Emphasizing the importance of maintaining the nation’s cultural and linguistic diversity, Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) officials yesterday said that the government’s plan to turn Taiwan into a fully bilingual Mandarin and English nation must not be made at the expense of other bentu (本土, “local”) languages.
To achieve the aims of the government’s “2030 Bilingual Nation Plan,” the government must give equal weight to promoting foreign and local languages to counter Chinese imperialism, TSP executive Chang Po-yang (張博洋) told a news conference in Taipei.
“The government has launched the 2030 Bilingual National Plan, but Taiwan must not discard its cultural diversity and multilingual heritage, or our own languages might get obliterated in favor of Mandarin and English only,” he said.
“For Taiwanese to assert their own separate and distinct identity from Chinese, and transform into an independent and sovereign nation, we have to link up with the world, but must also get to know our own people and roots better,” he added. “Taiwan already has an excellent DNA and immunity system, which is a whole set of bentu languages, including Taiwanese [also known as Hoklo], Hakka and Formosan languages, the mother tongues of Austronesian-related Aboriginal peoples.”
Mandarin became the dominant language in Taiwan because of the policies imposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) dictatorship during four decades of martial law, as the regime tried to eradicate all of Taiwan’s local languages, TSP officials said.
As Mandarin is the dominant language in government and society, people can become highly susceptible to China’s “united front” propaganda through TikTok and other Chinese media platforms, as well as Chinese videos and television shows, that work to erode Taiwan’s multiculture, they said.
It is thus vital that young people learn and speak bentu languages to preserve their mother tongues, and to resist China, they said.
TSP Tainan branch executive Liu Heng-wei (劉恆溦) called for establishing user-friendly bentu language learning environments for children, saying that the main obstacles today are a lack of learning facilities and teaching materials, and discrimination in society against people speaking Taiwanese, Hakka or an Aboriginal language.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese