From: chou@cs.washington.edu (Pai Hsiang Chou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: Unification
Date: 21 Jul 92 20:20:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: beaver.1992Jul21.202009.24700
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Jul21.160111.11297@cbfsb.cb.att.com> ykhsu@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (yung-kao.hsu) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.175728.29440@beaver.cs.washington.edu> chou@cs.washington.edu (Pai Hsiang Chou) writes:
>>
>>Besides school, media monopoly.  Before 1970, 50% of TV
>>airtime was HoLo.  In 1976, this dropped to 11%.  
>
>	50% seems to be too high a rate to be real. Being a kid
>	at the time, I watched a lot of TV and I can't believe
>	this number. Even you exclude programs in English (
>	sitcoms like Get Smart, Leave It To Biever, and some BBC
>	productions), 50% still seems to be too high a number to believe.
>
>Yung-Kao Hsu

I quoted the figure from Shirley Sun, Nov 29, 1992
"the mass media and languages."

The following is an excerpt from the book
_Taiwan_Language_Crisis_ by Professor Ang Uijin
(Hong2 Wei2Ren2) June 1991.  Translated without permission

--------
After TTV started broadcast service in 1962,
many Taiwanese-speaking performers joined the
TV.  During prime time over half of the shows
were in HoLo.  However, some WWII immigrants
protested.  Both Legislative Yuan and Jien-cha
Yuan concluded that (HoLo) Taiwanese was the
prime guilty obstacle in promoting Mandarin.

On December 1, 1972, the Ministry of Culture
formally ordered the three TV stations:

	"Starting this month, reduce airtime for 'dialect'
	programming; MinNanYu programs may not exceed
	one hour, and must be divided into two separate
	programs."

Suddenly Taiwanese language program shrank, causing
unemployment of many Taiwanese-speaking performers.

On January 8, 1976, Executive Yuan made broadcast/TV
code, ordering "broadcast stations are to use mostly
Mandarin, reducing the use of 'dialects' year by year,
not to exceed the ratio set by the News Bureau
as it sees needed."  The News Bureau then ordered
"In evening programming, the two HoLo half-hour shows
must be followed by a Mandarin show."  In order to
allocate airtime for =Koa-a.hi and \Poo.te.hi,
for a while these performers were forced to speak
Mandarin, making their shows ridiculous to watch.

Until November 2, 1987, News Bureau finally permitted
the addition of HoLo news programs, after much public
pressure.  Yet after over 15 years of banning,
they were unable to find qualified announcers.
Even though they used HoLo, the pronunciation was poor
and they announced using HoLo academic reading of
scripts written for Chinese, which native speakers were
unable to understand.

For many working class and farming people, Taiwanese-language
programming is their source of entertainment and window to
the world.  They are entitled to the right to enjoy the
programs.  The time quota of Broadcast 'dialect' code 
essentially deprive their right to entertainment and receiving
updated information, turning them into second or third class
citizens to be humble servants of the urban "high class"
citizens.  Their hard work deserve as much credit for today
Taiwan's prosperity, how cruel is it to repay them with
no dignity?

At least HoLo speakers had one hour of TV entertainment;
Hakka and Aboriginal speakers had none (until December 1990).

TV not only monopolize Taiwanese culture and entertainment,
also occupied young people's time.  When I [the author]
visited a Hakka family, the grandmother stared the TV
but was unable to understand a word, yet her grandchildren
were laughing hard that they completely ignored their
grandmother.  I [the author] don't know what alienation she
felt in her heart.

Hakka people's outcry was expressed in full in December 1990's
"Return my Mothertongue" large scaled movement.

The News Bureau, under the pressure, introduced one
Hakka program on Sunday from 8am-9am, to calm the Hakka
community.  Yet this pacifier contains heavy poligical
propaganda and still does not satisfy the Hakka people.
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan