Minister Gu said that creating a comprehensive library environment will help narrow the resource gap between urban and rural areas, allowing rural children to enjoy the same level of public resources as urban children. HAC has long striven to achieve this major goal. She especially thanked the Yunlin County Government team, Lunbei Township Mayor Lee Hung-yi, Formosa Plastics Group, and Legislator Liu Chien-kuo for their assistance. By assembling the strength of the private sector and central and local governments, we can jointly create an engine to drive local development—such is the direction long endorsed by HAC.
Minister Gu further mentioned that within Taiwan, Zhao’an Hakka only survives in Yunlin, making preservation of this language a pressing matter. At this critical time for language transmission, HAC has supported the county government to establish the Zhao’an Hakka Language Resource Education Center at Dong Shing Elementary School. In the future, HAC’s Department of Language Development will collaborate with the county government and school teams to discuss the next steps and comprehensively strengthen the preservation and inheritance of Zhao’an Hakka.
According to the Hakka Placemaking Environment Planning Project, HAC funded the interior and exterior planning, design, and renovation of the library by Lunbei Township Office. Besides building the library’s interior space and entrance landscape, the building works in tandem with the Zhao’an Hakka Cultural Hall nearby to continuously promote Zhao’an Hakka culture.
The renovation project covers the construction of basic facilities and interior decoration on the first and second floors, including the Zhao’an-themed book exhibition and special exhibition areas, the Hakka story and picture book parent-child reading area, the Hakka art and culture display area, and the Hakka language theater and diverse learning promotion classroom. In addition, a themed indoor and outdoor construction project was carried out for the entire building, including the planning of themed salons, casual coffee areas, and a starry sky theater. HAC hopes that the new library space will serve as a “cultural generator”, becoming a major base for promotion of the Zhao’an Hakka language and cultural preservation.