It was through his contacts with Taiwanese history and tangwai opposition magazines, among other things, that university professor Tang Hong-zing, who, at 61 years old, is now retired, started to find out more about the Taiwanese language and appreciate the beauty of his mother-tongue culture. These days he is popularizing this knowledge in the community, and, moreover, has written many poems and essays in Taiwanese. One time, in a restaurant in Vancouver, he felt honored to see on display a poem that he had composed in Taiwanese.
“Taiwanese is a kind of faith,” says Tang. Since his retirement, Tang has been avidly popularizing Taiwanese-language culture. A long time ago, however, Taiwanese was in his eyes a vulgar and unrefined language. This stereotypical view came from the general atmosphere and educational environment of those early days, which led Tang to think that speaking Taiwanese was impolite.
About 30 years ago, however, he started to read a lot of history about Taiwan and the age of great voyages, and he had access to opposition magazines. These things led him to gradually change his opinion. “It was because I did not have a deep understanding that I did not realize that Taiwanese is a very profound and elegant kind of culture,” he says.
photo: Lin Meng-ting, Liberty Times
照片: 自由時報記者林孟婷
Tang says that language is not just a means of imparting culture, communicating emotions, establishing trust and enabling thought. Above all, he says, language is a symbol of community.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
六十一歲大學退休教授董峯政因為接觸台灣歷史、黨外雜誌等,開始重新認識台語、領略到母語文化的美好,現在不僅至社區進行推廣,並寫下許多台語詩詞文章,他曾在溫哥華的餐廳看到自己所寫的台語詩詞、感到與有榮焉。
「台語是一種信仰」,董峯政退休後積極推廣台語文化,但在早先,在他眼中台語是粗俗、不優雅的語言,會有這樣刻板觀念,是因為早期大環境氛圍、教育環境,讓董峯政認為講台語是不禮貌的行為。
但三十幾年前,他開始大量閱讀台灣、大航海時代歷史,接觸黨外雜誌,觀念逐漸改變,「因為沒有深入瞭解,就不知台語是非常有深度、優雅的文化」。
他說,語言不僅是文化的傳承、情感的交流、信心的建立、思考的模式更是族群的符號。
(自由時報記者林孟婷)
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