摘要:
(以下引用作者英文摘要)
The concept of “national language” was an invention closely associated with the advent of national states in modern times. In the last hundred years Taiwanese collectively experienced two national-language movements. The first one took place in the Japanese colonial period; the second occurred when Taiwan was taken over by the Nationalist government of China. The two movements promoted respectively Japanese and Mandarin. Both languages were no mother tongues of Taiwanese of Fukien origins, Hakkas or the aborigines. This article analyzes the first Taiwanese experience of speaking a national language.
Before the Japanese language was introduced to the island by the colonizer, Taiwan was a society where different ethnic groups spoke their own languages——Fukienese, Hakka and Austronesian languages. The main goal of Japanese colonial education in Taiwan was to teach Taiwanese the Japanese language——the kokugo. Through the elementary school system and outside-school language programs, the number of Taiwanese who were able to converse in Japanese increased as time progressed, thus bringing into existence a bilingual society.
In 1937 the colonial government embarked on a complete Japanization movement known as the kominka undo, one major goal of which was to transform Taiwan into a monolingual society where Japanese would be spoken by all. According to an official estimate, by the end of 1943 the population of “national-language speakers” exceeded 80% of the total population. In spite of possible inflation in this estimate, Japanese had become the “common language” among the young generation of Taiwanese at the end of World War II.
Japan’s surrender brought an abrupt end to the first national language movement, while a new one awaited the Taiwanese. Japanese-educated Taiwanese suffered tremendously in postwar Taiwan when Mandarin replaced Japanese as the national language. They became functionally illiterate. Under the political atmosphere of Nationalist rule, it is not exaggerating to say that they were a muted generation. When Taiwan went through a political liberation in the late 1980s, its languages went through a “language liberation.” With the rise of Taiwanese nationalism in opposition to Chinese nationalism, the relationship between Fukienese and Mandarin has become in a tense relationship. It remains to be seen whether Mandarin will lose its status as the national language of Taiwan.
Key Words: national language, national-language movement, kominka movement, sociolinguistics
心得:
作者在文中析論日治時期台灣人第一次集體的國語經驗,對台灣語言、族群及國家認同有深遠的影響。文中雖然不提"非專家無法置喙的原住民的語言問題"(頁115),是以講台灣話(泉漳混合的台灣閩南語)及客語的台灣人為主,所敘及的歷史現象卻是包括原住民族等台灣島上所有族群共同經歷的"國語"意識的形成。
依據本人,日本殖民政府推展日語=國語的重要時間點如下:
1895-確立以日語為中心殖民台灣
1896-成立國語學校,全島設置14所國語傳習所
1898-設立台灣公學校(小學)
1929-設立國語講習所及簡易國語講習所
1937-開始皇民化運動,擴展日語的使用場域(正式及非正式場合都要講)、表揚國語家庭(由上而下)及國語部落(由下而上)、一掃日語不解者、堅持純正日語及推崇純正日語。
1945-轉換政權及"國語"
一系列政策下來,使得會說日語的台灣人從1905年的0.38%到1943年的80%以上,儘管作者也另文質疑這些數據的可靠性,也不得不說日語=國語的成功。
尤其成功的是,台灣人因此深深地接受國語觀念,以至於轉換政權之後,雖然從日語=國語過渡到漢語=國語也需適應,但"當國民政府要台灣人改學中國國語時,一般人自然而然就接受了"。
要說本文是在推崇日語=國語運動的成功,不如說作者反而是從語言檢視殖民者如何形塑被殖民者的意識,當殖民的事實取消之後,被殖民者的群體意識也因著殖民期間"國語"意識的培養而形成,只是現在不是日本人,而是台灣人的群體意識。
不過,終究"國語"是個霸權的想法,作者最後問不知是否可能突破國語的需要,而用共同話或官話來取代滿足溝通的需求,但維持多語的環境。
我讀這篇文章除了感謝作者清楚介紹日治時期的國語運動,也在想既然這樣的國語運動這麼成功,我們是否也可以如法炮製,放在族語運動上,也許不到四十年,我們會說族語的人口也會增加?表揚族語家庭及族語部落其實是不錯的方法。應該可以嘗試。
