The Washington Post reported on changes to Taiwan's language policy a couple of days ago:Taiwan is considering abandoning its long-standing policy of recognizing Mandarin Chinese as the island's only official language, the premier said Tuesday, in a move that would likely anger rival China.
Su Tseng-chang said the Cabinet is examining a draft for a "National Language Development Act" to promote the use of local dialects and prohibit linguistic discrimination.
"Taiwan is a plural society, and all languages should have equal standing and be respected and supported," Su said, indicating an intention to confer equal status on the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese, as well as Hakka, another Chinese dialect.
Such a move would likely be renounced [sic] by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes any efforts by the island's leadership to loosen cultural and other bonds.
These changes were probably inevitable -- though I have never been in favor of them. It is fascinating to watch how both sides share the same assumptions about cultural imperialism -- Beijing defines what "being Chinese" means, and Taiwan either accepts this or rejects this. The weird fact is that the government here is recognizing other Chinese languages as national languages -- and both sides regard this as becoming less Chinese. In fact, I am sure that the pro-China crowd is going to scream that increased use of Chinese languages like Hakka and Taiwanese is an act of "de-Sinicization." Pro-China legislators actually made that charge yesterday:
Lawmaker after opposition lawmaker grilled Su on the language bill, which was condemned as another move to de-Sinicize Taiwan.
Opponents of the proposed bill describe it as one "to get rid of guo yu."
Sadly, by insisting on only one unitary Chinese culture defined by Beijing, Beijing is strangling the development of Chinese culture. In the later stages of the Cold War era scholars descried the way Taiwan was falsely presented as an idealized Chinese cultural location, where you had to go to get the Authentic Chinese Culture because the Communists had killed it in China. Ironically, this is now slowly becoming true: as Taiwan attempts to permit a number of different Sinic cultures to flourish under the rubric of Chinese/Taiwanese culture, China is slowly making everyone learn Mandarin and bow to Beijing's definition of what Chinese culture is. China is becoming a state that has never existed in Chinese history -- unified under one government, speaking only one language, enjoying a unitary culture -- whereas Taiwan is looking more and more like China used to look -- one government, many languages in use, and a diversity of cultures.
Meanwhile the Washington Post has positioned the story somewhat incorrectly. Taiwan is not getting rid of the official language; it is merely elevating the status of the other languages. As the Taipei Times reported the other day:
"The core purpose of the bill is to prevent native tongues from dying out as a result of `incorrect' language policies that were adopted by the government in the past," Su said.
Su was responding to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (
蘇起 ), who asked whether the government was planning to make Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) rather than Mandarin Chinese, the official language.The Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday that all languages would in future be regarded as "national languages."
Su said that the new policy was intended to preserve all languages rather than encouraging their extinction by forcing everybody to use Mandarin Chinese. All languages should be regarded as "national languages," but there is still only one "official language," he said.
Council for Cultural Affairs Chairman Chiu Kun-liang (邱坤良) noted that, more than a decade ago, UNESCO listed Taiwan as a place where mother tongues are vanishing.
Language-wise Taiwan will probably resemble the US, where English is more or less the official language, but many other languages are officially recognized.
[Taiwan]
"These changes were probably inevitable -- though I have never been in favor of them."
ReplyDeleteI'm a little surprised by your opinion on this. Why have you never been in favour?
From
http://notesfromasmallerisland.blogspot.com/
"China is slowly making everyone learn Mandarin and bow to Beijing's definition of what Chinese culture is."
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is supposedly the language of instruction in Chinese schools, according to the March 7 report by the Xinhua news agency, only 53% of the population can "effectively communicate" in Mandarin.
"Language-wise Taiwan will probably resemble the US, where English is more or less the official language, but many other languages are officially recognized."
ReplyDeleteAre you expecting Spanish to gain ground, or for Taiwanese to lose ground? Or maybe both?
English isn't the official language in the US right? That's the whole big deal about it isn't it? It's not official and that's why whatever the needs of the local community, that's what they also use.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to point out that Taiwan was falsely sold as the "real" China, but you believe that it is so?
Taiwanese Hoklo culture and language is heavily influenced by plains aboriginal culture/language via hundreds of years of intermarriage and trade. I don't see you making claims that Taiwan is the true descendant kingdom of the real plains aboriginals. Actually, even the Hakka in Taiwan is different from Hakka in southeast Asia/China.
Taiwan is derivative of a past Chinese civilization just as it is derivative of waisheng that came 50 years ago just as it is derivative of aboriginal culture just as it is derivative of a heavy American/Western/capitalist-democratic influence. I don't understand what you're claiming. Is Taiwan like a past Chinese state in some way? I don't really see a fairly even distribution of income as anything like any of the historical Chinas. Is Taiwan supposed to be the true bearer of the mantle of "Chinese greatness"?
The Blues are idiots, but there is a grain of truth in what they're saying. If Taiwan does a better job of preserving Taiwanese and Hakka, it certainly does stand a better chance of not being assimilated by China. If HK weren't a tiny city-state that has no guns and was where Taiwan was, they'd been independent a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to point out that Taiwan was falsely sold as the "real" China, but you believe that it is so?
No, Taiwan isn't the real China. It's Taiwan. As you say, it is influenced by the aborigines.
I don't understand what you're claiming. Is Taiwan like a past Chinese state in some way? I don't really see a fairly even distribution of income as anything like any of the historical Chinas. Is Taiwan supposed to be the true bearer of the mantle of "Chinese greatness"?
No, I just think it is ironic that in the name of preserving Chinese culture, Beijing is destroying its vibrant diversity, while Taiwan is becoming what China used to be, even though it isn't China. History loves irony.
Mark, I wasn't making a prediction, just an observation. You know how in the US everyone uses English as the de facto official language, but you also get government docs in many other languages.
ReplyDeleteWalter, I'm not in favor of further reinforcement of ethnic communal differences in Taiwan. My opinion would be different if Taiwan had a robust civic culture. Also, providing all those teachers is costly. Finally, Taiwan needs to further globalize itself by adopting a commonly-spoken international language such as English or Chinese. If the DPP policy was more forward looking there'd be more emphasis on English, but this looks more like a sop to local language communities than a serious policy prepared to take the nation into the 21st century.
Thanks to the link to your blog.
Michael
The weird fact is that the government here is recognizing other Chinese languages as national languages -- and both sides regard this as becoming less Chinese. In fact, I am sure that the pro-China crowd is going to scream that increased use of Chinese languages like Hakka and Taiwanese is an act of "de-Sinicization.
ReplyDeleteMichael, it seems that you consider the Hakka used in Taiwan and the Taiwanese(holo) are "chinese languages." I don't quite agree with this view.
First of all, a language, like biology species, evolves. When a language splits and each isolates from the other for some period of time, they evolve into different languages. This is a general case in all languages.
Taiwan in the ruling of Chiang kei-shih had prevented the contact between people from two sides of the Strait. That provided the necessary requirement -- isolation -- for languages on each side to evolve independently.
Secondly, Taiwan has gone through rulings of different countries, each contributes some of their cultural elements into Taiwanese. This is especially true for Japan. Many Taiwanese words are actually Japanese. I did have a chance to talk with a Holo guy from China. We can understand each other by about 60%-70% of the words we use, but not 100 or 90%. It's not like the case of "American English vs. British English," in which the English in USA is not that much deviated from its British cousin.
That means, even it's a fact that Holo was originally from China, the current Holo in Taiwan is a combination of many different influences and is already different from its origin language significantly. Therefore, labeling it a "chinese language" would be misleading.
When comparing the cultures between Taiwan and China, one common misconcept is that "Taiwan culture is part of China culture." Actually, to describe more precisely, we probably have to say, "China culture is part of Taiwanese culture," becaue Taiwan's culture is a combination of many different cultures and Chinese culture is just one of them.
Taiwan Echo,
ReplyDeleteTaiwanese is a southern Min language and is indisputably a Sino-Tibetan language, whatever influences may be on it. In that sense it is one of the languages of the cultural area we call China.
The problems always arise when discussing stuff like this because of the problem of the many meanings of the word "China."
I'm not of the school that thinks Taiwanese culture needs to be something different from "Chinese culture." I think it is a tactical error for Taiwan not to simultaneous affirm to things -- that Taiwan is part of the great Chinese cultural tradition -- and that every area that is part of that tradition need not be ruled by Beijing. By defining Chinese culture and Taiwanese culture as separate items, the DPP is playing Beijing's game -- acknowledging that Beijing defines "what is Chinese culture". In other words, the DPP is actually accepting Beijing's cultural authority. That's the wrong position -- wrong for other parts of China and other Chinese cultural areas.
I believe Beijing's slow strangulation would be better countered by a firm acknowledgement of Taiwan's place in the greater Chinese culture -- just as France acknowledges itself as a western nation -- while at the same time firmly denying that culture = imperium, and showing that one can be Chinese and independent of Beijing -- just as France is not part of any pan-European empire. This will pave the way for both cultural diversity and democracy in China, something Taiwan desperately needs.
You can't win playing Beijing's game, IMHO.
Michael
LOL if Taiwan want to change from a mainstream well accepted dialect to a regional dialect then so be it. Its not like Beijing forced Taiwan to adopt manduarin in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBy changing to Taiwanese (min nan dialect) will only marginalize Taiwan further if it hasn't already. i.e. no one outside of Taiwan is currently pursuing the dielect. No major Noth american or European language schools or universities offers Min nan as a course. If students had to choose min nan and the much more accepted, accessible Manduarin, you don't need to guess which one they will choose...
If DDP want to setup a difinitive language barrier sometime in the near future then I say let them. It's not like the short sighted fools havent created enough folly already.
hallo84, i think you've misunderstood the idea. there will be no language barrier if taiwanese AND chinese are used as opposed to just chinese. also, taiwanese is taught at uc berkeley, which im sure everyone would acknowledge is a major north american university. anyone know of any other universities that teach it?
ReplyDeleteNo language barrier between the world and Taiwan if the manduarin was sacked?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should look at other examples of why countries stick with English as official language rather than their native tongue.
hint: India, Philippine, etc.
Although India despise its colonial past but has layed peace with the English language simply because it breaks the language barrier between it and the world.
Manduarin will always be more popular than any regional tongue simply because it is the official chinese language and exploiting that fact will only benefit Taiwan.
What DDP is doing it to spur sentimental value of nationalism that in effect do not serve any purpose other than to reinforce the isolation of Taiwan.
Btw I won't take back my statement of no university offers Taiwanese since they only offer Chinese for speakers of other dialects wich literally mean a conglomerate of a host of different Dialects not a stingular course designed for Taiwanese or min nan speaking students or such. It comes from a stand point that the student is already versed in such dielect.
If an american strudent starting from scratch will only have Manduarin as their only choice of beginner chinese.
Sorry for this late reaction to this blog entry. I only came upon it today...
ReplyDeleteIt is probably sad for the Taiwanese language that linguistic and educational matters are so severely politicized. What about the Taiwanese youngster whose parents only hears and speaks Taiwanese at home? Does s/he not deserve to receive education in his native language? If the answer to this question happens to be a “yes”, then making Taiwanese “official” is a necessary step.
Studies into language acquisition in the US, Canada and Europe (esp. Spain and France) have shown that depriving children from the opportunity to use their mother tongue in school will significantly delay their cognitive and linguistic development, including learning English! What Su Tsen-chang meant with giving Taiwan’s native languages “national language” status is unclear from a linguistic viewpoint.
My parents only spoke the Flemish dialect to me. In school I had to use Dutch (one of Belgium’s official languages). I put more time and effort into subjects related to the Humanities than most other classmates who spoke Dutch-only at home. That was 25 years ago. The Flemish dialect is disappearing fast. Taiwanese, many claim, is still very much alive and kicking. Still, my linguistic situation then resembles that of many school children in Taiwan now. If only we wouldn’t consider any incentive from politicians as antagonizing per se. One more reason I equally fear for the status of Taiwanese 25 years from now.