ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways music serves as a means for accommodating Hakka Christians’ multiple identities in contemporary Taiwan. Through analyzing the history and selected texts of Hakka hymns, I aim to uncover the intertwined relationship between Hakka Christians’ religious and social lives. The Hakka mission in Taiwan arguably began in the 1930s when missionaries began to promote Christianity across the regions of ‘people from Guangdong’. However, it was not until the 1980s that the creation of Hakka hymns gained institutional support. In the interest of promoting the gospel to a broader Hakka community, since the mid-1980s Hakka Christians in Taiwan across different denominations have worked together in promoting the Hakka mission, and they have published anthologies of Hakka hymns and employed them in congregations. The use of Hakka hymns has been proven beneficial for enhancing the Hakka mission globally since some Hakka hymns became popular among Hakka Christians in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. How are Hakka hymns used to negotiate the conflicts between sacred practices and secular ethics encountered by Hakka Christians? This chapter traces the history of Hakka hymns in postwar Taiwan, examines the evolving social forces that supported the making of Hakka hymns, and analyzes the ways musical and lyrical arrangements are used in Hakka hymns to resolve the dilemma between being Hakka and being Christian.
