Readers’ Photos

Daping Red Bridge, Longtan (Chen Zhaoming)

The Daping Red Bridge in Taoyuan’s Longtan District is one of the few remaining brick bridges in Taiwan. It was built using a highly viscous and flexible mortar made from lime mixed with glutinous rice and sugar, and so is known as a “sticky rice bridge.” It has considerable historic value and is symbolic of Hakka culture.

Sun-Drying Rice Noodles in Hsinchu (Luo Shujiao)

Hakka people mainly eat rice noodles for breakfast, creating a distinctive dietary culture. Winter in Hsinchu, with low rainfall and strong winds, is suited to drying noodles in the sun, and is the time when the highest-quality rice noodles are produced.

Making Turtle Rice Cakes Together (Li Qingji)

Taichung’s Xin Ding Ban Festival is a major event for Hakka communities around Taiwan. It preserves the traditional competition for making xindingban (“new child rice cakes”). In this photo children work together to make giant turtle rice cakes.

Attending the Giant Pigs Ceremony (Shu Wei)

One of the events in the annual Yimin Festival at Yimin Temples is the “giant pig offering” competition. In this photo, a father and son excitedly watch the outcome of the competition as the father explains the event to his child.

Hakka Lions (Deng Zhenshi)

At Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Festival), rural residents gather to perform, symbolizing unity. The square-faced, square-mouthed Hakka lions shown here have a playful look. The lion dance, accompanied by percussion instruments, expresses the grandeur of the Hakka lions.

Whole Families Making Fucai (Liu Zhaojun)

At the Fucai Festival held in Miaoli’s Gongguan Township, whole families join in the fun of making fucai, a kind of pickled mustard greens. Fucai is made by further pickling and fermenting suancai, another kind of pickled mustard greens. Fucai is very fragrant and is a common ingredient in Hakka cuisine.

Drying Persimmons in Xinpu (Zhang Xiuhuang)

When autumn arrives each year, residents of the Hankeng community of Hsinchu County’s Xinpu Township are already hard at work peeling and drying persimmons. After a complex process involving about 17 steps, the fruits become sweet-tasting dried persimmon cakes.

Sun-Drying Fucai for Winter (Wang Mingxian)

Hakka fucai was invented because in former times it was difficult to preserve fresh food. To preserve mustard greens, Hakka people used pickling, fermenting and sun-drying to make them into suancai, fucai, and meigancai.

Indigo Dyeing (Wang Zhaogui)

Hakka people in Taiwan are mainly concentrated in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Miaoli in the north and in the Liudui region of Kaohsiung and Pingtung in the south. The well-known traditional attire known as the “blue shirt” is a large knee-length shirt colored blue and black. Simple in design, this clothing is distinguished by its blue-black color produced using plant-based dyes. Today indigo dyeing is associated with Hakka people.