{"id":65115,"date":"2024-07-25T16:13:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=65115"},"modified":"2024-07-25T16:35:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:35:31","slug":"english-usage-in-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=65115","title":{"rendered":"English usage in Taiwan"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a Facebook page<\/a> with Army background in Taiwan:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFacebook page for Voice of Han<\/a> Broadcasting Network
\n(\u6f22\u8072\u5ee3\u64ad\u96fb\u53f0 h\u00e0nsh\u0113ng gu\u01cengb\u014d di\u00e0nt\u00e1i)
\nfrom Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense<\/small><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The large lettering on the poster reads:<\/p>\n

z\u01ceo \u0101n
\nb\u00f9 w\u00e8i f\u0113ngy\u01d4
\nd\u014du sh\u00ec weather n\u01d0<\/p>\n

\u65e9\u5b89
\n\u4e0d\u754f\u98a8\u96e8\uff0c
\n\u90fd\u662fweather\u4f60<\/p>\n

Good morning
\nNot afraid of wind or rain
\nIt's all for you<\/p>\n

The \"weather\" is a crosslingual pun for\u00a0w\u00e8ile \u70ba\u4e86 (\"for; on behalf of\").<\/p>\n

You can see that the soldiers are all decked out for inclement weather, which comes a lot in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The poster is part of the publicity for the Han Kuang Exercise, which is going on right now (Monday, Jul 22, 2024 \u2013 Friday, Jul 26, 2024).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Han Kuang Exercise<\/b>\u00a0(Chinese:\u00a0\u6f22\u5149\u6f14\u7fd2<\/span>;\u00a0pinyin:\u00a0H\u00e0ngu\u0101ng Y\u01cenx\u00ed<\/span><\/i>) is the annual\u00a0military exercise\u00a0of the\u00a0Republic of China Armed Forces\u00a0in\u00a0Taiwan,\u00a0Penghu,\u00a0Kinmen\u00a0and\u00a0Matsu\u00a0for combat readiness in the event of an attack from the\u00a0People's Liberation Army\u00a0of the\u00a0People's Republic of China.
\n<\/sup>(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

For those who are curious, \"Han Kuang\" superficially means \"light \/ glory of Han\", but in the context of the Han Kuang Exercise, its authoritative intent originally was\u00a0D\u00e0h\u00e0n\u00a0gu\u0101ngf\u00f9 \u5927\u6f22\u5149\u5fa9 (\"gloriously restore the Great Han\").\u00a0 That harkened back to the\u00a0Han Dynasty<\/a>\u00a0(202 BC-25-220 AD), but, in the context of the ROC-PRC confrontation, it had the implication of \"retake the mainland\".\u00a0 That was clearly the sentiment of the KMT (Nationalist) government and the couple of million people from the mainland who accompanied Chiang Kai-shek when he retreated with his armies to Taiwan when the communists conquered China.\u00a0 After the KMT lost its dominance over the island nation to the Taiwanese majority DPP (Democratic Progressive Party<\/a>) at the beginning of the new millennium, the Han Kuang Exercise — regardless of the original intent of the name — was reinterpreted to emphasize the strongest possible defensive posture against the threat of an attack by the PRC \/ CCP.\u00a0 (source<\/a>, especially note 1)<\/p>\n

This year the Han Kuang Exercise has particular poignancy and urgency because of the heightened tensions in the region and the ever increasing hostility of the mainland military forces.<\/p>\n

Aside from the crosslingual pun involving \"weather\" that I explained above, there's another very important linguistic aspect to the Han Kuang Exercise that I almost neglected to mention.\u00a0 Namely, the Han Kuang Exercise is carried out bilingually, in \"Chinese\" and English.\u00a0 I would hope that \"Chinese\" means that the written components of the war games are in Mandarin, but that the spoken components include Taiwanese and other languages of Taiwan.<\/p>\n

I have on several occasions mentioned that the government of Taiwan during the 21st century has made it clear that it wishes to make English an official language of the country.\u00a0 The fact that the Han Kuang Exercise is conducted in \"Chinese\" and English is solid evidence of working toward the realization of this goal.<\/p>\n

Selected readings
\n<\/b><\/p>\n