| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 客家研究碩士在職專班 === 99 === This paper aims to study the development of the Xindingban Festival of Dongshih District through various methods, such as participant observation, unstructured interviews, and questionnaires. The study focuses on tracing the cultural history of the Xindingban Festival and investigating the changes from traditional times to modern times.
This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter includes an introduction, describes the motive and purpose, and summarizes the methodology, structure, scope, and limits of the study. The literature review of the second chapter traces the cultural history of Xindingban Festival through limited literatures of the past and discusses the link between the local ritual spheres and the festival. The third chapter discusses the organization of the Xindinghui and the event of Saidingban, a competition in which participants compete to make the biggest ban, a traditional Hakka rice cake. The chapter records in detail the changes of the festival from traditional times to the modern times, through the initial, middle and late periods. The fourth chapter elaborates the role that government agencies play in guiding and promoting local activities and analyzes both the changing and constant features of the Xindingban Festival from the perspectives of culture, community, economy and governmental policy. The fifth chapter includes the conclusion and suggestions for future research.
This study unveils that from a cultural perspective, despite changes in the Xindingban Festival as it transitioned from a more traditional past to modern times, what has remained unchanged are the people’s simple and pure reverence for heaven and earth, a worshipping nature, and a humanistic spirit. From the perspective of community, this custom has already moved from an individualistic realm into a more communal sphere of participation. Economically, after the festival gained more publicity and recognition, it brought more business opportunities and drew more people to the event, allowing local industries to grow and prosper substantially. In terms of government policy, with the involvement of government agencies, Hakka culture was able to make a connection with various industries, thus making use of local resources and traditional assets through concepts of cultural and economic development. Through discourses surrounding the marketing and meaning of specific products, symbols of Hakka culture are established and experienced; however, due to the prospering development of a democratic society, cultural festivals and events have become a place for politicians to spread their political agenda.
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