时论广场》台湾应跳脱孔子学院做自己（方恩格Ross Darrell Feingold）

美国纽泽西州城市大学孔子学院揭牌仪式。（新华社）

八月中旬英国广播公司新闻网（BBC News）刊登了一篇关于台湾中文学校即将进军美国的报导、将台湾的「华语文学习中心」与中国政府资助的「孔子学院」进行了一番比较。近年来由于中国「孔子学院」在课程内容上回避新疆、西藏和台湾等政治敏感类话题，被指涉有限制学术自由之嫌，有许多驻外「孔子学院」的工作人员是直接受雇于中国政府，课程内容设计亦符合中国共产党的指导准则。其背后的政治操作嫌疑令原本多设立在欧美国家二、三级学术机构之下的「孔子学院」名誉扫地，在美国已有许多的「孔子学院」面临关闭的下场。于是台湾掀起了一股热论，很多人认为这个时机点下，台湾应该趁势派出华语文教师到当地组建中文学校，来取代原本「孔子学院」的中文教学志业。

首先，站在美国公民的角度，我会更希望看到在美国的中文教学工作是由美国当地的公民或居民来担任。在美国有很多来自台湾、中国、或其他国家的华语后裔，不乏中文为母语的人才。就「孔子学院」的前例而言，若美国政府担心中国政府渗透美籍华裔中文老师，大可以在招聘的过程制定一套评量标准、以筛选出具有争议背景的人选。讽刺的是，台湾当地的小学与幼托机构要聘请外籍教师极为困难，然而台湾却想输出本国老师到海外担任中文教师，这难道未有双重标准之嫌？

其次，忠言或许逆耳，但无论是哪一党执政，台湾历届政府都不擅长输出台湾的软实力。与日本、韩国、泰国等其他亚洲国家相比，台湾推动来台观光或在国际间推广台湾文化的努力实在少得可怜。无论是观光局或文化部，都缺乏强而有力的台湾论述，取而代之的是层层叠叠的官僚主义以及未见显著成效的「绿友友」大笔资金花费。

在新冠疫情开始之前，虽然来台旅游的人数似乎有增长，但数据是部分得益于台湾政府为了吸引东南亚国家的游客所供出的旅游补贴，然而这些消费力较低的游客所带来的收益仍是远远不及少了中国游客之后的损失。

第三，正如笔者之前在《时论广场》发表的〈蔡政府在许下外交愿望之前，小心点！〉所言，台湾中央和地方政府机构常常忘了在台湾也有不少外籍居民可以帮忙增强台湾国际形象，反而更重视拉拢远方的外国人支持。由最近的阿富汗事件我们可以得知，外籍人士也能成为他们所居住该国政府的有力外交资源。所以笔者认为台湾政府应该多与在台湾居住的外籍人士合作、让他们替台湾发声，而不是将资源孤注掷于海外建盖中文学校校舍。过去60年来，台湾许多华语文中心提拔出了数以万计的外国人才，这些人本都可以成为为台湾效力的资源，但多被忽略。

第四，姑且不论在台湾把中文称作华语、华文、或国语，或者即便在英文是以「Mandarin」来称呼中文，仍有很多美国人都会对于台湾与中国说一样的语言抱持一样的疑惑。若台湾希望能建立有别于中国的国际形象，何不考虑推广台语、客家话等方言？这样不仅能与中国区别开来，中国在海外传授方言的可能性较小，也能帮助外国人与世界各地闽南人、客家人交流做生意，何乐不为？

这也带出了另一个我认为台湾不应该急着推出中文学校的原因。一般而言，外国人学习中文多半是为了在经贸活动、学术研究等领域跟中国来往，台湾通常不在考量之内。虽然也有像笔者这样从学生时期就学了中文，辗转来到台湾就业定居的外国人，但算是极少数例外。也就是说，台湾政府投资中文学校的一个风险在于，培育出来的中文人才，并不会对台湾带来直接帮助。若台湾自己没有相对应的经济诱因，外国人即使在台湾的中文学校学了台式中文之后，仍然很有可能会到中国去经商、留学、或工作，我们常常可以在领取了台湾政府提供的奖学金或文化补助金的外国名额上看到类似的现象，他们得到了台湾的资助后，真的扎根台湾、或为台湾在国际间发声的人有多少？新南向政策中也提供了奖学金让对象国家的学生到台湾的学术院校来交流学习，但台湾的慷慨出手有得到相当的回报吗？

中华文化这个概念将台湾与中国以文化之因紧紧相连，若台湾政府现在站出来宣扬中华文化，例如宣扬故宫珍藏品的正统性与价值、或派中文教师出来取代中国来教外国人中文，这会向国际递送一个含混的讯息：台湾和中国共享同样的语言与文化。这难道不是与民进党政府的论述背道而驰？

台湾有许多政治家喜欢谈论台湾的软实力，但台湾的国防安全是建立在军备基础与国家安全系统上，也就是所谓的硬实力。在美国多建几所中文学校，除了能取悦积极推动这项政策的政治人物之外，对于改善台湾的国际地位长远看来很难有实质帮助。国库的珍贵资源、即纳税人的血汗钱，难道不应该要花在更有意义的刀口上吗？

（作者为美国共和党海外部亚太区前主席）

全文：

Why Taiwan Should Not Try to Replace Confucius Institutes

by Ross Darrell Feingold

Former Asia Chairman Republicans Abroad

In mid-August the BBC published a long report about Taiwan’s newly opened Mandarin language schools in the United States. The report compared the Taiwan operated schools with the now discredited Confucius Institutes operated by the Chinese government in secondary and tertiary academic institutions worldwide. With the negative attention given to Confucius Institutes over concerns that courses offered in the institutes limit academic freedom by avoiding sensitive topics such as Xinjiang Tibet and Taiwan and that the personnel are employees of the Chinese government and / or work at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party or the Chinese government it is no surprise that the political and in some places legal environments have shifted against schools in the United States hosting a Confucius Institute.

First as a US citizen I prefer Mandarin teaching jobs be given to United States citizens or permanent residents. There are a sufficient number of such persons in the United States who are native Mandarin speakers whether their heritage is in Taiwan China or other locations in the Mandarin speaking world. If schools in the United States in need of Mandarin teachers are concerned that teachers might have an inappropriate relationship to the Chinese government this can be ascertained during the hiring process. It is ironic that the Taiwan government makes it difficult for primary schools and kindergartens to hire foreigners to teach English but wants to export its own citizens to serve as Mandarin teachers overseas.

Second let’s be frank and admit that successive Taiwan governments have never been very good at projecting Taiwan’s soft power. Taiwan’s efforts to promote inbound tourism or export Taiwan’s modern culture are rather pathetic when compared to the successes of other countries in Asia such as Japan South Korea and Thailand. Whether it’s the Ministry of Transportation and Communications Tourism Bureau or the Ministry of Culture (and its predecessor agencies) there are consistent problems with a lack of international understanding bureaucracy and money wasted on projects that generate poor results. Recent gains (pre Covid-19) in inbound tourism arrivals were helped in part by subsidies to attract tourists from certain Southeast Asian countries but these low spending tourists did not make up for the loss of China tourists.

Third as this author has previously publicly commented Taiwan’s central and local government agencies have an odd habit of valuing foreigners who live outside Taiwan and make some gesture to show support for Taiwan (such as recent statements or social media posts by politicians in other countries) over the foreign population resident in Taiwan. As recent events in Afghanistan show the presence of a foreign community is an important concern not only of the host country but also those persons home country governments. Perhaps the Taiwan government should spend more resources on activating the resident foreign community to advocate for Taiwan who by their decision to live in Taiwan have demonstrated their commitment to Taiwan rather than spend resources on Mandarin language students overseas. Similarly there are tens of thousands of alumni of Taiwan’s Mandarin language schools around the world who in the past sixty years studied Mandarin in Taiwan. It is this author’s firm belief that they can also be great advocates for Taiwan but the Taiwan government largely ignores these foreigners. Instead the government is trying to create new friends of Taiwan by teaching Mandarin to foreigners in far away places.

Fourth the name of the language should be carefully considered. Regardless of what the language is called in Mandarin or if in English it is referred to as “Mandarin” there will still be confusion as to whether or not Taiwan is part of China. If Taiwan wants Americans or the rest of the world to view Taiwan as separate from China why would Taiwan fund the teaching of the Chinese language? Perhaps Taiwan should instead fund the teaching overseas of dialects such as Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka which would distinguish Taiwan from China the Chinese government will not compete in this area and it will help learners do business with the worldwide Hokkien and Hakka diaspora.

Which leads to the most important reasons why the concept of Taiwan funding Mandarin language schools worldwide is odd. Generally people study Mandarin because they wish to work in or with China. Regardless of whether the field is business or academics or other China and not Taiwan is the motivating factor for people to learn Mandarin. Although some persons such as myself who studied Mandarin at a young age changed paths and made their life in Taiwan rather than China this is the exception and not the rule why people learn Mandarin. Thus there is a risk that students of Taiwan-funded Mandarin schools eventually go to China to work anyway and have little connection to Taiwan. A similar phenomenon is seen with foreign students who receive scholarships to study in Taiwan whether language or in other fields. One aspect of the New Southbound Policy is to offer scholarships to students from these countries to study in Taiwan’s universities but there is no evidence they return Taiwan’s generosity by doing anything for Taiwan now or in the future and in fact the likelihood is higher that they will do business with China in the future than with Taiwan.

Generally as with any thing that attaches Taiwan to Chinese culture these language schools appear to create a confusing message that “but for” the current political separation of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait Taiwan and China are actually one entity. To further prove that point the Taiwan government even wants to subsidize the teaching of the common language during a period when China’s government has a negative image. If Taiwan’s current government wants to claim an ownership share to aspects of Chinese history (such as the government’s selective participation in events to memorialize events in the Republic of China’s history) Chinese artifacts such as what is held at the National Palace Museum or the Mandarin language it weakens the argument for Taiwan being separate from China.

Taiwan politicians and other stakeholders love to talk about projecting Taiwan’s soft power. But Taiwan’s national security is based on hard power and a sufficient investment people and equipment for Taiwan’s military and other national security agencies. Taiwan funded Mandarin language schools around the world are unlikely to improve Taiwan’s national security will divert the attention of relevant government agencies from other more important domestic matters to please the politicians who think this is a good idea and might ultimately waste Taiwan taxpayer’s money.