Language is closely intertwined with political power. In 1987, the linguistic scholar Huang Hsuan-fan did a survey of Taipei residents. More than half of the respondents stated that their first language was Taiwanese. But only 41 % of respondents felt that their "mother tongue" was Taiwanese.
語言與政治權力關係密不可分，一九八七年語言學者黃宣范曾對台北市居民做問卷調查，超過一半的人最先學會的語言是台語，但其中有四成一的人認為自己的母語是「台語」。