Submissions for the 2026 Hsinchu County Hakka New Song Award are now open! (Provided by Hsinchu County Government)
Submissions for the 2026 Hsinchu County Hakka New Song Award are now open! County Magistrate Yang Wenke said that the total prize money for this competition is 460,000 yuan, and the acceptance period is from now until August 19. This year, the folk song chorus competition and the folk song lyrics award will be held simultaneously. People from all over the country who are interested in Hakka culture or music creation are welcome to sign up.
Yang Wenke said that the "Hsinchu County Hakka New Song Award" organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Hsinchu County Government has been established for more than 20 years since its inception in 1997. It is one of the important platforms for the inheritance and innovation of Hakka music. It not only discovers outstanding Hakka music talents, but also allows Hakka culture to show a diverse, young and life-friendly appearance through contemporary music.
The 2026 Hsinchu County Hakka New Song Awards are rich in prizes, including a bonus of NT$120,000 for the first place, a bonus of NT$60,000 for the second place, and a bonus of NT$40,000 for the third place. There are also special awards such as the "Hsinchu Hakka Award", "Best Lyricist Award" and "Final Popularity Award". Those who are shortlisted and participate in the finals will also receive a finalist bonus of NT$20,000 and a medal. The top three winning works will be recorded as digital singles with the assistance of the Cultural Affairs Bureau and uploaded to the website of the Hakka New Song Awards section of the Cultural Affairs Bureau.
Director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau Zhu Shumin said that this year’s final and award ceremony is scheduled to be held on October 17 at the Cultural Affairs Bureau Auditorium. The shortlisted works will be selected through live singing. In addition to testing the creativity and completeness of the lyrics and music of the works themselves, it also demonstrates the contestants’ live singing, Hakka pronunciation and stage performance capabilities.
This year, the "Hsinchu County Hakka New Songs and Traditional Folk Song Chorus Competition" and the "Hsinchu County Hakka Folk Lyrics Award" will also be held simultaneously. The former encourages Hakka song teams to participate and is expected to be processed at the Cultural Plaza of the Cultural Affairs Bureau on October 17; the latter uses the representative works of the father of Taiwanese ballads, Mr. Deng Yu-hsien, "Four Seasons Red", "Moonlight Night Sorrow", "Looking at the Spring Breeze" and "Rainy Night Flowers" as the basis of creation, and invites the public to write lyrics in Hakka. Registration is open until August 19, and will be publicly recognized in conjunction with the New Song Award final and award ceremony. Registration brochures can be found on the official website, or by calling Mr. Chen at 03-5510201 extension 306.
