Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) raised quite a storm when he questioned Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) credentials as a “Hakka girl” on the grounds that she doesn’t speak the Hakka language fluently.
The KMT governed Taiwan for decades after the end of World War II, during which time it suppressed Taiwanese people’s native languages more fiercely than the preceding Japanese colonial government ever did. Japanese colonial rule lasted for 50 years, but the various languages of Taiwan managed to survive. They did not fare so well in the post-war years.
The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization has classified a number of Taiwanese indigenous languages as endangered. Someone familiar with the situation has described Taiwan’s Aboriginal languages as being close to extinction, Hakka as being in the intensive care unit and Hoklo as being in the accident and emergency ward.
Since Wu, who is himself a Hakka, has long held senior positions in the KMT, he could be thought of as an accomplice in the authorities’ suppression of native languages. That would make him partly responsible for the fact that many people cannot speak their mother tongues, yet he has the gall to criticize Tsai for not speaking Hakka.
The KMT government came from outside Taiwan to take control. Its policy of suppressing Taiwan’s native languages has done a great deal of harm. Since the KMT favored Mandarin Chinese as the sole “national language,” other languages spoken in Taiwan were seen as “dialects,” so authorities did not allow them to be spoken in schools or used in news media and official departments. Under this roughshod policy, authorities tried to inculcate in people’s minds the idea that speaking Mandarin was the height of refinement. As a result, mother tongues are now in a very precarious state.
Unfortunately the damage done did not end with the arrival of democracy. Children who were deprived their mother language in schools have now grown up to have families of their own, so the following generation can hardly speak their mother tongues at all. These days, many grandparents can only communicate with their children and grandchildren by speaking Mandarin.
Languages are an important form of cultural heritage. They are storehouses of communities’ experience and wisdom about life, culture, history and nature. They are the means by which people record and exchange knowledge. The coexistence of many different languages enables the expression of different communities’ varied ways of thinking. For the individual, proficiency in a number of languages, whether they be a person’s mother tongue or a foreign one, enables the speaker to understand and appreciate different cultures and communities. Multilingualism helps people become more broadminded, giving them a competitive edge in the workplace.
Until the dominance of Mandarin as the sole “national language” is brought to an end, the only way to revive mother tongues is to start in the family home. The sons and daughters of Taiwanese who have emigrated to the US, Canada and other countries often speak their mother tongues better than their contemporaries in Taiwan. This is the result of speaking their mother language at home.
The most basic requirement for the survival of Taiwan’s languages is for Taiwanese to put this into practice. When speaking our mother languages, we should use them in an elegant and classical way. We mustn’t give in to those who want to see languages die off. As long as we preserve our mother tongues, they will serve to pass on knowledge and to broaden people’s horizons.
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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