The spread of COVID-19 adds to the Taiwanese mentality of hating to be mistaken for Chinese. There are discussions about speaking Taiwanese instead of Mandarin in public while abroad to avoid such annoyance. How effective that would be is another matter.
More worth noting is that foreigners in Taiwan do not necessarily please local people by speaking their hard-learned Mandarin to them.
Taiwanese language identity does not suddenly change due to a disease outbreak. It has evolved a lot since democratization.
In January last year, the National Languages Development Act (國家語言發展法) came into force. The law acknowledges that all — more than a dozen — native languages of Taiwan are of equal status to Mandarin and mandates the state to take measures to preserve and revive them.
It is widely taken for granted that people in Taiwan speak Mandarin. That is very much real, but not in a pleasant sense.
The language was hardly spoken by anyone on the island before the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) brought it here at the end of the World War II. It was later imposed by the authoritarian regime as the dominant tongue at the expense of all Taiwanese languages.
Now as Taiwanese identity grows, there have been signs of a revival of native languages, especially of the most spoken one, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), or Tai-gi (台語).
Suppose a foreigner and a Taiwanese both speak English and Mandarin. A choice has to be made over which language to use in their conversation.
The common wisdom is that the foreigner could show respect and friendliness by speaking the “local” language, but considering the trend described above, whether Mandarin is the language the local speaker identifies with is increasingly in doubt.
Foreign visitors have insisted on speaking Mandarin to me. Some of them might have found that I was not as impressed as they expected.
I have heard foreigners asking: “Why do Taiwanese speak English to me while I speak Mandarin?”
They have a point, certainly.
Some, Westerners and Taiwanese alike, mockingly say that many Taiwanese are eager to “practice” English when they see Western people. According to that view, Taiwanese who prefer to speak English with Westerners who can speak Mandarin on Taiwan’s soil seem to lack cultural self-esteem.
Yet the story can be different. I would be thrilled if you spoke Taiwanese. That is not a usual thing to expect. So speaking English is totally fine.
Linguistic imperialism? Do not worry. In Taiwan’s context if an imperialist language were to be named, it is Mandarin, not English.
Recently a popped rice seller in his 30s called A-hua-sai (阿華師), who speaks fluent English, Taiwanese and Hakka and declared that he would quit Mandarin for life, has become popular on the Internet.
Taiwanese are friendly and tolerant. I am not warning foreigners against speaking Mandarin. Still, the change of attitude toward Mandarin is something to watch.
If English speakers would like to learn some basic Taiwanese, the Web site bitesizetaiwanese.com can be recommended. It is newly created by young people.
Tsiu Ing-sing is a merchant based in Taipei.
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