Note: This post would've been way too long, so I dropped the background to the bottom, but its a worthwhile read if you don't know anything about Taiwan.I am a product of a marriage between a Taiwanese and Taiwan-born Mainlander.
When I tell people this, sometimes they are surprised - their first remark is 'How could they fall in love?' or 'how could they get married?'
Perhaps this helps to illustrate the gap that exists between these peoples sharing an island.
My mother is the mainlander, and as such I was raised with Mandarin(國語
gouyu). I don't speak a word of Taiwanese (台語
taiyu), and I often joke about the words I understand - all 5 or 6 of them. Because of the language gap, I slowly feel like I'm becoming a complete foreigner in my home country. Its bad enough that my Mandarin is only so-so, and my reading is at like a 2nd or 3rd grade level, but as
taiyu becomes more and more prevalent in the country (encouraged by official use by the DPP party), I find increasingly myself clueless.
I'm currently in Taipei, which has the highest concentration of Mainlanders and their descendants on the island (something around 25% I think), so Mandarin is still commonly heard and still lingua franca... but when I visit Keelung (my father's family's home)
taiyu is the language of the day. Keelung is maybe 25 KM from Taipei, a coastal city, but almost everyone there speaks
taiyu, rather than
guoyu, in the home, in the workplace, everywhere.
My father's family is Taiwanese, and accordingly, they speak
taiyu. Accordingly, I am a stranger in my father's father's home. Sometimes my relatives use
taiyu to speak about me while I'm there. I can pick out the meaning occasionally due to inflection/body language, and
taiyu's similarities to
guoyu. I can only tell you how sad it makes me, it is something that you have to experience for youself.
At its current pace, Taiwanification is at a steady pace. I' suspect that within another 50 years, provided nothing drastic happens in the China sphere,
Taiyu will increasingly gain in popularity, especially if Taiwan is ever to declare statehood.
When that happens, can my own children ever come here and feel at home? I don't even plan on marrying Chinese, much less Taiwanese-Chinese, much further less ever teaching my kids
taiyu.
I'm scared that they can't.
Appendix.
Taiwan is a politically charged place. The last ~50 years of Taiwan have been linked with the Republic of China - R.O.C. While both indicate the same geographic region in the South China Sea, semantically they are very different.
When the KMT (at the time synonomous with the ROC) wasexpelled from Mainland China, it set up shop on Taiwan, planning to someday 'rightfully' return to China after a gigantic military show down. That showdown never happened.
The KMT's reign on Taiwan was authoritarian. While Taiwan benefitted from economic and land reforms, native Taiwanese (ethnically, the Hoklo sub-family of Han Chinese) were practically barred from participating in government and politics in general. Under the banner of martial law, political demonstrations for more civil rights were labled as subversive and 'dealt with as necessary', by military, secret police, and other governmental forces.
Under market pressures and other factors, the Republic modernized and awarded more and more rights to its citizens, slowly walking away from the dream of reconquering China. The KMT stopped 'meaning' R.O.C. and the Republic began to draw on Taiwanese locals since the Mainlanders were retiring/dying off.
the DPP, a 'Taiwanese Political Party' (as opposed to the KMT - a 'Mainlander Political Party') took the political reigns in 2000, by plurality (only took 40% of the vote) and won again in 2004 by less than 1% more than the KMT. The DPP is a liberal party, generally determined to gain self-determination for the Taiwanese people, although it is bound to practical considerations. (e.g. such as China getting mad)
The question is indepedence is a serious one - native taiwanese resent being held underfoot by the exiled mainlanders for 50 years, and see themselves as having a unique cultural heritage (China rarely convincely ruled Taiwan, even before the Japanese occupation 1895-1945) - further reinforced by language differences (Taiwanese speak Minnan, or S. Fujianese, whereas the exiled Mainlanders typically spoke Mandarin, and forced it upon their subjects)
In short, the Taiwanese and the Mainlanders are different people.
