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CHAPTER I
HISTORY, MEMORY, CULTURE
DEFINING THE MATRIX AND THE BEGINNING OF LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN TAIWAN
Introduction
The focus of this thesis will be that of Japanese and Kuomintang1language policy between the years of 1895 to 1987 when Martial Law was lifted in Taiwan and the country began to experience more political freedom and democratization. Taiwan has had over the centuries several different regimes that to some extent have influenced language policy in Taiwan. Starting in the seventeenth century with the Dutch and Koxinga and the later Ching and Japanese and Kuomintang (KMT) regimes all have influenced language policy on the island.
1.1The use of ideology
It was the use of ideology that, that influenced both the Japanese and the Kuomintang regimes when it came to implement their language polices on the island. Following both Spolsky and Woolard and Schieffelin, language ideology is defined as any specific effort to modify or influence that practice by any kind of language invention, planning and management, as management; as well as the cultural system of ideas about social and linguistic relationships, together with the loading of moral and political interests. This thesis argues that it was ideology as defined by Spolsky, Woolard and Schieffelin that influenced the language policy that was introduced by both the Japanese colonial government, and the Kuomintang (The Kuomintang is a political party and
1For consistency sake Pinyin romanization will be used in this thesis.
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the current ruling government in Taiwan.
Taiwan and was formed in 1911 in China after the end of the last Ching emperor) who were later came to govern the island of Taiwan.
1.21.2 A short history of Taiwan
Taiwan has a relatively short historical past, starting with the Dutch colonization in the late 17th century, its oral past is much longer, some estimates put human habitation as far back as some 30, 0000 years. It has been occupied many times and, and by many different nations. Next to lay claim to the island were the Ching Dynasty bringing to the island its own unique educational system and language. Then Next to come were the Japanese came and implemented whose assimilation polices dictating ed the use of Japanese language in newspapers, radio and especially in schools. With the arrival of the Kuomintang, they took over where the Japanese had left off, (after the Civil War in China the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan and set up their government on the island. The Kuomintang believed they were the true and legitimate government of China and planned their eventual return to the mainland from their base in Taiwan) and instituted their own version of monolingual language practices, that is the use of Mandarin to the exclusion of the local languages and dialects of the inhabitants that had been spoken on the island of Taiwan for centuries.
Taiwan through most of the history of China has been considered beyond the importance of Chinese civilization. The earliest Han to come to the island were traders and, and pirates, as there was a maritime ban in effect at the time and, and any overseas trade was considered smuggling.
They used the island to rest. Many Chinese thought the island was inhabited by savages who, who
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had nothing of interest to the Chinese and did not want to pay tribute or learn of Chinese ways.
Not only did the government in Beijing make no claim to the island, they were not interested in colonizing it either. In its earliest history those, those who did try to immigrate to the island faced death by beheading. The court in Beijing could, could not understand why anyone would want to leave the heart of Chinese civilization for barbarian territory. Taiwan did not start to see any kind of real migration to the island until the start of the seventeenth century, and it was not until then that any mass migration to the island really took off. Many of those who did migrate where looking for a better life than they had on the mainland, many wanted to find a better life for themselves.
They hoped for a better economic future than the one they were living in China, and wanted land of their own that they could cultivate, they wanted the opportunity to get rich and, and leave behind the restrictions that they faced on the mainland. Those who did migrate to the island where men originally, at the beginning of the migration exodus to Taiwan men were not allowed to bring any of their families or wives. They originally came to farm for the crop season, or to fish and, and then return to their homes after the crop was harvested. They set up only temporary accommodations on the island; it was not a place of permanent settlement at the beginning.
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The court in Beijing did not understand why anyone would want to leave China, the heart of civilization. By the end of the seventeenth century Chinese immigration to the island grew rapidly.
This rapid settlement of the island led to its early economic development.