What about a Hokkien TV station in Taiwan?

[Ong]

It is really disheartening to note that there is no Hokkien TV station in Taiwan eventhough Hokkiens constitute more than 70% of the Taiwanese population. The Hakkas who constitute only about 16% of the Taiwanese population fought and got their dialect station established last year while the Aborigines who constitute barely 2% are in the process of getting their station established. Whatever has happened to the pride and love of the Hokkiens to preserve and promote their language not only in Taiwan but overseas especially in South-east Asia where there is a sizeable Hokkien population? No wonder the Hokkien language is dying in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines eventhough Hokkiens form the largest Chinese dialect group in these countries. The Cantonese on the other hand are exerting and promoting their language mainly due to the influence of the Hong Kong movies and TV programmes eventhough their population is much lesser compared to the Hokkiens in these countries.

I therefore call upon the Taiwanese Hokkiens to fight for a Hokkien TV station as well as make Hokkien as one of the official languages of Taiwan and get A-bien to make this commitment before getting him re-elected as President of Taiwan in the forthcoming Presidential election. There should not be any problem for the Hokkiens to achieve this objective as being the dominant group they have the political power to make this happen if they are united. I hope they should not support A-bien if he continues to only promote his Hakka culture and dialect while neglecting the interest of the Taiwanese Hokkiens. It is high time for the Taiwanese Hokkiens to fight for their culture and language instead of always giving in to the others and splitting their political power amongst various political parties thereby weakening themselves to the advantage of others.

[BanLamLang]

我們很多電視台都有台語節目了
身為一個閩南族後裔，我倒是不覺得要特別為閩南方言設立一個頻道
這樣一來，反倒更顯突兀，會讓人以為連台語也即將窮途末路

[Seth]

I just stumbled on this forum and saw the post. A strange one I think, as Taiwanese is the Hokkien dialect represented in the country of Taiwan. I am not sure about other countries-Malaysia, Singapore etc.-however. But there are numerous Taiwanese TV stations, as well as radio stations in Taiwan. Moreover, among most ethnic and older Taiwanese, these are the stations they most often listen to. Perhaps, your question stems from a concern for Chinese Hokkien dialect preservation, for which there is no need in Taiwan.

[yeobh]

I think what it meant is an all-Hokkien TV station and not those mixed language stations which give emphasis to Mandarin rather than Taiwanese Hokkien programmes.

[J C]

There are many Taiwanese TV stations in Taiwan. Try 三立電視台, an all Taiwanese channel, for example, channel 29. There are several news channels (between channels 35-45 maybe) that are all in Taiwanese. There is also an all-Hakka TV channel as well, I think 19 but I never watch it. Most other channels are in Mandarin, except the Japanese (around channels 45-55) and English channels (around channels 55-65, and a few in the 90s).
And that's for TV. There's an overwhelmingly amount of radio in Taiwanese.

But you're right, there's no Hokkien TV station in Taiwan, nor Hokkiens (well, except for a few mainland brides Taiwanese have bought).