hakka music creators and, eventually, becoming a Hakka musician proper.
Many figures from the music industry were present at the event today, including Kay Huang, Chairperson of the Taipei Music Center (TMC); TMC CEO Liang Shiuh-luen; Siva Yuan, President of Jilly Culture Ltd.; John Huang, Founder of NPCC, a music event planning company; NPCC Co-Founder Stan Lan; Lu Tai-yun, Brand Manager of flyingV; Sung Chih-min, senior media worker; and Toshiyuki Seki, Representative of Japanese media company Midi Inc. An astounding performance of a medley sung by nominees was put on at the Exchange, delighting attendees with the best of modern-day Hakka music.
