How Have You Been, Anna (Picture Book)

Authors: Lee, Fabio Yu-chung and Yu Pei-yun
Publication Date: March 2021

Different local experiences—whether within Taiwan or across the global Hakkas—have shaped the many forms of Hakka culture. How Have You Been, Anna? is a picture book inspired by the idea of “world memory.” Interweaving past and present, it tells the story from the viewpoint of a Hakka child, portraying how, in the early twentieth century, Western missionaries in Hakka villages inadvertently preserved valuable records of the Hakka language while carrying out their religious work.

The story begins with a grandfather and his grandson traveling abroad, and through their dialogue, unfolds the historical connection between language, memory, and culture. Under the concept of world memory, the preservation of early Hakka linguistic materials is shown not only as evidence that language is the key to cultural learning and exchange, but also as a rediscovery of the Hakka people’s role in the global history of multilingual and multicultural interaction.