ABSTRACT
The supremacy of Chinese language and culture had the effect of belittling the status of the local languages and their native speakers and associating them with vulgarity and backwardness. Over the years the status of local languages, especially Hoklo, has been improved dramatically through education. Chiung's protests and the insistence on a 'pure' Hoklo literature have nonetheless won some sympathy. This is partly because the domination of Chinese/Mandarin continues and partly because Chiung's provocation has been interpreted by some as a conscious anti-imperialist gesture and a brave political action challenging China-centric conventions. In the anti-imperialist struggle and the de-colonization process, it is a common and effective tactic to 'recover' an origin in order to create a shared culture and historical memory, a common purpose and a distinctive sense of identity. The identity crisis in recent decades has shifted from debating about 'whether or not the Taiwanese are Chinese' to redefining what the Taiwanese are.
