Well-respected Hakka leader and physician Tseng Kuei-hai (曾貴海), born in a Hakka village in Pingtung County’s Jiadong Township (佳冬), passed away from illness on Aug. 6. He held many posts throughout his career, including operations director of the Literary Taiwan Foundation, director of the Chung Li-ho Literary Foundation, president of the Taiwanese Pen Tai-bun Pit-hoe, convener of the Weiwuying Metropolitan Park promotional committee, founder of the Southern Taiwan Society and many more.
Tseng also composed countless celebrated pieces of poetry in Mandarin, Hakka and Taiwan Taiwanese (“Taiwan Taiyu”). Hometown, Magnolia Tree (原鄉夜合) and Scene (畫面) are the respective translations of the titles of his Hakka and Taiwanese-language poetry anthologies.
One small secret unknown to most about Tseng is that using the term “Taiwan Taiwanese” was actually his idea. On Dec. 1, 2018, Tiunn Hok-chu (張復聚), former president of the Southern Taiwan Society, a group for Hakka young people, and I visited Tseng. We sought advice on how to ensure Taiwan’s subjectivity and handle the official name of the Taiwanese language without harming other ethnic groups.
He suggested using the terms Taiwan Taiwanese, Taiwan Hakka and Taiwan indigenous language, namely the addition of “Taiwan” to emphasize that they are all Taiwanese languages. Adding “Taiwan” to Taiwanese to form the phrase Taiwan Taiwanese, while verbose, could avert doubts and negative responses from the older and more traditional generation of Hakka, he said.
Colloquially, Taiwan Taiwanese can still be shortened to Taiwanese, thus coinciding with the name most people are already accustomed to using. After years of effort, the Hakka Affairs Council was finally persuaded.
In August 2022, the Executive Yuan formally ruled that it would change the official term from Minnanyu (閩南語, Southern Min) to Taiwan Taiwanese.
Taiffalo Chiung is vice president of the Southern Taiwan Society and a professor in the Department of Taiwanese Literature at National Cheng Kung University.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
On Monday, the day before Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) departed on her visit to China, the party released a promotional video titled “Only with peace can we ‘lie flat’” to highlight its desire to have peace across the Taiwan Strait. However, its use of the expression “lie flat” (tang ping, 躺平) drew sarcastic comments, with critics saying it sounded as if the party was “bowing down” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Amid the controversy over the opposition parties blocking proposed defense budgets, Cheng departed for China after receiving an invitation from the CCP, with a meeting with
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) is leading a delegation to China through Sunday. She is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing tomorrow. That date coincides with the anniversary of the signing of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which marked a cornerstone of Taiwan-US relations. Staging their meeting on this date makes it clear that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intends to challenge the US and demonstrate its “authority” over Taiwan. Since the US severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, it has relied on the TRA as a legal basis for all
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
RSS