People and Language

People

A crowd of high school girls poses victoriously during a celebration activity marking the anniversary of their school's founding. (Courtesy of Tsai Dong-cin)

Taiwan’s population surpassed 22.56 million in August 2003. Kaohsiung City in the south is the most densely populated place, followed by Taipei in the north and Taichung in central Taiwan. Almost 70 percent of Taiwan’s population is concentrated in metropolitan areas. As of December 2002, the Taipei-Keelung Greater Metropolitan Area remained the most populated area with 6.58 million residents, or 42.42 percent of Taiwan’s total urban population.

Over the past few decades, the average age of Taiwan’s population has increased by 1.8 percent. By the end of 2002, the number of people over the age of 65 exceeded 9 percent of the total population, and this rise is expected to continue.

With the exception of over 433,524 indigenous peoples in 2002, Taiwan’s population is composed almost entirely of Han Chinese. Early Han Chinese immigrants are of two groups: the Hakka, mostly from Guangdong Province, and the Fujianese, from China’s southeastern coastal province of Fujian. These two groups comprise about 85 percent of the Han population, with the Fujianese outnumbering the Hakka by about three to one. The last group of immigrants came to Taiwan from various parts of China with the ROC government in 1949. This group is generally referred to as “mainlanders,” and accounts for less than 15 percent of the Han population. Intermarriage between all four groups─indigenous peoples, Hakkas, Fujianese, and mainlanders─is quite common, so the distinguishing characteristics of these groups have become fainter over time.

Human habitation in Taiwan dates back 12,000 to 15,000 years, and evidence suggests that the ancestors of today’s indigenous peoples came from southern China and Austronesia. There are currently 11 major indigenous groups in Taiwan: the Atayal 泰雅族, Saisiyat 賽夏族, Bunun 布農族, Tsou 鄒族, Thao 邵族, Paiwan 排灣族, Rukai 魯凱族, Puyuma 卑南族, Amis 阿美族, Yami 雅美族, and Kavalan 葛瑪蘭族. Collectively, they comprise less than 2 percent of Taiwan’s total population.

Both the culture and lifestyles of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have continued to change as the descendants of Taiwan’s earliest inhabitants adjust to rapid modernization. Young people are leaving traditional occupations, such as farming, hunting, and fishing, for jobs in the cities. Indigenous languages are still spoken in Taiwan, but the number of native speakers is dwindling rapidly, with younger generations usually not as fluent in their own ancestral tongue as they are in Mandarin or Minnanese 閩南語.

To address these problems and better preserve the cultural heritage of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the Council of Indigenous Peoples under the Executive Yuan 行政院原住民族委員會 was established on December 10, 1996. In coordination with other government agencies, the council supervises social welfare programs─ ncluding medical care, vocational training, legal services, and community development─for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples and works on the comprehensive economic development of aboriginal communities to improve their lives.

Language

The languages and dialects spoken in Taiwan have their origins in the Austronesian and Han lingual systems. The Austronesian languages are spoken by Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, while the most common Han dialects─Minnanese and Hakka─ are primarily used by those whose ancestors immigrated from China’s Fujian and Guangdong Provinces, respectively, four centuries ago. In 1949, after the ROC government relocated to Taiwan, Mandarin became the common language used for communication. In 1987, as emphasis on native languages began to grow, a movement was initiated to teach students their mother tongue so as to preserve the languages and dialects of ethnic groups. The Ministry of Education (MOE) 教育部 is currently drafting a language equality law aimed at preserving the 14 major languages and dialects used in Taiwan.

Phonetic Symbols and Romanization

To represent the sounds of Mandarin, people in Taiwan use the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols (MPS) system 國語注音符號, a collection of 37 phonetic symbols with marks that signify Mandarin's four tones. With regard to romanization, several different systems are concurrently being used in Taiwan, including Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音, Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh. Tongyong Pinyin was adopted as the official romanization system for Mandarin in August 2002.

Language Education

Since the MPS system was promulgated by the MOE in November 1918, all primary school students have been required to learn the phonetic alphabet in the first grade. Although Mandarin is still the primary language used in schools, government, and most business offices, various county and city governments have initiated elective courses on local languages in elementary and junior high schools according to ethnic demographics since 1990. In September 2001, based on revised guidelines and amended curriculum standards passed by the MOE, primary school students began to be required to take at least one course on a local language, such as Southern Fujianese (also called Minnanese 閩南語─a literal translation of the dialect─spoken by more than 70 percent of the people of Taiwan), Hakka (spoken by around 15 percent of the people of Taiwan), or an indigenous tongue.

Local Languages

For many years, local languages such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and indigenous languages were repressed in Taiwan to ensure that everyone mastered Mandarin. In recent years, however, Taiwanese has entered mainstream popular culture.

Hakka, on the other hand, is being spoken less and less by the younger generations, who favor either Mandarin or Taiwanese. Thus, the Council for Hakka Affairs 客家委員會 was formally established on June 14, 2001, with its top priority being the preservation and revitalization of Hakka language and culture.

The Tsou, one of Taiwan's 11 major indigenous groups, perform a traditional dance symbolizing unity amongst their people and the passing of their culture to future generations. (Courtesy of Song Sheng-zao)

Most indigenous people are bilingual and successful members of mainstream society. However, although more indigenous people today are willing to identify with their heritage, the younger generations who grew up in cities often can no longer converse in their ancestral tongue. To help rectify this matter, in June 2001, the Taipei City Government’s Indigenous Peoples Commission 原住民委員會 cosponsored two radio programs to introduce the languages, cultures, and activities of the indigenous peoples to Taiwan. In addition, these programs began broadcasting the latest policies and welfare packages available to indigenous peoples residing in Taipei. In July 2001, the CAA adopted New Zealand’s Köhanga Reo programme for the Mäoris and implemented the Scheme of Aboriginal Language Networks 原住民語言巢方案 in its 12 districts to provide total immersion education. Nonetheless, only those indigenous students recognized by the Aborigine Identification Law 原住民身分法 who obtain a Certificate of Aboriginal Language Proficiency can apply for a 25 percent increase in school entrance examination scores beginning in 2005.

A Cross-Strait Comparison

Although Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, the Mandarin spoken in Taiwan exhibits four major differences from the Mandarin used in Beijing:

1. The retroflex series of initials generally merge with the dental sibilants; for example, chih 吃, “to eat,” is often pronounced as zih.
    
2. The retroflex suffix er 兒 common in Beijing, such as men(rh) 門(兒) for “door,” is rarely used in Taiwan.
    
3. The neutral tone is used much less often thanbin Beijing.
    
4. In Taiwan, the third tone tends to conclude in the speaker’s lowest voice pitch without rising, as opposed to that in Beijing, which falls sharply and then rises back up.

These characteristics are likely attributable, at least in part, to influence from the Southern Fujianese dialect widely spoken throughout Taiwan.

The Written Language

A shared system of writing has been the primary unifying force among Chinese since the Chin dynasty (221-206 _B.C.). In China, however, the Beijing leadership has promoted the use of a simplified form of Chinese characters. Only in Taiwan are traditional Chinese characters still being used, giving the Taiwanese people continuity with their past as well as the ability to read Chinese classics and other ancient writings. Although there are approximately 50,000 Chinese characters listed in the Kangsi Dictionary 康熙辭典 (18th century), a person only needs to learn around 4,000 to read an average newspaper article. Every Chinese character has a distinct meaning; however, because most words are combinations of two or more characters, understanding such a large number of characters becomes manageable.