Premier Su Tseng-chang says that a proposed national languages research center should be required to come up with practical steps for preserving Taiwan’s languages. Su was speaking Thursday, as the Cabinet declined to approve the proposed center.

Taiwan and its surrounding islands are home to several Chinese languages and a large number of indigenous Austronesian languages. However, Mandarin Chinese was long promoted at the expense of other languages. This plus factors like the movement of people away from traditional communities has left much of Taiwan’s linguistic diversity under threat.

The culture ministry proposed establishing a National Languages Research Institute to conduct research and linguistic surveys while working to preserve, promote, and revive the languages of Taiwan.

However, on Thursday, the premier said the center must come up with more concrete ways of making sure Taiwan’s languages are protected, that they are reintroduced into daily life, and that there is an environment for their everyday use. The premier has told the culture ministry to meet with other government ministries about the proposed center and submit a new proposal for it to the Cabinet.