A heated argument recently erupted between National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) assistant professor Taiffalo Chiung (蔣為文) and writer Huang Chun-ming (黃春明) over whether it was appropriate to write in Hoklo (otherwise known as Taiwanese).
Huang, who does not agree with writing in Hoklo, on Tuesday gave a lecture on the subject entitled “Discussion on the Writing and Teaching of the Hoklo Language” at the National Museum of Taiwan Literature.
Chiung felt the title of Huang’s lecture was provocative, saying Huang is not an expert on the Hoklo language, so he took a large sign to the lecture written both in Chinese and Romanized Hoklo that read “Shame on Taiwanese writers who don’t write in Taiwanese but use [Mandarin] Chinese.”
Chiung raised the sign in protest during Huang’s lecture.
Huang was so emotionally stirred that he jumped off the stage and challenged Chiung by asking what right he had to disrupt his lecture.
Museum personnel tried to calm Chiung and Huang down out of concern that the nearly 80-year-old Huang may not be able to take the excitement.
Reached for comment on Wednesday, Chiung said Huang should understand the current situation of the Hoklo language and the ideals motivating those that promote it before making any criticism.
Chiung cited the example of late writer Yeh Shih-tao (葉石濤), saying that even Yeh in his later years had expressed regret that he had only been able to write in Chinese and Japanese, and that he was unable to write in his native tongue.
Huang, meanwhile, responded through his assistant, saying reporting on his shouting match with Chiung was meaningless as the main point of the lecture was a discussion on writing in Hoklo.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the