Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) on Friday performed a traditional worship ceremony to mark the beginning of the annual Hakka Tung Blossom Festival.

Although several of the festival’s large-scale activities have been canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tung trees in Hakka villages have still blossomed beautifully, he said at the ceremony, in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼).

There are more than 70 tung flower paths in Taiwan, in places such as Taoyuan, Taichung, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, he said, inviting people to walk the trails and experience the scenery and nature, while reminding them to avoid crowds and keep a distance of more than 1m from others.

(Photo copied by Peng Chien-lee, Taipei Times)

Following the worship ceremony, Lee visited the Taiwan Hakka Museum, where the council has organized a public art installation on display until May 24.

The installation, titled “Snow in Summer” (夏雪), was created by artist Yu Wen-fu (游文富), the council said.

Yu used 100,000 pink and white-colored bamboo sticks to “interpret the impressive scene” of tung flowers falling to the ground, it said.

“His work is the most graceful presentation of Hakka culture, land and vigor of life,” it added.

Lee also visited the former residence of the late Hakka composer Tu Min-heng (涂敏恆) in Miaoli’s Dahu Township (大湖).

Lee hopes that local representatives work with Tu’s family to turn the residence into a memorial museum for the composer, the council said.

Although the council has canceled festival-related gatherings amid the pandemic, it has compiled a list of places to view tung flowers at its Web site, http://tung.hakka.gov.tw, where people can search for flower-spotting sites, methods of transportation and see the weather forecast, it said.

Due to the pandemic, a musical organized by the council that had been scheduled to run at the Taiwan Hakka Museum from Saturday to Sunday has been delayed, it said.

A marathon originally scheduled to be held in Hsinchu County on Sunday as part of the festival was also postponed, the festival’s Web site showed.

The news posted by Taipei times : https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2020/04/20/2003734949