Islands, geopolitics and language ideologies: Sociolinguistic differentiation between Taiwanese and Kinmenese Hokkien

Abstract

Kinmen is an island right next to the People's Republic China but governed by Taiwan. Kinmen was under military rule for more than 40 years. After the military rule ended in 1992, Kinmenese people have been faced with a different set of political ideologies in Taiwan. While Kinmenese young people have been observed shifting to the lifestyles in Taiwan, Kinmenese Hokkien is seen as an important identity marker of Kinmenese people. This article takes a perspective of peripheral multilingualism to examine how the contrast between Taiwanese Hokkien and Kinmenese Hokkien has been ideologized in response to the ongoing peripheralization of Kinmen in the dominant political agenda in Taiwan. By analyzing top-down and bottom-up metalinguistic discourses, this paper argues that Kinmenese people resist peripheralization by engaging with an alternate center – an imagined Chinese spatio-temporal regime – to claim Chinese authenticity of Kinmenese Hokkien and highlight how Taiwanese Hokkien is an unauthentic Hokkien variety, serving as the icon of Taiwanese nationalism which excludes the will of Kinmenese people.