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Taipei: Hakka Affairs Council working to save endangered dialects

#585 - 5--Amministratur--Taipei: Hakka Affairs Council working to save endangered dialects--2004-12-17 02:34:19

#Taipei - The Cabinet-level Council for Hakka Affairs (CHA) is sponsoring the establishment of three language teaching centers around Taiwan in an effort to save the endangered dialects of the Hakka language. Three of the five major Hakka dialects, namely the Rao-ping, Dah-pu and Shao-an dialects, are on the verge of dying out in Taiwan as few people speak them. Most of Taiwan's Hakka people, numbering about 3 million, speak one of the two other major dialects, namely the Si-hsien or Hai-lu dialects. Former CHA Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan once said that the endangered Hakka dialects, particularly the Shao-an dialect, are like Taiwan's endemic land-locked salmon which faces extinction if replenishment action is not taken to save it. The first of the three proposed Hakka dialect teaching centers was formally inaugurated at Tunghsing Elementary School in the rural township of Lunpei in Yunlin County Wednesday in a ceremony presided over by CHA Vice Chairman Chuang Ching-hua. Chuang said the tasks of the center will include teaching the Shao-an dialect, compiling a Shao-an dictionary, and setting up a cyber data bank and a teaching corner on Hakka language and culture in general and the Shao-an dialect in particular. The two other Hakka language teaching centers are expected to be inaugurated later this month in Hsinchu City and Taichung County, respectively, Chuang noted. Also speaking at the ceremony, Tunghsing Elementary School principal Chen Hsin-huang said that Hakka people of Shao-an origin mostly reside in the rural townships of Siluo, Erlun and Lunpei in the south-central county of Yunlin. Only the elderly Hakka people there know how to speak the Shao-an dialect, he noted. Chen pointed out that the Shao-an dialect contains many words and pronunciations that are similar to languages that originated in central mainland China, including the Hoklo dialect on which Taiwanese is based. He said this proves that the Hakka people and the Taiwanese people have common ancestors who came from central China near the Yellow River. To beef up the language center, Chen said, teachers and volunteers will also step up field studies and material collections in an effort to preserve the Hakka culture as much as possible. Although there isn't an exact figure on the Hakka population in Taiwan, the Hakka people are believed to number at least 2.86 million. After a detailed survey of residents of 368 cities, counties and townships nationwide over the past year, the CHA found that the number of Hakka people and people of Hakka origin in Taiwan totals 6.08 million, representing 26.9 percent of the country's entire population. According to the survey, about 1.66 million people in Taiwan who are of Hakka origin had not been considered as Hakka people. Of these people, many cannot speak any of the Hakka dialects. Some 42.5 percent of the survey respondents said that only those people who are of Hakka origin and can speak a Hakka dialect can be considered Hakka. In addition, 85 percent of the Hakka people think that their mother tongue has increasingly lost ground in Taiwan due to a variety of factors. About 72 percent of the Hakka people surveyed said they are proud to be Hakka, although 46 percent said that they would not mention their ethnic origin without first being asked. The Hakka people, whose ancestors originated in central China more than 1,000 years ago, have been scattered around the world since the early 19th century due to their trademark characteristics of hard-work and perseverance. Last year, three top political leaders in Taiwan discovered that they all have Hakka ancestors from the same area in today's Zhaoan County in the mainland Chinese province of Fujian. After a series of activities heralding Hakka culture, President Chen Shui-bian had his ancestry traced back to the village of Baiye in Taiping Township, Zhaoan County. According to the Chen clan family tree records, President Chen is a descendant of the first official dispatched by the Tang emperor to explore the southern lands during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). President Chen is the ninth generation offspring of Chen Wu (1739-1796) , the first Chen ancestor to cross the Taiwan Strait and settle in Taiwan, according to the Chen family tree. Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu said in January 2003 that she is half Hakka as her ancestors on her mother's side came from Zhaoan, which is a well-known Hakka area. "Hakka" means "the guest people" in Mandarin Chinese. The Hakka people were so defined during the Yuan Dynasty (1277-1367) when residents from central and north-central China fled to the south to escape famine and calamity. Premier Yu Shyi-kun's ancestors have been traced to a village only some 12 kilometers from where the president's ancestors resided.

Funt: english.www.gov.tw
Autur: Deborah Kuo - --comments-->0--830--3