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Hsieh enters the fray in `Taike' linguistic debate

"I hope that we can turn this upside down and make it all around."

Premier Frank Hsieh

Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the term Taike (台客) should be an adjective for young Taiwanese men who possess clear and logical thinking, and who speak eloquently.

"When the noun and adjective Taike is used, usually people are calling or describing somebody who is not elegant or has bad taste in clothes and no sense of style, perhaps even in the way they talk. I hope that we can turn this upside down and make it all around," Hsieh said.

Hsieh made his remarks while speaking to participants in the 2005 Southern Taiwan High School Debate Contest at National Kaohsiung Marine University yesterday.

He encouraged debate participants to take advantage of the contest to practice and challenge themselves to think and speak fluently in Taiwanese, although the proceedings in yesterday's debate were in Mandarin.

"There is nothing wrong with being a Taike. But the image of a Taike should be changed," he said.

Taike is a recent popular noun and adjective which media often have used to describe somebody who gives the impression of having bad taste in many respects, such as the way they dress, their speech and behavior.

Originally, Taike was first used in 1990 in Taiwan among teenaers, but the term did not become widespread until recent years.

Stereotypical Taike dye their hair different colors, wear colorful shirts and baggy pants all the time irrespective of the occasion, talk a lot, drink too much, curse constantly, chew betel nut and speaks Mandarin with a heavy Taiwanese accent.

Language activists recently protested against what they called the "defamatory implications" of the expression, and have asked media outlets to exercise caution in using them.
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