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Localization (本土化 Pinyin: Bentǔ huà) is a political term used within Taiwan to support the view of Taiwan as a centered place rather than as solely an appendage of China. This involves the teaching of Taiwanese history, geography, and culture from a local perspective, as well as promoting languages native to Taiwan, including Holo, Hakka and aboriginal languages. Although originally part of the Taiwan independence movement, its aims are now largely also endorsed by supporters of Chinese reunification on Taiwan. In its rejection of a monolithic officially sponsored Han Chinese identity in favor of one rooted in local culture, it bears some resemblance to the Xungen movement in Mainland China.
1 Effects
The localization movement has been expressed in forms such as the use of Holo in the broadcast media and entire channels devoted to aboriginal and Hakka affairs.
Textbooks have been rewritten by scholars to more prominently emphasize Taiwan. The political compromise that has been reached is to teach both the history of Taiwan and the history of mainland China and to avoid as much as possible the issue of whether Taiwan is or is not part of China.
2 History
The roots of the localization movement began during the Japanese era in Taiwan 1895Events January events January 5 Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. February events February 14 First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnes to 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II:, when groups organized to lobby the imperial government for greater Taiwanese autonomy and home rule. After the arrival of the KuomintangThe Kuomintang (KMT; Traditional Chinese: Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo Guomindng; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo Kuo-min-tang; Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguo Guomindang; literally the National People's Party of China , also known as the Nationalist Party is a political party on Taiwan, the Taiwan home-rule groups were decimated in the wake of the 228 Massacre of 1947Events January January 1 British mines nationalized January 1 Nigeria gains limited autonomy January 1 The Canadian Citizenship Act went into effect January 3 Proceedings of the United States Congress are televised for the first time. January 10 United Na. The Kuomintang viewed Taiwan primarily as a base to retake the Mainland and quickly tried to subdue potential political opposition on the island. The Kuomintang did little to assimilate into Taiwanese society, often MainlanderMainlander s are those humans who live, or were born, in a mainland. Implicit in the term, needless to say, is its defining opposite, islanders''. There are no "mainlanders" in Utah. Around the globe "mainlander' has many connotations. Chinese mainlanderss lived in vacated Japanese neighborhoods where they were segregated from the Taiwanese. They continued to dress and speak differently while forcing policies on the Taiwanese to help the majority assimilate into the minority culture. The promotion of Chinese nationalismMay Fourth Movement in 1919 marked the beginning of the upsurge of nationalist feeling in China. Chinese nationalism refers to cultural, historiographical, and political theories, movements and beliefs that assert the idea of a cohesive, unified Chinese p within Taiwan and the fact that the ruling group on Taiwan were considered outsiders led to some support for Taiwanese independence movement which had originated in the period of Japanese rule.
In the 1970s and 1980s there was a shift in power away from the Mainlanders to local Taiwanese. This, combined with cultural liberalization and the increasing remoteness of the possibility of retaking the Mainland, led to a cultural and political movement which emphasized a Taiwan-centered view of history and culture rather than one which was China-centered. Localization was strongly supported by President Lee Teng-hui.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, the trend toward localization was also co-opted by pro-unification groups who, while supporting Chinese nationalism, also began to regard the actions of Chiang Kai-shek in the 1950s and 1960s as excessive. Morever, many prominent pro-unification politicians, most notable James Soong, former head of the Government Information Office, who once banned the language in the electronic media, began taking the habit of speaking in Holo on semi-formal occasions.
