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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Preserving Taiwan’s native tongues
Thursday last week was International Mother Language Day, which aims to promote
awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. The event is of particular
significance to Taiwan, where some communities’ mother tongues are facing
decline or are threatened with extinction.
To mark the day, civic groups organized artistic and cultural activities aimed
at raising interest in, and awareness of, mother languages. Some shops also
played their part, for example by offering special discounts.
The Greater Kaohsiung City Government made posters and held a drama contest to
encourage city residents to talk to each other in their mother tongues, and
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that to
respect mother languages was to respect different communities’ cultures.
What these groups and enlightened individuals who care about Taiwan’s mother
tongues have in common is that they stress that the most important place for a
mother tongue to be handed down is in the home. It is very valuable for parents
to speak to their children in their own languages, so that the next generation
has greater exposure to and knowledge of it. That is how mother languages can be
preserved, not just in Taiwan, but throughout the world.
UNESCO chose Feb. 21 to celebrate International Mother Language Day each year
and its purpose is to show the world the importance of preserving linguistic
assets. It serves not only to promote the dissemination of mother tongues and
cherish plurality in languages and culture, as a way to prevent the
disappearance of most of the world’s languages, but also to encourage new
thinking and promote mutual understanding through exchanges of ideas and
opinions.
It is important for the nation to cherish its mother tongues, because in 2001,
UNESCO listed Taiwan as a place where some mother languages are on the verge of
extinction.
According to internationally accepted standards, the nation’s dozen or so
Aboriginal languages are all threatened. Apart from these, two other important
mother tongues — Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and Hakka are also in
decline and approaching a critical state whereby they may finally disappear.
Former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), who was born in a Hakka village, once
aptly described the crisis faced by mother tongues in Taiwan, saying that
Aboriginal languages were already in intensive care, Hakka was in the emergency
department and Hoklo was registering for treatment.
Mother languages in Taiwan are in critical condition, and outsider regimes that
have ruled over the nation are the main culprits. The blame lies above all with
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authorities that exercised authoritarian
rule over the nation for a long period following the end of World War II.
During this period, the KMT authorities gave sole recognition to the “national
language” — Mandarin Chinese — while the spoken and written languages of all
other communities were labeled as “dialects” and suppressed. The use of
languages other than Mandarin at public events and in the media was severely
restricted, and Taiwan’s community languages were completely banned on school
campuses.
Notably, the Romanized Hoklo Bible that was in use before the 1895 to 1945
half-century of Japanese rule, was banned, as was religious preaching in Hoklo.
Having killed, imprisoned or otherwise suppressed many of Taiwan’s educated
elite following 1947’s 228 Incident, the KMT party-state apparatus made great
efforts to repress Taiwan’s native languages and culture.
Such repression went on for a long time and the authorities did not shy from
employing thuggish means to eradicate local tongues.
On school campuses, students were made to spy on each other, and those caught
using their mother tongues were fined, disciplined and even humiliated by being
forced to wear labels known as “dog tags.” Many people have painful memories of
such things happening to them.
Similarly, community mother tongues were not accepted by government departments
or used for bus and train announcements, and this created many obstacles for
people who did not speak or understand Mandarin.
Another reason for the decline of mother languages was the KMT party-state’s
control of the nation’s media. This was all the more true when televisions
became commonplace in people’s homes. News, drama and variety shows were almost
entirely “Mandarinized,” even to the extent of making the characters in
traditional Taiwanese hand puppet theater speak the “national language.” As well
as undermining mother languages, these policies engendered the view that
Mandarin speakers were a cut above other people.
Gradually mother tongues lost their practical function and status in people’s
daily lives.
In big cities and northern Taiwan especially, many people thought they were
superior just because they spoke good Mandarin. Such attitudes, along with
decades of stifling influence of the party-state apparatus, created a generation
of parents who thought their children would be better off speaking Mandarin.
Children gradually became estranged from their mother tongues, hence the
precarious situation in which these languages now find themselves.
Efforts that are now being made to salvage the nation’s mother tongues are a
product of Taiwan’s democratization.
During the 1990s, the government of then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said that
discriminating against mother languages had been a mistake.
For the first time under KMT rule, mother languages were heard on school
campuses.
After the DPP came to power in 2000, mother-tongue classes were introduced in
elementary schools. Then-minister of education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) stipulated
that elementary, high and senior-high schools should make one day a week
“mother-language day.”
However, after the KMT returned to power in 2008, it made a sharp U-turn on
these policies. Since then, the importance attached to mother-tongue education
has been eroded. Reduced funding has led to weakened mother-language teaching.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his government were happy to spend more than
NT$200 million (US$6.76 million) on the two-night musical extravaganza Dreamers
(夢想家) to mark the centennial of the 1911 Chinese Revolution, yet they have cut
funding for mother-language teaching. Consequently, Taiwan’s mother languages,
which were still in a precarious situation when Ma took office, are now facing
an even more serious crisis.
Taiwan is a society of immigrants. Its culture includes Austronesian, Han
Chinese, Japanese and Western elements. A multiplicity of thriving mother
languages is the best way to promote understanding, respect, tolerance and
appreciation between communities.
In this age of globalization, it is a good thing to study a variety of
languages, and learning one’s mother tongue is a good way to start out. Mastery
of one’s mother language enhances personal growth, as well as social
interaction.
While government authorities are duty-bound to ensure that mother languages can
thrive, it is more important for families to play their part. If mother tongues
are more often spoken at home, especially with their children, then they will
take root in the family. Only then can Taiwanese culture continue to thrive and
develop.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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