Mandarin, not Hokkien: The first vehicle of pan-Taiwan identity

Mandarin has, for the first time, united various ethnic groups in Taiwan and strengthened Taiwan identity. Ironically, this is precisely what the government’s promotion of the language  was meant to prevent.

A parallel situation can be found in Burma, where Burmese became the language that united various anti-government forces even though it was the language that the Burmese authority was promoting in order to assert its Burmese identity and to marginalize other ethnic groups. (Kirkpatrick, 2010)

Until the end of the Qing dynasty rule, various ethnic groups of Taiwan did not have any common language, although Hokkien functioned as a Lingua Franca in a limited sense. When members of different ethnic groups had to contact with each other, they used Hokkien, as it was the language of the predominant ethnic group. Many people, perhaps most people, did not need to come in contact with other ethnic groups, so they were monolingual in whatever their ethnic language was. As for smaller communities of Hakka or Austronesian people surrounded by the sea of Hokkiens, they quickly assimilated and became Hokkien-speaking. So much so that many descendants of such people, both Hakka and Pepo-aboroginal, now consider themselves as ethnic Hokkien. The reverse almost never occurred. I mean, for example, few Hokkien people living among Hakkas assimilated to Hakka culturally and linguistically.

Under the Japanese rule, the colonial authority progressively promoted the use of Japanese, first as a medium of instruction (MoI), and then even as a home language. Consequently, Japanese became the island-wide lingua franca, especially among the well-educated and elites. As the contacts among the common mass increased, Hokkien also increased its importance as the lingua franca. Needless to say, Mandarin had not yet been promoted during this period, so only some sojourners originating from northern China and very few others knew the language.

So this was the situation the KMT government found itself in, when it took over the island in 1945 and then moved the provisional capital of the nation to Taipei in 1949. It faced resistance from Japanese/Hokkien-speaking local elites, so it was important for them to spread the use of Mandarin as soon as possible. The rest is the story you are all familiar with: The high-handed measures to promote Mandarin and eradicate “dialects” with such potential penalties as “dog-tags” and fines.

Hokkien remained the language of anti-KMT resistance and pro-Taiwan-independence nationalism until the end of 80's or probably even early 90's. When I first arrived in Taiwan in the early 90's, things were pretty straightforward: Hokkien-speaking taxi driver was pro-DPP betal nut chewer; and Mandarin-speaking professor in a suit and tie was a Waishengren and therefore pro-KMT/NP/PFP. It was also extremely common to spot older people anywhere in town who spoke better Japanese than me!

But things have changed a bit since then. Twenty years on, the chairperson of the DPP is a Hakka woman who doesn’t even speak Hokkien fluently. The younger generation has an ever stronger Taiwan identity and anti-Chinese sentiments, while at the same time being largely monolingual in Mandarin. (Even their parents probably only have limited proficiency in Hokkien.) It is no longer possible to distinguish a Waishengren from Benshengren solely from the way they speak Mandarin, unlike when I first came to Taiwan two decades ago. Indeed, some even don’t know which ethnic group they belong to themselves, other than the nationalistic sentiment that they are Taiwanese. (Matsuo, 2006) Mandarin has become the language of the heart as well as the mind of the Taiwanese people.

Ironically, Mandarin has become the language that united the various ethnic groups of Taiwan and thus a vehicle of ever-growing Taiwan identity.

I just read in a Kirkpatrick’s book that this is actually nothing uncommon. In Burma as in many countries, ethnic minorities have found solidarity and united force against the chauvinistic authority in the language of the authority itself. Come to think of it, would the anti-Spanish independence movement in the Philippines have been possible, without its leaders from different regions being able to communicate with other in Spanish? Perhaps the same applies to many, many post-colonial societies. And in the countries that have already become monolingualized, it is commonsense that the rulers and the opposition debate with each other in the same national language, which is the only choice for most people in that country.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2010). English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Matsuo, S. (2006). 台湾における言語意識と言語選択の実態. Taipei: 群學.