TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kaohsiung Public Library will host a one-day cultural event Sunday to combine reading promotion with activities encouraging people to use their mother tongues.

CNA reported Thursday that the event is part of the Taiwan Reading Festival and marks the 37th anniversary of the “Restore My Mother Tongue” movement. It also coincides with National Hakka Day and brings different language groups together.

“One's mother tongue is more than a communication tool but a carrier of ethnic group history,” Kaohsiung Public Library Director Li Chin-yang (李金鴦) said. Li said languages stay alive when people keep using them in daily life, not only on special occasions.

The event will feature Hakka music performances and outdoor storytelling, while a farmers market run with the city’s agriculture bureau will be set up on the first floor. Local farmers will sell produce to link language, land, and daily life.

The library will screen restored Hakka-language films on the seventh floor. Viewers can join lucky draws, while borrowers who pass simple Hakka language challenges can enter a Lego prize draw.

On Dec. 28, 1988, the “Restore My Mother Tongue” movement began with a large street protest in Taipei, led by Hakka intellectuals calling for Hakka to be allowed on radio and television. The protest challenged KMT government rules that limited local dialects and pushed for a more inclusive language policy.