<div dir="ltr">
<div id="gmail-csm-page-top"><div id="ezve-r16-below-header-2" class="eznid-1009226"><div id="ezve-r16-below-header-2-block" class="ezc-csm_html_block ezn-R16_Top_Banner_Ad_Slot"><div id="gmail-ad-header" class="gmail-ad-wrapper"><span><br></span></div>
</div> </div>
</div>
<section>
<div id="gmail-story-content-bound">
<div class="gmail-row">
<h1 id="gmail-headline" class="eza-title gmail-medium-11 gmail-small-centered gmail-text-center">
The soft power of openness to other languages </h1>
</div>
<div class="gmail-row">
<div id="gmail-summary" class="eza-summary gmail-small-centered eza-body gmail-small-11">
<div>
<p>Taiwan has begun to officially recognize its various languages, a
sign of its values of openness and tolerance – and independence from
China and its imposed language policy.</p> </div>
</div>
</div>
<article id="gmail-story-content">
<div class="gmail-row">
<div id="gmail-main-media" class="gmail-small-11 gmail-small-centered gmail-large-9 gmail-columns">
</div></div></article></div></section><div class="gmail-row"><div id="gmail-main-media" class="gmail-small-11 gmail-small-centered gmail-large-9 gmail-columns"><div class="gmail-fullscreen">
<a title="full screen" tabindex="0"><i class="gmail-icon-fullscreen"></i></a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-row">
<section class="gmail-large-10 gmail-large-offset-1 gmail-small-centered gmail-float-left gmail-columns">
<p class="gmail-pubdata gmail-text-center">
<time id="gmail-date-published" class="eza-publish_date gmail-outer_block gmail-all_caps" datetime="2018-05-17T14:26:01-04:00" title="Published: May 17, 2018 2:26 pm EDT">May 17, 2018
</time>
</p>
<div class="gmail-story-head gmail-row">
<ul class="gmail-story-bylines gmail-small-centered gmail-medium-11 gmail-large-8 gmail-text-center">
<li class="gmail-author gmail-non-staff gmail-text-center">
<span>By </span> <span class="gmail-staff-name gmail-no-staffline">the Monitor's Editorial Board</span>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="gmail-row">
<div class="gmail-small-centered gmail-small-12 gmail-columns">
<div id="gmail-story-two" class="eza-body gmail-small-11 gmail-small-centered gmail-medium-10 gmail-large-12 gmail-deep-read gmail-story-body-toggle-content gmail-prem">
<p>A country’s attractiveness to the rest of the world
can come in many forms, such as cultural exports, foreign aid, high-tech
inventions, or its degree of freedom. One type of “soft power,”
however, is often overlooked: a generosity toward languages.</p><p>In
recent months, the island nation of Taiwan, which has been conquered by
several foreign forces in recent history, is moving fast to embrace its
language diversity. Last year, it gave “national status” to the mother
tongues of minority indigenous groups, many of whom live in the
mountains. And soon legislators are expected to define Taiwanese, which
is widely spoken, as a national language.</p><p>The move may seem
strange, but it is an effort to free Taiwan of a language imposed on it –
Mandarin Chinese – in 1949 when the army of Chiang Kai-shek fled from
the mainland to escape the takeover of China by the Communist Party.
Chiang tried to end the use of Taiwanese and other languages, enforcing
Mandarin in schools and official documents on the assumption that his
Nationalist Party would eventually rule the mainland again.</p><div class="gmail-injection gmail-ad-positioner"><div id="gmail-dynamicAdSlot1" class="gmail-ad-wrapper"><span><span id="gmail-dfp-dynamicAdSlot1"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/1010203/responsive_3__container__" style="border:0pt none;display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"></div></span><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/About/Contact/Feedback/About-these-Ads" class="gmail-ad-notice">About these ads</a></span></div></div><p>If
anything, it is now Beijing’s ruling party that is bearing down on
Taiwan and its 22 million people, claiming the island is simply a
renegade province. In recent months, China has sent war planes and naval
ships closer to the island’s maritime border.</p><p>Taiwan has never
officially declared independence out of fear of retribution from China.
Yet it has effectively claimed independence in other ways. Since 1987,
it has moved steadily toward democracy. It maintains diplomatic ties
with many nations. And now it has broadened its official languages
beyond Mandarin.</p><div id="gmail-story-half"></div><p>Its language policy is
in sharp contrast with that in China, where a law enacted in 2000
requires Mandarin as the sole national language – despite the presence
of more than 100 local languages. Beijing has imposed the language in
the classrooms of ethnic minorities and has jailed at least one
activist, in Tibet, who campaigned to maintain the local language. And
the policy has caused a backlash in Hong Kong, whose identity is
embedded in the Cantonese language.</p><p>Many nations, such as Canada
and India, have learned how to tolerate different languages while still
finding a way to conduct business and the work of government. Their
openness to other tongues is an attraction more than a nuisance,
especially in a global economy.</p></div></div></div></section></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>