Liao Hsiu-kuang ( "I have only one heartfelt wish, and that is
to hand down Taiwanese language culture to later generations
intact" says 88-year-old Liao. Liao taught Japanese during the
colonial period, and later taught Chinese under Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) rule. During the White Terror he was
imprisoned on Green Island and in a military prison in Taipei
for seven years. During his sixth year, a prisoner in a
neighboring cell gave him several Taiwanese language
dictionaries, which sparked his interest in researching the
language. Although Taiwanese is his native language, Liao has
used his fluent Japanese and Mandarin to contribute to and edit
other Taiwanese dictionaries published in Japanese. In his work
he has insisted on using the word "Taiwanese" rather than
"Hoklo," a practice which has been adopted in other Taiwanese
dictionaries in other countries. Liao says that most Taiwanese
dictionaries on the market today use a pinyin-like romanization
system. However he believes that since Korean, Japan