Taiwan Today

For Jiang Chin-yu, the knack for living a healthy, happy life is to turn on the radio and tune in to "Living a Great Life" at four in the morning every day. Having been listening to the one-hour broadcast made by National Education Radio (NER) targeting the elderly for 15 years, the 80-year-old retiree speaks glowingly about the health education provided by the program. "I benefit a lot from the advice of the experts talking on the program about how to lead a good life in one's old age," Jiang says. "And I share their advice with others who fail to get up early and miss the program."

Jiang is just one of the millions of people around the island that listen to the distance education programs of NER, which can reach most people living in Taiwan. "The coverage of our station is larger than that of any other in the country," says Chen Ko-yun, director of NER, which now has its headquarters in Taipei City and four branch stations around Taiwan. In fact, with the completion of a transmitter on the outlying island of Matsu in January 2007, its broadcasts are accessible to the entire nation. "Construction of a transmitter costs about NT$35 million (US$1.06 million). Only non-profit radio stations are willing to spend the money for such a small place," Chen says.

Established by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 1960, NER is also one of the oldest radio stations in Taiwan. To explain the raison d'etre for the station, Chen says that at the time the central government hoped to encourage learning among the public. "Around that time education was not widespread, and a senior high school diploma could cause envy and admiration. Many just didn't have the money to go to school." The radio was seen as a possible solution.

In the beginning NER had just its headquarters, broadcasting programs eight hours a day in northern Taiwan, focusing on primary school-level courses such as Mandarin learning and life education that taught the audience about the need to clean the streets and conserve energy, for example. With the high level of tension between Taiwan and China in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War, education against communism and espionage was also included in the programming in the station's first 20 years, according to Lu Min-chun, chief of NER's programming division.

With the opening of the branch stations in the 1980s, the programming underwent a major change. NER started to broadcast college-level programs targeting students of the National Open University, the first college in Taiwan to offer distance education through radio, TV and then the Internet. It also offered time slots for teaching foreign languages. "We provide programs for teaching 11 foreign languages. They're now a major feature of NER," Chen says. The development of the language courses is an interesting reflection of the changes Taiwan has undergone over the years. First, languages associated with business, such as English and Japanese, were taught. Then, with more and more foreign workers from Southeast Asian countries coming to Taiwan, in the past five years NER has started to broadcast programs teaching languages such as Thai and Vietnamese.

The programming also reflects the policies of the central government. As the MOE is eagerly promoting nativist education, it is not difficult to find programs discussing Taiwan's culture and history on NER channels today. Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng has been hosting a 20-minute program every Monday with two scholars discussing topics in this field since early 2006. Meanwhile, MOE officials are invited to the broadcaster's headquarters regularly to explain and defend educational policies. "Educational issues like corporal punishment are discussed on our channels too. We're a platform where teachers, students and officials can meet and communicate with each other in the hope of helping the government formulate the best policies," Chen says.

In response to a request by the Cabinet-level Government Information Office in 2000, the programs targeting children have increased in quantity, accounting for 13 percent of NER's broadcasting time. "Producing these kinds of programs costs more than others. To keep children's attention, for example, you have to add more audio effects to the programs," Lu Min-chun says. "But as a national station, we have to take up the mission."

Broadcasting in English

NER's mission-oriented perspective is shared by International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT), the only English-language radio broadcaster in Taiwan. The station's non-commercial nature dates back to its forerunner, the Armed Forces Network Taiwan, which was operated by the US army during the years when troops were stationed on the island. After the US government announced the end of official relations with Taiwan in late 1978 and prepared to return troops to the US, the foreign community expected the radio station to disappear. Thanks, however, to the assistance of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Taiwan government, the station survived and was renamed ICRT in 1979, operating as a non-profit corporate body, funded by sponsorships mainly from foreign businesses in Taiwan.

Covering much of Taiwan, the ICRT channel now has an audience numbering between 200,000 and 300,000, serving both the foreign community, which constitutes about 5 percent of its total audience, and locals. Music ranging from jazz to rap, introduced by 10 DJs, is the major staple of the station, taking up nearly 90 percent of its broadcasting time.

A one-hour BBC international news program followed by a 20-minute locally produced news broadcast live on weekday mornings, provides one of the more important channels through which Taiwan's foreigners on their drive to work learn about domestic affairs and connect with the world outside. ICRT is also important to Taiwan's foreign community because it maintains close contact with international agencies and organizations in Taiwan, such as AmCham and international schools, and disseminates information about the events they hold.

But one major reason for the vast majority of its audience to listen to the radio is to enhance their English proficiency. "The environment is favorable to the station's growth because everybody wants to learn English in Taiwan," says Ding Yu, director of ICRT's sales and marketing division. To respond to the needs of the non-English-speaking audience, ICRT sets aside a limited amount of time every day for explaining the use of English words and phrases, and three years ago started to put out some English-study publications. Sometimes DJs are asked to slow down a little bit and use less difficult words when talking to the audience. "But we're not an English-teaching channel after all," Yu says. "Our main responsibility is to act as a bridge linking Western and local cultures as we provide good music, good entertainment and good news programs."

Bearing this in mind, ICRT produces broadcasts introducing Taiwan to its international audience, such as the currently running "We Love Hakka," which is commissioned by the Cabinet-level Council for Hakka Affairs to familiarize listeners with Hakka language and culture. At the same time, the station makes programs that help broaden the horizons of its Taiwanese audience. "Such a function was especially important when the Internet didn't exist and the selection of media was not as wide as it is today," says Joseph Lin, manager of ICRT's programming department. "I liked to listen to Western music when I was a senior high school student. ICRT and the music program hosted by Yu Kuang [on Police Radio Station] were the only two channels which played it."

Today ICRT still tries to distinguish itself from other media by offering something different. "We don't only broadcast music hyped by local record companies. You can find music here that can't be heard on other channels," Lin says, himself a DJ hosting "Star Lounge," a three-hour music program with a chart hit/celebrity interview format.

"I always leave my radio on when I'm home. And I often stay tuned to ICRT because it's very rich in musical styles, although I don't understand the lyrics of those songs completely," says Calvin Cheng, a bank manager. "But I think my English has improved a lot after listening to this channel for years," he says.

ICRT differs from other radio stations also because its programs are sometimes broadcast live from trade show venues and other special events. "We're a very live group in the first place. We were also the first radio station to produce call-in programs," Yu adds.

Meanwhile, ICRT is less influenced by its American origin as it embraces a global vision. "American mainstream music used to be the focus of our music programs. Now we play more non-American songs, from the United Kingdom for example," says Lin. In addition, the BBC replaced CNN as the primary international media source, whose news is relayed in the morning, about five years ago because ICRT decided that the UK broadcaster cares more about international affairs, while its US counterpart is more parochial, covering a large number of domestic stories of little interest outside America. "I feel that in Taiwan non-American foreigners are outnumbering Americans," Lin explains. "I think we need more non-American world news and more non-American angles on news events."

Saving a Culture

As older radio stations change with time, the birth of Formosa Hakka Radio, the first in Taiwan to broadcast predominantly in Hakka, is the result of changes in society in the 1990s. "We grew up amid campaigning to restore mother tongues," says Freda Pong, director of the radio station.

For a long time, the official promotion of Mandarin as the national language involved the suppression of other languages used in Taiwan--so-called "mother tongues." The 1990s saw vigorous campaigning to overturn what was seen as linguistic imperialism. Holo, the mother tongue of the majority of people in Taiwan, revived first, directly resulting in the growth of Holo-speaking radio channels and TV programs. However, while Mandarin and Holo dominated the media market, the Hakka language was still rarely heard on the radio. Alarmed by what they saw as a threat to their language and culture, Hakka people decided to take action and donate money to establish a radio station of their own.

"The Hakka language is disappearing," says Christine Peng, a 67-year-old Hakka woman, explaining why she took the initiative to seek donations for the station. Growing up in a community inhabited mainly by Holo-speaking Taiwanese, Peng was often told by her mother to learn her mother tongue well. " 'Betray your ancestors and you will find no rice to cook one day,' she told me, so as to encourage me to speak Hakka," Peng says. She is now one of the scores of volunteers hosting programs at the station. However, both of her sons cannot speak good Hakka, although she and her husband do. "Both my husband and I had to work when they were small. There are few chances for the next generation to practice speaking the language," she says.

The birth of Formosa Hakka Radio was therefore a landmark for the Hakka language in Taiwan. Operating illegally in the beginning and then with an official license from 1996, it is currently the only non-profit Hakka radio station. There are six other Hakka radio stations around the island, Freda Pong says, all of them local, commercial ones. "Actually they use more Holo than Hakka to gain a wider audience," she says. Formosa Hakka Radio is itself not a national station, its coverage being limited to northern Taiwan. "But its mission is mainly cultural and educational, with 80 percent of its programs broadcast in Hakka," she says.

The station sees its principal task as teaching and promoting the use of the Hakka language. There are programs like "Beauty of the Hakka Language" which explores the tongue and its various dialects. But the less specifically educational programming, on subjects as diverse as smart investing, news programs, medical knowledge and Hakka theater, also give an opportunity for people to listen to and learn Hakka. "Several non-Hakka speaking radio stations produce programs to teach Hakka, but you have to remember to listen to these channels at specific times. Stay tuned to our channel and you save that trouble," Pong says.

Still, there is a difference between language-teaching programs and others when it comes to the accents and pronunciation of the programs' hosts. "Your accent and pronunciation have to be really good to teach," she says. For example, some Hakka people use a form combining Ssihsien and Hailu, two regional dialects of the language heard on the island, but such linguistic impurity is not allowed on Formosa Hakka's teaching programs.

The station also pursues its education mission off air, holding activities several times a year for promoting the language, such as debate contests--in Hakka, of course--and summer camps where children take classes on Hakka culture and language. It has provided training courses on dubbing in Hakka and in the correction of the language's pronunciation. "Talent cultivation is a major mission of our station," says Pong. Indeed, according to Pong, several actors and program hosts now working at Hakka TV come from Formosa Hakka Radio. Both the Council for Hakka Affairs and this TV station, which began operation in 2001 and 2003 respectively, actually owe their establishment largely to advocacy from this radio station.

While the station has played a major role in promoting Hakka culture, the director has, however, yet to fulfill the goal set at the station's inception. Without sufficient financial aid, Formosa Hakka is still not capable of terrestrial broadcasting nationwide, although, ironically, people all over the world can listen to it via the Internet. But at least part of the station's objectives are being realized. A 2004 survey by the Council for Hakka Affairs showed that while only 13.8 percent of the 6 million Hakka people in Taiwan can speak the language fluently, this is up from 11.7 percent the previous year. The mother tongue is being revived, but Formosa Hakka Radio's task is still far from achieved.

Write to Oscar Chung at oscar@mail.gio.gov.tw