Kerry Kan (Assistant producer) capturing Suvan Pal (documentary producer) interviewing Professor Chien Yuechen. Photo provided by Mr. Suvam Pal. Used with permission.
Taiwan is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. A total of 26 languages are spoken on the island, which includes Mandarin Chinese, the official language, Cantonese, English, Japanese, and 22 Indigenous languages. Fourteen of these indigenous languages are endangered.
Yilan Creole is one of the 14 endangered Indigenous languages in Taiwan. The language is a contact language, a language that emerges or is used as a means of communication between groups with different native languages. It is often used for trade, commerce, or other interactions. In this case, Yilan is a Japanese-based creole language developed from colonial interactions between the speakers of the Indigenous Taiwanese Atayal language, Seediq language, and Japanese colonists during the period when Taiwan was under Japanese colonization (1895–1945). It is now mainly spoken by a small number of elders across four villages on the east coast of Taiwan. It still lacks official government recognition and is not taught in schools.
However, there are ongoing local efforts to keep this endangered language alive. One recent effort is a new documentary on the speakers of the language produced by TaiwanPlus, a Taiwan-based independent news outlet.
Speaking to Global Voices via WhatsApp, Suvam Pal, a seasoned international journalist at TaiwanPlus, shared the story behind the documentary.
The documentary crew with Professor Chien and Tungyueh villagers. Photo provided by Suvam Pal. Used with permission.
Global Voices: Please tell us about yourself.
Suvam Pal: I'm a cross-platform international journalist with over 20 years of experience in five of the world's most ethnically diverse and culturally vibrant countries: China, India, South Africa, the UAE, and Taiwan. I have been working for TaiwanPlus, a state-funded media in Taiwan, since two years ago. Before working in Taiwan, I worked as a journalist in India, and then I worked for a TV station in South Africa. I also worked for a state-controlled media, CGTN, for nearly five years in Beijing, China. In between, I also worked as a documentary filmmaker in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I have published several acclaimed books through prestigious international publishers like HarperCollins and Routledge.
GV: Can you share some background information about Yilan Creole and its current status?
SP: Yilan Creole was discovered in 2006 by Professor Chien Yuechen, a senior professor at the Indigenous Studies Department of National Dong Hwa University, Eastern Taiwan, Hualien County. She discovered this language along with Professor Sanada Shinji, a Japanese professor at the University of Osaka, whom she was working under as a research scholar.
During their research, they realized the language met all the requirements for a language to be designated as a creole language. This happened because Taiwan was a colony of Japan for 50 years, between 1895 and 1945 (the end of World War II). Japanese was the de facto official language in Taiwan then. A lot of older generations still speak a bit of Japanese till today. Some of them can speak, read and write Japanese. A lot of people heard people speaking a form of Japanese in Taiwan, but nobody realized that it was a creole language.
Professor Chien found out that the language is a creole spoken in four villages in Yilan County. I went to two of the villages to shoot the documentary. The distance between Aohua to Tungyueh is around 45 minutes to 1 hour drive. The residents of these four villages called the language local names because they used to think it was a local dialect. Professor Chien studied the language and realized that it matched all the criteria to be called a Creole language. Since the language was discovered in Yilan County, she named it Yilan Creole. Recently, Professor Chien did research for the Indigenous languages Department of the Taiwan government and she discovered that there are less than a thousand fluent speakers of the language at the moment.
The language is the only known Japanese-based Creole in the world. It is a mixture of Japanese, and the language of two Indigenous tribes in Taiwan, Seediq and Atayal. The language of these two tribes mixed with Japanese and that's how Yilan Creole was created.
GV: What inspired you to create a documentary about the language?
SP: I would like to inform you that I'm the first ever Indian journalist to work in Taiwan. My work in Taiwan has made me realize that the stories about Taiwan are less told in the world.
When I came here, I found two different divisions in media coverage here. The first one is the Taiwanese local media that has a different coverage style. The local journalists see Taiwan from a different perspective because they are the locals. And there is the Western media whose reporters have a different perspective.
I noticed that there is a gap in the way both sides report their stories and I want to bridge the gap. The Western media are always focused on geopolitics, defence and trade. The local journalist generally covered local politics and other stories. So I started covering stories that are not covered by both sides.
That's how I got to know about Yilan Creole. I was surprised that a story about the language has not been told in English even though a Japanese media organization produced a documentary on the language in Japanese many years ago. Now it is important to tell the story because there was a recent research on the language that was initiated by the government. The language was removed from the list of recognized languages in Taiwan. That was how I got the kick to tell the story. Another thing that inspired me to create the documentary is my love for languages. I am from India, a linguistically-diverse country, and I speak three languages. I have always been fascinated by languages, which is part of the reasons I came to work in Taiwan.
GV: How did you work with the language community to ensure their stories and perspectives were accurately represented?
SP: As a journalist, fact-checking is a very important part of my work. I did a lot of verification. I spoke to experts and linguists because I think understanding the culture and socio-cultural nuances are important factors a journalist must consider while covering a story. I also did thorough research and asked the professor to crosscheck the first draft of the work. She also got many Yilan Creole native speakers to crosscheck the work to ensure their perspectives were accurately represented.
GV: What impact do you hope this documentary will have on the language community and broader audience?
SP: Ninety-nine percent of the Taiwanese I have shared and discussed this documentary with told me that they did not know about the existence of Yilan Creole prior to our discussion. These include some of my colleagues, university professors, journalists, editors, researchers, etc. This documentary has made them aware that there is a need for the revitalization of the language. I have seen the number of views the video has on our YouTube channel [over 83,000] and how people are talking about it in the comment section. This gives me a renewed hope that the language can be saved. Another significant impact is this interview because I believe a broader audience outside Taiwan will become aware of the language.
