Where the issue of language is con-cerned, Taiwan in the 1990s has a diversity of views. For instance, on the question of what qualifies as Taiwanese language, the majority language, commonly referred to as "Taiwanese" (taiyu) is not necessarily accepted by the other ethnic groups as the sole representative. In an attempt to balance out contention, somewhat ponderous titles such as "Holo Taiwanese" and "Hakka Taiwanese" appear in some native language course texts. It seems that everyone has his or her own definition of what exactly constitutes "Taiwanese language."
Even among those making concerted efforts to promote Taiwanese language, agreement on the formal name for Taiwanese is conspicuously absent. Some feel that the majority language spoken in Taiwan today is already quite different from the language spoken in southern Fujian Province on the Chinese mainland. Consequently, they hold that "Taiwanese" should no longer be called "southern Fujianese."
Additionally, the characters designating the language, pronounced holo in the local Fujianese tongue, have evolved into an elegant and widely used homonym deemed unacceptable by scholars for its implication that the Taiwanese language originates from China's Yellow River Basin area, the historical veracity of which they dispute. As a result, they prefer to represent the pronunciation with alternate characters, yet do not necessarily agree on exactly which characters to use. Evidently, the preferred name for this language alone could be debated endlessly.
Unlike the Japanese era, after WWII it was no longer necessary to hide to study Mandarin Chinese. But the policy of repressing local languages to encourage Mandarin caused serious harm to the local "mother tongues." (photo taken in Lukang, 1964, by Huang Hsiu-ying)
Language is one of the marks of group identity. When the "New KMT Front, " the predecessor to today's New Party and closely identified with "mainlanders," went to Kaohsiung to publicize its views, there was a confrontation with people with a strongly Taiwane se identity. (The photo was taken in 1993.)
English is the international language, and English supplementary schools are all over Taiwan. Children are devoting more and more time to studying English, threatening to cut into the time available for mother-tongue classes.
How to encourage mother tongues without getting into "chauvinism" is a key issue for future mother-tongue education. The photo shows a mother-tongue speech competition for aboriginal children in Taitung.
The generation which will take over in the 21st century is not necessari ly going to follow the same linguistic rules of the game as their parents. Languages rise and f all according to their own rules, not based on what people say they want.