Taiwan's Language Outreach Becomes Soft Power Tool
Taiwan's Mandarin learning programs have become an important soft power tool for the country, as many countries look away from China for learning Chinese.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Around 600 students from over 60 countries gather in Taipei, recipients of government-sponsored
00:07 scholarships to learn Mandarin.
00:09 Taiwan is becoming an important center for Western countries like the United States to
00:14 teach the language.
00:15 In recent years, souring relations between China and the West have seen a downturn in
00:20 cultural ties.
00:22 The United States and the U.K. have made moves to scale back dependence on China's Confucius
00:27 Institutes which have for decades led Mandarin teaching abroad.
00:31 That's out of fear the Chinese government is using the centers to push its own narratives
00:35 on everything from democracy to Taiwanese sovereignty.
00:39 In 2020, Taiwan and the U.S. launched the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, which aims
00:46 to expand opportunities for American students to learn Mandarin from Taiwanese teachers.
00:51 That goes to show that despite poor relations with China, there's still demand for learning
00:56 Mandarin and Taiwan could offer a fix.
00:59 I chose to study Mandarin because of my family having cultural roots and heritage in Taiwanese
01:06 and Mandarin language.
01:07 Well, I've always been interested in learning other languages and among the handful that
01:14 I chose, Mandarin seemed like a good one to start with and the most useful.
01:18 I think it also gives me a great opportunity because I speak English, I speak Spanish and
01:23 speaking Mandarin now I can speak to like 99% of the population of the world.
01:28 These scholarships incentivize students to come to Taiwan and get to know a country that
01:33 is subject to international suppression by China, which claims Taiwan as its own and
01:38 bars it from participating in global bodies.
01:41 Being here, I see Taiwan as my second home.
01:45 I see Taiwan as a place that I can really live in.
01:50 Everyone's super friendly and yeah, I love it here.
01:54 But it's not just the West that's looking to Taiwan.
01:57 Students from dozens of other countries like South Korea, India, Vietnam and Sri Lanka
02:02 are here to brush up on their language skills.
02:05 As countries look away from China for their Mandarin learning, Taiwan sees a unique opportunity
02:10 to become a global hub for learning Chinese and use its language to win over hearts and
02:16 minds overseas.
02:17 Yixin Sun and Lesley Liao in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
02:21 (audience laughing)