Saving Taiwanese languages
On Saturday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) attended a memorial service for renowned Hakka doctor and poet Tseng Kuei-hai (曾貴海) in Kaohsiung. Lai’s eulogy, delivered entirely in Taiwanese, highlighted the emotional depth and cultural value of the language.
Lai read aloud from Tseng’s poem Winter Flowers Bloom at Night: “Eternal blooming / Undying dreams / In a small corner / The world silently transforms.”
The words reflect Tseng’s love of literature and concern for environmental conservation and urban development. Lai also quoted the Bible: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” poignantly describing Tseng’s lifelong fight for democracy.
Finally, Lai expressed his deep respect for Tseng, stating: “A great philosopher has passed, but his legacy endures.”
Growing up in southern Taiwan, I spoke Taiwanese with my parents and grandparents. During my school years, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) pushed its monolingual policy, promoting Mandarin as the national language while banning the use of all other languages and dialects. The memory of this language discrimination still haunts me. I later studied in central Taiwan and worked in northern Taiwan, often ridiculed by classmates and colleagues alike for my Taiwanese-accented Mandarin.
Fortunately, Taiwan’s democratization brought the first shift in power from the KMT to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the election of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the 2000 presidential election. Chen’s administration implemented reforms that officially incorporated other languages into the education system, gradually reducing language discrimination.
However, due to long-term suppression of the languages, most Taiwanese have lost knowledge of their mother tongues. Hakka usage declines by 5 percent each year. The situation is even more dire for indigenous languages.
Lai’s speech underscores the need for further promotion of Taiwanese. Recently, Kaohsiung City Councilor Chang Bo-yang (張博洋) of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party said that while Taiwan has been developing and promoting native languages, the lack of dedicated Taiwanese language committees at the central and local government levels has led to insufficient resources.
Soon after, the Kaohsiung Education Bureau announced that select schools will conduct pilot programs for Taiwanese-language instruction, with implementation expected next year.
Promoting Taiwanese might not require creation of special committees, but the Ministry of Education should provide resources and offer incentives for cities to implement Taiwanese-language programs at schools.
With a declining birthrate leading to many unused school spaces, these programs could make use of existing resources and provide immersive learning environments for students. It could also address the cultural losses resulting from long-term suppression of the language.
Let us work together to promote the Taiwanese language, ensuring that this precious cultural heritage can be passed down to future generations.
Yeh Yu-chin
Kaohsiung
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