The Excellence Awards for local language promotion were presented to Yang Li-hua (楊麗花), the director of the Yang Li-hua Taiwanese Opera Troupe, and Chou Ching-yu (周清玉), the chairperson of the Caring For Taiwan Foundation, honoring their lifelong contribution to disseminating the Taiwanese Hokkien language.
Yang Li-hua is one of the most experienced Taiwanese opera (koa-a-hi, 歌仔戲) performers in the country. She remarked that, for her, Taiwanese opera is the most beautiful culture on the island, adding that its promotion not only helps to ingrain the Taiwanese Hokkien language but also contributes to the preservation of the ancestors’ wisdom and values.
Formerly a legislator, Chou Ching-yu has fought for the establishment of the Development of National Languages Act and the Taiwanese Language and Cultural Creative Park. The former was approved in 2019 and the latter opened in 2018. Pointing out that the official language policies often overemphasize Chinese Mandarin and English, she hopes that a friendlier environment and a complete infrastructure to promote each community’s mother tongue will be fully implemented.