The Taiwan Pinyin League yesterday called on the Control Yuan to impeach Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) and Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) over their decision to replace Tongyong Pinyin with Hanyu Pinyin as the national standard Romanization system.
On International Mother Language Day yesterday, the Taiwan Pinyin League and its head Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉), who led the team that designed Tongyong Pinyin, staged a rally to protest the government’s decision to adopt Hanyu Pinyin, saying it violated the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.
PHOTO: CNA
IDEOLOGY
Yu said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was being guided by his ideology in replacing Tongyong Pinyin with Hanyu Pinyin, which would cost the nation between NT$7 billion (US$210 million) and NT$8 billion at a time when the public is struggling to make a living because of the recession.
Ma’s administration favors Hanyu Pinyin — invented in China — over Tongyong Pinyin because it belittles Taiwanese, Yu said.
WASTE
He said it would be a waste of money to replace Tongyong Pinyin with Hanyu Pinyin nationwide as a survey conducted by the education ministry showed that only 6 percent of the nation’s transliterations used pinyin.
Making the statement near the Taipei MRT’s Ximen station, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) and Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) covered the letter “X” on the Ximen Station nameplate with an “S” sticker.
The councilors urged the government to at least adopt both Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin at the same time for use on road signs and street names.
Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation staffers at Ximen Station later removed the “S” sticker.
Ling Chi-yao (陵啟堯), a spokesman for the company, said that changing station names was up to the Taipei City Government because the company was owned by the government.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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