Cultural Discourse in Taiwan. Ed. Chin-Chuan Cheng, I-Chun Wang, and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek.

The collected volume Cultural Discourse in Taiwan — edited by Chin-Chuan Cheng, I-Chun Wang, and Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and published by National Sun Yat-sen Uiniversity Press in 2009 — is intended as an addition to scholarship in the field of Taiwan Studies. The articles in the volume are in many aspects comparative and the topics discussed are in the context of literary and culture scholarship. At the same time, the volume is interdisciplinary as the articles cover historical perspectives, analyses of texts by Taiwan authors, and cultural discourse as related to Taiwan consciousness, language, and linguistic issues. Copyright release to the authors

Language maintenance through primary school education: the case of Daighi

Ongoing language shift to Taiwanese Mandarin is a pressing concern in Taiwan. With the concerns of losing the rich linguistic and cultural assets of Taiwan’s multilingual society, this study sets out to explore the language maintenance endeavours in primary schools, focusing on Daighi. Exploration of language attitudes is the angle this study adopts to approach language shift, looking specifically at whether language attitudes are promoted through the mandatory local languages class at primary school level. However, a large piece of the picture would be missed without the evaluation of the context, which is crucial to understand Daighi’s position. Sociocultural theory is then adopted as an analytical lens to view teachers’ practices as mediated actions, and to make visible the impact of context in Daighi maintenance. Interviews are used to explore the insights of the frontline Daighi teachers, and Daighi classes of these teachers are observed to investigate their practices, and to match these with their perceptions. In spite of the good teaching practices found at schools and attitudes to support language maintenance, there is still a gap in terms of actual language maintenance, which is defined as developing students to become functional bilinguals (Li Wei, 2006). It is possible that language maintenance is not best achieved by focusing on classroom practice alone. The Discussion Chapter then presents the mediators from global level, national level to classroom, students and teacher agency. Language policy, educational system, and perceived language attitudes of the government, local authority, school, colleagues, family and students emerge as influential mediators that contribute to the ongoing language shift to Taiwanese Mandarin. This study provides an analytical insight into Taiwanese local language education and language attitudes. Through engaging with the teachers, it also inspired critical reflections of their own practices. The findings of this study demonstrate an in-depth understanding of Daighi maintenance and shift, and provide a starting point for further research in Daighi, and in the area of language maintenance in multilingual settings

The evolution of the relationship between language and identity politics in contemporary Taiwan

There exists a wide literature on Taiwanese identity. However, less research has been conducted into how language practices and policies have impacted upon Taiwanese identity, that is, the feeling of commonality amongst all those living in Taiwan. This thesis will evaluate the role of language in the evolution of national identity in Taiwan. Through review of Taiwan’s various historical periods, the European, Qing Dynasty, Japanese and then the authoritarian Kuomintang rule this thesis will show how the role of local languages and Mandarin has evolved in Taiwan. Via analysis of survey data and features of the written and spoken language from the March 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, this thesis argues that in the contemporary era local languages are now a symbolic part of identity while Standard Taiwanese Mandarin has now been accepted as a language of Taiwan. This thesis further argues that the non-linguistic aspects of national identity have become increasingly important. These include identifying with the place Taiwan, respecting Taiwan’s democratic institutions and looking forward to Taiwan’s future. This thesis adds nuance to the wide body of research discussing the relationship between language and national identity

Translators' and target readers' reconstruction of regionalism in Taiwan's regional prose literature

The object of this research is to investigate the dynamic nature of identity construction of a regional place in English translations. The study focuses on the analysis of Wang Zhenhe’s works in translation. The Regional Prose Literature of Taiwan was developed when writers began to examine their identity and sense of belonging under Japanese colonization (1895-1945) and later the rule of the Nationalist government under Martial Law (1949-1987) by using narrative and descriptive prose as a vehicle for presenting the distinctiveness of the island. The dialects, the colonial language, local customs and scenes which regional writers created in their stories brought out what they saw as the uniqueness of Taiwan identity. However, Taiwan, like Hong Kong, has been categorized by many scholars as part of the Han-Chinese-influenced region, which shares the same cultural identity. Translating Taiwan, therefore, depends on how a translator understands and (re)constructs its cultural and political discourse in translation. This thesis uses a cognitive-pragmatic model (CPM) to describe how a translation of regional prose literature communicates to readers of the target culture. The CPM in translation studies looks at translation from the aspects of literary communication and the comprehension process. It enables the researcher (1) to study the textual signals of a place which readers used to construct the text of the source cultural world; (2) to examine how these signals were conveyed in the target text; (3) to study the likely effects on specific readers who have little or no knowledge of the source text culture. The major finding of this study is that communication through translated literature depends not only on the translator’s roles as a reader and a rewriter, but also on target readers’ processing effort and literary competence. Textual analysis shows that the translators’ decisions on conveying regional signals in translations often affect readers’ comprehension of the target text (TT). When the translation is too literal and the cultural signal is unfamiliar to the target readers, those who have little or no knowledge of Taiwan have more difficulties understanding the text. Reader response studies also show that the use of footnotes in the literary translation is not always unacceptable by the readers when specific regional elements are preserved in the TT. Target readers’ reception of cultural signals relies firstly on their existing knowledge and secondly on the information they receive from the translation. Effective communication therefore results from a translator’s assumption of target readers’ schemas and efforts in making the translation comprehensible and coherent, especially when there are regional elements in the translation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Translators' and target readers' reconstruction of regionalism in Taiwan's regional prose literature

The object of this research is to investigate the dynamic nature of identity construction of a regional place in English translations. The study focuses on the analysis of Wang Zhenhe’s works in translation. The Regional Prose Literature of Taiwan was developed when writers began to examine their identity and sense of belonging under Japanese colonization (1895-1945) and later the rule of the Nationalist government under Martial Law (1949-1987) by using narrative and descriptive prose as a vehicle for presenting the distinctiveness of the island. The dialects, the colonial language, local customs and scenes which regional writers created in their stories brought out what they saw as the uniqueness of Taiwan identity. However, Taiwan, like Hong Kong, has been categorized by many scholars as part of the Han-Chinese-influenced region, which shares the same cultural identity. Translating Taiwan, therefore, depends on how a translator understands and (re)constructs its cultural and political discourse in translation. This thesis uses a cognitive-pragmatic model (CPM) to describe how a translation of regional prose literature communicates to readers of the target culture. The CPM in translation studies looks at translation from the aspects of literary communication and the comprehension process. It enables the researcher (1) to study the textual signals of a place which readers used to construct the text of the source cultural world; (2) to examine how these signals were conveyed in the target text; (3) to study the likely effects on specific readers who have little or no knowledge of the source text culture. The major finding of this study is that communication through translated literature depends not only on the translator’s roles as a reader and a rewriter, but also on target readers’ processing effort and literary competence. Textual analysis shows that the translators’ decisions on conveying regional signals in translations often affect readers’ comprehension of the target text (TT). When the translation is too literal and the cultural signal is unfamiliar to the target readers, those who have little or no knowledge of Taiwan have more difficulties understanding the text. Reader response studies also show that the use of footnotes in the literary translation is not always unacceptable by the readers when specific regional elements are preserved in the TT. Target readers’ reception of cultural signals relies firstly on their existing knowledge and secondly on the information they receive from the translation. Effective communication therefore results from a translator’s assumption of target readers’ schemas and efforts in making the translation comprehensible and coherent, especially when there are regional elements in the translation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

INTERCULTURAL TEAM TEACHING: A STUDY OF LOCAL AND FOREIGN EFL TEACHERS IN TAIWAN

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

In and Out of Suriname

This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access In and Out of Suriname: Language, Mobility and Identity offers a fresh multidisciplinary approach to multilingual Surinamese society, that breaks through the notion of bounded ethnicity enshrined in historical and ethnographic literature on Suriname

Mandarin Chinese community schooling in England: Language, culture and pupils’ identities

This qualitative ethnographic study adopts a social constructionist approach to investigate the significance of Chinese community schooling in the lives of pupils, parents and school staff. The study is important because it challenges homogenous and stereotypical constructions of Chinese language, culture, and identity evident in some previous studies, and promoted in the media. Several key findings emerged from the study. First, pupils and adults understood language learning as the main focus of Chinese community schooling, whether focused on learning Mandarin, or English for Chinese-migrant pupils. Second, pupils and adults valued the role of the school as capital in various forms (i.e., social, economic, and cultural). Third, a contrast emerged between the focus of the schools on Mandarin as dominant Chinese language and the diversity of Chinese languages spoken by pupils and adults (e.g., Hakka and Cantonese). Fourth, pupils valued the transmission of Chinese culture but, unlike the adults, they were interested in its meaning for their family histories and identities rather than in the interiorisation of values. Finally, community schooling played a positive role in pupils' lives as it encouraged them to claim the right to construct their identity as Chinese, regardless of their spoken language(s), their life trajectories, and family background. Overall, this study has shown that Chinese community schools are linguistically and culturally varied spaces where pupils and adults coconstruct concepts of Chinese language and culture that are both informed by their life trajectories and ideologically charged. Furthermore, the schools are spaces that encourage intercultural encounters and, as such, are sites for intercultural awareness and development rather than “ethnic enclaves”. The study provides valuable insights for researchers in the areas of international and intercultural Chinese language education and researching multilingually. Also, the findings offer insights for researchers, educators, policy makers, and the parents and children participating in the life of the schools to better understand the phenomenon of Chinese language community schooling

Taiwanese indigenous representation, rhetoric of resistance, and heteroglossia in warriors of the rainbow: SEEDIQ bale.

This dissertation explores the relationship between Taiwanese indigenous narrative and rhetoric, in textual representations of the Seediq people and the 1930 Musha Incident. It explores how the forced colonization of Taiwanese indigenous people affected their identities and cultural representation, and how multi-voiced forms of narrative, storytelling, and meaning-making have rooted in indigenous oral traditions and rituals that counter colonial representations. Across a range of cultural texts, I identify what I call Taiwanese indigenous rhetoric of resistance (TIRR), drawing on Simon J. Ortiz’s theory of indigenous literature and oral traditions as indigenous-nationalist forms of cultural resistance. In addition, I draw on New Rhetoric scholarship to position TIRR within a broader rhetorical framework, to analyze the relationship between heteroglossia, Taiwanese indigenous narratives and the interplay of various textual, media, filmic, ritual (semiotic), graphic, and documentary forms. For the methodology of this dissertation, I incorporate New Rhetoric scholarship, Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia, and Chadwick Allen’s trans-Indigenous methodologies to analyze rhetorics of resistance in the literary and cultural representation of Taiwanese indigenous history and culture. Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia recognizes how the voices and languages of different (marginalized) ethnic groups represent themselves. Different indigenous nations in Taiwan, such as the Seediq, Tsou, and Atayal, have found various forms to express indigenous rhetorics of resistance against authoritative discourses and master narratives invented by imperial Chinese and Japanese colonial authorities, including the colonial rhetoric of “savages” versus “civilization.” In Chapter Three, I analyze the retellings of the historical Musha Incident—the 1930 uprising of the Seediq people against colonial Japanese forces. From Seediq perspectives, I argue that representations of the Musha Incident which challenge the academic and political authorities of authors, institutions, and governments that created falsehood, propaganda, self-interests, and inhumanity. In Chapter Four, I argue that Seediq oral tradition forms the basis of a range of heteroglossic narratives that represent Seediq rituals and ways of life that constitute a rhetoric of resistance against the Japanese forced colonization. As represented in different texts and films, Seediq signs including symbols, rituals, and artifacts constitute a multi-voiced discourse that expresses the tensions between colonizers and the oppressed. In Chapter Five, I argue that to engage with these representations of Taiwanese indigenous culture articulates a vision for different ethnicities (Aborigine, Hoklo, Hakka, or Chinese) to co-exist in Taiwan, and to protect their respective ways of life, against the danger of a single-voiced political system that dictates Taiwanese society and its constituent communities. Further, it is imperative that the multiple voices that represent Taiwan’s ethnic diversity can grow and be heard to express their cultural identities and representations. I conclude that these continuous rhetorics of resistance against forced colonization may help Taiwanese Indigenous peoples and all readers of these texts to envision “a new society” for the future, at a time of increased democracy in Taiwan