4.1 Value Assessment on Language Varieties
4.1.3 Symbolic Value of Language Varieties
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 4-3: Fields not Possible without Mandarin
Consequently, people were inclined to learn Mandarin in exchange of better education, labor market, and socioeconomic status. That is, the exchange value of Mandarin was supposedly much higher than the other local language varieties, and thus people were naturally motivated to acquire Mandarin and even abandoned their own mother tongues.
4.1.3 Symbolic Value of Language Varieties
During martial law period, the most important symbolic value associated with language issues revolved around nationalism. Chinese nationalism, as promoted by the ROC government, was the focus of that period of history. Nevertheless, Taiwanese nationalism was intensified, though not initiated, by the ferocious ROC rule.
Literature
Education
Media Journalism
Publication Translation Music
Impossible without Mandarin
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Figure 4-4: Relationship among Speakers, Nationalism, Symbolic Value, and Language Variety
As Figure 4-4 demonstrates, Hoklo and Mandarin speakers were influenced by Taiwanese nationalism and Chinese nationalism respectively; consequently, their representative language varieties, namely Hoklo and Mandarin, were given different symbolic value.84
Sinicization and de-Japanization of Taiwan was treated as an urgent task by the ROC government in an effort to legitimize its rule over the island as well as to transform the island into a base for recovering the Communist-controlled China. To create a history of pro-China view, the ROC government asserted that ethnically Hoklo, Hakka, and even aboriginal people, just like Mainlanders, were all Chinese;
politically, the dominance of the ROC government in Taiwan was ideologically justified by a specific interpretation of Taiwan-China relations; culturally, the ROC
84 Here I use the term representative language variety rather than mother tongue for the following reasons. As for Taiwanese nationalism, not only Hoklo speakers held the ideology but some Hakka and aboriginal language speakers also did, so Hoklo was merely representative since it was the majority. As for Chinese nationalism, the ROC government purposefully selected Mandarin to represent it despite the fact that Mandarin was initially spoken by a very limited number of people.
Hoklo/Mandarin Speakers
Symbolic Value
Hoklo Taiwanese Nationalism
Chinese Nationalism
Mandarin
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
government argued that it was the resolute defender of traditional Chinese culture, Confucianism in particular.85 As a result, the teaching of Mandarin was deemed an essential part in crafting the “imagined” China on Taiwan. That is, an important symbolic value that represented Chinese nationalism was intentionally formulated by the ROC government and given to Mandarin.
Nonetheless, while the ROC government was strictly imposing Chinese nationalism on Taiwan, the seed of Taiwanese nationalism and identity, which could be traced back to Japanese colonial period, was burgeoning at the same time. Despite the harsh Japanese rule, Taiwanese people still highly appreciated the upholding of law and order and the effective development of the island. Thus, the ROC government’s goal of crafting a common national identity between the islanders and the new arrivals was difficult to achieve. To make matters worse, the influx of the Mainlanders that later enjoyed many advantages further aggravated the relations between the natives and new-comers. Subsequently, a dangerous cleavage was formed between “Taiwanese” and “Mainlanders.”86
After the brutal February 28 Incident in 1947, a strong Taiwanese identity was roused and the anti-ROC Taiwanese people started developing a Taiwan-centered history and Taiwanese nationalism. Therefore, Taiwanese enthusiasm for Mandarin died down because of the ROC government’s bloody massacre and poor management of the island while the use of mother tongues, mostly Hoklo and Japanese, to vent emotions intensified. Thereafter, Hoklo was symbolic of Taiwanese nationalism.
In addition, the Taiwanese cultural identity that appeared in the Hsiang-t’u literature (鄉土文學) was worth mentioning. Hsiang-t’u literature, which described
85 Hsiau, A-chin. 2000. Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism. London: Routledge, pp.
152-153.
86 Hughes, Christopher. 2000. Post-nationalist Taiwan. In Michael Leifer (ed.). Asian Nationalism.
London: Routledge, pp. 65-66.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
lives of the common people in their native languages, sprouted in the 1930s during the Japanese period. After the ROC government took over Taiwan, Hsiang-t’u literature implied an opposition to the nostalgic works written by the newly arrived Mainlander authors that expressed strong anti-communist sentiments. During the 1970s when Taiwan encountered an enormous diplomatic crisis, Hsiang-t’u literature became a channel shared by all ethnic groups to vent the nationalist emotions. After the Formosan Incident, Hsiang-t’u literature was replaced by the term “Taiwanese literature (台灣文學).” Table 4-4 shows the development of Hsiang-t’u literature.87
Table 4-4: Development of Hsiang-t’u Literature
1945~1949 Empty—blossoming
1950~1959 Anti-communist (formation of Hsiang-t’u and western literature) 1960~1970 Western literature (growth of Hsiang-t’u literature) 1970~1979 Heyday of Hsiang-t’u literature (and continuing)
Furthermore, by granting official status to one language as opposed to another, language policies assign more symbolic value to one language variety as opposed to another; hence, those who master the official language are enabled to cash in their linguistic capital in the economic and political spheres.88
During martial law period, Hoklo and Mandarin were by no means on an equal footing. Owing to the disastrous language policy implemented by the ROC government, Mandarin was the only language variety that received government support for the promotion of Chinese nationalism. The use of local language varieties, including Hoklo, was severely suppressed. Besides, according to a 1987 island-wide
87 Chang, Wen-chih. 1994. Taiwanese Identity in Contemporary Literature. In Chung-min Chen, Ying-chang Chuang, and Shu-min Huang (ed.): Ethnicity in Taiwan: Social, Historical, and Cultural Perspectives. Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, pp. 174-176.
88 Friedman, P. Kerim. 2005. Learning “Local” Languages: Passive Revolution, Language Markets, and Aborigine Education in Taiwan. Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, p. 254.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
survey, more than half of Taiwanese college graduates used Mandarin at home and identified themselves with China, which was nearly twice the proportion of less-educated Taiwanese.89 In other words, Chinese nationalism with all-inclusive government support overwhelmed other ideologies. As a consequence, the symbolic value of Mandarin that represented Chinese nationalism was stronger than that of Hoklo that represented Taiwanese nationalism.