The government is to require schoolchildren in areas where Hakka is widely spoken to learn the language as part of efforts to help the ethnic group preserve its mother tongue, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
The launch of a Hakka radio station on Friday represented a step forward in the promotion and passing down of the Hakka language and culture, Tsai said on Facebook.
The government is now pushing an amendment to the Hakka Basic Act (客家基本法) to list Hakka as a national language, Tsai said.
It would represent an official “upgrade” from its designation as a folk language — the same privilege given to more than 50 languages spoken in Taiwan, she said.
In so-called Priority Development Areas for Hakka Culture, Hakka services are to be provided gradually at government offices, and Hakka is to become a required course in elementary-and-junior-high schools, she added.
The government would firmly support the promotion of Hakka, Tsai said, adding that the language is “the root of the Hakka people and Hakka culture.”
According to a survey commissioned by the Hakka Affairs Council in 2014, about 4.2 million people identified as Hakka, accounting for 18 percent of the nation’s population and forming the second-largest ethnic group after Hoklo.
The council has designated 70 townships and districts in 11 counties and cities where Hakka people account for more than one-third of the total population as priority development areas for Hakka culture, as stipulated in the Hakka Basic Act.
Of the 70 townships and districts, 18 are in Miaoli County, 11 in Hsinchu County and eight each in Pingtung and Hualien counties, as well as in Taoyuan.
There are five areas in Taichung, four in Kaohsiung, three in Taitung County, two in Hsinchu City and Nantou County, and one in Yunlin County.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS