Language and Culture in Taiwan

1. Language and Culture in Taiwan Written by Tien, Ching-Yi Sep 15, 2008

2. Overview • Socio-historical Context • Ethnic Groups, Population and Language Use • Taiwan’s Colonial History • The KMT Government • Language Policy • Chapter Summary

3. SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT Archaeologists have found evidence that the earliest inhabitants of Taiwan date back 12,000 or 15,000 years. The descendants of these early settlers now comprise less than two percent of the total population. Since the 17th century, the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese and Mainland Chinese have arrived in Taiwan and brought their cultures and languages to the island.

4. Ethnic Groups, Population and Language Use • The earliest census for Taiwan, in 1905, put the population at 3.12 million (Yearbook 2003). Nearly a century later, Taiwan has one of the highest population total in southern Asia with a population of nearly 23 million people, comprised of four major ethnolinguistic groups.

5. The first group is the early settlers, which make up less than two percent of the population. Nowadays these people are known as aborigines. The evidence of earliest habitants in Taiwan dates back to between 12,000 and 15,000 years. The settlers arriving from at least two places: southern China and Austronesia.

6. There are currently eleven major surviving indigenous groups and their languages and cultures are recognized as Malay-Polynesian (Austronesian): the Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Pinuyumayan, Rukai, Saisiyat, Thao, Truku, Tsou, Yami and Sakizaya. In 2006, the total indigenous population was nearly 475,000. Of this number, around 40,000 have not identified themselves as belonging to a particular group. • 賽德克族正式成為台灣原住民族第14族 (5/8/2008).

7. 阿美 泰雅 布農 噶瑪蘭 排灣 卑南 魯凱 賽夏 鄒語 雅美 邵語 太魯閣 賽德克

8. The second ethnolingistic group, comprising approximately 70 percent of Taiwan’s population, is Hoklo (also called southern Min or Taiwanese) who emigrated from China’s coastal provinces of Fujian in the 16th century. The southern Min language is also known as Hokkien, Tai-yu or Taiwanese.

9. The third ethnolinguistic group is Hakka, whose ancestors emigrated from China’s coastal provinces of Guandong in the 16th century. It comprises approximately 15 percent of Taiwan’s population.

10. The last ethnolinguistic group are known as ‘mainlanders’: those people who emigrated from Mainland China in or around 1949, now comprising approximately 13 percent of the country’s population.

11. The Ministry of Education (MOE) is outlining a language equality law that aims to preserve the fourteen major languages and dialects spoken in Taiwan: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and fourteen indigenous languages, which are collectively classified as ‘Formosan’ (Yearbook, 2008) (cf. Ethnologue, 2001).

12. Taiwan’s Colonial History • Contact with colonial powers can be broken down into four phases. Each of these phases left some influence on the economic and linguistic climate in Taiwan. • The first phase is the Portuguese, the second phase is the Dutch, the third phase is the Spanish, and the fourth phase is the Japanese.

13. Phase One • The natural beauty of the island attracted the first European arrivals, the Portuguese, and the first sailor exclaimed Ilha Formosa (‘the beautiful island’) (Yearbook, 2003; Dreyer, 2003, p.390). Since then, Taiwan has gained worldwide attention for its distinctive location and natural resources and has been known as ‘Formosa’ in several western countries (Yearbook, 2003).

14. Phase Two • The Dutch colonized southern Taiwan in 1624 and commenced international trade with China, Japan and Southeast Asia. In addition to economic development, Dutch missionaries were sent to Taiwan in an attempt to convert Taiwan’s inhabitants to Christianity. In 1636, the first Dutch school was built in Sinkang and literacy skills were taught to local inhabitants (Heylen, 1998).

15. Phase Three • In 1626 the Spanish came to Taiwan and established a colonial capital in the north of the island to compete against Dutch expansion. Keelung and Danshuei were built as their bases for trading and for spreading Christianity. In 1642 the Spanish were expelled from Taiwan by the Dutch.

16. Phase Four • In 1895, Cing’s administration in Taiwan was disrupted by the Sino-Japanese War. Japan determinedly defeated its neighbours in the war between 1894-95 and Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed in 1895. During 50 years of Japanese colonization in Taiwan, Japan actively developed various programmes to pave the way for converting the inhabitants of Taiwan into loyal subjects of the Japanese emperor.

17. Japanese language and writing systems were implemented in elementary schools and onward, and the inhabitants were forced to wear Japanese clothing. Furthermore, the streets were renamed in Japanese. The Japanese colonial government eventually turned Taiwan into an industrialized country, with extensive agricultural plans and hydroelectric power. Under the Japanese transformation plans, Taiwan developed a rapidly growing economy.

18. Yet the strong desire to retain Taiwanese culture and identity and overt resistance to Japan’s assimilative policies had stirred up severe confrontations between the Japanese colonial government and the Taiwanese. In 1945, World War II ended with Japan’s surrender to the Allies. Taiwan was handed over to China, governed by Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang (KMT), after 50 years of Japanese occupation.

19. The KMT Government • On October 25 1945, Taiwan retroceded to the KMT Government. People on the island were delighted and thought that peace had eventually come. Unfortunately, the first KMT troops sent to take over Taiwan were poorly trained, insensitive and undisciplined, and they soon destroyed the island’s infrastructure and economy.

20. The KMT Government eventually moved to Taipei in 1949 due to defeat on the mainland and brought a great number of immigrants to Taiwan, including Chiang Kai-Shek himself. Nearly two million people from various mainland regions immigrated to Taiwan and also brought in many different languages and dialects. Chiang embarked on an ambitious programme of nation-building on the island and was planning a counter-attack to regain the administrative power in the mainland.

21. From 1951 to 1965, under the KMT’s nation-building programme with enormous economic and military assistance from the United States, Taiwan’s infrastructure and agriculture developed and improved dramatically. Some Taiwanese people were sent to be educated abroad. Farmers were able to purchase land from landlords. The economic structure of the island gradually shifted from agricultural exports in the 1950s to industrial manufacturing in the 1960s and 70s. By the 1980s and 90s, Taiwan had become a leading country for technological and chemical products.

22. LANGUAGE POLICY • Figueroa (1988) stated “[l]anguage policy is political rather than linguistic in nature. … [L]anguage policy can only be made and enforced by those with political power” (p.296). Evidence of political influences on language policy can be found throughout Taiwanese history.

23. Language Policy in the Japanese Colonial Period • In 1896, the languages spoken in Taiwan were approximately 83% southern Min, 15 % Hakka, and 2% aboriginal or other languages (Tsao, 2000). With the ambition of completing the ‘Japanisation’ on Taiwan, the Japanese rulers were pragmatic, realising that it would be impossible to complete the mission without implementing the Japanese language in the educational system and making people speak Japanese.

24. Eliminating Taiwanese languages and to replacing them with the Japanese language • The first stage (1895-1919) was the conciliation of the educational system. • During the second stage, called the ‘assimilation’ stage (1919-1937), all private Shu-Fangs were banned and Chinese was made an optional subject; Japanese was still the main instrument in education.

25. The last stage (1937-1945) was the stage of complete Japanisation. The Chinese language was banned not only in all private and public schools, but also in all public domains, and in the media. The Japanese language was to be recognized as the Taiwanese lingua franca; the indigenous languages were oppressed, discriminated against and regarded as vulgar languages by the Japanese government.

26. After World War II, the Japanese government surrendered and Taiwan was returned to China, and the Japanese language policy ended in 1945. Four years later the National Government (KMT) lost the defeat with the Chinese Communists and was forced to retreat from Mainland China. After the KMT government relocated in Taiwan, the new government implemented another language policy.

27. Language Policy Under the KMT Government • When Taiwan was returned to China, the people on the island were overjoyed that they could freely speak their own languages again. Shortly after KMT’s arrival along with a large number of immigrants from Mainland China, the KMT Government faced the difficulty of communicating with local people.

28. people in the KMT Government only spoke Mandarin. In order to demonstrate the KMT’s authority and to make people obey the government, The KMT Government set out the new language policy, which stipulated Mandarin as the national language. Indeed, Mandarin was the lingua franca when mainlanders arrived in Taiwan with KMT troops (Li, 1983).

29. The language situation at that time was extremely complicated and needed to be organized with a well-designed plan. With regard to the KMT Government’s new language policy, the government promoted Mandarin and severely repressed all the local languages (Hsiau, 1997). Moreover, in order to eradicate the Japanese language in the public domains, the KMT Government set up the National Language Movement to promote the standard of the Mandarin language in 1946 (Tse, 1981, 1986).

30. In 1965, it was stipulated by the KMT Government that all civil servants must speak Mandarin during office hours to reinforce that Mandarin was the sole national language.

31. In 1962, when the first television channel started, non-Mandarin programmes were limited to less than 16% of the total broadcast time. Taiwanese television programmes, which were exceedingly popular in 1971, were suppressed under the KMT Government and rationed to less than one hour per day on each channel.

32. After more than three decades of suppression by KMT’s monolingual policy, the local people came to realize the importance of preserving their own language. The Taiwanese opposition movement then rapidly developed and the Tai-yu language (Taiwanese) movement emerged in the late 1980s.

33. Although Taiwanese language advocators have made great efforts to arouse the language equality, long under the influence of KMT’s national language policies, Mandarin is always regarded as the distinctive and prestigious language, the high language (c.f. Berg, 1986, 1988; Tsao, 1999a). On the contrary, the local vernaculars, such as Taiwanese and Hakka, are treated as an unfavourable or ‘low’ language, used by the uneducated.

34. Since Taiwan became politically democratic in 1986, restrictions on languages used in the media were gradually removed. Tai-yu programmes on both television and radio increased greatly. The restriction on speaking local languages other than Mandarin in all public domains was relaxed.

35. In December 1990, the Hakka Association for Public Affairs was founded to promote the Hakka language and to raise Hakka ethnic awareness. After the Tai-yu and Hakka language movements, along with the aboriginal language awareness, in April 1993, the Ministry of Education (henceforth MOE) announced that Hakka, Tai-yu, and aboriginal languages were offered as elective courses at elementary schools (Dreyer, 2003).

36. Language Policy in 2001 • In recent years, people in Taiwan have become more aware of the cultural diversity and the importance of preserving the languages and dialects (Chiung, 2001; Tiu, 1999). Due to the long neglect of the using of local languages, many young generations no longer speak their mother tongues, such as indigenous language and Hakka. In order to maintain and promote the local languages, the MOE announced that from September 2001, elementary school students are required to take at least one local language course from the choices of Taiwanese (Tai-yu), Hakka, or an aboriginal language. For junior high school students, the local language courses remained as an optional subject (Yearbook, 2003).

37. CHAPTER SUMMARY • Having experienced several revaluations in the past, the development of democracy has given rise of Taiwan’s rapid economical and technological growth. Along with the political and economical changes, people in Taiwan increasingly paid attention to ethnolinguistic awareness and cultural identities.