Rome was not built in a day. Neither can Romanization be completed overnight. Politically, Taiwan has gone through difficult processes of decolonization and democratization. But Romanization of location names in Taiwan will be as easy as "ABC."
In essence, Tongyong Pinyin for Romanization is different from Hanyu Pinyin only in three consonants.
A major advantage of Tongyong is to use "ci" and "si" instead of the two puzzling consonants "q" and "x" in Hanyu.
For foreigners and Taiwanese with or without Hanyu background, it will be much easier to read. For example, it's Banciao and Sindian in Tongyong instead of Banqiao and Xindian in Hanyu. The other different consonant is "jh" in Tongyong instead of "zh" in Hanyu, for example Jhanghua v. Zhanghua.
Another advantage of Tongyong is its versatility for different languages in Taiwan or even major languages in the world. For example, in Hoeloe (a Tongyong spelling of "Hoklo," also known as Taiwanese -Ed) language ("oe" is the German umlaut of "o"), Banciao, Sindian and Jhanghua will be pronounced as Banggioe, Sindiam and Jionghua.
Another Hoeloe example is "oea" for oyster and "oa" for taro. In contrast, Hanyu does not have "oe" or "iam" among others.
There are no reasons for Mayor Ma Ying-jeou to reject Tongyong and adopt Hanyu in Taipei unless he really wants Taiwan to become a country with two systems. I hope he will not become a horse troubling the whole herd. Using his excellent English, he can learn the three different Tonyong consonants in three minutes.
His Mandarin is also perfect, but is different from Mandarin spoken in China. In the same manner, Tongyong is easy and versatile although it is slightly different from Hanyu.
I would not be surprised if, someday, China wanted to adopt Tongyong for its convenience and general applicability.
As the leading English newspaper in Taiwan, the Taipei Times should play a role in promoting the Tongyong system. It is advisable to compile a Tongyong Romanization dictionary for common Chinese words and phonetic syllables in Mandarin, Hoeloe, Hakka and Aboriginal languages by your editors with manpower and financial support from the government. Romanized names of counties, cities, towns and villages in Taiwan should be included.
In addition, the Taipei Times should help the government edit important official English documents.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
For Taiwan, the ongoing US and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets are a warning signal: When a major power stretches the boundaries of self-defense, smaller states feel the tremors first. Taiwan’s security rests on two pillars: US deterrence and the credibility of international law. The first deters coercion from China. The second legitimizes Taiwan’s place in the international community. One is material. The other is moral. Both are indispensable. Under the UN Charter, force is lawful only in response to an armed attack or with UN Security Council authorization. Even pre-emptive self-defense — long debated — requires a demonstrably imminent
Since being re-elected, US President Donald Trump has consistently taken concrete action to counter China and to safeguard the interests of the US and other democratic nations. The attacks on Iran, the earlier capture of deposed of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and efforts to remove Chinese influence from the Panama Canal all demonstrate that, as tensions with Beijing intensify, Washington has adopted a hardline stance aimed at weakening its power. Iran and Venezuela are important allies and major oil suppliers of China, and the US has effectively decapitated both. The US has continuously strengthened its military presence in the Philippines. Japanese Prime
RSS