According to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, traditional art refers to the traditional crafts and performance arts of an ethnic group or area. This official definition is aligned with the Hakka people’s position on traditional arts. The Hakka’s traditional arts of the past, just like the history of the Hakka people themselves, remains shrouded in obscurity and affected by biases. For example, although traditional Hakka arts are part of the collection at the National Center for Traditional Arts, a careful look reveals a rather paltry representation, with the Hakka represented only as a sampling of mountain songs and traditional instruments. These are precious pieces of Hakka cultural heritage, but in addition to these, there are countless other traditional arts.

It can be argued that the National Center represents a mainstream Taiwanese view of traditional arts, and that the sparse representation of Hakka traditional arts can simply be attributed to Taiwan society’s longtime neglect of the culture of disadvantaged groups.

In recent years, the Hakka movement has risen from the grassroots and begun to take a new direction as it receives more support from government agencies. There is every opportunity for the movement to produce an even more brilliant and rich panoply of traditional Hakka arts.

When it comes to traditional Hakka music, aside from the well-known instrumental ensemble and the "northern pipe" style music, there is also Taoist music, Buddhist music, Christian music, Catholic music, music drama, zhentou (leader of the parade) music groups and in recent years, the lively folk tunes developed in Hakka folk music classes. On the musical instrument side, there are many areas to mine: instruments using animal skins; copper, wood, string instruments; wind instruments; Western instruments, and others such as mouth harp and bow harp. On top of that, there is traditional hand-copied music, lyrics and musical relics.

Turning to traditional opera, there’s the well-known tea-picking, three-foot tea-picking and Hakka grand opera. In addition, the Hakka have a history in puppet theater and shadow plays, as well as in the nanguang, pingju, liyuan, kaochia, ketsai, puhsi, niuli, chegu and tzuti operas. Taiwanese Hakka also often appear in modern theater productions and on the stage of experimental theater.

The Hakka people have a diverse range of zhentou, folk sport and acrobatics. Famous are the lion dancers, the Miaoli City firecracker dragons and welcoming dragons, and the Zhubei-based Hsinwawu Flower Drum Troupe (新瓦屋花鼓隊). There are also groups expert in jumping rope, shuttlecock, bell pulling, top spinning, hoop rolling, dragon boat punting, Hakka boxing (free-style boxing); knife, spear, club and sword play; seizing, neikung and waikung.

In traditional folk dancing, there are tea-picking dance, the dance of joy, and the opera dance. The Hakka also represent Taiwan in overseas competitions and participate in national folk dances. In modern theatrical dance, the Hakka have combined modern dance with Hakka traditional culture in a highly creative “ring of dances.”

In the fine arts, there is Western painting, Chinese ink wash, gouache, calligraphy, seal cutting, block print, engraving, color drawings, and Buddha face carving. There is stone, wood, bamboo, leather, jade, and bone carving, along with sculpture, inlay, and integrated modeling. The Hakka have a rich portfolio of two- and three-dimensional design, illustration, cartoons, and the media arts (photo, video, multimedia). In the craft arts, there is pottery and ceramics, lacquer, gourd, paper, bamboo paper, rattan, bamboo, embroidery, wooden, stone, metal, glass art and more.

Hakka traditional arts encompass all the myriad things to which the Hakka in Taiwan have been devoted. The question is not how far back the Hakka’s history of art spans, but whether we can truly see and appreciate what we find.