Falabidbog themed 2nd Romantic Route Highway 3 Arts Festival which is being held from June 24th to August 27th. Minister of the Hakka Affairs Council Yiong Con-ziin, Hakka Public Communication Foundation Chairman and curatorial team head Chen Ban and the CEO of Left Brain Creative Ayu Cheng, attended a press conference on June 30 with the curators of the three major projects at the festival: "Art Curation", "Design Introduction" and "Food Experiment Plan" sharing the charm of local customs along Provincial Highway 3 and the future planning of Hakka villages. They also announced key strategies for the public to participate in the art festival.
Chairman Yang said that the first Route 3 Arts Festival emphasized creation in the Hakka mountains and forests, and the second art festival, in addition to continuing the spirit of the first, aims to subvert the traditional impression of Hakka. As to the theme “Falabidbog", "Fala" means colorful in the Hakka language, and "bidbog" describes the color as being so overwhelming that it seems to makes sounds. It is expected that this lively and vivid concept, will help to change people's perception of the Hakka from being simple and restrained via by focusing rather on re-expressing the splendid, lively and unrestrained side of the Hakka community through this art festival.
Minister Yang mentioned that the art festival combines three major focal points: artistic curation, design introduction, and food experimentation. Taking food experimentation as an example, there is an English proverb: "You are what you eat.", which means what you eat you will be like. The hope is to bring back traditional Hakka food that has been slowly neglected and forgotten in modern life, so the Hakka Council proposed the concept of "Slow Fast-Food", combined with the representative "Slow" element in Hakka food, where “Slow” represents the local ingredients, and "Fast-Food" represents the language and eating style of the younger generation. The new generation of Hakka flavors are created from a fusion of slow and fast, showcasing a new impression of Hakka cuisine.
A total of 91 works from 7 countries (including the United States, Australia, Japan, Argentina, the Philippines, Ukraine), and a total of 75 art design teams participated in the Romantic Route 3 Art Festival. The subjects addressed a wide range of subjects and even invited the famous Ukrainian artist ZHANNA KADYROVA Jenna Kaderova to Taiwan. She used stones she picked up to make bread shapes, depicting the process of asylum from her hometown of Kiev to a mountain village. It is a metaphor for the desire to return to normal life that not only echoes the history of the conflicts between the Hokkien, Hakka, and Indigenous ethnic groups in Taiwan , but also corresponds to the anxiety of the current society in the face of war and desire for peace.
In order to ensure the public can better experience the art season along the 150-kilometer Provincial Highway 3, the chief curating team offers three major exhibition areas: Taoyuan-Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Taichung, art festival service centers have been set up at “Beipu Huozhe Mansion", "Gongguan Hakka Literature Garden" and "Dongshih Forestry Culture Park”. Members of the public are encouraged to start from the art festival service centers and explore the romantic road trip along Provincial Highway 3. In addition, the curatorial team also cooperates with LINE. As long as people join the official account of the Romantic Route 3 Art Festival, they can choose their favorite exhibitions or experiences. LINE will immediately create an exclusive art season itinerary and import it to Google Maps. Visitors can drive themselves or take other transportation to experience the Romantic Route 3.
The shuttle bus and travel routes for the art festival are planned and operated by Taiwan’s renowned Lion Travel. There are 4 shuttle bus services, all of which depart from high-speed rail stations (Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung), and allow the public to experience the classic works in the three exhibition areas. Among which, the art festival bus departing from Hsinchu High Speed Rail also provides a complete 8-hour single-day experience, from Beipu, Gongguan, Chuhuangkeng to Dongshih, allowing everyone to enjoy the three major exhibition areas all together. In addition, Lion Travel has also launched 16 group tour itineraries, 9 independent travel itineraries, and 12 art season itineraries designed for international inbound tourists. Each itinerary includes at least one exhibition area and exhibits. The public can sign up for a group to participate according to their needs, and enjoy the charming scenery along the route as they prefer.
This art season also launched various innovative cooperation venture with various brands, including the introduction of 12 kinds of sweet, salty, hot and cold Hakka flavors in Family Mart convenience stores, including orange (citrus) bubble American Coffee, Hakka fried Burgers, Hakka Leicha mochi and other products, turning the Family Mart into a Hakka Family Mart; CNPC provides literature and information related to the art season at 18 gas stations along Provincial Highway 3 and nearly 200 gas stations in total. It has also created a new style of oil well art village in conjunction with the art festival works, the first modern oil well in Asia, at Chuhuangkeng; Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation, following the well-received leopard cat beer offered in the first art season, this time continues to sell the leopard cat packaged beer, and to support the leopard cat conservation event. More details on the event are available on the official website of the Romantic Route 3 Art Festival.
