The Inculturation of Liturgical Languages: Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

The inculturation of liturgical language is vital to good liturgy. Liturgical languages which can appropriately express the cultural and symbolic meaning of the assembly play a crucial role. Language expressions are on the surface level but culture is embedded in the deep structure. Regarding the trans-dialectal/lingual interpretation, when Mandarin Chinese written language is read in Taiwanese, there needs to be adjustment in syntax, not simply in pronunciation. The Taiwan Catholic Church can help local parishes to form support groups and/or training teams, at least at diocesan level, to overcome the linguistic problem. In this way, the Church in Taiwan will highlight the importance of implementing the inculturation of liturgical language to achieve the goal of bringing an understanding of Catholic faith down to earth and integrating it into daily Christian life.

In this chapter, Mandarin Chinese refers to the spoken language which is also called Standard Chinese or guoyu, based on the Beijing dialect. As for written language, both Minnan and Hakka-speaking people use Chinese, because they do not have their own writing system.