The Ministry of Education's announcement on Wednesday to adopt Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音) as the nation's standardized Romanization system for Man-darin has increased tensions between the central and Taipei City governments.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma insisted that Hanyu Pinyin (
Tongyong Pinyin is about 85 percent similar to Hanyu Pinyin.
"More than 85 percent of the 2.6 million visitors who come to Taiwan visit Taipei," Ma said. "The need for globalization in the capital is more urgent than anywhere else. Taipei City must adopt Hanyu Pinyin."
To show respect for the education ministry's decision, Ma said both systems will be used on streets connecting the city to outside areas. Hanyu Pinyin will appear first, with Tongyong Pinyin added underneath in parentheses.
The Mandarin Promotion Council, a task force under the education ministry, decided two days ago to choose the Tongyong system. While the council has made a decision, the controversy surrounding the Romanization debate isn't likely to end.
The council voted 10 to zero in support of Tongyong Pinyin. But 16 members of the 26-person panel did not cast ballots. Reports said many of the members who supported Hanyu Pinyin skipped the meeting because a decision in favor of Tongyong Pinyin seemed a fait accompli.
Backers of Hanyu Pinyin support the system because of its prevalent use overseas. But Tongyong Pinyin advocates say the system preserves Taiwan's cultural sovereignty and accommodates sounds in the Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal languages.
"If Taiwan adopts the Hanyu Pinyin system used in China, Taiwan will lose its unique cultural traits and national identity," said Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉), an associate researcher at the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica and the leader of the team which invented the Tongyong Pinyin system in 1998. "It would be an irreparable loss."
Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (
With the exception of Taipei City, many governments including Kaohsiung City and Taipei County have agreed to adopt Tongyong Pinyin.
Huang added the central government hopes to develop techniques and codes so that the two systems are understood by computers. The education minister also acknowledged the "political sentiments" held by supporters of either system. Indeed, one KMT lawmaker charged that the policy supporting Tongyong was part of the DPP's efforts to "split Taiwan from the mainland."
Asked whether the needs of foreigners were taken into account when choosing the system, Huang said "foreigners will solve the question themselves."
Chen Chi-nan (
He said only very few foreigners who understand Mandarin know the differences between Tongyong and Hanyu, given that Hanyu is the system used overseas for Mandarin study.
Chen argued that for most foreigners, what's most important is that street signs use consistent spelling and are easy to read.
"The most important issue is consistency," he said. "There wouldn't be a problem if street signs were spelled consistently everywhere in the nation."
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a