use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media. Accent differences among Taiwanese dialects are relatively small but still exist. The standard accent — Thong-hêng accent () is sampled from Kaohsiung city, while other accents fall into a spectrum between Hái-kháu accent (): representing the accent spoken in Lukang, close to Quanzhou dialect in China, and Lāi-po͘ accent (): representing the accent spoken in Yilan, close to Zhangzhou dialect in China. Much of Taiwanese Hokkien is mutually intelligible with other dialects of Hokkien as spoken in China and South-east Asia (such as Singaporean Hokkien), but also to a degree with the Teochew variant of Southern Min spoken in Eastern Guangdong, China. It is, however, mutually unintelligible with Mandarin and other Chinese languages. Taiwanese Hakka Hakka () is mainly spoken in Taiwan by people who have Hakka ancestry. These people are concentrated in several places throughout Taiwan. The majority of Hakka Taiwanese reside in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli. Varieties of Taiwanese Hakka were officially recognized as national languages. Currently the Hakka language in Taiwan is maintained by the Hakka Affairs Council. This governmental agency also runs Hakka TV and Hakka Radio stations. The government currently recognizes and maintains five Hakka dialects (six, if Sixian and South Sixian are counted independently) in Taiwan. Matsu dialect Matsu dialect (, Mā-cū-huâ) is the language spoken in Matsu islands. It is a dialect of Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min. Cantonese Cantonese is one of the Chinese languages in Taiwan. Cantonese is spread by Waishengren who have backgrounds in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is mainly spoken by immigrants from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau. Various Cantonese-speaking communities exist throughout Taiwan, and the use of the language in Taiwan continues to increase. There are a reported 87,719 Hongkongers residing in Taiwan as of the early 2010's; however, it is likely that this number has increased significantly since the Chinese government has gradually been dismantling their basic civil and political rights starting with the passing of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020. Written and sign languages Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are widely used in Taiwan to write Sinitic languages including Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese. The Ministry of Education maintains standards of writing for these languages, publications including the Standard Form of National Characters and the recommended characters for Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka. Written vernacular Chinese is the standard of written Chinese