Following the decision by the Ministry of Education's Manda-rin Promotion Council to adopt Tongyong Pinyin (
The four Taiwan Societies and the Association of University Professors solemnly declare that the de-Taiwanization of Taiwan's education and culture has been going on for a long time and the invasion by Chinese culture of Taiwan has been seen as natural and appropriate. We demand that the unificationist forces calmly consider the rationale behind their China ideology. They should allow Taiwanese culture the space for development to which it is entitled and accept the reasonableness of Tongyong Pinyin.
In the future, Taiwan will be communicating with the international community through several languages and alphabets. If a spelling system is necessary, there is no need to use China's Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音) system. The Hanyu system contains several phonetic notions incompatible with English pronunciation rules. Furthermore, given the stage of language software development, very few difficulties are likely in the internationalization of Tongyong Pinyin and it has the added merit that it can facilitate the teaching of Taiwanese languages. There is no need for forces close to China to start jumping up and down.
During the Japanese colonial era, Japanese was promoted as the national language of Taiwan. After the Chinese rulers of the martial-law era had entered Tai-wan, the Beijing dialect -- whose soul is Chinese culture -- promoted Mandarin as the national language, causing Taiwanese culture to drift like a restless phantom to this day. If the Tongyong system can provide Taiwan's local languages with some breathing space, then why shouldn't the Chinese spirit find it in itself to show some tolerance?
We also want to remind KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his party, who are demanding that Huang step down, that Lien's grandfather Lien Heng (連橫) gave over 200 speeches across the island to protect Taiwanese culture and the Taiwanese language which were being suppressed by the Japanese. How come that experience did not teach Lien anything?
To KMT legislators whose parents' and grandparents' native tongue was Hoklo, we would point out that Tongyong Pinyin facilitates the teaching of this language and does not impede internationalization. If you cannot wake up from the kind of pro-China ideology that makes you demand that Huang step down, you should consider the might of the electorate and their votes.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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