Interviews

I was in primary school, and our school had no exposure to any related materials.

Our school itself hasn't organized any activities, but I know some other schools — like Laolong No. 2 Primary School — offer a school-based course teaching Hakka, along with Hakka folk songs, during after-school service time. As for us, when communicating with or educating students, we occasionally throw in a sentence or two of Hakka.

Mm, that's right.

I think we teachers first need to set an example if we're to be inheritors of Hakka culture. So teachers can communicate in Hakka among themselves — even if at first it's hard to follow clearly, that's fine. Over time it becomes clearer and clearer, and communication gets smoother and smoother. It has to start with us teachers.

Like she just said, if we're talking to students privately, using Hakka can still bring us closer in that heart-to-heart way. But in the classroom, when it comes to organizing certain language content, Hakka isn't really practical to use.

Yes.

A long time ago, many of our teachers actually taught in Hakka. But that meant students, when writing essays, tended to write a lot of colloquial, Hakka-style expressions. Later the country promoted Mandarin, and after that everyone — including at home — started speaking Mandarin more often, kids included. That's how it went.

Oh, I have a lot of personal experience with this point. About 20 years ago I taught a student whose grades were among the very top in the grade. But when he wrote essays — I wasn't teaching Chinese, I taught English — I suddenly discovered he was expressing himself in Hakka. The whole essay was full of colloquial speech, genuinely the entire thing was in Hakka. So I think that communicating entirely in Hakka, like before, would hinder students' ability to pick up Mandarin expression.

Yes, exactly. And second, our country is also promoting the use of Mandarin — this kind of mandatory push from government departments has also led the teaching community to lean toward using Mandarin for instruction in class.

Mm-hm, yes.

Our school currently has none. But we know that here in Longchuan, two schools have made attempts — Longchuan No. 2 Primary School and Zhuofeng School. Both schools have carried out the singing of folk songs and folk songs, especially folk songs, which have even been made into videos. We know a bit about it.

I think there are many reasons. First, the national curriculum doesn't cover this. Second, the school hasn't prioritized it. Third, the general social attitude has already formed this way, which is also part of why the school hasn't prioritized it — after all, people from other places can't understand this dialect. But mainly, it comes down to there being no such policy from above.

Mm, that could be part of it.

If schools are to serve as a means of transmission, that's definitely a positive and very important role. It's quite obvious now — people of our generation, born in the 80s, can all speak Hakka, but use it rarely in daily life. Our children might understand it but can't speak it; the next generation after that might not even understand it at all. That's a very clear trend. So I think passing Hakka down is genuinely necessary.

Right now, neither of our two schools has any promotion of Hakka, nor any suppression of it — there's simply no attention paid at all. Neither prioritized nor achieving any effective measures.

I think we could start by singing Hakka folk songs, because folk songs have a strong sense of rhythm and rhyme, making them easier for students to take in. Start with singing folk songs — in music class, you could teach these kinds of ethnic folk songs.

Don't schools now have after-school services? I think those after-school programs could carry out this kind of activity — learning about Hakka folk songs could be worked into the after-school curriculum.

First of all, folk songs have a strong rhythm, so students pick them up quickly. If a teacher taught directly in Hakka, the sentence structures would be longer and the meanings more complex. So it's best to start with folk songs, so students become willing to take in Hakka. First they need to be willing to receive it, and only then can it gradually extend and sink in deeper.

Right, right.

As far as I know, in the townships there are no related courses. Our courses are all designed according to the provincial curriculum standards, so there are no specific arrangements for Hakka dialect resources — activities are also very rare, basically none.

I teach at Tongqu Town Primary School in Longchuan County. I've been teaching there for 27 years.

When I first started in '99, teachers as a whole were probably a bit older. Back then, occasionally an older teacher would use Hakka while teaching. In daily communication, about 20 years ago there was probably more Hakka used, including with students. But recently we've had a lot of young, post-2000s teachers assigned to us — they come from different townships, some even from different counties or different cities. So people can't really communicate in Hakka anymore, they don't understand it. Like in Longchuan — the upper half of the county is about 100 kilometers from our five southeastern towns, and if you're not listening carefully, or if someone speaks fast, you can't understand. So there's very little communication now. In the classroom today, we don't require students or teachers to communicate in Hakka — you really can't.

Yes. Take our five southeastern towns, for instance — places not far apart, even within the same village, the upper half and the lower half, depending on which town they're closer to, have different tones in their Hakka. Places like Zishi, Heshi, Huangbu in our five southeastern towns — as soon as someone opens their mouth, I can tell which town they're from. As for the upper half of the county, back in '96 when I was studying in Hunan, many of my classmates were from there, and we simply couldn't understand what they said. So the regional gap is quite large — even though it's all called Hakka, sometimes you just can't communicate.

Yes — using a language everyone can understand, something common and easy to grasp, so everyone can accept it.

Right, right — it's promoted this way nationwide, even.

My job is in the insurance industry. During work hours, in the mornings I do some training-type work, and with colleagues we definitely speak Mandarin. But an important part of my job is communicating with clients — my client base is very broad, including children and elderly people, but mostly middle-aged and elderly people in their fifties or sixties. With them we mostly speak Hakka. That's how it is.

Right, right.

I haven't come across Hakka folk songs or Hakka folk songs at school. Our county has a Hakka folk-song opera troupe, and some of them sing Hakka folk songs. I remember about seven or eight years ago, the county opera troupe would go perform in various townships, and some of the shows included one or two Hakka folk song numbers. Folk songs seem to have become popular in the county seat recently — I noticed some schools singing them. In the last two or three years, the government has gradually come to realize it should protect some of the local folk culture, so it's also been pushing for the inheritance of this folk culture.

Yes, it's decreasing — there's less of that kind of communication among students. There are both pros and cons — the upside is everyone communicates in a language that's easier to understand; the downside is that Hakka might disappear after N more years.

I think it's really necessary. Honestly, the moment that hometown accent comes out, no matter where you go, as soon as you speak Hakka, it feels warm inside — like you've met one of your own people. That's the feeling.

Yes, closeness. Like with my kid — he's about eight or nine now. Before, maybe before he turned six, if I said a few Hakka words to him, he didn't understand a thing. Now I slowly teach him simpler ones, like "help me get something" — he can understand that now, just working it in bit by bit day by day. But by the time my kid turned eight or nine, he basically couldn't understand Hakka anymore, which shows that at school he's speaking Mandarin the whole time.

Not now. It's probably just been carried over from before — the blackboards still say "please speak Mandarin." So it's deeply ingrained in everyone's mind. Even though there's been no recent official document, we still do it this way.

It should have started as far back as I can remember — it was already there when I was in school. So it's been going on for a very long time, since the '90s.

Mm, yes.

We don't have this in our township. The music teacher doesn't teach Hakka folk songs or folk songs normally, and they haven't entered the classroom. This shows there's a real gap in how Hakka folk songs and this kind of Hakka culture get spread in the classroom — it hasn't even started to enter, let alone take root.

It's probably a decision-making issue from higher up. If the municipal education bureau issued a document saying Hakka folk songs and folk songs should be set up as electives, or as an extracurricular activity, with one or two class periods a week required, that would definitely help their transmission a lot more. So it really comes down to a policy decision.

Yes, exactly. We also can't go against what's required from above.

As educators, we'd definitely need a document from above first. Without one, we're worried that implementing it ourselves might cause more negative effects — parents might not be too willing to accept it either.

First, we'd follow whatever's required — if it specifies a certain amount of time per week, we'd definitely stick to that. We'd also encourage students to communicate more in daily life — in the classroom, try not to speak Hakka, but outside class, during playtime, in PE, all of that's fine, and even at home while playing games it's fine too.

That's right.

I'm a history teacher at Suqu School in Longchuan County. My name is Huang Yanhua.

I'm also a history teacher in Longchuan County. My name is Zhang Lirong. My school isn't in the county town — I teach at a rural school.

Our school will sometimes invite the Hakka folk-song opera troupe to perform at school during cultural performances.

Our school itself is a rural township school. Originally, the group of people who speak Hakka the most are rural people — they speak it more. Many people, after leaving their hometown and going elsewhere, especially to a city, get far fewer chances to speak Hakka. Since I'm at a rural school and the students all come from rural families not far from home, our school hasn't offered any courses or activities about Hakka — because they're already immersed in that language environment.

It's not really a limitation issue — it's more that our school probably just feels it's unnecessary.

That's right.

Because all of my students can already speak Hakka — when they communicate, they normally use Hakka too.

Yes.

Yes.

The measure might be letting students learn our Hakka folk songs during music class.

We now have some music teachers who are trying to teach Hakka folk songs in music class.

There's no rule or requirement on this, but it's become a habit — during class, everyone uses Mandarin, whether it's students or teachers, whether it's teaching, communicating, or discussing problems. It's just become the habit.

Right.

I sometimes hear students chatting among themselves — some use Hakka, some use Mandarin. But as teachers, when we're lecturing in class, we generally use Mandarin. But if we're chatting with students, or occasionally want to lighten the mood, we'll say a few sentences in Hakka.

That's right.

We basically all speak Mandarin in class. After class, when talking with students, we mostly use Mandarin too, and communication between classmates is also basically in Mandarin.

Each township's dialect really is different — it's interesting. We all call it Hakka, so why is there so much variation? Why can't everyone just speak one unified version of Hakka?

No, every township is different.

It's like Mandarin — Cantonese people and people from the Northeast don't speak Mandarin the same way either, it sounds different, they each have their own accent, and it's the same when they speak Hakka.

Yes.

Many people think Hakka is just one language, but it's actually many varieties. Longchuan has twenty-four townships, and there are over twenty different dialects among them.

Yes, the gap is bigger.

That's the saying — "different accents every ten miles" — it's easy to tell. It's not just pronunciation that differs; we even have different words for the same thing, different vocabulary choices. Like the word for "fish" in Mandarin — here we say "niu li," but in some parts of the upper half of the county they say something else. Or "buy something" — here we say it one way, but there they say "mai ga shei," "mai ga ga shei" — it's different.

Promoting Mandarin means students from different regions can better understand what the teacher is saying in class — that's definitely a good side. For teaching purposes, it's a beneficial side.

Yes.

Right, because now many students, especially in the county town, basically communicate in Mandarin — they can only understand Hakka but not speak it.

Hakka culture.

It's gradually being valued more now — for example, we're bringing folk songs onto campus, letting students learn some of our local Hakka folk songs, since Longchuan itself has its own folk songs too. Some schools have already promoted this very well — Zhuofeng School in our county town, for instance, has turned it into a real feature.

Some schools have already been implementing this "folk songs into campus" initiative.

Yes.

Not yet, but our school, for example, is also trying to do this kind of thing.

They've started paying more attention too — encouraging schools to do more promotion, like collecting our Hakka folk songs, promoting some of Hakka's revolutionary-era heritage, and Hakka cuisine as well — this is also a form of passing on Hakka culture.

Yes, that's right.

It's definitely through folk songs. Regular teaching generally promotes Mandarin, so we can only rely on things like school-based curriculum or comprehensive practical-activity classes to promote our Hakka culture and dialect.

Yes, that works.

There are also things like comprehensive practical-activity classes now, where students draw out the features of each township themselves — each township has its own characteristics, which also helps them understand our hometown better.

Right, it's also a form of cultural confidence.

Yes, that's how it should be.

Yes, Longchuan really has a strong record when it comes to passing on Hakka culture — a thousand-year-old county with a deep historical legacy.

That's right.

Mm.

His dialect was probably a bit better at the time. Why? Because both his parents are Hakka, and at home they mostly communicate day-to-day in the local dialect. On top of that, his musicality was very good all around, so they had him sing this piece. When he sang it, I thought this song was really lovely.

Even though I couldn't understand it — I'm also an outsider, I married into this place because my husband is from here — after listening, I felt very moved, and I tried to learn to sing it too. Gradually, through singing these Hakka folk songs, my grasp of the dialect grew, and I found myself daring to actually speak it. I felt like I finally had that sense of it. Haha, before that I might not have dared to speak it — I only understood roughly, and sometimes couldn't follow at all.

But I think that through this form of singing, it's a really good driving force. Because now, many children in families no longer speak Hakka. That's right — our post-80s generation probably still speaks it the most; by the post-90s generation it's spoken even less, let alone their children. Why is that? I think it's because the country pushed Mandarin promotion earlier on, and gradually Mandarin became the mainstream — in everyday teaching and in children's daily communication, it became the dominant direction. Even the aunties selling vegetables at the market speak Mandarin with us. I really think this will eventually lead to language loss — children just won't speak their own native dialect anymore.

So what we're doing now isn't called Hakka folk songs, it's called Hakka Language folk songs — this name was actually given by my husband. He feels we're people of a new era, so our Hakka Language folk songs are given musical arrangement and melody that combine with modern aesthetics — so when the children sing them, they don't feel like they're singing traditional Hakka folk songs. Traditional Hakka folk songs are mainly chanted, recited out loud — something like "hai nü gang gang zou ti tang," that sort of thing. But our Hakka Language folk songs are given an actual melody to sing. I think this suits modern tastes better — children can take to it, and it can be promoted in music classrooms too.

Over these past three years, the government has promoted our Hakka Language folk songs, and set up 10 teaching demonstration sites across various schools, including kindergartens. Longchuan has put a huge amount of effort into this, and the County Party Propaganda Department has given a lot of support in this area — because they found that our children's language really is lacking. In most families now, there are very few children who can speak authentic Hakka. Some children can still understand it, but when they try to speak it, it's not very smooth anymore.

Getting children to take this in through this form really does work well — the uptake is strong, they like it, they genuinely love singing it. They don't find it embarrassing or old-fashioned — instead they feel like it belongs to them. It's not that something entirely new suddenly appears in their heart; rather, they come to feel, this is my Hakka language. Maybe it happens gradually, without them noticing — right now singing the song might just be imitation, but many years later, once they've grown up, they'll remember singing a song from their hometown as a child. That kind of feeling, that hometown attachment, that sense of the language — it quietly finds its way into their heart. That's a really powerful thing.

Doing Hakka Language folk songs really is about starting with children. Hakka folk songs are also a great part of Hakka cultural heritage, but children might not enjoy singing them as much, because they're more traditional. Hakka Language folk songs are different — they're more like children's folk songs, so they suit that age group better when sung. For instance, when my husband writes these pieces, he writes the vocal range according to that age group, so every child can sing it. We try to write this way deliberately, so it can spread widely, so every child can sing it and it's catchy. Unlike Hakka folk songs, where children might struggle with the pronunciation because it's more of an adult vocal style, our Hakka Language folk songs are made for children. I think starting with children is really the greatest benefit — it's the best approach.

Right, because the native accent itself starts from childhood — this is our local dialect. If you learn it after growing up, like me — I came here as an adult, marrying in from elsewhere — it takes many years, maybe even having children of my own, before I could integrate more deeply into the traditional Hakka language, culture, and customs, and really feel that connection. For example, when you suddenly arrive in a new city, you might feel like you're hearing gibberish, and can only use Mandarin to communicate with everyone. But a native accent is different — that sense of home and hometown really has to start young. So what we say is "sing Hakka Language folk songs, pass on the Hakka cultural lineage" — that's the meaning. Start with the children.

At the very start, when Hakka Language folk songs entered campuses, the first step was having teachers lead the children in singing. Because most children don't know the dialect at all — the melody is fine, but the dialect itself can be an issue. Especially with Hakka, where every hill has its own tune, the accent changes every few miles, and even neighboring villages pronounce things differently. So what's needed most at that point is unification. Unify first.

Another thing — we don't get hung up on whether what you're singing today is Laolong dialect, Tuocheng dialect, Dengyun dialect, or Shangping dialect — we don't fuss over that. Why? Because as long as what comes out is a Hakka accent of some kind, that's enough. This is a key point we've emphasized to the teachers — be inclusive. Some teachers happen to be from Shangping, so they teach it with the Shangping accent; but some children learn by listening to our recorded demo and imitate that instead. I myself am actually imitating the way the children sing it. And why is that not wrong? It's like singing in Cantonese — Cantonese itself has regional variation too, Foshan Cantonese and Jiangmen Cantonese aren't the same. Everyone who sings a Beyond song is imitating how Wong Ka Kui sang it; everyone who sings Jacky Cheung's Cantonese songs imitates him — nobody gets hung up on regional accuracy there. That's the first step our teachers take: don't fuss over regional pronunciation. As long as it's Hakka, and as long as you're willing to sing it, that's a form of linguistic and cultural transmission. That's step one.

And then, through this kind of singing, teachers also find more ways to make teaching interactive — turning it into rhythmic movement or dance, joining in performances and singing events to enrich it further, and also entering choral competitions, hoping to push our Hakka language forward even better. Through the folk song format, they hold choral competitions too. Last year, Zhuofeng School's performance of "Remember to Love Yourself" won first prize at the provincial level; this time, "A Mei," performed by No. 2 Primary School, won gold at the city level. Through this format, more children come to love it — it's not just plain singing, there's harmony too, and through these richer musical forms, children grow more and more confident singing. There's solo singing, choral singing, and dance added on top — many different formats. Some schools have even turned it into recess exercises — for example, the government-affiliated kindergarten turned "Du Chun Cha" into a group recess activity around 9am. This culture gives children a real sense of confidence — a kind of cultural confidence — and by passing it down through the Hakka language, children come to feel that this language can be so rich.

At first it was just one mode of singing, but later it grew more varied and rich. We also have small-group singing — junior high school kids have joined in over the past couple of years, and won awards this year too — they're already in their teens, and they enjoy singing these folk songs just as much. I saw that Longchuan No. 1 Experimental School's junior high division is arranging "Gen Deng Chang," and Longchuan No. 1 Middle School's junior high division is arranging it too — junior high kids are joining in now, and we're all really happy about it. Because kids that age might assume Hakka Language folk songs are just for little kids, but instead they find the melody enjoyable, and they feel a real sense of pride in their hometown culture.

Imagine someone standing on a stage, telling the whole audience in their own hometown language, this is what our culture is like — how confident that is. Not everyone in the audience is Hakka, but people will think, wow, singing in Hakka — it's a bit like us Cantonese people going to Hunan and singing Cantonese songs. That's a kind of confidence, and that hometown feeling really doesn't discriminate by age. This can also branch out into several other forms — teachers use it to build lesson plans, write papers, and enter competitions. From a single song, we can generate so many lesson plans and papers — I think that's really meaningful. It's proof enough that people have real confidence in their hometown language. That's something we've felt over these past few years.

In the past, people might have used Peking opera or other provinces' regional operas for this kind of thing — very few used Hakka material. Our Hakka heritage really does need to be passed on, though it may take some time yet, since we started relatively late. Right now, the Cantonese and Chaoshan communities are genuinely more prominent in this space — they have films and everything, more visibility than us, like "A Ma's Love Letter." Last time at the Cultural Expo, that show happened to be scheduled the same morning as ours, though we only heard about it afterward. Actually, at first we nearly ended up in the same main venue — central leadership was inspecting at the time, so the hall hadn't opened yet and the schedule got pushed back, otherwise we might have collided. At the time, they'd secured a provincial main stage for us, which felt very lucky — I wanted the children to be able to perform on a bigger stage. Because the timing ended up staggered, we performed instead at the local main hall, our own Longchuan branch hall, and our Heyuan hall. But later, to build the children's confidence further and let people know how special this language is, we also went to some more internationally-oriented exhibition halls, including ones with Western countries present — we performed at all of them. Why? Because music is a wonderful bridge of friendship — music has no borders. We hoped that through this, children could experience it, and others could experience our culture too, and find it something quite novel. Through the Hakka language, we've also given our children the chance to see more of the world.

Another thing is that children feel proud of this language — it's a kind of cultural confidence. When we went to a venue in Beijing, we sang for people on site, and someone asked, what language is that, is it a minority language? We said, no, we speak Hakka. In that kind of global setting — you could call it one of China's larger cultural events — when people asked the children what they were singing, they'd confidently say, Hakka Language folk songs. That confidence in introducing themselves comes from feeling like they have something worth sharing — listen to me sing, and hear what language I speak. Our language carries the inheritance of good Hakka family traditions, parents' care for their children, and the Hakka tradition of valuing education and culture — all of that is contained within it.

Most of the Hakka Language folk song works we've created so far are focused on the growth of young people and children — including traditional Hakka family education, passing down good family traditions, and hoping that through singing these songs, children learn to cherish themselves and build confidence — these are the main themes. When we do this work, we're really focused on children's growth. Through the lyrics — for example, "Dad and Mom, remember it all, the love of Ninghai" — it means we need to love: love our beautiful Longchuan, "I drink Dongjiang water, I speak Hakka," "the King of Nanyue is in my home," "I live at the foot of Ao Mountain," and lines like "when you have time, come be a guest at my home, I'll brew you tea" — showing the warmth and hospitality of Hakka people, and the beautiful scenery of our hometown, all within one song. So every one of these songs carries educational meaning and a sense of continuity — not forgetting your roots. That's one of the fine traditions of our Hakka people.

We've really put a lot of effort into this Hakka Language folk song project. It's not really an organization as such — it's now an IP, a project run by our County Party Propaganda Department, and we're something like its incubation base.

For example, in promotion. Our Propaganda Department partners with the Education Bureau to push our Hakka Language folk songs into every school, so all the children can sing along. There's also media promotion, which is something we couldn't achieve on our own — it has to go through official media. Official media carries a certain authority, and it's also very positive in tone. So in this respect, I believe thousands upon thousands of ordinary families come to feel this is a good thing.

At the time our Hakka Language folk songs were promoted at those 10 demonstration sites, teachers would ask the children to sing at home, and parents would sing along too — not a single parent objected. We heard some anecdotal feedback — one child said his mom thought the song was lovely and wanted to learn it; another said his mom now uses a line from the song to call him to eat, saying, "your brother's taught you all this, you need to eat properly, don't skip meals, take care of your body." "Morning Glory" is similar — it's about staying positive and facing difficulties head-on, a spirit of not fearing hardship that's in the bones of Hakka people. Through these songs, parents can feel the strength the lyrics give their children — that's a really good side of this.

After the official media helped promote it, this project became something under the Longchuan County government — it's the IP created by our Propaganda Department, an image representing Longchuan. The Longchuan government has really put a lot into this, very good, very good. The government has put a lot of effort into promoting our hometown's local culture, and that's something Longchuan people genuinely respect them for. I believe it's hard for a lot of surrounding cities to match what Longchuan has done — other counties and districts nearby have praised this too, that's genuinely true. Our Hakka Language folk song project is probably leading the way right now, not just within Heyuan but across the whole Hakka region. Southern Television interviewed Teacher Zeng, who handles the creative side, last time, because he's produced such a large body of work. Over these past few years we've also worked hard on getting more of these songs out there — mainly because the children, parents, and ordinary people all feel it's a good thing. Honestly, doing this work myself has been a really happy thing too.

I think it's mainly thanks to the support of Teacher Zheng and Teacher Xu Li. Teacher Zheng's feeling for his hometown really runs deep — I can really only say I've contributed on the singing side, things like music and vocal guidance, but the overall creative direction has always been in his hands. He's from the countryside, and back when he started doing this, he said, I want to do something for my hometown — because he feels proud to be someone from a rural background, and he's always felt that way.

He's from Dengyun — I'd guess so, because the surname Zheng is more common over there. He's been creating things since he was young; the first song he ever wrote was "Beautiful Longchuan," also about how beautiful Longchuan is. He has such a deep feeling for his hometown, honestly it's really moved me too. It's mainly that you support him and help out too — I've really been influenced by him. Because this place isn't somewhere I grew up, but because of how much he loves it, how confident he is about his hometown, and how he protects its culture, I've come to feel it myself. I think I really admire that, and I've been drawn in by it too — after all, we're both outsiders here. Seeing this kind of thing, I actually feel like I've been folded into this new culture. Thinking about it, in the end we're all one family. My husband always says, all Hakka under heaven are one family. Really, we probably all originally came from the Central Plains, migrating from place to place, spreading out everywhere — even Hunan has Hakka communities, that's how it is. Hakka isn't actually a minority ethnicity, it's Han Chinese. I think Hakka culture really does go back a very long way — so the cultural foundation of our Hakka people is genuinely a rich one.

Right now, when it comes to passing on the Hakka dialect, our school does reflect that in the curriculum — for example, through singing Hakka Language folk songs and teaching Hakka folk songs. Some classes have done quite well with this, student participation is fairly high, and these activities are popular with the students.

Generally, in the after-school tutoring, we set up after-school service courses for students who enjoy learning Hakka Language folk songs and Hakka folk songs. The number of participants depends on the school's teaching scale — right now some students voluntarily sign up, and teachers are also involved to guide them. We also make a point of including a program of Hakka Language folk songs and Hakka folk songs in our after-school achievement showcase — we do this every semester.

Mm.

In informal settings, outside the classroom, or sometimes when giving examples from daily life, teachers will use Hakka to talk about things happening around us, everyday little matters. Generally, communication among classmates — especially in the dorms and during breaks — those are the situations where students often speak Hakka with each other.

Closer, and more relaxed too — it also gets people to say more honest, real things about their lives.

Right.

Because we still live largely within this Hakka-speaking environment, especially when children interact with elderly people — the elderly really haven't picked up Mandarin as much, they speak more Hakka. So in communication between the elderly and children, it's mostly done in Hakka.

Right — if you speak to elderly people in Mandarin, some of them just can't understand. So if we communicate with them in Hakka instead, it's probably smoother, both psychologically and linguistically.

Right.

Yes, there's a requirement from above on this — teaching itself has to be in Mandarin. But when giving examples, say to make something easier for students to grasp, more grounded in the people and things around us, Hakka might come into it.

Right.

Yes, smoother, and closer to life.

In the process of passing on Hakka folk songs, it helps students more easily remember the pronunciation of certain words, and it also helps the language survive longer. If you just speak Hakka casually, there's basically no record of it left behind; but once you turn it into Hakka folk songs or Hakka folk songs, it becomes a form of culture.

Right, and it might mean the language gets passed down for longer, so some Hakka words don't get lost so easily. Through the form of folk songs and songs, it becomes catchy — something easy to pick up and learn. I think this format works really well.

Right.

Maybe it's about broadening the settings where it's used — letting more occasions treat Hakka as an acceptable way to communicate, allowing people to speak it more freely, loosening the restriction where only Mandarin can be used. I think there's room to expand both the channels and the settings here.

Right.

Right, don't restrict it too rigidly.

I'm a college student.

The situations where I'd actively use Hakka — for example, somewhere far from home, I might tentatively try it with someone to see. Otherwise there's really not much occasion to use it, I feel.

There's not really anywhere in particular — there's no situation where I'd definitely never use it.

Very good.

I did when I was younger, because if you go too long without speaking it, you forget it — that's why a lot of kids nowadays can't speak it anymore. Now I occasionally feel a bit of a gap, but it's pretty rare at this point.

Mm, yes.

More of a habit, I think.

I can't really put it into words.

It depends on the person. Most people around me can speak it, and don't think it's uncool or outdated. If anything, like when cursing at someone, using Hakka for it actually feels kind of fun.

No, I don't go looking for that on my own.

There definitely are — every language has stuff like that.

If I had to give an example...

I can't think of one right now.

Right, right.

The biggest challenge... maybe it's that kids these days just don't learn it much anymore. Kids aren't around their grandparents as much, and their parents probably don't teach it either — nobody makes the effort to teach it — so it just doesn't get passed down.

I'm a high school student, studying at Longchuan No.1 Middle School.

When an elderly person starts talking to me.

No level to speak of — I can't speak Hakka.

I can say a few words, but I can't put together a full sentence.

Mm, yes.

[High School Student] Mm, yes.

That's right.

[High School Student] Yes.

Mm, yes, I can understand it.

[High School Student] Mm, I can understand it.

Can't use it.

[High School Student] Can't use it.

Because at school everyone speaks Mandarin, and at home I only use Mandarin with my family too — so there just aren't many situations left where Hakka gets used.

[High School Student] Because at school we all speak Mandarin, and in daily life, I only use Mandarin to communicate with my family as well. So the scenarios for using Hakka are limited, there aren't many.

Mm, it's not that closely tied to it, but I still think Hakka is quite important.

[High School Student] Mm, it's not really connected. But I think Hakka is still quite important.

Mm, right.

[High School Student] Mm, yes.

No, not really — being able to speak it is actually seen as pretty impressive.

[High School Student] No, not at all. Being able to speak it is actually quite impressive.

You could put it that way.

[High School Student] You could say that.

Mm, right.

[High School Student] Mm, yes.

Mm, that kind of thing is pretty rare online.

[High School Student] Mm, because it's relatively rare on the internet.

Mm, that's right.

[High School Student] Mm, yes.

That's not quite it, but — how do I put it — things like Hakka-teaching content, there's basically none of that.

[High School Student] Not that, but uh, how to put it, things like Hakka teaching tutorials, basically none exist.

The biggest challenge is — how do I put it — the next generation just isn't learning it. Because there are fewer and fewer situations to use it in. Basically it's the elderly who speak it; young people, students, and people who work or study away from home have very few chances to use Hakka.

[High School Student] The biggest challenge is, uh, how to put it, the next generation not learning it. Mm, yes. Because the scenarios for using it are getting fewer and fewer. Basically, only elderly people speak it. Young people, like students and those working or studying away from home, have few opportunities to use Hakka.

Oh, I think that could work — it would feel more familiar, more warm.

[High School Student] Oh, I think that would be possible. It would feel more intimate.

Mm, right.

[High School Student] Mm, yes.

There's not really anything I can do.

[High School Student] I can't do anything.