Hoklo TV station needed
Taiwan is a multicultural nation, and as a result, the Public Television Service (PBS) offers TV stations in Aboriginal and Hakka languages — Taiwan Indigenous TV and Hakka TV.
Based on respect for the languages of Taiwan’s different ethnic groups, there is also a need for a PBS station in Hoklo — also known as Taiwanese — to ensure the preservation of the cultures of all ethnic groups and the revival of their languages.
The most commonly used language in Taiwan is Mandarin, and Taiwanese is becoming a bit like a foreign language that can only be learned through classes at school, as the older generations rarely speak Taiwanese with their children at home. This poses a crisis for the learning of Taiwanese as well as a crisis for the passing on of traditional culture and for our children’s identity.
Setting up a Taiwanese-language PBS station would increase the number of programs that the older generations could watch, and providing diversified content would give the younger generations an environment more conducive to hearing and listening to Taiwanese, and it would also provide a better channel for learning the language.
It would also help the production of programs about traditional Taiwanese culture and assist in maintaining that culture, and it would also be a great help toward reviving and preserving the Taiwanese language.
In short, the creation of a Taiwanese-language PBS TV station would help preserve and pass on Taiwanese culture.
Hsu Yu-hsia
Kaohsiung
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