Language, Identity, and Resistance: a-Hoa Loa’s Choice of Taiwanese

🗣 Event Brief｜Hosted by Taiwan Media Workers Alliance

Language, Identity, and Resistance: a-Hoa Loa’s Choice of Taiwanese
📅 Date: Sunday, May 11, 2025
📍 Venue: Social Innovation Lab, Room 107 (No. 99, Sec. 3, Ren’ai Rd, Da’an Dist., Taipei)
🕝 Doors open: 2:30 PM｜Talk starts: 3:00 PM｜Ends before 6:00 PM

Speaker: a-Hoa Loa (Taiwanese language revitalization activist)
Discussant: A’iong (American Taiwanese speaker based in Taiwan)
Moderator: Jonah Khu (freelance journalist)

Why would someone give up Mandarin entirely and live exclusively in Taiwanese? For a-Hoa Loa, this decision goes beyond personal preference—it’s a political act of cultural resistance. In this talk, we will explore:
1. Why he gave up Mandarin
2. Why speaking Taiwanese matters in the face of Chinese cultural encroachment
3. Does calling Taiwanese “the Taiwanese language” exclude Indigenous and Hakka tongues? Could this be another form of cultural authoritarianism?
4. Q&A and networking session

This event is especially curated for international media professionals and anyone interested in language, identity, and political resistance in Taiwan. Join us for an in-depth conversation on how language choices reflect and shape the politics of belonging.