Language Reform
Konrad Lawson, whom I’ve long known only as the person behind the Macintosh software company Fool’s Workshop, has an excellent blog, Muninn, which I will soon be adding to my blogroll. LanguageHat brought my attention to two posts in particular: One on the creation of the Qiang ethnic minority, and another on attempts at Chinese character reform in Taiwan!
I already posted in the comments to Konrad’s second post that the level of basic literacy in Taiwan was actually probably higher than that of Mainland China at the end of the war. Over 70% of the school aged population was attending school by the end of the War. Even though the numbers had been much, much, lower as recently as the 1920s the gains in basic education during the 30s were tremendous. In addition to primary schools there were also numerous programs to provide basic Japanese language skills to the adult population. But a much more important point is that, as my friend Ann Heylen has argued in her dissertation [”Language Reform Movements in Taiwan Under Japanese Colonial Rule (1914-1936).” Catholic University Louvain (K.U.Leuven), 2001.], language reform had been a major concern of Taiwanese intellectuals during the Japanese era. Here is what she has to say:
Focusing on Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule, I shall demonstrate that this period gave birth to the linguistic underpinnings of present day Taiwanese nationalism. It found its expression in the Taiwanese elitist attempts at Chinese language reform during the 1920s and 1930s. I shall further assert that this social phenomenon was intrinsically related to colonial educational policies. The important factor was not the vehement implementation of the Japanese language, but the institutionalization of instruction in Southern Min as the intermediary language for the study of Japanese. This resulted from the Japanese educational accommodation to the linguistic reality in Taiwan, which was necessitated by the linguistic make up of pre- 1895 Taiwan society. In this respect, Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan indirectly incorporated Southern Min as a social reality in its colonization process. (p. 30-31)
Anyone interested in these issues should definitely read Ann’s thesis. Japanese era language reform issues are also discussed in Hsiau, A-chin’s excellent book: Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism (London: Routledge, 2000). A-chin’s account of Japanese era reform movements provides a brief introduction to the issues raised in Ann’s dissertation, but I believe Ann rightly criticizes this section of the book for giving short shift to the role played by Japanese language education policy upon the reform movement.
In 2000 Ann wrote an editorial in the Taipei Times placing contemporary language reforms in a historical perspective. Unfortunately, the space limitations of this format prevented her from presenting her argument in its full complexity.
UPDATE: It is worth reading how Konrad chose the name of his site.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Here is the English title of that Columbia Ph.D. dissertation:
Lin, Mosei. Public Education in Formosa Under the Japanese Administration: a Historical and Analytical Study of the Development and the Cultural Problems. 1929.
They have it up at Columbia, but I haven’t yet had time to go read it. I did, however, see someone give a talk about it. Maybe the person who translated it into Chinese?
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
Great posting Kerim. Also some great references for further info. I have emailed Sugano a link to this entry and the references for any further research he might do on Taiwanese language issues. The only thing I have looked at which brushes the issue so far is the Taiwanese work Riben Tongzhixia Taiwan de Xuexiao Jiaoyu (Official English title is Public Education in Formosa under the Japanese Administration). While not much use now, what is interesting about this work is that it is an old dissertation submitted at Columbia U in 1929. Interesting “in the moment” look…
Last time I was in Taipei I saw a number of recent publications on language and education issues during the colonial period but probably won’t be studying this myself. I did however, really enjoy the difficult but fascinating recent work “Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation” by Leo T. S. Ching which confronts the identity issues.