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The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan

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The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan Feng-fu Tsao Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, China This monograph presentsa detailedstudy of thelanguage planning situationin Taiwan.After a generalaccount of thesocio-historical context in which theplanning activitieshave taken place, a briefreview of whathappened in termsof languageplan- ning in MainlandChina under theNationalist government between1911 and 1945is presented.The following sectionprovides acriticalexamination of thelanguage plan- ning activitiesin both languagepolicy and languagecultivation that havehappened in Taiwansince the island was returned to Chinesejurisdiction in 1945.A turning point in theshort history of languageplanning inTaiwanwas reached in 1987,when martial lawthathad beenin existencefor forty years was lifted. Many changeshave taken place sincethen and many moreare in themaking. The finalsection is thereforea careful examinationof someimportant recent developments in languageplanning. In that sectionan optimisticoutlook forthe future is provided and anexplanation for that opti- mism is given. Introduction What is language planning? FollowingFishman (1974: 79), language planning in the present monograph will be broadlydefined as‘ the organisedpursuit ofsolutionsto language prob- lems’. Asimplied by the definition, the scopeof activitiescovered by language planning israther wide, and within language planning scholarship,an impor- tantdistinction is usually maintainedbetween whatis called policy orlanguage determinationissues, and cultivation or language development issues (Neustupný,1970; Jernudd, 1973;Figueroa, 1988). Paulston (1984: 55) makesthis distinctionmost clear when she states,‘ Ifind ituseful todistinguish between languagecultivation and languagepolicy ,where language cultivationdeals with mattersof language andlanguage policy dealswith matters of society and nation’ (Emphasis in original). In reviewing the language planning effortsin Taiwan,I toofind ituseful to maintainsuch a distinction,as will be madeclear in the following discussion. 1 Furthermore,for ease and convenience ofpresentation,language-in-education issueswill be examined separatelyfrom language planning issues,even though itis very clearthat language educationpolicy andimplementation is a very important part of language planning. The design of the monograph Before Itakeup the issuesin language planning andlanguage education,it will be useful togive ageneral accountof the socio-historicalcontext under which the planning activitieshave taken place (see following section).There followsa brief examinationof whathappened in termsof language planning in MainlandChina under the Nationalistgovernment 1911– 1945. The next section providesa criticalexamination of the language planning activitiesthat have 0143-4632/99/04 0328-48 $10.00/0 © 1999 Feng-fu Tsao JOURNAL OFMULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURALDEVELOPMENT Vol. 20,Nos. 4&5, 1999 328 The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan 329 happened in Taiwansince the islandwas returned toChinese jurisdictionin 1945.The final sectionis a careful review ofsomeimportant recent developments in language planning inTaiwan.In thatsection I takea lookat possible future developments,explaining atthe sametime why Iamrather optimistic in my outlook. Socio-historical Context Taiwan,which isseparated from the south-easterncoast of the Mainland Chinaby 150kilometres of the TaiwanStrait, is an island with an area of 35,981 squarekilometres and a populationof about21 million.This population consists mainlyof four ethnic groups:the Taiwaneseor Minnanren (Southern Min people), the Mainlanders,the Hakkaand the Austro-Polynesianaborigines. Accordingto Huang’ s (1991:21) estimate, the percentage ofpopulation of each group is as follows: · Minnanren 73.7%, · Mainlanders 13%, · Hakka 12% and · Austro-Polynesians 1.7%. 2 Taiwan’s complexand bitter historical past has left the countrywith this diverse ethno-linguistic heritage.The Austro-Polynesiansare the aboriginesof the island,who, according to the mostup-to-date researchin linguistics(Li, 1979, 1992,1995), anthropology and archaeology (Chang, 1995)arrived on the island fromthe south-easterncoast of the Asiancontinent about 6000 to8000 years ago. 3 Thoseearly settlers,who are now generally believed tobe the oldestknown ancestorsof the Austronesianpeople, were in timedivided intotwo groups accordingto the placeswhere they resided.Those who live in the coastalplains are called Pingpu Zu (the plain tribes) andthose who live inthe mountainareas are called Gaoshan Zu (the mountaintribes). Unfortunately, very littleis known aboutthe movementsof these people either withinor outside of the island. Chinese historicalrecords on the contactbetween the Mainlandand the island arefew andscattered. The earliestrecord of Chinese contactdates as farback to AD230,when, during the period ofthe Three Kingdoms,Emperor Sun Quan triedwithout success to send troopsto conquer the island.A thousandyears later,Emperor Kubla Khan (1260–1295) of the Yuan(Mongol) dynastymade two similarfutile attempts.Unsuccessful asthey were, itwas these early effortsthat paved the wayfor the gradualincrease in contactsbetween the Mainlandand Taiwan in later years (Chen, 1996). Butbefore the massivepresence of Chinese onthe islandtook place, the Dutch invadedthe southof the islandin 1624and established colonial rule there (1624–1661). A yearlater, the Spanish, notto beoutdoneby the Dutch,invaded the northof the islandand ruled the areauntil they were driven outin 1648by the colonialgovernment inthe south.Even though the Dutch treatedthe indigenous aborigineslike slaves,their language policies were notparticularly oppressive anddiscriminatory. The missionariesthat came with the colonialgovernment even createda writingsystem for Siraya, an aboriginal language serving asa lingua francain the south.The writingsystem, invented atfirstfor missionary 330 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development purposes,was laterused tokeep recordsand to writecontracts. It was in use for more than a hundred years before Chinese characters eventually replaced it. During the Dutch colonialrule, the islandwas still largely inhabited by the Austro-Polynesianaborigines. According to Tsuchida’ s (1983)and Li’ s (1990, 1992)research, the Gaoshan Zu (the mountaintribes) and Pingpu Zu (the plain tribes) caneachbe further divided intonine tribes.The formerconsists of Atayal, Saisiyat,Bunun, Tsou,Rukai, Paiwan, inhabiting fromnorth to souththe central mountainareas, and Amis, Puyuma andYami in the east.In additionto Siraya justmentioned in connectionwith the Dutch colonialrule, the lattergroup comprises,from north to south, Ketagalan, Kavalan, Taokas, Pazch, Papura, Babuza,Hoanya, and Thao. The exactgeographical distribution of these groups of speakers is shown on the map (adapted from Li, 1992) in Figure 1. Figure 1 The distribution ofAboriginal languages in Taiwan in the 19th century (adopted from Li, 1992) The Language Planning Situation in Taiwan 331 Havingsuccessfully driven outthe Dutch in 1662,Zheng Cheng-kong (better knownin the westas Koxinga),his Ming royalistsand his family ruled the island for21 years(1662– 1683). As Zheng himself wasfrom Southern Fujian, andhis followerswere mostlyfrom the sameregion, they spoke the Southern Min dialect.Zheng’ s rule wasreplaced by the Manchusof the Qing dynastyand abouttwo hundred yearsof Qing rule ensued (1683–1895). In the lateMing period andthe early yearsof Qing rule, the coastalprovinces of Fujian and Guandongwere suffering fromeconomic hardship and political turmoil; many inhabitantsin the areawere forcedto leave their hometowns in searchof abetter life in south-eastAsia or Taiwan.Those who went to Taiwan were mostlyfrom the Quanzhouand Zhangzhou districts of Fujian province,speaking the Zhangzhou or Quanzhou variety of the Southern Min. The Hakkamostly from Kuangdong province,speaking either the Hai-lu or Si-hsien varietyof Hakkaaccording to their place of origin,soon joined thisnew waveof immigration.When these different groupsof immigrantscame to Taiwan,they tended tooccupy areason the islandsimilar to their homeregions in the Mainland;Quanzhou people, being shopand factory owners or workers, settledmostly along the coastalareas and ports. Zhangzhou people settled mostlyin the inlandplains and were devotedto agriculture.The Hakka,who were skilled in farmingin hilly areas,settled in tablelands and foothill regions (Shi, 1987: 1–6). The comingof allthese different groupsof people led toanumber offierce struggles.The Hansettlers with their largernumbers, better farmingand irriga- tionskills and often withthe implicitsupport of the Qing governmentsoon outmanoeuvredthe Plain tribesof aborigines,who, as aresult,lost their landand were fastassimilated. The Mountaintribes, being separatedby high mountains and deep valleys, were kept out of harm’s way, at least for the time being. In 1895,a yearafter Taiwan was ceded toJapanby the Qing governmentas a resultof losingthe firstSino-Japanese war,the Haninhabitants on the island alreadyoutnumbered the aboriginalpeople by aclearmajority, and among the Han,Southern Min speakersaccount for 82%, Hakka speakers for 16% and the restfor only 2%(Lamley, 1981:291– 293). By 1905,the yearwhen the firstcensus wastaken, ethnic Chinese hademerged asthe majoritygroup by asizable margin(2,970,000 Chinese vs.113,000 aborigines) andthey haveremained so ever since. The Japanese rulers madeit clear at the very beginning oftheir occupationthat they intended tointegrate
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