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Using Taiwan as a case study, this book constructs an innovative theory of a political sociology of language. Through documentary and ethnographic data and a comparative-historical method the book illustrates how language mediates interactions between society and the state and becomes politicized as a result; how language, politics and power are intertwined processes; and how these processes are not isolated in institutions but socially embedded.
This book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to address critical perspectives on Chinese language social media, internationalizing the state of social media studies beyond the Anglophone paradigm. The collection focuses on the intersections between Chinese language social media and disability, celebrity, sexuality, interpersonal communication, charity, diaspora, public health, political activism and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The book is not only rich in its theoretical perspectives but also in its methodologies. Contributors use both qualitative and quantitative methods to study Chinese social media and its social–cultural–political implications, such as case studies, in-depth interviews, participatory observations, discourse analysis, content analysis and data mining.
The consolidation of Taiwanese identity in recent years has been accompanied by two interrelated paradoxes: a continued language shift from local Taiwanese languages to Mandarin Chinese, and the increasing subordination of the Hoklo majority culture in ethnic policy and public identity discourses. A number of initiatives have been undertaken toward the revitalization and recognition of minority cultures. At the same time, however, the Hoklo majority culture has become akin to a political taboo. This book examines how the interplay of ethnicity, national identity and party politics has shaped current debates on national culture and linguistic recognition in Taiwan. It suggests that the ethnolinguistic distribution of the electorate has led parties to adopt distinctive strategies in an attempt to broaden their ethnic support bases. On the one hand, the DPP and the KMT have strived to play down their respective de-Sinicization and Sinicization ideologies, as well as their Hoklo and Chinese ethnocultural cores. At the same time, the parties have competed to portray themselves as the legitimate protectors of minority interests by promoting Hakka and Aboriginal cultures. These concomitant logics have discouraged parties from appealing to ethnonationalist rhetoric, prompting them to express their antagonistic ideologies of Taiwanese and Chinese nationalism through more liberal conceptions of language rights. Therefore, the book argues that constraints to cultural and linguistic recognition in Taiwan are shaped by political rather than cultural and sociolinguistic factors. Investigating Taiwan’s counterintuitive ethnolinguistic situation, this book makes an important theoretical contribution to the literature to many fields of study and will appeal to scholars of Taiwanese politics, sociolinguistics, culture and history.
Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 1,7 (A-), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institute for Anglistics/American Studies), course: Sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics: a merger, 19 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The Seminar 'Sociolinguistics and Anthropological Linguistics: A Merger' included an intensive e-mail exchange with Taiwanese students. My keypal 'Cherlene', told about the linguistic diversity of her country. Besides, I had the opportunity to read the letters which were exchanged between my classmates and their assigned Taiwanese students. People in Taiwan have to deal with a multilingual society. Although Mandarin Chinese is the official language, there are in fact several more languages one is confronted with in everyday life. Cherlene pointed out that choice of code differs not only between social classes, ethnic communities and generations, but also between other domains of life such as school, university, jurisdiction, the media and advertising. Each of our e-mail partners was multi- or at least bilingual in Mandarin plus one or two other Chinese languages. Besides, all of them knew English or/and another European language. The reality of Taiwanese society requires the ability to switch codes flexibly according to the occasion. This complex situation is the result of political changes, power-shifts, two main, contradictory waves of language promotion, and a strict language policy by the government until the late 1980s. Consequently, it is indispensable to look at historical and social developments in order to understand and evaluate the present situation. This paper is based on Cherlene's first-hand information and the general impression received from the other e-mails. The linguistic information is embedded in a historic-political context, because I was especially interested in how such a situation could develop and how language use reflects power-relations.
Language Choice and Identity Politics in Taiwan brings new perspectives to--and invites comparative study within--the general study of language choice through its empirical focus on Chinese sociopolitical contexts and cultural practices.
Jennifer M. Wei argues that construction and perceptions of language and identity parallel sociopolitical transformations, and language and identity crises arise during power transitions. Under these premises, language and identity are never well-defined or well-bounded. Instead, they are best viewed as political symbols subject to manipulation and exploitation during socio-historical upheavals. A choice of language—from phonological shibboleth, Mandarin, or Taiwanese, to choice of official language—cuts to the heart of contested cultural notions of self and other, with profound implications for nationalism, national unity and ethno-linguistic purism. Wei further argues that because of the Chinese Diaspora and Taiwan's connections to China and the United States, arguments and sentiments over language choice and identity have consequences for Taiwan's international and transnational status. They are symbolic acts of imagining Taiwan's past as she looks forward to the future.
The linguistic landscape (LL) in Taiwan has changed dramatically since the late 1990s, as a result of the rapid increase of intermarriage with immigrants due to work-related and cross-border migration. This transformation is visible in Taiwan's public signage, which has shifted from monolingual Chinese and bilingual Chinese-English to multilingual signs in the public domain. Taiwan is a unique multilingual and multicultural society among Asian countries, as evidenced by the unprecedented proliferation of multilingual signage in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, and new immigrant languages such as Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and Tagalog, created and regulated by a variety of top-down and bottom-up organizations. Despite this multilingual and multicultural reality, Taiwan's LL has received little research attention. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to conduct an ethnographic investigation into the changing dynamics of Taiwan's multilingual linguistic landscape (MLL) in Taoyuan City. In this ethnographic study, I examined how the multilingual signs are visually and materially displayed in the MLL in Taoyuan City, drawing on Scollon & Scollon's (2003) framework of place semiotics and Backhaus's (2007) concept of multilingual writing types. I also explored the multifaceted intersections between language policy and planning, geosemiotics, and linguistic landscape. This research study specifically addresses the following four questions: (1) How is the MLL distributed in Taoyuan City, Taiwan? (2) How is the MLL implemented and regulated? Who are the agents and agencies responsible for the signs, and what kinds of signs have they created and implemented from the top-down and bottom-up? (3) How is the diversity of the MLL manifested in terms of code preference and multilingual writing types? and (4) How do community members perceive the MLL? To answer these questions, the research was carried out primarily in the following locations: (1) the Taoyuan Rear Station Shopping District, (2) the Zhongping Shopping District, (3) the Zhongzhen Shopping District, and (4) the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, as well as the two largest urban shopping centers in Zhongli and Taoyuan Districts. I also analyzed public signage on roads, streets, public transportation systems, and government buildings in the city. Fieldwork was conducted between 2017 and 2022, including the initial explorations of the research sites and follow-up visits to recruit participants and obtain additional data. The primary data collection took place between 2020 and 2021. I collected and categorized a total of 2,292 top-down and bottom-up signs. I also conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 community members and had informal conversations with many shop owners in Taoyuan City as part of the study. Throughout the field research, I engaged in non-participant observation in the selected research sites, took copious fieldnotes, and conducted archival research. The findings shed light on the complex relationship between national language policy and public signage in Taoyuan City. While Chinese and English have been visually prominent in both top-down and bottom-up signs, the new arrival of SEA immigrants, along with their native languages displayed in the public sphere, has created a new dynamic in Taiwan's MLL. The findings show that both top-down and bottom-up organizations are using the national language, Chinese, as the preferred code and English, the most popular and prestigious foreign language, as the secondary code on public signage. Overall, bottom-up signs were found to be more diverse and creative than top-down signs, while top-down signs appeared to use more consistent materials and colors. In terms of information displayed on the MLL, this study discovered that most top-down signs tended to display the same information in multiple languages, whereas bottom-up signs tended to display partial translations or transliterations, or entirely different information in multiple languages. Additionally, this study reveals that the majority of local residents (LRs) and new immigrants (NIs) support the MLL, believing it can benefit Taiwanese society economically, multiculturally, and internationally. In this way, Taoyuan City's MLL reflects not only the city's growing ethnic and cultural diversity, but also the city government's robust efforts to build a cohesive society and a welcoming international environment for Taiwan's diverse ethnic groups, as well as foreign visitors. Furthermore, this ethnographic study of Taoyuan City's MLL can generate supplemental materials for language teaching and learning in the classroom, exposing students and teachers to Taiwan's present-day multilingual and pluricultural reality. The MLL can also be used to teach the complexities of linguistic hierarchies and variation, as well as issues of bilingualism and multilingualism, in diverse educational settings. Therefore, the visual display of the MLL in Taoyuan City serves as an important resource for Taiwanese students, teachers, and other community members seeking to better understand the social structure of Taiwanese society, solidify their language and cultural appreciation, and broaden their worldviews in order to become global citizens in the twenty-first century. Further research into the MLL in other Taiwanese cities and counties is needed, as is further discussion about the maintenance of local linguistic identities in the face of the presence of foreign dominant languages, such as English, and Southeast Asian (SEA) immigrant languages promoted by Taiwan's national language policy in the public sphere.
This book shows that Taiwan, unlike other countries, avoided serious economic disruption and social conflict, and arrived at its goal of multi-party competition with little blood shed. Nonetheless, this survey reveals that for those who imagine democracy to be the panacea for every social, economic and political ill, Taiwan's continuing struggles against corruption, isolation and division offer a cautionary lesson. This book is an ideal, one-stop resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of political science, particuarly those interested in the international politics of China, and the Asia-Pacific.