From 1945 until 1987, the KMT (Nationalist)
government enforced its strict Mandarin Language Policy in schools
throughout Taiwan, and students were forbidden to speak local
languages or dialects. Recent reversal of this policy allows
schools to teach these formerly forbidden varieties. Despite
some attention from scholars, it remains to explore the impact
of these policies on successive generations of bilingual speakers.
This study explores the perceptions of parents, grandparents,
and young adults. The data show that school-based policies have
an impact on family-based speaking practices. They also demonstrate
the complex interplay between public and private histories in
the development of linguistic ideologies and language as capital.