Taiwan Tales

Now, let’s say some lucky words for the Chinese New Year!
Gong Xi Gong Xi¸ wish you will build one tower after another.
Enter your hall, wish your hall overflow with gold, silver and treasures.
Toast to you with a cup of tea, wish you good health with no issues.
Treat you to sweets, you will enjoy good friendship with the entire neighbourhood.
Treat you to savory dishes, no matter what you do or who you hang out with, no one will dislike you.
Treat you to seeds, you will build towers after towers.
Treat you to a piece of cookie, you will have outstanding offspring, generation after generation.
Treat you to one dates, wish you well year after year.
Treat you to sweet rice cake, you will earn the entire household. Treat you to peanuts, you will live a long life.
Treat you to mochi, wish you make big bucks every year.
Treat you to meat balls, wish you never use up your cash.
Treat you to fruits, wish you Day one a good day, Day two a better day, and Day three a great day.

Hi everyone! Now, let’s say some lucky words for the Chinese New Year
Seated in a perfect circle in the New Year’s Day, we will all enjoy a peaceful year with good fortune.
So joyous to see you, wish your days will be filled with peace.
Learn to be a smooth talker (tactful), you will build good relationships with all your neighbours.
By building profound interpersonal relationships, people will be delighted when they meet you.
By build strong interpersonal relationships, you will reach wherever you wish to be.
With a good heart, good fortune, and being a smooth talker, all these will ensure prosperity, riches and longevity.

Gong Xi New Year new fortune, no matter which business you do, it will be smooth sailing year after year.
Eat something sweet, you will make a big fortune, eat some red dates, you will do well year after year.
Smash some ceramic dishes accidentally, it will bring you piles of gold, silver and treasures.
First month first, a brand new start, gold, silver and treasures will fill up the entire hall.
Gong xi, everyone Gong xi, Gong xi that children won’t get sneezy running noses, seniors will be healthy and live to the age of one hundred and twenty, ladies will bear children that are twins.
Eat daikons, bring you good fortune, eat red dates, you will do well year after year.
Spring year after year, fortune year after year, build towers year after year, New Year brings prosperity, cash and fortune comes along automatically.
Adults are tied up in chaotic busy-ness, children love the New Year atmosphere, Adults are worried about not having enough money, children enjoy celebrating the New Year.
Sweet rice cake for the New Year, sponge cake brings money, buns filled with gold inside, daikon cake brings desserts.

Wake up early, on the 1st and 2 day of Chinese New Year, on the 3rd day just be a sleepyhead.
On the fourth day of Chinese New Year, we receive the gods back to our family.
On the fifth day of Chinese New Year, Say goodbye to New Year holidays.
On the sixth day, empty the septic tank and use the feces as fertilizer.
On the seventh day, we celebrate the creation of man. (Man Day) .
Everything goes back to normal on the 8th day of CNY.
The ninth day of CNY is the birthday of the Jade Emperor.
The tenth day, we enjoy yesterday’s abundant sacrifice/offering
On the 11th day, married daughters are home, we receive their husbands cordially.
On the 12th day, Treat married daughters to porridge and mustard (light food).
On the 13th day, It’s Guan Gong’s Birthday.
On the 14th day of CNY, the moon shines.
Lantern Festival comes on the 15th day.

Hello everyone, how are you?
Today, we would like to share a story.
This story is about a tiger spirit.
It wants to learn spells on how to become a human being.
The story begins.
A long time ago, there was a tiger spirit.
It always longed to learn a magic trick to become a human being.
One day, it is very cloudy and dark.
Ah, and the thunder struck
At this time, the thunder knocked on the top of a mountain and ripped it apart into a cave.
Ah, this tiger spirit was very curious.
Therefore, this tiger spirit walked inside to check it out.
Going inside the cave to find out.
Ah, when it went searching inside, it discovered something.
Why would there be a stone sign?
How come there was a stone inscription on it?
Ah, on the stone, there was something written on it about
A spell that instructed how to turn things into a human being.
Therefore, the tiger spirit obtained this magic spell that would turn things into human beings.
It was very happy.
It would take 5 consecutive days.
According to the instructions, it mentioned that it would take 5 consecutive days to practice,
Ah, to mature and become a human being.
So the tiger spirit waited no time to start practicing, practicing and practicing
When it had come to the fifth day of its practice,
Wow, it was for real that it started to transform.
The tiger spirit had shaped into a human form.
But, when it suddenly checked its back and found out,
Eh? Strange! Oh, how come its tail was still attached?
The tiger spirit was quite mad.
It walked back into the cave and tried to read the instructions again.
Ah, it read from the front to the back, back and forth.
Ah, eventually it turned out, there was a line on the back of the stone
That said: “If an animal with a tail
wants to learn this spell to become a human being,
Before the sun sets on the fifth day
Go swallow three children.
In a big bite, it must swallow a total of three children.
And this spell will take effect successfully.”
This tiger spirit pondered, “ah, on the fifth day!”
“Ah, today is the fifth day already.
Ah, the sun is about to set.
There is not much time left.
In this case, I must hurry up.
Let me try going down to the village to see if I can catch three children or not.”
Therefore, right there and right then, the tiger spirit turned around.
Hey, it transformed into a candy vender.
After becoming a candy vender, it went down to the village.
Just then, there was a shepherd boy.
Ah, to this shepherd boy, the tiger spirit (candy vender) asked,
“Little boy, little boy, I’ve got some treats for free, would you like some?”
On hearing this, the little boy said, “Really, free treats?”
“Yes, these treats are free, but may I ask you something?
How come it is so quiet in the village today?”
The little boy answered,
This shepherd boy said,
“Ah, you might not know about this.”
Today is the day, the daughter of the Wong family,
She is about to have a wedding.
Ah, so many people,
All the people from the village all headed out there to help.”
“Oh, I see!”
“However, three children in the Lin family stayed at home.”
“Oh! Got it. That a boy, thank you.”
As soon as he finished talking, the shepherd boy stretched out his hands.
The tiger spirit gave him some candy.
Little did the boy know that he would pass out the moment he ate the candy.
Ah, why would he pass out?
It was because the candy was mixed with drugs.
So this tiger spirit was really happy.
It grabbed the boy right away back to the cave.
Right after that, it rushed back down to the foothill.
It was heading towards the Lin’s residence.
On the other hand, in the Lin’s residence,
Among the three children,
The eldest was the sister named Ah phang.
The second was called Ah bí.
The third was the youngest brother, called Ah kiông.
However, Ah phang didn’t obey what her mother said.
That she must wait till their great aunt arrived to take care of her younger siblings.
Then she would be allowed to leave and join the crowd at the wedding. She was gone already.
Ah, so when the tiger spirit approached the front of their residence,
It bumped into Ah phang.
Therefore, it said to Ah phang,
“Young girl, I’ve got some free candy here.
So yummy, would you like some?”
Ah phang didn’t think long, and replied,
“How nice it is to have free candy!”
She grabbed and swallowed the candy right away.
Ah, guess what? Of course, she too, passed out
Since the candy was drugged.
In this way, the tiger spirit easily brought Ah Phang back to the cave.
At this moment, the tiger spirit was thrilled, because it got two children already.
It returned hurriedly back to the Lin’s residence
since there were two more children there.
Coming to the door, at this time, it knocked on the door and said,
“Anybody home? I have some candy here, they are free.”
Ouch, at this moment,
Originally, Ah kiông, he was so drowsy and sleepy.
On hearing there was candy for free, “I want to eat some!”
He became fully awake now.
And he quickly called out, “sister, sister,
Quick, open the door now, someone is at the door
Offering free candy.”
This Ah bí was very smart. She said to him,
“No way, Mom told us that
If strangers are here,
We shouldn’t open the door randomly.
If Mom gets home, we will have some candy to eat.”
At this moment, the tiger spirit was thinking to itself,
“Wow, how smart this Ah bí!
What do I do now?”
So it said to her,
It said, “young girl, you are a good girl.
Do you know that, I have
Been walking all the way here, I am very thirsty
Ah, so would you please pour a cup of tea for me to drink?
Or a cup of water for me to drink?”
Ah bí thought to herself,
“No way, this is a stranger, eh?”
So she replied, “No,
My mother told us that
We should wait for our great aunt to come
To take care of us, we will open the door for her then.
Ah, you are a stranger, if you want to drink some water
Go to the well and get some water from there to drink.”
The tiger spirit thought to itself, “Ah, what to do now?
The sun is about to go behind the mountain and is setting in no time.
If I don’t make it, I will need to wait for another one thousand years.
Can’t let this happen!”
So this tiger spirit came up with a new idea.
Okay, it walked to the side and transformed.
It just turned itself into the great aunt.
So it came back again to knock on the door.
“Ah bí, Ah bí, open the door right away!
This is your great aunt here to take care of you two.”
When Ah bí heard that,
“Great Aunt, your voice sounds a bit weird.”
The tiger spirit answered, “Ah, this is your great aunt.
Your mother asked me to come.
Open the door, right away.”
Ah, so this time, Ah bí thought to herself,
“Ah, it looks exactly like the great aunt.”
Ah, okay, she opened the door.
Once the door was opened, wow,
At first glance, ah, why was there a tail coming out from the back of the great aunt?
This Ah bí was so smart.
She thought to herself, “this can’t be right.
This is not our real great aunt.”
So she quickly grabbed the thing called
The mold that is used to make Turtle-shaped rice cake.
Before you know it, she aimed at the tail of the tiger spirit
And hit the tail, again, again and again!
And next, she used a candle to burn the tiger spirit’s tail.
Wow, at that moment, the tiger spirit was so hurt.
Wow, it hurt so much, it kept jumping around.
It jumped to the side of the vegetable garden.
There was a water tank. Then it went sitting down on it.
Tshi… Oh it hurt so bad. It turned out that the tiger spirit, due to the pain.
So, suddenly, the face of the tiger spirit transformed back to its real appearance.
Wow, Ah bí watched all this from a distance.
Wow, no wonder, this for real was the tiger spirit.
So she quickly shut the door close.
She hurried to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, there was a stone mortar.
She tied up the mortar with a rope on one end.
And she tied up the other end to the other side.
Ah, she found a wok, using it to boil oil to smoking hot.
Then, this tiger spirit said,
“Okay, this Ah bí!
You are such a clever girl, how very clever.
I vow to dash into your house.
Nothing can stop me from catching all you little brats!
However, Ah bí saw this coming.
So, she dumped some mung beans on the floor.
As a result, when the tiger spirit dashed in with all its strength,
Wow! Guess what happened? It fell so hard on all fours, not on the ground, but towards the sky!
Ah, without a doubt, this fall hurt it so bad
This Ah bí was incredibly smart
It tried to slowly get back on its feet
It took such an effort to get up
While it was still trying hard to find its feet
Ah bí untied the rope from the other end
As a result, the stone mortar swung all the way towards it.
Khiang! It smashed right on the head of that tiger spirit.
The tiger spirit was hit so hard, it felt so dizzy and disoriented.
Phîng-á-phîng, consequently it fell into the wok full of smoking hot boiling oil
Just when Ah bí was thinking to herself, “What a job well done!”
The tiger spirit should be dead by now.
Unexpectedly, the tiger spirit came back to life with a deep groan.
It got up on its feet, with its mouth wide open dashing towards Ah bí.
Ah bí guessed that she was doomed.
“This tiger spirit is coming to eat me up!”
She could do nothing but to immediately shut her eyes.
To her surprise, after a while, how come it was so deadly quiet?
She opened up her eyes to peek, hey! Something was wrong.
To her surprise, “the tiger spirit snatched away my brother Ah kiông!”
Right at this time, Ah bí chased behind the tiger spirit.
She rushed all the way to track it down to its cave.
Just when she got there, the tiger spirit had arrived.
It paused a while and sensed that the sun was about to set.
“I got no time to lose, I should devour all these kids in one big bite!”
When it was about to open its mouth,
Ah bí instantaneously fired off firecrackers at it.
Ping-pong-pong-pong. Ah, right after that,
The face of the tiger spirit turned pitch black.
So, ah, it ran away in absolute terror.
Therefore, Ah bí successfully rescued all three children.
They all returned home safely.
Finally when their mother returned home,
She told her mother all about how she handled the tiger spirit,
All the things that happened to the tiger spirit.
That is, about Ah kiông, that he was still sleepy.
Ah, on hearing his sister, his eyes opened wide and said to her,
“Sister, ah, don’t you know that I’m so sleepy, but you keep on being annoyingly loud and noisy!”
When her younger brother finished speaking, he fell into sleep again.
That’s the end of the story, appreciate very much for your listening. Thank you.

Hello everyone. I’m Julia Hsieh. Today I’m going to read ten Hakka folktales in the Hailu dialect.
You are welcome to take your time and enjoy it. Thank you!

Peach Blossom

Spring is here. The peach blossoms bloom, the peach blossoms turn red, love surrounds us, the butterfly flies, and the bee flies.
Butterflies and bees! It doesn’t matter if you sip honey or gather pollen. It doesn’t matter if the eggs are inside!

Phoenix Flower

The south wind blows. The sun is big. Phoenix flowers. How strange! How could they endure the sun?
The south wind blows. The hot weather is coming. Phoenix flowers. The tree is red, like a red canopy.

Banyan Tree

The banyan tree is old, bearded thick and long; the banyan tree is strong, without being frightened by the wind and sand;
The banyan tree is so kind, you see… it waits for the green cover, and waits to cool down.

Silvergrass

Silvergrass grows on the top of the mountain and on the back of the mountain.
Silvergrass grows over the full mountains, turning the whole mountain white, like a sea of white flags, waving and waving…welcoming the arrival of autumn.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin vines, crawling across the whole ground, tight vines, tightly bloom.
Pumpkin leaves, good for shading, a small pumpkin hiding underneath, is growing bigger day by day, as big as a human’s head.

Eaves Bird

Chirp chirp chirp, the eaves birds like singing, standing at the very top of the cable.
You sing one line. I sing one line. Sing of joy and sorrow.
Chirp chirp chirp, the eaves birds like speaking, speaking south, north, east and west, they speak anything.
You say one line. I say one line. When they see people, they fly away.

Small Turtle

The small turtle, the small turtle with short feet and a short tail is disadvantaged. The frog jumps, the butterflies fly, and the turtle follows! Going fiercely and ambitiously, what person would dare to look at it?

White Clouds

White clouds, white clouds, moving from dawn to dusk, the wide and blue sky is their sports ground.
White clouds don’t want to frighten the stars, so their steps were light, light, light…

Dew

The dew is round. The sun shines, making the dew shine, golden and amazing.
What! Did someone steal the dew? Is it the sun? You see the sun smiling.

Rainbow

Rainbow, curved, curved, hangs half in the sky. Rainbow, curved, curved, drapes onto two sides.
Like a seven-colored ladder, stretched down to the world, it wants to pick up the fairies.

Spanish needles

On a small roadside, between the stones, the white flowers bloom, the white flowers became clips. Who did they clip?
Spanish needles, with their legs opening, they clip you together, they clip others together, they clip us all together.

Tung Tree Blossom

In May, the tung tree blossoms, from a distance it looks like falling snow on the belly of a mountain,
When the spring breeze blows, the tung tree blossoms fade. One bud, one bud, like a falling parasol.
Some flew over to the road’s lip, some fell below the tree.

Ant

Male ant, walked up and down, blocked the path halfway down,
Facing others head-to-head and head-to-head.
Speaking softly, the male ant, male ant, carries the fragrant crackers,
Carries and collects crumbs of sweet rice cake.
There is some for everyone to eat, and some for feeding the babies.

Spring is here

There is a yellow flower on the edge of the road, as it sways up and down, it seems the flower loves talking me.
I stomped down and listened quietly,
It said: Spring is here! Spring is here!

Hot Days

The sun is big and round, burning rays shining to all corners.
The dog’s tongue is tired, under the tree to cool down.
The cicada’s voice is bright, singing loudly on the tree top!

Watching the Sea

As soon as the hot day comes, the sea coast landscape is beautiful, the boat rocked back and forth and the waves swelled. Tall, tall!
Wa la la! Wa la la! The sea is enthusiastic, and greets me closely.

Mountain

The mountains are green, the mountains are high, the mountains cuddle the trees, the flowers and the grass for many suns and moons.
The mountains are green, the mountains are high, watching the white clouds pass by for many suns and moons.
Look at the lights at the bottom of the mountain. Without worries, old age does not come.

Drizzle

Tick tick tick…Water, falling on top of the mountain: Water, falling into the ocean:
Water, falling onto the dam: water, falling into reservoir: water, falling to the bottom of the village: the water falls onto the street.
Tick tick tick…The water falls, how refreshing!