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
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at