Well, `tis the season, I guess. It seems we're about due for another round of arguments about how to transcribe Chinese words into the Roman alphabet.
Every couple of years, some politician tries to fix the horrendous mess that is Taipei's street signs, or proposes the teaching of romanization methods in Taiwan's schools, only to meet a brick wall of shortsighted political opposition when it is discovered that the most sensible solution to all these problems is to use a romanization system, hanyu pinyin, that was invented in China -- as part of the Great Leap Forward (
It's almost as bad as the War On Drugs in the US, where it's plain to see that prohibition isn't working, yet no politician has the guts to suggest anything different for fear of appearing soft on crime. In Taiwan, it's plain to see that hanyu pinyin is the answer, but politicians are understandably nervous about appearing to support Communist China.
That's why we see one hare-brained scheme after another, such as then-Mayor Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) tongyong pinyin (basically, hanyu pinyin with a couple of letters changed) and now Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) "nick-numbering" system for Taipei streets.
None of these address the real issue: that Chinese is the lingua franca of Taipei, and foreigners who come here expect to have to learn how to say, or at least recognize, a few words of the local language. Furthermore, Taiwanese citizens sometimes need to write Chinese words in English e-mails or faxes, and most don't have a clue about how it's done because Taiwan's schools don't teach any romanization system at all!
Obviously there is a need for both Taiwanese and foreigners to have a "common language" for communicating Chinese that doesn't require foreigners to learn thousands of Chinese characters. But Taiwan's paradoxical policy is not to make this process easier. Instead, Taiwan tries to hide Chinese from foreigners whenever possible, in a misguided attempt at accommodation that ends up making life more difficult, not less.
This is the worst kind of "one country, two systems" policy imaginable. First, it rudely assumes that Chinese is just too difficult for those dumb foreigners. Second, it rudely assumes that Taiwan is not worthy of a little effort in learning.
Both assumptions are utter hogwash. And now Mayor Ma has made it even worse.
We used to have two systems on the street signs: Chinese characters, and a slovenly mish-mash of so-called "English" spellings -- worse than useless for any foreigner trying to learn their way around the city. Now we have three systems: Chinese, alphabet-soup, and nick-numbers.
This obfuscation of Chinese even extends to the subway system, where a silky feminine voice coos "Tam-shooey" instead of the proper "dan-shui." Mispronouncing station names in a caricatured "foreigner" accent only makes it harder for visitors to get familiar with Taipei, since this is not what we hear on the street.
It's no exaggeration to say that many foreigners are offended by this institutionalized mockery, just as a Taiwanese would be offended to hear subway station announcements in Paris or New York given in a stereotyped "Chinaman" accent.
What's worse, it sets a horrible example for Taiwan's citizens of how to behave toward foreigners. Observe the derisive snickers of local students, and the rolled eyes of local foreigners, whenever these announcements are heard. What a pathetic farce.
It's true that most foreign visitors will not bother to learn that "ChungShan" means "center mountain," and is actually the name of Sun Yat-sen (
And it really doesn't matter if you spell it "ChungHsiao" (Wade-Giles) or "ZhongSiao" (tongyong pinyin) or "ZhongXiao" (hanyu pinyin), as long as it's consistent.
The problem is, when you change "ChungHsiao" to "ZhongSiao" from one street corner to the next, you've created a completely different word in the eyes of a foreigner. Westerners are trained to read the alphabet phonetically, and the only way to know that "Ch" and "Zh" have the same phonetic value (or that "chung" is the same word as "zhong") is if you can already speak Chinese!
It would be as if Americans wrote "Washington" as [china-smooth-tonne] on one street corner, and [gas-happy-lamp] on the next. Both are pronounced "Washington" -- what's the problem?
Most people agree that Taiwan needs to pick one romanization system now, and make it a national standard which is taught to all students -- not as a replacement for zhuyin fuhao (aka: bopomofo), just a supplement. However, the lingua franca of romanization happens to be a Chinese system, and implementing it here will involve some delicate "face" management.
Taiwan's government officials need to tattoo the following on the insides of their eyelids: Beijing has already won the romanization "face" race.
The rest of the world has already decided on hanyu pinyin as the standard for romanizing Chinese. Taiwan's refusal to accept this simple fact is every bit as annoying as Beijing's rabid denial that Taiwan is a de facto sovereign state. Both attitudes are seen as childish and stubborn by the rest of the world. And both Taiwan and China lose "big face" by clinging to such outdated Cold War dogma.
Well, here's a solution to the problem that everyone can find an excuse to support. Add a six-week course in hanyu pinyin to Taiwan's school curriculum (and fix the street signs accordingly) but "spin" the political issues to Taiwan's advantage:
-- Mayor Ma could crow about how Taipei is now truly an "international" city which is fully "up-to-date" with current trends in communication standards.
-- President Chen could depict the decision as a cultural overture to our "friends" across the Strait.
-- Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) could let slip one of her well-placed gaffes, saying that Chinese is an "imported" language anyway -- enforced by the evil KMT for half a century. So if you're going to use a Chinese language, you might as well use their romanization system, too.
Everybody would be happy. Beijing could claim Taiwan is taking a step toward unification, while independence advocates could counter that it's really a step in their direction. Meanwhile, foreigners could breathe a sigh of relief as Taipei street signs finally began to make sense.
Most important of all, Taiwanese people would finally be given the ability to communicate a part of their rich, dynamic culture with the rest of the world.
John Diedrichs is the new media editor at the Taipei Times.
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