Taiwan’s Hakka TV returns blockbuster series, "Girls Win", to local screens this month, taking the story of a women’s basketball team from where it left off in high school to the professional league, with all its drama and challenges. Hakka TV’s Cheng Yu-min speaks about the 10-episode tentpole series and its place in supporting Hakka language and culture.

Taiwanese broadcaster Hakka TV returns hit coming of age sports drama, "Girls Win" ("女孩上場"), this month, with the all-girls team having changed out of high-school uniforms into professional basketball kit, and now facing numerous challenges as they transition to adulthood, face questions about their passions and inspirations, and are forced to deal with the pressures of life in the public eye. 

Their progress in some ways echoes Hakka TV’s own growth from single seasons to sequels, with more resources, higher expectations, and an appetite for more challenging stories. All while staying true to its core public service broadcasting mission of supporting Hakka language and culture. 

The story of women in professional basketball and their physical and emotional journeys, as well as the challenges of team management, has not been see in Taiwan in recent years, Hakka TV’s programming team says. “This creates a new peak for our drama series. In the meantime, we’ve made it a unique story of our own in Taiwan,” adds spokesperson Cheng Yu-min.

As part of the PTS public broadcast behemoth, the 20-year-old Hakka TV now has a budget of NT$600 million/US$19 million and spends about NT$100 million /US$3 million on its series, according to the Hakka Affairs Council, which spoke during last year’s 20th anniversary celebrations about the brand’s expansion beyond traditional television. 

The channel, supported by Taiwan’s government and the Hakka Affairs Council, was (and may still be) the first Hakka-language TV channel in the world. 

"Girls Win’s" debut in 2021 was a win for Hakka TV, which launched as an ethnic/cultural channel in July 2003 under Taiwan’s Council for Hakka Affairs and shifted to the control of Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) in 2011. 

The 12-episode original attracted more than 300,000 views per episode online and streamed, and won a Golden Bell Award for Best Writing for a Television Series.

Director Ray Wu ("At the Moment") and producer Deeppeace Chen ("When the Cold Wind Blows") both return for the second season, produced by Magichour Film Company, along with co-writers Nikki, Yi-Ning Chang and Tai-Yun Wu. 

Ray Wu and Deeppeace Chen (aka Mark Chen) were also involved in writing the script for season two, which is about Andong, a basketball team that has languished at the bottom of the local league for five years in a row. 

Despite the best efforts of team manager Jason, played by Huan-cheng (Wes) Lo, the board of directors decides to quit if the team doesn’t make it to the next final. 

Cing Yang is cast as top player, Tong Lin, who takes responsibility for the team’s performance but faces a tough career choice when the national team comes calling. Chia-yun Tsai plays good-for-nothing scorer, Yun, and Xin-ya An as untrustworthy team coach Zi-qi. The season two cast includes Tender Huang, Ching-ting Hsia, Li-yin Yang and Elten Ting. 

Also included in the on-screen action are real-life basketball stars from Taiwan, who add to the on-court excitement and are expected to attract their own fan base to the series.  

A season two highlight is a game between Taiwan and South Korea. The game was filmed in Busan, with five professional players from South Korea. Korean actor, Dae-han Chi ("Father-in-law and Son-in-law") plays the Korean coach. 

Hakka TV describes the 10-episode "Girls Win 2", which was one of the 60+ titles showcased at this year’s Series Mania in Lille, as neither “a David versus Goliath story” nor an inspirational tale about rookies who make it to the major leagues. 
Rather, the series is the story of how professional basketball players dealing with the pressures of their roles as sports stars and how they draw on inner resources to face one difficult challenge after another. 

“In the first season, we told the audience whether playing basketball or winning a game makes you happy through the eyes of a high school girls basketball team,” Cheng says. 

“In the second season, we are trying to tell you how a dying professional girls’ basketball team enters a final, and when you earn a living with playing basketball, who you are playing for,” he adds.

With the channel’s 21st birthday in sight, Hakka TV bosses say Girls Win stays true to the channels founding principle: to give voice to Hakka language and culture.

“In the history of the girls’ basketball in Taiwan, many professional players are Hakka, and some teams are from a Hakka village, such as National Miaoli Senior Commercial Vocational School,” Cheng says. 

“In our first season, our main characters were from a Hakka village in Miaoli. With the drama series, people know about a Hakka basketball team. As Hakka athletes, hopefully they’ll never give up, willing to challenge themselves.”

▶ Published in ContentAsia April 2024 magazine