Political observers yesterday expressed divided views over the Cabinet's official approval of the Tongyong Pinyin as the nation's official system for Romanization and the plan to offer incentives to encourage local governments to adopt the system.
Local governments are free to decide whether it will follow the policy or not because the measure is an administrative order.
Emile Sheng (
"But instead of handling the matter in a professional manner, it becomes a political issue," Sheng said.
The form of spelling had been the source of strong political passions over the years and had boiled down to a duel between the Hanyu and the Tongyong systems. Other people formerly involved with the issue say they are exacerbated over the issue and have long since given up fighting for one side or the other, complaining that the issue has become politicized.
The Hanyu Pinyin system was developed in China and is now in use by most aca-demic institutions and other organizations as an international standard. The Tongyong system, on the other hand, was developed in Taiwan by a small group of Taiwanese linguists.
Taiwanese linguists argue that the Tongyong system is superior to the Hanyu Pinyin system because it is able to cope with not only Mandarin Chinese but also Taiwanese and Hakka, which are seen by many as important elements in Taiwan's cultural identity.
This identity issue is countered by supporters of the Hanyu camp who said that if Taiwan wants international recognition, it must adopt the international standard.
Sheng is one of those who supports this argument.
"If the Romanization system is mainly made for foreigners, it only makes sense to adopt the one they're most familiar with," he said. "The [Tongyong] policy is so ridiculous that it does nothing more than complicate the already chaotic situation," Sheng said.
However, Chin Heng-wei (金恆 煒), a political observer and editor in chief of Contemporary magazine, disagrees.
"If they want international recognition, why not discard Chinese altogether and use English as the official language instead?" Chin asked. "France can win international recognition but they don't use English street signs."
Commenting on the govern-ment's policy of allowing local governments to decide whether to follow the policy, Chin said that it is intended to avoid political confrontation, especially with the Taipei City Government, which is insisting on using Hanyu as its
Romanization standard.
"The tables will turn if incumbent Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
In addition to Taipei City, the KMT-led Hsinchu City and County have said that they will defy the policy. The KMT-led Taitung County said it will follow the policy only if the central government subsidizes the cost.
Ku Chung-hwa (
"Let's face it, the policy is a compromise under political pressure," Ku said. "Rome isn't built in one day. I don't think the government's policy makes that much of a difference to foreigners who have already been confused by our spelling systems."
In addition to Tonyong and Hanyu, there are two more commonly used systems: a modified version of Wade-Giles, which was created by British scholars in the 19th century and is currently being used for most proper nouns in English newspapers in Taiwan, and Second Chuyin (注音二式).
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS