“Language is the soul of a nation” is a well-known saying of Ong Iok-tek (王育德), an influential authority on Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), and one that his granddaughter Aya Kondo quoted in her speech in Hoklo at the Sept. 9 opening of the Ong Iok-tek Memorial Museum in Tainan.
In 1949, Ong, a teacher at Tainan First Senior High School, fled to Japan in the wake of the 228 Incident. His exile symbolizes the trials and tribulations of Taiwanese and Hoklo.
When I attended the high school, I was impressed by how teachers and students conducted classwork and research in Hoklo. It was used in and out of the classroom. At first, I found it strange, but later I learned that it was largely due to Ong’s influence. The school sparked my interest in Hoklo and in Taiwanese independence.
One day, when visiting my family home and while my grandfather watched sumo wrestling on cable TV, I spotted a document in Japanese tucked under a table mat, something about compensation for Taiwanese who had served in the Imperial Japanese Army. Suddenly, I pictured in my mind Lee Tze-fan’s (李澤藩) painting of Taiwanese soldiers’ families sending them off to war.
My grandfather rarely talks about the Japanese colonial era, but he did serve in their army. During the Pacific War, he was deployed as an auxiliary soldier on Hainan, China, but he never told us how he got home.
History textbooks that I have read only talk about the Republic of China’s (ROC) eight-year war with Japan. From the vantage point of the ROC, the story of Taiwanese in the Japanese army is a sideline of history.
In June, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) went to Okinawa to pay respect to the souls of Taiwanese who fought and died for Japan. He unveiled an inscription that read: “Bear witness for the nation,” but which nation did he mean?
Ong spent more than a decade campaigning for compensation for surviving veterans. As a descendant of one of them and a graduate of Tainan First Senior High School, I salute Ong for his tireless efforts.
In 1957, the idealistic Ong sold his house to fund the publication of a dictionary of common Taiwanese Hoklo. I wonder how his wife, Wang Hsueh-mei (王雪梅), felt about that.
Do Taiwanese care about Hoklo? What would Ong think if he could see how long it has taken to even get a draft act on the development of national languages to the legislative committee stage?
Hoklo language teachers in elementary schools often face challenges that require more passion and willpower than teachers of other languages need.
For Hoklo to put down roots and flourish in elementary schools will be a long and winding road, but at least it is easier than Ong’s road to exile.
The opening ceremony of the Ong Iok-tek Memorial Museum did not garner much attention in the local media, although Japanese reporters were there to cover it.
Things would not be twisted around like that in a nation with its culture screwed on straight. With any luck, those who care about Taiwan’s future will pay the Ong Iok-tek Memorial Museum a visit.
Koeh Ian-lim is vice chairman of the Taiwan Teachers’ Union.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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