By Tony Wei, Scott Chen, Anita Chen, Elsie Chu
On December 3, the results of Vtuber Design Awards 2021 “Pingtung Liudui Hakka Character Design” were released. The top three works are Hakka Lion Lala, Hakka Lion Dance Jiao Jiao, and Navy and White, which respectively won the prize of 10,000, 8,000, and 5,000 TWD.
The Main Idea of the “Pingtung Liudui Hakka Character Design Awards”
In 2021, the “Pingtung Liudui Hakka Character Design Awards” took place particularly to celebrate the 300th year of Hakka culture in Liudui. For the past 300 years, the Hakka people in Liudui went through several changes of regime. However, people in the region still preserve their languages and retain the cultural features among their festivals, ceremonies, and of their clan gatherings. As for the interaction with other groups of people, because of differences in lifestyle, languages, and customs, Hakka people competed, conflicted, and even had fights with them in the beginning. However, with the increasing interaction, people in Liudui started to accept, collaborate, and live peacefully and respectfully. By holding the competition, the authority hopes not only to share joy but also to make more people know more about Hakka culture.
The Top Three Winners of the Award
The first prize is awarded to Hakka Lion Lala, a work from N.F. The creator uses a Hakka lion as a hood cape. Its front side is the green lion’s head. In Hakka culture, the green lion dance is a martial one, which represents power. As for its backside, N.F. designs the Eight Trigrams and flames. The whole cape is the body of the lion. The middle part of it is transparent, which gives the style with layers, and the button is drawn by the big dipper. In addition, there is a tail on the backside of the cape, which adds extra cuteness. Lala is created as a girl with fluffy hair and cat-like eyes who wears a Hakka-style lion cape to greet everyone, “Happy New Year!”
Karon’s work of Hakka Lion Dance Jiao Jiao wins second place in the award. In that work, the dress combines a traditional Hakka custom, the element of a lion dance (on the hem), and some hint of Hakka flower patterns. The neck of the design has a signature feature of lion dance — a squared mouth. The head of the design is red and yellow, which symbolizes auspiciousness and the gender of lion dance (female). As for its forehead, “wang,” which means “king” in Chinese, is left to show the tradition of lion dance.
Lastly, Shen’s work — Navy and White occupies the third prize of the award. In Shen’s work, the character is designed with a Hakka blue skirt and Hakka flower pattern. Also, through her work, people can easily find some western designs in this, which brings a sense of a cultural blending. Overall, the creator uses bright colors to make the design light, cute, and alive.
The Organizer of the Award
“Virtual Life, Diverse Reality” — Taiwan Vtuber Association
Even though the award is the cooperation of the local government and Vtuber industry, its main organizer is the Taiwan Vtuber Association. Since Vtuber is a new industry, which combines VR techniques and a popular market (YouTubers). What’s more, it has become such a more and more popular trend around the world that Taiwan cannot be left behind. Therefore, in 2019, the Taiwan Vtuber Association was founded not only to promote the industry but also to lead the industry to further development. With four core points: local culture, international interaction, educational innovation, and virtualization techniques, the association holds Vtuber Character Design Contest and Vtuber Hachathon Competition annually. In addition, the association invites well-known experts and creators from all around the world to Taiwan so that the local industry can exchange with them. In this way, the Taiwanese Vtuber industry will develop faster and become more competitive. All in all, since the new digital era of integration of virtuality and reality is coming, the association is trying to bring various advanced techniques to serve as a power for Taiwan virtual production to progress more quickly.
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