ABSTRACT This article follows producers of Kai Language Heroes, the first Indigenous language game show in the world, as they adapted the genre for language revitalization. Kai Language Heroes is one of many original programs at Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV), a public broadcaster that serves Taiwan's diverse Austronesian‐speaking peoples. I argue that the program's production team Indigenized the game show genre through what I call a “production culture of lightness,” by cultivating a careful blend of humor, play, and ease. Producers used lightness—my creative translation of the Mandarin term qingsong —to mediate Taiwan's Austronesian language worlds, negotiating extraordinary linguistic diversity alongside legacies of colonial violence and erasure. This reflects a responsive approach to language revitalization that centered the needs and values of Indigenous contestants, even—and especially—when these needs were at odds. Through its unique production culture, Kai Language Heroes nourished participants along their language journeys and created opportunities for lasting linguistic growth.
Eliana Ritts (Fri,) studied this question.