[BRIEF NOTE] Ethnic conflict and language in Taiwan
The recent Taiwanese presidential elections have ended in victory for the broadly pro-China Kuomintang party's candidate, Ma Ying-jeou. An Asia Times article touched upon an interesting theme of ethnic conflict in Taiwan.
In perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Taiwan's election, Ma has repeatedly said in presidential debates and other occasions that he is Taiwanese - something unusual for a president candidate from any country to have to do.
"I grew up eating Taiwanese food, drinking Taiwanese water ... I am Taiwanese," Ma said in a nationally televised debate with Hsieh. "I'm willing to sacrifice all for this land and its people."
If Ma is elected, he will be the first KMT president since the DPP ended a half-century of rule by the KMT by winning the 2000 presidential election. And it would be the first time the majority longtime Taiwanese had elected a president who is not a native Taiwanese, but from the waishenren or immigrant minority. To political analysts like Kou, it would be a sign of progress in Taiwan's march towards democracy.
"The biggest problem with Taiwan's democracy is the problem of ethnicity - the fact that some voters are concerned more with a candidate's ethnicity, not whether he has done a good job or not," Kou said. "If Ma is elected, it means voters don't care where you're from anymore - you still have an opportunity, as long as you do well. If not, you will be voted down in four years. That's an improvement."
I've been aware of the interesting sociolinguistics of Taiwan, with Taiwanese (the local brand of Min Nan Chinese) being a marker of identity closely associated with Taiwanese nationalism, often contrasted with the Mandarin imported by Mainlander refugees in 1949 and afterwards, complicated by interesting demographics, (perhaps a (relatively young) quarter of the population does not speak Taiwanese and a smaller (and relatively older) minority similarly lacks fluency in Mandarin, while the south of the island evidencing more fluency in Taiwanese than the north). This is the first time, though, that I've heard of the conflict between these two language-defined groups being characterized as ethnic conflict.
This Taiwanese clash raises the interesting question of whether similar things will happen in China. James Follows has observed that in the southern boom-town of Shenzhen, Mandarin has displaced Cantonese as the most widely spoken language. Might regional elites or mass political movements in non-Mandarin-speaking China mobilize on behalf of their regional languages?
In perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Taiwan's election, Ma has repeatedly said in presidential debates and other occasions that he is Taiwanese - something unusual for a president candidate from any country to have to do.
"I grew up eating Taiwanese food, drinking Taiwanese water ... I am Taiwanese," Ma said in a nationally televised debate with Hsieh. "I'm willing to sacrifice all for this land and its people."
If Ma is elected, he will be the first KMT president since the DPP ended a half-century of rule by the KMT by winning the 2000 presidential election. And it would be the first time the majority longtime Taiwanese had elected a president who is not a native Taiwanese, but from the waishenren or immigrant minority. To political analysts like Kou, it would be a sign of progress in Taiwan's march towards democracy.
"The biggest problem with Taiwan's democracy is the problem of ethnicity - the fact that some voters are concerned more with a candidate's ethnicity, not whether he has done a good job or not," Kou said. "If Ma is elected, it means voters don't care where you're from anymore - you still have an opportunity, as long as you do well. If not, you will be voted down in four years. That's an improvement."
I've been aware of the interesting sociolinguistics of Taiwan, with Taiwanese (the local brand of Min Nan Chinese) being a marker of identity closely associated with Taiwanese nationalism, often contrasted with the Mandarin imported by Mainlander refugees in 1949 and afterwards, complicated by interesting demographics, (perhaps a (relatively young) quarter of the population does not speak Taiwanese and a smaller (and relatively older) minority similarly lacks fluency in Mandarin, while the south of the island evidencing more fluency in Taiwanese than the north). This is the first time, though, that I've heard of the conflict between these two language-defined groups being characterized as ethnic conflict.
This Taiwanese clash raises the interesting question of whether similar things will happen in China. James Follows has observed that in the southern boom-town of Shenzhen, Mandarin has displaced Cantonese as the most widely spoken language. Might regional elites or mass political movements in non-Mandarin-speaking China mobilize on behalf of their regional languages?