The Development the National Language Movement in post-liberation Taiwan and its meaning

It could be stated that both hardline and moderate stances existed concerning the national language movement that was carried out in post-liberation Taiwan. The basic policy of national language dissemination established by the central organization for the project"s implementation, Tawan National Language Committee(臺灣省國語推行委員會) was “restoration of the status of dialects(方言) and the comparative learning of the national language through dialects.” Through this, the relationship between the standard language and regional dialects was recognized as complementary, and rather than enforcing learning of the national language, helping the Taiwanese people understand the national language naturally by restoring the linguistic connection between Taiwanese and the national language was considered the shortcut to national language dissemination. Conversely, the Office of Governor-General of Taiwan(臺灣省行政長官公署) adopted a stance that favored a transformation of the Taiwanese people toward “Dejapanization(脫日本化)” and “Resinicization(再中國化)” through compulsory dissemination of the national language. Accordingly, they decided to ban Japanese, which was used by the Taiwanese on a day-to-day basis, and immediately replace it with the national language. At this time, the national language could not yet fill the void left by the Japanese language, and the Taiwanese did not possess their own language through which they could express their culture and ideology. Without a doubt, this was a rigid linguistic policy that lacked consideration for the linguistic realities of the Taiwanese people. Consequently, the national language policy led by the latter caused a conflict that was reflected in the 2･28 incident, and the socio-political cracks that deepened further led to a stricter national language policy. Mandatory learning of the national language and its exclusive use in public spaces were enforced; in addition to the Japanese language, the use of Taiwanese, which was the mother tongue of the Taiwanese people, was also suppressed. Nevertheless, the impact of the national language dissemination project that was promoted by the TNLC could not be overlooked. It would not suffice to say that they played a subordinate role in the government"s rigid language policy despite adopting a distinct policy direction. In fact, the direction of the “comparative learning of the national language through dialects” was not specifically invented by them. When national language dissemination was promoted in postwar Taiwan, creating an integrated structure of segmented languages as part of the national language movement was still considered an important task, and the coexistence of a standard language and dialects was already a significant topic. The national language dissemination policy that was proposed by TNLC in postwar Taiwan reflected the experience of the previous national language movement and included a coexistence with dialects. The basis of Taiwan"s current linguistic structure in which the ideogram and system of phonetic representation coexist was established. In particular, Zhuyin characters(注音符號) are recognized as an achievement that has aided national language education in Taiwan. In this sense, while the post-Taiwanese national language movement had negative aspects that caused political and social cracks in the strict language policy, it could be argued that it contributed to the linguistic integration of Taiwanese society.