Essays on Writing and Language in Honor - Sino-Platonic Papers

Sino-Platonic Papers, 27 (August 3 1, 199 1)
The writer's observation suppoas the general view that Taiwan has been much more
successful in implementing the policy of promoting Mandarin than either Fujian or Guangdong
Province in China. Assuming this is true, there are several contributing factors to this situation:
a. The Taiwan government has better facilities for promoting Mandarin; including
the school system and mass media such as T.V., radio, newspapers, and magazines.
b. Convenient transportation and communication make it possible for individuals to
contact other people beyond their own speech communities.
c. On average, the level of education is much higher in Taiwan than in China. Since
the medium of instruction must be Mandarin, people in Taiwan have more years
of compulsory use of Mandarin.
d. Taiwan has a higher proportion of 'outsiders', 10-15% who speak Mandarin as
their main language; and it is significant that the political elite belong to this
group. In Fujian Rovince, outsiders are far fewer in number and do not
necessarily have political power.
e. In Taiwan, because of the higher degree of modernization and the prior experience
of learning Japanese, the population is more prepared to learn a second language,
partly to enhance their individual economic opportunities, as well as other
motivations.
f. The ideological difference between Taiwan and the PRC seems to play a role in
the more successful implementation of the policy to promote Mandarin in Taiwan
as compared to Fujian Province. Taiwan is a competitive society in which people
strive to climb the social ladder, especially in education. Since Mandarin is a
necessary tool to success in school, the incentive is there to learn and use
Mandarin. In China, at least in theory, the equality and dignity of the working
class is stressed and the reward system in effect over the past two decades did not
favor individuals who did well in school. Members of the working class who do
not do well in school cannot be too ill-treated from the communist ideological
viewpoint. There might even be some motivation to identify oneself with the
farmers and workers who speak the local vernacular rather than Mandarin. The
incentive to speak Mandarin might be low if it suggested identification with the
educated class.
g.
Finally, and in my view the most important, the promotion of Mandarin benefits
those in power in Taiwan much more than it benefits those in power in Fujian
Province or in Beijing. This was most obvious in the early stages of promoting
Mandarin, during which local Taiwanese barely spoke any Mandarin, and thus
hardly ever rose to important positions in government or in government-run