Open letter to J. Frank Moore
President, International Association of Lions Clubs
Dear Mr. Moore:
I am not a member of Lions Clubs. However, I recently read in the Taipei Times about the Taiwan Lions Clubs' name being unilaterally changed to a funny name -- China Taiwan Lions Club -- because of Chinese pressure ("The cowardly Lions are far from Oz," July 10, page 8). It seems you don't fully understand the distinction between the two countries.
It is indeed outrageous, as the editorial pointed out, that the chapter's name was changed after more than 50 years and all the contributions made by generations of Lions in Taiwan. I also agree that the way the name change was carried out by the Lions Clubs International board of directors was underhanded. The board apparently lacked the backbone to stand up to Chinese pressure and was desperate to accommodate two new chapters in Guangdong and Shenzhen.
It seems to me that your handling of this matter is not the American way -- insofar as I understand it from my 42 years of living in the US.
The editorial went on to note that the Lions Clubs International's conduct is completely at odds with its founding ideals -- to establish local business clubs that could "expand [its] horizon from purely business concerns to the betterment of their communities and the world at large." It is difficult to associate the board's conduct with such beautiful words. How does insulting the 23 million people of Taiwan by downgrading their country into a mere Chinese province accomplish these lofty goals? It is equally baffling how caving into pressure from the politically strong and trampling on the politically weak furthers these goals.
Let's not forget that the organization's conduct directly violates one of its own "Lions International Objects" -- "to provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided, however, that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members." By siding with China on the very politicized issue of Taiwan, the Lions could not possibly have been more partisan. Lions Clubs International doesn't even realize how spineless it is.
Many years ago, I was a fellow of Tokyo Rotarian Clubs International, which also has as one of its objectives to promote international understanding and friendship.
I am sure your organization has the same objective.
I would like to suggest a simple way to distinguish the Taiwan chapter from the Chinese chapters. Why don't you just change the Taiwan group's name to Lion Clubs International of Taiwan?
Yoshiko Tio
Houston, Texas
Tongyong Pinyin needed
This is in response to the two letters (Letters, July 13, page 8) supporting Hanyu Pinyin for Taiwanese. Although I left Taiwan in the 1960s and have lived in the US for almost 40 years, I have kept up with everything Taiwanese, especially through daily viewings of the Taipei Times online.
Contrary to what one of the letters asserted, Taiwanese children do need Tongyong Pinyin to learn their mother tongues: Hoklo, Hakka or Aboriginal languages. Taiwanese already have had more than a hundred years of using Romanized languages of those mother tongues similar to Tongyong. If the Taiwanese need to develop a Romanized system for Mandarin, isn't it better to be Tongyong, in order to be consistent all around? I believe that this is by far the most important reason that Tongyong was officially adopted.
The root of the problem is that Chinese invented Hanyu Pinyin, which is adopted from the Russian alphabet and is significantly inconsistent with most of the Western languages. When Hanyu was put into wider circulation in the late 1970s, I remember that many Americans balked at the need to pronounce Chinese names of people and others things in such a strange fashion. But now that recent Mandarin tutorials are in Hanyu exclusively, those wanting to learn Mandarin have no choice but to use it. A few of those having learned Mandarin through Hanyu now even propose to Taiwanese to do likewise. What irony!
Right after the American revolution, Noah Webster suggested that Americans change English spellings and other things to create American English. Americans quickly adopted his proposals and in the process have created a unique American culture. Whoever called his proposal "a politically motivated, reactionary and isolationist recommendation" at that time, would now be the laughingstock themselves.
All things considered, I believe Tongyong Pinyin is indeed a wise choice for the Taiwanese. Noah Webster would certainly agree.
Samuel Chuo
Alabama
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