----- Original Message ----- From: Tony Chu To: Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 11:02 AM Subject: [TC] cultural/language segregation

> Unless explicitly stated, the following message does not necessarily
> reflect the position of Taiwanese Collegian.
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>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> In Tongyong --
>
> Jima (Holo) women jianghua doushih (Mandarin) cinciunn ani (Holo) you de
> meiyou de (Mandarin in Holo usage) longzong (Holo) fang zai ichi
(Mandarin).
>
> Jima women jianghua doushih cinciunn ani you de meiyou de longzong fang
> zai ichi.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ** verbatim translation: Now we speak all like this something nothing
all
> put together.
>
> ** In English: Now in our speaking we put all things together.
>
> I am trying to demonstrate our common daily speaking habit in Taiwan
that
> we mingle the usages of various Taiwanese languages in the same sentence.
> Tongyong gives possibility of documenting our contemporary experience.
That
> is why, I, a Holo speaker used to mastering church Holo romanization,
> support Tongyong system in this campaign.
>
> When I view this language and cultural issue, I am concerned about the
> unspoken segregation among different cultural groups in Taiwan. Although
> this segregation has not been institutional anymore, we currently find no
> way to soothe the hurt and hatred pevious sino-centric cultural policy has
> brought to the society of Taiwan. The previous policy has created the
> asymmetry of language use: The refugees as well as the dominators from
China
> after 1945 are mostly monolingual in Mandarin and the other groups are at
> least bilingual who however bear the sense of crisis of gradually losing
the
> ability of speaking their own mother tongues.
>
> The Holo group has adopted and been developing romanization writing
based
> on church pe-oe-ji for centuries with rich documents and curricula.
However,
> Holo speakers never seem to bother developing a compatible spelling system
> to include writing Mandarin, in the name of different language origins and
> characteristics.
>
> On the other hand, the Mandarin group is still unwilling to leave the
> sino-centric arrogance behind and preempted by the use of traditional
> Chinese characters, low in spelling competence and so downplaying any
> development of spelling writing for the Taipei Mandarin, which has
actually
> been localized in Taiwan.
>
> Now, as the central government in Taiwan has been led by the
non-Mandarin
> figures and the cultural myth of sino-melting pot has torn down, what
medium
> can all people in Taiwan share in reflecting their common language
> experience to achieve national solidarity? Taking in Tongyong may not be a
> direct way. But at least it needs to be credit as one of the many great
> attempts for developing a new culture that emphasizes the sovereignty of
> Taiwan.
>
> The major difficulty of promoting the popularity of Tongyong, in fact,
is
> not only from the resistance of the Mandarin group. Also, it results from
> the alienation of the Holo language grass-root educators who consider
church
> romanization system as a segregating tool in encountering sino-centrality.
> These people hope to carry on the existing writing and make Holo "pure and
> strong" in the current crisis of language use disadvantage. These people's
> attitude to Tongyong usually is "Fine. The Mandarin group should use it
for
> Mandarin. But for Holo, I have had mine for long and do not bother to take
> in another new."
>
> In Taiwan, the Mandarin group's argument of using Hanyu is just an
excuse
> to ignore the calls of other Taiwanese languages that need spelling
writing.
> After all, the speakers in this group heavily rely on viewing characters
> rather than processing voices by romanization. Let's assume that the
> Mandarin group wanted to use romanization spelling. They would still lack
> competance and thus need help from the Holo bilinguals who can easily
switch
> around the spelling systems. And we know that the both senarios, asking
for
> help and giving help, are little likely to happen as Tongyong is only
> treated as "another kind of Mandarin spelling" instead of a possible
system
> to cover all the languages in Taiwan.
>
> On the beginning of this article, I have shown you the possibility of
> writing our true color in Tongyong. Is Tongyong still another kind of
> Mandarin spelling only, rejected by both Mandarin and Holo cultural
> fundamentalists? I sincerely hope that we, from all groups, can carry
great
> patience in the negotiation to finally have a win-win situation.
>
> Tony Chu
>
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Li chu-chheh e e-mail khau-cho si: "Henry H. Tan-Tenn" .
* Beh kia phoe ho' tak-ke tioh iong chit-e khau-cho chiah kia-e-kau.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *