16. LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES
Based on Su, Hsi-Yao. 2011.
The Meaning Contestation of Tai: Language ideologies and the global-local
ambivalence. Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 37.2:283-308
授課老師：蘇以文
I-wen Su
【本著作除另有註明外，採取創用CC「姓名標示－
非商業性－相同方式分享」台灣3.0版授權釋出】
The “Work” under the Creative Commons Taiwan 3.0 License of “BY-NC-SA”.
Overview


Taike 台客: a cultural stereotype of young
Taiwanese adults whose lifestyle, linguistic
repertoire, and fashion sense are considered
distinctively local and unsuccessfully imitative of
current trends
the term may index local identity and
nonconformity – a way to explore language
ideologies concerning localism, cosmopolitanism,
and authenticity in Taiwan
Taike 台客



The term is composed of two morphemes:
tai2 台 and ke4 客.
Tai is the abbreviation of Taiwan.
Ke has two main meanings (Kangxi Dictionary)
 1.
“a guest”;
 2. “a visitor”; anyone from another place
What does Taike mean?





Taiker culture is a kind of sub-culture in the new
century
similar to very ”Taiwanese”?
vulgar and impolite?
good men but rude and low-level?
negative?
 Northern
Taiwan
 females, the higher-educated, and the younger
evaluating the terms more negatively than their
counterparts
Origin and development
1960s and 1970s
 The term “台客” or its variant ”土台客” was said to be
used by young wai4sheng3ren2 (外省人) (hereafter
mainlander) gangsters in the 60’s and 70’s to refer to
ben3sheng3ren2 (本省人) gangsters, of whose
lifestyle and taste they disapproved as vulgar
1990s
 Based on the appearance (not-in-fashion dress with
bright and shining decorations) and behavior (ways of
talking and the show-off style)
2004-2005

repackaging the term as something consumable
and trendy, and even popular
TVBS program Liangdai dianli gongsi 二代電力公
司 – the TV program invited college students or Taikes
themselves to discuss issues related to Taike
 the Taike yaogun yanchanghui (台客搖滾演唱會)
‘Taike Rock’n’ Roll Concert’ was held to claim local
identity and nonconformity
 the
Around 2005

Taike Rock’n Roll concert,
 well-known
singers such as Wubai (伍佰) and Chen
Sheng (陳昇) proudly reclaimed the word


the print media published books (e.g., Call Me
Taike) and special magazine issues (e.g., Eslite
Reader), linking taike with local arts and culture.
In this wave of taike discourse,
 tai
is about local identity, and
 taike is uniquely Taiwanese







陳昇, 伍佰 - 愛情限時批 等無限時批 (05:31)
(陳昇 and 伍佰 and a mash-up of two of their songs)
志明與春嬌（五月天 with 伍佰）（台客LIVE）
(04:52)
(Tai2ke4 of different generations)
2010謝金燕《嗶嗶嗶》台妹電音新舞曲 (03:46)
(Tai2mei4; Tai2ke4 dance; codeswitching between
Cantonese, Taiwanese, Mandarin and English)
(A comment below: 台語+廣東話+國語+英文=火星語
真的好台阿)
Stigma



the term taike has no equivalent in local languages
other than Mandarin
Even when the singers involved in the Taike Rock’n
Roll concert tried to promote the term, they had to
code-switch to the Mandarin pronunciation of
taike within an otherwise Taiwanese speech.
This instance of code-switching illustrates that
taike remains to be a term constructed by the
Mandarin-speaking population.
Press Conference in 2005


A number of political organizations (Taiwan North
Society and Taiwan Association of University
Professors) consider the literal meaning of taike
(Taiwan(ese) as visitors from outside) implies that
Taiwan(ese) is secondary to China
a total abandonment of the term was called for
due to the lack of substantial change in its selfdegrading nature
Defining characters

four major defining characteristics: .

Wang (2007) summarizes a mass of online tike discourses in 2004 and 2005>





fashion senses
linguistic practices
behavior/conduct
mentality
Taike is one who




mixes inconsistent stylistic elements and has an outdated
fashion sense,
who exaggerates and is showy,
who pretends to know things that he actually doesn’t know,
who swears and speaks Taiwan guo2yu3, i.e., Taiwaneseaccented Mandarin
Wang, Mei-Zhen. 2007. What Does Tai Mean?: The Imagining of Taike
Culture and Identity Construction.
Issues

As of now, based on data 2008-2010
 taike
jokes are seldom heard.
 Tai, an adjective derived from taike, has developed
into a common descriptor in everyday language in
comments like “That’s so tai.”
Issues regarding the adjectival use of tai
 the
current attitudes across different social groups
 the ideologies concerning language, localness,
globalness
Su, Hsi-Yao. 2011. The Meaning Contestation of Tai: Language
ideologies and the global-local ambivalence.
Categorizing Taike (Lin 2008)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Taike as a subjective group (Zhu 2003)
Taike as a construction by other (G. Chen 2006; Li
2006; Lin 2006; Wang 2007; Zheng 2003)
Taike as sub-culture (Chang 2006; Tsai 2004; )
Taike as media reproduction (He 2006; Lai 2006)
Taike as a manifestation of cultural hegemony (G.
Chen 2006; Wang 2007)
Zhu, Bai Jing. 2003. Taike Culture as an Armed-Force against Modernity: Plans of the Southern Area of Old Taipei City.
Chen, Guan-Ru. 2006. Taike: The Reproduction of Social Class in Taiwan and Cultural Hegemony.
Li, Ming-Cong. 2006. The continuous discourse about taike: Who’s talking?.
Lin, Hong-Hang. 2006. The distinction of taste about taike: The discourse of new taike and the controversy.
Wang, Mei-Zhen. 2007. What Does Tai Mean?: The Imagining of Taike Culture and Identity Construction.
Zheng, Kai Tong. 2003. What is tai? The ambiguity in Taiwanese culture.
Chang, Chieh-Mao. 2006. To See Industrial Design from Subculture: Custom Vehicle in Taike Culture.
Tsai, Yao-hsien. 2004. Transgression and Recreation in Public Life: Taike Culture.
He, Hong-Yi. 2006. How blog readers interpret and identify with the taike renaissance.
Lai, Yi-Ting. 2006. The Rhetorical Vision of Taike as Constructed in Media: An Analysis of the “Generation” Show.
Two near-synonyms about localness:
tai2ke5 and ben3tu3

the highest votes on taike:
 Wubai
(伍佰, a male rock’n roll singer who played
a significant role in the Taike Rock’n Roll Concert)
 The Sparkling Three Sisters (閃亮三姊妹, a female
singing group)

Highest scores on bentu:
 Jacky
Wu (吳宗憲, a male talk show host, singer, and
actor)
 Shui-bian Chen (陳水扁, the former president)
The meanings of localness

Ben3tu3:
commonly related to Taiwanization, indigenization, and
Taiwanese Nationalism.
 The Taiwanese language is also strongly associated with
the discourses related to bentu or Taiwanese Nationalism
(Chiung 2007).
 closely tied with the identity label taiwanren, literally
‘Taiwanese’ and is often promoted as a structurally
sophisticated language that preserves archaic forms.


In contrast, tai3 is often used to refer to Taiwanese
young adults who are local but try to be “above
themselves.”
Chiung, Wi-vun Tiffalo. 2007. Language, literacy, and nationalism:
Taiwan’s orthographic transition from the perspective of Han sphere.
Sociolinguistic factors

Evaluation of Tai varies in terms of gender and
education:
female and the higher educated tend to evaluate tai
more negatively <and qi4zhi2 more positively>
 Male and the lower educated tend to evaluate tai less
negatively <and qi4zhi2 less positively>


Age has significant effect on the evaluation of tai


Members of the younger generation tend to evaluate it
more negatively: the younger they are, the more
negative the attitudes
Ethnicity does not have any significant effect
Iconic relationship between attitudes
and language practice
 Taiwanese-accented
Mandarin as a stigmatized label
is often stereotyped as a result of a Taiwanese
speaker’s failed attempt at acquiring the “standard”
accent.
 Non-linguistic characteristics associated with taike
also show a parallel.

E.g., wearing fake designer brands or mixing
inconsistent fashion elements unwisely in an outfit
>> implying failure to acquire the mainstream
fashion sense (both a lack of competence and
material resources)
Five attibutes of authenticity

Notion of authenticity (Coupland 2003):






ontology,
historicity,
systemic coherence,
consensus,
value
The Taiwanese language and the local
Taiwanese in the discourses of Taiwanese
nationalism involve all five of them.
Coupland, Nikolas. 2003. Sociolinguistic authenticities.
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.11
p.12
p.13
Licensing
Author/Source
Wang, Mei-Zhen. 2007. What Does Tai Mean?: The Imagining
of Taike Culture and Identity Construction. MA thesis,
National Chengchi University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Su, Hsi-Yao. 2011. The Meaning Contestation of Tai:
Language ideologies and the global-local ambivalence.
Concentric: Studies in Linguistics 37.2:283-308
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Zhu, Bai Jing. 2003. Taike Culture as an Armed-Force against
Modernity: Plans of the Southern Area of Old Taipei City. MA
thesis, Tamkang University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.13
p.13
p.13
Licensing
Author/Source
Chen, Guan-Ru. 2006. Taike: The Reproduction of Social Class
in Taiwan and Cultural Hegemony. MA thesis, National
Taiwan Normal University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Li, Ming-Cong. 2006. The continuous discourse about taike:
Who’s talking?. Eslite Reader 56:44-46.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Lin, Hong-Hang. 2006. The distinction of taste about taike:
The discourse of new taike and the controversy. Paper
presented at The Re-Emergence of Taike? Popular Culture
and Identity Conference, Chinese Culture University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.13
p.13
p.13
Licensing
Author/Source
Wang, Mei-Zhen. 2007. What Does Tai Mean?: The Imagining
of Taike Culture and Identity Construction. MA thesis,
National Chengchi University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Zheng, Kai Tong. 2003. What is tai? The ambiguity in
Taiwanese culture. Contemporary Magazine 195:60–79.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Chang, Chieh-Mao. 2006. To See Industrial Design from
Subculture: Custom Vehicle in Taike Culture. MA thesis, Shih
Chien University
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.13
p.13
p.13
Licensing
Author/Source
Tsai, Yao-hsien. 2004. Transgression and Recreation in Public
Life: Taike Culture. MA thesis, Nanhua University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
He, Hong-Yi. 2006. How blog readers interpret and identify
with the taike renaissance. Paper presented at The ReEmergence of Taike? Popular Culture and Identity
Conference, Chinese Culture University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Lai, Yi-Ting. 2006. The Rhetorical Vision of Taike as
Constructed in Media: An Analysis of the “Generation” Show.
MA thesis, Fu Jen Catholic University.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Copyright Declaration
Work
p.15
p.18
Licensing
Author/Source
Chiung, Wi-vun Tiffalo. 2007. Language, literacy, and
nationalism: Taiwan’s orthographic transition from the
perspective of Han sphere. Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development 28.2:102–115.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Coupland, Nikolas. 2003. Sociolinguistic authenticities.
Journal of Sociolinguistics 7.3:417–431.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW