The judges for the Ministry of the Interior’s increase-the-birthrate slogan contest have chosen 20 slogans that will now be voted on online this month by the public. Take a look at the ministry’s Web site — 100.moi.gov.tw — to find out which 20 slogans made the final round. While many of them are cute, funny and warm-hearted and some are even creative, not one slogan chosen by the judges for the final 20 was in Hoklo, Hakka or any of the many Aboriginal languages spoken in this country. Why?
All 20 slogans are in Mandarin. It’s hard to understand why in a nation as ethnically and linguistically diverse as Taiwan that no slogans in Hoklo, Hakka or any of the Aboriginal languages were chosen. Surely of the estimated 28,000 entries submitted last month many slogans must have been in languages other than Mandarin. So why did the judges only choose Mandarin slogans for the public to vote on in the final round?
Can this happen in this day and age in Taiwan? Of course it can and did.
Now some readers of this newspaper might think my comments are just sour grapes on my part since I entered the contest and sent in a slogan in Hoklo that I was sure would be a winner — “bon lah gyam seiko” (摸蛤兼洗褲) — but, alas, my witty entry did not make it through to the final round. That’s okay, but surely there should have been some slogans in the top 20 list in Hoklo, Hakka or Aboriginal languages for the public to vote on. Unfortunately that was not the case.
“Bon lah gyam seiki” is Hoklo slang for “when you go down to the river, you use your pants as a fishing net and therefore you can do two things at once, wash your pants and catch fish or most literally, clams.”
What I meant by submitting that slogan to the birthrate contest was that a man and a woman, by having a larger family, could do two things at once: Add to their family’s happiness and at the same time help boost the nation’s birthrate. Humor helps.
Some of the top 20 slogans chosen for the final round in Mandarin include (and please excuse my poor translations):
• 多生寶貝,寶貝台灣 — Have more children, treasure Taiwan.
• 人生要美好,養兒育女不可少 — Children are essential for a happy life.
• 幸福很簡單,寶貝一,二,三!! — Happiness is simple; babies one, two and three.
• 孕釀~~下一個希望 — Giving life to future hope.
• 孩子~是我們最好的傳家寶 — A child is the best kind of family heirloom.
• 誠徵下一代！ — Calling the next generation.
You catch the drift. Cute, warm, fuzzy slogans. The questions is why couldn’t there have been at least one slogan in the final round in a language other than Mandarin?
In case you missed the news, the ministry plans to award NT$1 million (US$31,000) to the winning slogan that is to be used as part of a campaign to boost the nation’s dwindling birth rate, one of the lowest in the world.
A government statement earlier this year noted: “We are seeking a creative slogan that would appeal to the public and make everybody want to have children.”
In the past, the government has offered various incentives in an unsuccessful bid to boost birth rates amid growing concern that a severe manpower shortage will trigger social and economic problems in the future.
Last year, Taiwan’s birthrate stood at 8.29 births per 1,000 people, compared with a global average of more than 20 births per 1,000 people.
In the end, however, as many pundits have said, this contest is not really going to boost the birthrate at all because public relations campaigns do not translate into larger families or even inspire young women to want to have children. As in Japan and other wealthy nations, modern women simply do not want to be baby factories anymore.
Let’s face facts: Until Taiwanese men are willing to share the housework, cleaning, cooking and other chores of a modern household, the birthrate is going to continue to plummet.
There is a reason that the birthrate in Japan is in free fall. Japanese women are not stupid and the same goes for Taiwanese.
Marriage, of course, will continue as an institution and happily so in most cases (the divorce rate be damned), but no amount of creative public relations campaigns are going to persuade couples to have more children than they want, if they want any at all. Not even financial incentives will boost the birthrate. It’s not your grandfather’s Taiwan anymore.
Dan Bloom is a freelance writer in Taiwan.
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