Reading Liugdui From The Bird’S Eye View

Authors: Zeng, Zhao-xiong and Shih, Ya-hsuan
Publication Date: February 2008
This work presents the landscape of Liugdui through a collection of aerial photographs, accompanied by interpretive texts on its geography, history, and cultural heritage. The Liugdui region in Kaohsiung and Pingtung is one of the earliest Hakka settlement areas in Taiwan and still preserves many traditional features that distinguish it from the Hakka communities of northern Taiwan.
Scattered like constellations across the foothill plains of southern Taiwan, the Liugdui villages each possess their own stories, patterns, and cultural identities, expressed through distinct architectural forms, local industries, and shared Hakka traditions. Viewing these settlements from above offers a fresh perspective, which beyond conventional linguistic or cultural analyses, revealing, in the most direct and striking way, the beauty and vitality of Hakka settlement landscapes. Whether it is the tobacco-curing barns, communal dwellings, ancestral halls, walled courtyard houses, or specialized industries, each scene provides valuable insight into the deeper layers of Hakka cultural life.