Retired teacher Hung Wei-jen (洪惟仁) received an award from the Ministry of Education yesterday for outstanding contribution to Taiwanese native languages in light of his nearly three-decade-long effort to map the nation’s linguistic diversity.
Hung, 67, has nearly completed a project to produce the first comprehensive language map of Taiwan.
He said his work on the project is into its 29th year and is now entering its final phase: preparation for publication sometime next year.
The award represented an about-face by the government as during the Martial Law era, Hung was jailed for six years as a political prisoner.
While in graduate school, he had campaigned for freedom and democracy, and advocated the overthrow of the repressive Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, Hung said.
“For that kind of talk, I got arrested and thrown in jail. So I was on Green Island (綠島) for six years,” he said.
“As a political prisoner, I could not get a job when later released from prison. So I began to study the nation’s native languages, which was my passion. Later I studied for a doctorate at National Tsing Hua University when I was 50. At 57, I obtained my doctorate,” he said.
He took up teaching at National Taichung University of Education and remained there until his retirement.
“While working at Academia Sinica, I initiated a project to produce the world’s very first language map of Taiwan. My research team and I traveled throughout the country, from the northern tip to the southern tip. Field research and actual household visits are needed to study the linguistic and geographic distribution of Taiwanese [also known as Hoklo], Hakka and Aboriginal languages,” Hung said.
His team made extensive and detailed surveys to record the languages spoken by people in villages and townships throughout the nation. Through the process, the retired teacher said the team uncovered many interesting things.
“For example, in past records, Hsinchu County’s Sinfong Township (新豐) resident’s were said to speak the Hakka’s Sihsian dialect (四縣). However, our field visits found people there spoke Hakka’s new Hailu dialect (海陸). For supporting evidence, we went to the local cemeteries to verify the chronology of family records,” Huang said.
He also found that Yunlin County’s Siluo Township (西螺) had many Hakka speakers in the past, but the language is seldom heard there nowadays.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS