Lawmakers from across party lines have come together to push for a law that would help stem the decline of the Hakka language in Taiwan.
The Hakka people are an ethnic Chinese subgroup found on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and in diaspora around the world. They have their own customs, cuisine, and language.
Hakka people account for roughly a fifth of Taiwan’s population. But decades of official promotion of Mandarin and migration away from Hakka-speaking villages has meant a sharp decline in the number of Hakka people who can speak their language.
Remedial measures, including teaching Hakka in schools, setting up Hakka-language mass media, enshrining the value of Hakka culture in the law, and setting up a ministry-level Hakka Affairs Council have done little to stem Hakka’s decline, as older speakers die and young Hakka people grow up with limited exposure to the language. The number of Hakka speakers in Taiwan declines by around 1.1% each year.
On Friday, a group of lawmakers, many Hakka people themselves, called for a law with provisions to help Hakka’s revival.
They held a press conference promoting their draft of such a law. In addition to lawmakers, representatives from the Hakka Affairs Council, academia, and private language revival groups attended.
At the event, Taiwan People’s Party lawmaker Lai Hsiang-Ling estimated that in 30 to 40 years, the Hakka language may only be spoken by 1% of Hakka people around the world. Lai said that to prevent this from happening, at least in Taiwan, the draft bill will use public funds for purposes including training Hakka language teachers, setting up Hakka language schools, and boosting the Hakka proficiency of civil servants and teachers.
KMT lawmaker Lin Szu-Ming voiced his support for the law’s quick review in remarks entirely in the Hakka language.
Meanwhile, New Power Party lawmaker Chiu Hsien-Chih, who is also Hakka, criticized the designation of Hakka and other non-Mandarin languages as mere “dialects”. Chiu also expressed concerns that the government’s goal of making Taiwan bilingual in English by 2030 could see Taiwan’s vulnerable local languages sidelined.