Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday vowed to overturn a linguistic injustice to revive the Hakka language through a series of policy proposals, such as making Hakka a language of instruction at schools in predominantly Hakka communities.
“Due to a past policy of language repression [during the Martial Law era], many Hakka people, such as myself, are no longer able to speak Hakka. I believe many of your children or grandchildren are not able to speak Hakka fluently either,” Tsai told a crowd of more than 1,000 people, mostly Hakka, during a rally in Miaoli County. “I have said that one of my major policy objectives is to bestow transitional justice on society, and reviving Hakka is part of that objective to realize justice in language use.”
She said she would try to revive Hakka through creating a Hakka-friendly environment, including establishing schools, from kindergarten to elementary, in which the language of instruction would be Hakka in predominantly Hakka regions.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Tsai said the DPP is the only party that truly cares about Hakka culture.
“When the DPP was in power [from 2000 to 2008], we created the Hakka Affairs Council and Hakka TV,” Tsai said, adding that, if elected, she would increase the budget for Hakka TV, so it can produce more programs that appeal to both Hakka and non-Hakka audiences.
“If you go to [sections of] Provincial Highway No. 3 in Taoyuan, and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties that runs through Hakka communities, you would find abundant and diverse historic, cultural, artistic and agricultural resources,” Tsai said. “I often wonder why, when foreign tourists come to Taiwan, they often go to Taipei and then to the south or to the east, without visiting Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties. This is why I would like to make Provincial Highway No. 3 Taiwan’s own ‘Hakka Romantic Road’ to attract more visitors.”
While Hakka people, especially those in Miaoli, are generally considered pan-blue supporters, there was a surprising number of attendants from Hakka communities in Miaoli County, including traditional Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) grassroots campaigners, such as councilors, township mayors, Farmers’ Association officials, and borough and village wardens.
“When I speak to people during my campaign, I feel people’s desire for change, and the nation’s development can only happen through change,” Tsai said when asked if she was attempting to connect with KMT campaigners.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS