The foreign community in Taiwan appears to believe that the only factor keeping the ROC government from adopting the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system is a knee-jerk reaction to anything created by the PRC government. The reality, however, is far more complicated.
Taiwan is a multilingual society which, after a century of suppression of local languages, is finally preparing to include the teaching of those languages in the public schools. This change has occurred in many other democratizing countries and certainly deserves the support of foreign residents. The catch is, however, that this process will likely involve use of the Roman (Latin) alphabet.
Taiwanese aboriginal lan-guages have long been written in the Roman alphabet. The other two "mother tongues," Hokkien (the local variety of which is often called "Taiwanese") and Hakka, will probably need to use the Latin script at least as a phonetic alphabet.
The existing non-Roman Zhuyin Fuhao ("bo-po-mo-fo") phonetic system works well for teaching Mandarin phonetics. However, since this system was designed exclusively for Man-darin, it could not be used for the richer phonetic systems of Hokkien and Hakka without extensive modification.
Most of those involved with the development of teaching materials for these tongues thus support use of the more flexible Latin script. The Roman alphabet may also be used in developing writing systems for these lan-guages. A standard writing system was created for Mandarin in the early part of the 20th century, but Hokkien and Hakka, having not yet been developed in the same way, have grammatical particles and vocabulary items which lack standard characters. At present, writers must borrow characters of similar pronunciation or equivalent meaning to substitute for the lacking characters.
New characters could be created, indeed, this was done for Mandarin when its writing system was standardized. However, many who are developing writing systems for Hokkien and Hakka favor using the Roman alphabet to write the missing words, or even advocate using the Roman alphabet instead of a character-based script.
At any rate, it appears that, barring the creation of a new native script, there is no escaping the need for a Roman-based system to be used at least as a phonetic alphabet. Ideally, this system would also be able to represent the sounds of Mandarin, since there is wide agreement that elementary school students should be taught to consistently romanize Man-darin, and since Hokkien, Hakka, and Mandarin, being from the same language family, share a large number of sounds.
In fact, in the 1800s, the Presbyterian church developed a romanization system for Hokkien which was originally used in romanized translations of the Christian Bible.
Although less well-known than the Wade-Giles system which has long been used for Mandarin, the Presbyterian system is already used in most Hokkien textbooks, has also been adapted to write the sounds of Hakka, and has been used in a variety of publications for well over a century. It is the preferred romanization scheme by those who are developing teaching materials for Hokkien and Hakka.
The problem with Hanyu Pinyin is it is not compatible with this Presbyterian system. The two systems, in contrast to each other, often use different letters to represent the same sounds, or use the same letters to represent different sounds.
It is possible that different systems could be used for different languages, but that is obviously an inefficient and confusing way of dealing with related languages in the same educational system. Hanyu Pinyin could conceivably be expanded to fit the sounds of Hokkien and Hakka, but there are questions as to its suitability for writing non-Mandarin languages.
At any rate, many advocates of local languages understand-ably feel that it would be folly to favor an existing, workable native romanization system, which has been in local use longer than has Mandarin itself, over Pinyin, a system which may not work for non-Mandarin languages.
Granted, Pinyin's wide use among Mandarin speakers and learners worldwide is a great advantage. However, this does not automatically make it the only reasonable choice as a romanization system for Taiwan. Taiwan has its own unique linguistic reality to deal with, and international standards, at any rate, are not immune to change or local modification.
Meanwhile, those who are very understandably frustrated by the current chaotic state of romanization in Taiwan should remember that what matters most to foreign residents and tourists is not which system is used -- it is consistent use of one system.
For foreign residents who can already speak Mandarin, any consistently used system can be learned quickly. Non-Mandarin-speaking tourists will not magically be able to pronounce Mandarin words correctly just because the "right" system is used, but all will be greatly helped by road signs which are always spelled in the same manner.
At any rate, all should be aware that reluctance to adopt Pinyin is far more than just political ideology. Furthermore, romanization in Taiwan is far more than simply how road signs are spelled. It is part of one of the most important political and cultural reforms that Taiwan will ever undertake, and as such, deserves support and understanding from foreign residents.
Matthew Ward is a lecturer at Jinwen Institute of Technology (景文技術學院).
I came to Taiwan to pursue my degree thinking that Taiwanese are “friendly,” but I was welcomed by Taiwanese classmates laughing at my friend’s name, Maria (瑪莉亞). At the time, I could not understand why they were mocking the name of Jesus’ mother. Later, I learned that “Maria” had become a stereotype — a shorthand for Filipino migrant workers. That was because many Filipino women in Taiwan, especially those who became house helpers, happen to have that name. With the rapidly increasing number of foreigners coming to Taiwan to work or study, more Taiwanese are interacting, socializing and forming relationships with
Chinese social media influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣), whose real name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), made statements advocating for “reunifying Taiwan [with China] through military force.” After verifying that Liu did indeed make such statements, the National Immigration Agency revoked her dependency-based residency permit. She must now either leave the country voluntarily or be deported. Operating your own page and becoming an influencer require a certain amount of support and user traffic. You must successfully gain approval for your views and attract an audience. Although Liu must leave the country, I cannot help but wonder how many more “Yayas” are still
Earlier signs suggest that US President Donald Trump’s policy on Taiwan is set to move in a more resolute direction, as his administration begins to take a tougher approach toward America’s main challenger at the global level, China. Despite its deepening economic woes, China continues to flex its muscles, including conducting provocative military drills off Taiwan, Australia and Vietnam recently. A recent Trump-signed memorandum on America’s investment policy was more about the China threat than about anything else. Singling out the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a foreign adversary directing investments in American companies to obtain cutting-edge technologies, it said
The recent termination of Tibetan-language broadcasts by Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a significant setback for Tibetans both in Tibet and across the global diaspora. The broadcasts have long served as a vital lifeline, providing uncensored news, cultural preservation and a sense of connection for a community often isolated by geopolitical realities. For Tibetans living under Chinese rule, access to independent information is severely restricted. The Chinese government tightly controls media and censors content that challenges its narrative. VOA and RFA broadcasts have been among the few sources of uncensored news available to Tibetans, offering insights
RSS