Hapa-Na Local Meeting 2/8/2009@Los Angeles

Hapa-Na's Los Angeles meeting 2/8/2009

When: 2/8/2009 1:00PM
Where: Uncle Chen Restaurant (529 E. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, California)
Attended members:
Chanchi Lee, Josephine Pan, B-Chen Wen, Thomas Shu, Abe Chen, James Liang, Clyde Kiang,
Guests:
Samuel Lee, Vincent Chuang, Sophia Chuang, Amy Kiang, Lynn Lee

1.) SCTHA President James Liang shares the activities SCTHA has done with presentation of SCTHA's most recent Newsletter. He welcomes all and generously treats for the lunch.

2.) Samuel Lee, Lynn Lee, Amy Kiang sign up for new membership. (Welcome!)

3.) James Liang and Abe Chen both share what they have done in the past for helping Hakka inTaiwan on elections...identify the right candidate to offer our help from the bottom up...It brought their attention that Hakka communities lack of guidance for Taiwan Identity andindifference of Taiwan future and blind to the meaning and process of democray.

4.) Thomas Shu shows strong intention to organize Hapa-Na Bus Campaign to go back to Taiwanevery year. Mainly to identify the Hakka elite who're currently working hard on each counties (especially, Tao-Chu-Miao and Kao-Pin), we can work with them, to learn and share the visions forpromoting Hakka Taiwanese's identification via the culture events and forum discussions.

5.) B-Chen encourage to go with "I Love Taiwan" concept to include Green and Blue to identifyTaiwan is our country...

6.) Samuel Lee believes that Hapa-Na can take advantage of Media. A small organization canbe leveraged with media's power, especially to Hakka in Taiwan. We can have a series of reportsto promote our visions. He did indicate that on the YouTube, Hakka videos got higher hits ratiothan regular...he will offer his studio and techniques to help Hapa-Na. (*Right away, he invitesPresident Lee to have interviews recording at his studio on 2/9...)

7.) Clyde Kiang believes we can help to list a series of Questions for Hakka in Taiwan to think andlook for the right answers.

8.) Josephine Pan brought over the just-published Hapa-Na Newsletter 2008 (Sent over byDavid Lai, former President from Houston) to distribute to all attendees. She also gives everyone a copy of the new book by Professor Yao - 風吹美麗島 as a gift. Josephine believes in eventsto reach out. We have to be willing to take the commitment to do Social Movement and Education.Reach out by events, campaigns...

9.) After much discussions about what we, HAPA-NA, should do in the future, most members agreed that we should set up a program or mechanism to go back to Taiwan to promote or educate HakkaTaiwanese about Taiwan identity and meaning of democracy ( incidentally, this was suggested byDavid Lai's 33 goals and plans ) This sort of work should not be done only before election, shouldbe done with the goal of long run. Tom Shu's suggestion Bus campaign was a good option.

submitted by Tom Shu, Secreatary