If there is one topic that is guaranteed to generate letters to this newspaper it is the issue of Romanization. This is surprising given the extent of Taiwan's myriad social, political and economic problems, measured against which the issue of which Romanization system to use could hardly be of less importance. Nevertheless, since this is a matter so fecund in the debate that it generates, we might as well have our own say, though that constitutes less of an opinion on the issue, but rather some questions designed to focus the subject in a way that seems all the more badly needed as intensity of debate increases.
What is the new Romanization system for? It appears to have two aims. The first is to facilitate the teaching of local languages -- Hokkien, Hakka and Aboriginal tongues -- at school. The second appears to be to introduce a standard Romanization system to help non-Mandarin speakers find their way around in Taiwan and to render documents containing Chinese names or words intelligible outside Taiwan.
To what extent do Tongyong Pinyin
As to the second goal, much is claimed for Hanyu by way of being an international standard. But this doesn't carry nearly the weight that Hanyu's many supporters seem to think. All it means in reality is that if you have learned some Mandarin you will probably be familiar with Hanyu. Surely what is wanted, however, is a Romanization system which facilitates reasonably correct pronunciation by people who haven't learned any Mandarin at all, something which Hanyu with its "c" "q" and "zh" certainly does not do (unless you are Russian, of course). Most of the pro-Hanyu lobby writing to this newspaper are students or ex-students of Mandarin, who have a vested interest in the use of the system they have learned. What we still await is significant correspondence from businessmen or other visitors to the island who know no Mandarin but pine for Hanyu, which is, by and large, as unfamiliar to them as Tongyong would be.
As to the internationalization argument, consider this: It has nothing to do with Romanization. But it does put the insignificance of the Romanization debate into perspective. People seem to readily forget that there are two systems of Chinese characters in use in the world, actually even in China itself, since Hong Kong still uses long-form characters. Nobody has suggested that Taiwan switch to short-form characters in the interests of internationalization. Of course not. Twenty-two million Taiwanese are not going to learn to read all over again. Seen in this light, that the Romanization debate exists is an interesting measure of how little it really matters.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam, seeming to believe that rats could not simply dig another path out. Meanwhile, as the nation’s capital slowly deteriorates into a rat hive, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has proudly pointed to the increase in the number of poisoned rats reported in February and March as a sign of success. When confronted with public concerns over young
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
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