In engaging with this week’s theme of citizen sociolinguistic narratives, I wanted to share the YouTuber SuperAwesome’s video “As a Taiwanese person, do you know what a ‘Taiwanese accent’ is?” (original title: 身為台灣人 你懂什麼是「台灣腔」嗎？; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFEV_sz3te0).
Rymes points out that citizen sociolinguists possess at least two types of knowledge regarding accents: “People must know enough about language to recognize differences in ways of speaking…people must also know how their peers ascribe value to those differences in order for them to count as socially meaningful ‘accents’” (ms, Chapter 5, p. 5). SuperAwesome demonstrates both of these knowledges in his introduction:
(Basic translation by me. ALL CAPS = English. Italics = speaking with a “Taiwanese Mandarin” accent – Taiwanese Mandarin as described in this transcription is a low-prestige style of Mandarin spoken in Taiwan and is distinctly different from the more prestigious Taiwanese-accented Mandarin, which is the topic at hand. Bold = speaking in Taiwanese Hokkien.)
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0:00-0:12
HELLO GUYS. Recently I saw a video of a Chinese (national) person imitating a Taiwanese accent. I thought it was very interesting. But I discovered that no one has ever made a tutorial video on YouTube. So today I’m going to teach everyone how to speak with a Taiwanese accent.
0:19-0:50
People who aren’t very familiar with Taiwan might think that a Taiwanese accent is in fact just Taiwanese Mandarin, but actually Taiwanese Mandarin is what my grandfather and grandmother speak. Taiwanese Mandarin is a very very awesome Mandarin created from the combination of Taiwanese Hokkien and Japanese*. But now no one likes to speak it because it sounds very low-class. Actually what I want to teach everyone today is the modern Taiwanese accent. The following are some of what I know to be special features of how Taiwanese people speak. Why do some people say that Taiwanese people are especially friendly and especially warm when we speak? It’s because we speak just like our words, all stuck together. I offer some examples in the following.
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*SuperAwesome uses the Japanese term for “Japanese” (nihongo) here with a performative Taiwanese Hokkien accent – something I’m actually really interested in but isn’t very relevant to this blog post.
Before I get into the comments, what is interesting about this video is that it was actually uploaded at least twice on YouTube. There is the original video that SuperAwesome published with approximately 769,304 views which I linked above, and there is also a second version with 665,886 views from the Taiwanese news media outlet Liberty Times (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXczInUmFXc). The second version is slightly modified, having changed the title to have a more journalistic slant, cut out SuperAwesome’s closing promotional monologue, and added in subtitles and minimal textual commentary. Fascinatingly, the top comments found on each video reveal very different discourses.
From the original SuperAwesome video:
Rymes points out that citizen sociolinguists possess at least two types of knowledge regarding accents: “People must know enough about language to recognize differences in ways of speaking…people must also know how their peers ascribe value to those differences in order for them to count as socially meaningful ‘accents’” (ms, Chapter 5, p. 5). SuperAwesome demonstrates both of these knowledges in his introduction:
(Basic translation by me. ALL CAPS = English. Italics = speaking with a “Taiwanese Mandarin” accent – Taiwanese Mandarin as described in this transcription is a low-prestige style of Mandarin spoken in Taiwan and is distinctly different from the more prestigious Taiwanese-accented Mandarin, which is the topic at hand. Bold = speaking in Taiwanese Hokkien.)
-----
0:00-0:12
HELLO GUYS. Recently I saw a video of a Chinese (national) person imitating a Taiwanese accent. I thought it was very interesting. But I discovered that no one has ever made a tutorial video on YouTube. So today I’m going to teach everyone how to speak with a Taiwanese accent.
0:19-0:50
People who aren’t very familiar with Taiwan might think that a Taiwanese accent is in fact just Taiwanese Mandarin, but actually Taiwanese Mandarin is what my grandfather and grandmother speak. Taiwanese Mandarin is a very very awesome Mandarin created from the combination of Taiwanese Hokkien and Japanese*. But now no one likes to speak it because it sounds very low-class. Actually what I want to teach everyone today is the modern Taiwanese accent. The following are some of what I know to be special features of how Taiwanese people speak. Why do some people say that Taiwanese people are especially friendly and especially warm when we speak? It’s because we speak just like our words, all stuck together. I offer some examples in the following.
-----
*SuperAwesome uses the Japanese term for “Japanese” (nihongo) here with a performative Taiwanese Hokkien accent – something I’m actually really interested in but isn’t very relevant to this blog post.
Before I get into the comments, what is interesting about this video is that it was actually uploaded at least twice on YouTube. There is the original video that SuperAwesome published with approximately 769,304 views which I linked above, and there is also a second version with 665,886 views from the Taiwanese news media outlet Liberty Times (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXczInUmFXc). The second version is slightly modified, having changed the title to have a more journalistic slant, cut out SuperAwesome’s closing promotional monologue, and added in subtitles and minimal textual commentary. Fascinatingly, the top comments found on each video reveal very different discourses.
From the original SuperAwesome video:
- 这是在聊各地腔调。。。。。。别扯政治，扯政治的好无聊。。。。我是大陆的 但是我很喜欢台湾，也很喜欢台湾腔，平时说话也喜欢带点这种腔调，我是江西的，江西话，中国有很多方言哦！不止北京腔一种呢！-------------说得对就点赞我！！！
This is talking about regional accents……Don’t talk about politics, people who talk about politics are so boring….I’m from the Mainland but I really like Taiwan and the Taiwanese accent. When I talk normally I like to use this kind of accent a little. I’m from Jiangxi, Jiangxi dialect, China has a lot of dialects! The Beijing accent isn’t the only one! ------------- If I’m right then like [my comment]!!! - 我去台湾的时候感觉“整个岛都在卖萌”😂😂，尤其是商场里的叫卖声“好吃的乌冬面过来看一看no～～～”，好像所有叫卖的都会加个no～～～
When I went to Taiwan, I felt “This entire island is selling cuteness” [emoji emoji], especially the hawkers in the marketplace “Come here for delicious udon no~~~” It was like all the hawkers would add a no~~~ - 其實我倒覺得這是華人每個區域的地方特色，講白一點，如果所有華人都是一口北京捲舌或臺灣國語、廣東國語，這樣未免太過“無聊”了一點，我是臺灣人，我爸講國語就有點閩南語腔，也沒什麼好笑的，我大學時，學校有陸生港澳生，他們多數帶著他們家鄉或居住地的地方腔調，我的關稅法教授是當時跟國府撤退來臺的外省人，他是山東人，山東腔很重，但我覺得這是一個特色，我很討厭有些華人嘲笑其他地區的中文腔調，像臺灣人嘲笑廣東腔或捲舌音，或其他地區嘲笑臺灣腔，這只會顯現出自己的無知，有如井底之蛙，我在跟其他地區華人講中文時，我不希望他們因為我是臺灣人而刻意用臺灣腔講話，我喜歡他們用他們自己的特色音調腔調來跟我說話，當然我也不會去模仿他們的腔調，因為我講的國語就是臺灣特色，沒有什麼是“標準”腔調，中文因為有這些方言或腔調才顯得出來華人文化的偉大，最後贊成華人團結，臺灣、大陸、香港、澳門、新加坡、馬來西亞或其他華僑華裔，我以身為華人為榮。
(OK, this one is really long so I won’t translate all of it, but the first and last lines are:
Actually I think this is the distinguishing feature of every (ethnically) Chinese region…Finally, I support the unity of Chinese people: Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, and other overseas or diasporic Chinese. I’m proud to be Chinese.)
(Note: Liberty Times tends to have a progressive/pro-Taiwan stance)
- 飯是蒸的嗎？
不它假的（笑死
[Is] the rice steamed?
No it’s fake (so funny - 我是ㄤㄢ分不清處
[As for me] I can’t tell the difference between ang and an - 臺灣國語那邊說「因為很俗所以不講」，這帶了很深的偏見。當時的人從沒講過華語，突然被迫學習，最後形成台灣國語，這明明是悲哀（被強迫）又偉大（願意學習新事物來與晚輩溝通）的事，雖然講得不好，但還是比現在不少人完全不願意學臺語來與長輩溝通好上一百倍。他們願意學新的事物來跟我們溝通，結果反而被罵俗；而我們卻不願意學他們的事物來跟他們溝通，反而是要求他們學，這比俗還更俗
The Taiwanese Mandarin part about “It’s low-class so we don’t speak it” carries a lot of deep bias. That the people back then who never spoke Chinese and were suddenly forced to learn it and ended up creating Taiwanese Mandarin is clearly a tragic (having been forced) and great (willing to learn new things in order to communicate with later generations) thing. Although they don’t speak it well, they are still 100 times better than the many people now who refuse to learn Taiwanese Hokkien to communicate with elders. They are willing to learn new things to communicate with us, but end up getting scolded as low-class. We refuse to learn their things to communicate with them, and even request that they learn. This is lower than low-class. - ㄥ跟ㄣ在考試的時候=惡夢
When eng and en appear on tests = nightmare - 台灣腔好聽多
The Taiwanese accent sounds so much better - 吸血鬼--->吸雪鬼
Vampire /xi xie gui/ ---> vampire /xi xue gui/
(lit. translation: blood-sucking monster ---> snow-sucking monster)
For brevity’s sake, I won’t extensively discuss the comments here, but the differences in the discourses are evident. There’s a lot more going on in the videos and the comments that an analysis of them could easily develop into a short paper, but in connecting this narration about the Taiwanese accent, I took a personal and reflective turn in seeking out the opinions of my parents.
I asked them very generally what they thought about the video. My father, whose first language is Taiwanese Hokkien, had much more to say than my mom, whose preferred language is Mandarin, though they both tried to turn the conversation back to me by asking me questions like “Why do you think Northern Chinese speakers speak like that?” and “What do you think is right or wrong about this video?” and essentially discursively framing me as the linguistics expert. However, the conversation with my father included him telling me how my grandfather (a post-1949 Chinese refugee) would communicate with my grandmother (an 11th-generation Taiwanese) by learning to read Tang and Song dynasty poems. Because my background in Chinese linguistics is incredibly lacking, I wasn’t able to fact-check the extent in which that could’ve been true, but certainly this speaks to the idea that talk about language can develop into deeper conversations.
My final point diverges to questions of authenticity, a theme that Rushkoff (2019) raises in his discussion on artificial intelligence, consumer culture, and simulations. There is a dominant, oppressive ideology with various cross-cultural implications that all Chinese people speak Chinese. But what does that really mean? Is “Chinese” Mandarin? If so, what kind of Mandarin? If we go back to SuperAwesome’s narration, we see clearly how often and seamlessly he translanguages, and I would argue that this is the typical linguistic repertoire of a young Taiwanese person living in Taiwan today. How do we negotiate the real and authentic such as the language(s) spoken in Taiwan with the inauthentic and illusory Chinese monolingualism? Are there similar discourses in other language contexts? Alternatively, what is the role of authenticity in linguistic representations in media? In today’s media environment, can language representations ever truly be authentic?
Hi Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteThank you for such an interesting post!
Your conversation with your parents reminded me of mine with my mom. My mom speaks Sichuanese, a Chinese dialect, in my hometown. Due to the dominate ideology of standard Mandarin (普通话) in Mainland China, my mom always feels it’s important to teach Amelia (my daughter) the most “authentic” Mandarin. Last year when my mom was in the U.S., I discussed with her about the fact that Sichuanese is actually more expressive in many ways than the so-called standard Mandarin. I told my mom that a lot of cultures are embedded in the dialect so please feel free to use dialectal words/expressions with Amelia. I could tell that my mom appreciated that conversation, and after that she became more aware of her own language use, and sometimes explained to Amelia that why a special word is used in Sichuanese but not in the standard Mandarin. As you said, talking about language can develop into deeper conversations. Also, talking about language might help combat the monolingual ideology. I was so happy to see the change in my own family!
I love this Peizhu!!
DeleteSo do I! :)
DeleteThis thread reminds me of Rushkoff's refrain: Find your people. Cheryl and Peizhu's examples of turning to their parents to talk about language seem to exemplify this. While on-line narratives might be superficial bait for metricization (Gerogakapoulou), digital candy put out there by tech people to bring in detailed market-ready consumer profiles, on-line stories can also lead to conversations like these (okay, maybe not on instagram--but who knows?). Eunsun's post descirbes a very superficial form of "authenticity" that relies on constant updating and sharing of on-line "stories". But Cheryl and Peizhu seem to point to a very different kind of sharing--one that is really about "finding your people" (finding those who translanguage to communicate more fully, those who speak and care about various dialects, etc) and having "deeper conversations."
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi Cheryl!
Thanks a lot for this post :) As both a Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese (Hokkien) user, I can really relate to the issues you have raised here.
I’d like to briefly respond to your questions in the last paragraph. The ways in which one understands the notion that “all Chinese people speak Chinese” depend, naturally, on how we define “Chinese”. Certainly, Chinese (in its linguistic sense) is not just Mandarin (or “Putonghua”), and even within Mandarin there are many distinct varieties. As for the concept of language “authenticity”, I’ve always found it very unwieldy and slippery. While in general I agree that the Taiwan citizenry has a rich linguistic repertoire, there is certainly no shortage of linguistic/cultural “purists” in Taiwan. I’d love to talk more about it!
Finally, I really appreciated your story of your family. It is really interesting to me that your father prefers Taiwanese over Mandarin (especially given the time and the fact that your paternal grandparents have different repertoires)! All four of my grandparents were fluent Taiwanese users, but both of my parents mainly use Mandarin (the power of language planning and policy, I know).
Thanks for your sharing Cheryl. In fact, in my family, there are two different dialects spoken by my mom and my dad respectively. My mom comes from the northern part of China, she speak a northern dialect which is similar to standard mandarin, but no totally identical. While, my dad comes from the southwestern region of China, where people speaks Chongqingnese, a dialect similar to Sichuanese but with differences. Actually, during the first years of my life, I lived in the northern part of China, so I tended to speak Mandarin. But when I moved to Chongqing, which is my father's hometown, I felt a necessity to pick up a new dialect to acculturate to the new community.
ReplyDeleteThe linguistic environment changed a lot due to the fact that people in Chongqing preferred speaking dialects not only when they are at work, but also at home. Then I went to kindergarten where all my peers spoke dialects and had stereotypes about the people who speak Mandarin in daily life. The local people resisted speaking Mandarin and sometimes made fun of people who speak Mandarin. My father and my grandparents communicated with each other through dialect, and even my mother began to learn this new dialect. With the hope to be accepted by my peers, I picked up dialect in a very short time. After learning the dialect for two years, I could not only pronounce like a native speaker but also could use slang as well as my peers. For me, it is important to speak like my peers, so I can be a legitimate member of the new community.