Minister of Education Huang Jong-tsun (黃榮村) yesterday promised that he would minimize political confrontation when implementing Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音) as the country's official spelling system for Romanizing Mandarin.
The selection of Tongyong Pin-yin is regarded by opposition politicians as politically motivated.
While acknowledging that political concerns were part of the reason for the decision, the minister promised that he would strive to avoid the ensuing political tension when traveling the country advocating the system.
"The issue of adopting a language system is complex and cannot be forced. [The government] will not stir upheaval by compelling schools or local governments to use the system," Huang said at a meeting with scholars and PFP lawmakers.
The education minister promised that authorities would show respect to the will of individual regions, because it would not be in the nation's interest if the government coerces implementation without the approval of opponents.
Huang made the statements in an attempt to answer the concerns of some regional governments, including Taipei City, which insist on using Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音), the system used in China.
The education ministry triggered a fierce controversy after it announced last week that Tongyong Pinyin, a system created by a group of Taiwanese linguists in 1998, would be adopted as the standardized Mandarin Romanization system.
The decision ended a year-long debate which divided academics and officials and raised the passions of many foreigners living in Taiwan.
Street signs have created a major obstacle for foreign travelers in Taiwan, as at least four systems are in use concurrently.
The system used most often is the Wade Giles (
In deciding on an official system, Wade Giles and the Second Chuyi system were ruled out immediately. Wade Giles was ruled out because it is unfriendly to computer users, as it requires too many supplementary notes, whereas the Second Chuyi system was abandoned because it contradicts the widely-used Hanyu system -- which has also been accepted by the UN.
Backers of Hanyu Pinyin support the system because of its prevalence overseas. They condemn supporters of Tongyong, saying they oppose Hanyu simply because it is used in China.
But Tongyong Pinyin advocates say the system preserves Taiwan's cultural sovereignty, corresponds to local spelling habits and accommodates sounds in Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal languages. Supporters consider it a perfect combination of "globalization and localization."
The system has about 85 percent of the spellings used in Hanyu Pinyin.
The primary differences between the two are that Tongyong uses "s," "c" and "jh," which corresponds more with English spelling habits, instead of the "x," "q," and "zh" used in Hanyu, which English speakers without Mandarin skills cannot usually pronounce.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by