What is the Hakka currency that the Hakka Council will issue in July?
The Taiwanese Hakka community faces the crisis of language extinction; many Hakka individuals of my generation are "only able to listen but not speak," with even foreign language skills far exceeding their ability to express in Hakka.
In order to encourage the public to enter Hakka villages, understand the spatial environment of Hakka communities, and engage with the Hakka language, the Hakka Council plans to issue the "Hakka Currency" with a denomination of 1,000 NT dollars in July this year. This is Taiwan's first digital Hakka cultural promotion policy.
The Hakka Council stated that this policy refers to youth experience and consumption subsidy policies in European countries, setting eligibility criteria through the Digital Development Department's "Government Issued Shared Basic Platform" and planning to distribute gift money through financial institution apps.
"Hakka Currency" is expected to issue a total of 200,000 pieces, with a total value of 200 million NT dollars, combining all the "I Speak Hakka" partner stores across Taiwan and TWQR electronic payments to create a consumption environment where Hakka is spoken and used, allowing for the dual advancement of language preservation and local economy.
Hakka Council Chairperson Gu Hsiu-Fei stated that the Hakka currency is not just a policy but aims to integrate digital applications to bring Hakka language into our daily lives.
Source: Hakka Affairs Council
What are the eligibility criteria for receiving Hakka currency? How can partner businesses apply?
According to the application guidelines released by the Hakka Council, the target recipients of the Hakka currency include three categories of people: those who pass the Hakka language certification in 2025, family members of Hakka speakers, and individuals aged 18 to 49 years. Among them, individuals aged 18 to 49 will be selected by lottery to determine eligibility.
The Hakka Council also opened applications for partner businesses to apply for Hakka currency, needing to meet three criteria simultaneously:
Legally registered businesses: include entities with registration or filing, sole proprietorships and partnerships with business registration, or those without the above registrations but with tax registration.
Hakka-friendly locations: Business locations must be situated in the 70 key Hakka cultural development areas, prioritizing "I Speak Hakka Stores."
Support TWQR businesses: must become TWQR (QR code shared by electronic payment institutions) user stores and have mobile devices and internet signal.
According to reports from (Commercial Times), the Hakka Council stated that the recruitment of partner businesses began in February, with plans to recruit 3,000 businesses. As of April, 823 applications have been submitted nationwide. Among them, 47 stores in the Meinong District of Kaohsiung have applied, accounting for over 60% of the local Hakka cultural development area, making it the most active area for applications in Kaohsiung.
Su Hsiu-Yi, the owner of the Meinong Yi-Jie Ban-Tiao shop, expressed hope that the Hakka currency can act like a booster, encouraging people to visit Meinong and enjoy Ban-Tiao again. Lin Hsiang-Ta, a well-known onion crisp seller in Meinong, also believes that the Hakka currency can not only promote local tourism but also help more people understand Hakka culture.
The Hakka Council launched an AI Hackathon with a total prize money of 100,000 NT dollars.
In addition to the Hakka currency policy, the Hakka Council has also launched an AI Hackathon event, with themes divided into three categories: Smart Health, Smart Living, and Smart Learning. The total prize money reaches 100,000 NT dollars, with the champion receiving 50,000 NT dollars. The Hakka Council also provides three highly practical Hakka language API toolkits for participants to use:
Hakka Voice Recognition API: Supports Four County Dialect and Hailu Dialect, capable of accurately understanding spoken Hakka content.
Hakka Voice Synthesis API: Supports Four County Dialect, Hailu Dialect, and Dapu Dialect, allowing direct input of Hakka characters, Hakka phonetics, or Traditional Chinese, producing natural and fluent Hakka voice files immediately.
Hakka Translation API: Supports Four County Dialect and Hailu Dialect, enabling conversion between Hakka phonetics, Hakka characters, and Traditional Chinese.
The Hakka Council pointed out that participants can also choose to integrate LangChain (a free and open-source application framework specializing in large language models) to enable features such as AI chat, smart Q&A, and semantic understanding.
Source: Hakka Affairs Council
The Hakka Council's "Hakka Language Input Method" has surpassed 30,000 downloads.
In addition, the Hakka Council announced that the "Hakka Language Input Method" app was officially launched on the App Store and Google Play last September, with downloads exceeding 30,000 so far. This year, in collaboration with LINE, they have opened the "Coriander" Hakka font, allowing the public to comfortably "speak Hakka" on social platforms.
The Hakka Input Method can switch between Hailu Dialect and Four County Dialect, and supports voice input, but regular input uses Romanization. Therefore, to type out common phrases, one still needs to use the Hakka dictionary to know how to pronounce and spell them. I also tested it; I could type out phrases familiar to Hakka people from the Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli areas, and it was quite interesting.
'Airdrop of 200 million NT dollars! The Hakka Council will issue Hakka currency, eligibility criteria released, and launch an AI Hackathon.' This article was first published in 'Crypto City'