Sat, Jul 20, 2002 page8

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  Parochialism hurting Taiwan

  After considerable debate the Ministry of Education has decided on Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音) as the official Romanization system. It is disturbing, though not at all surprising, that what is essentially an academic concern has become so highly politicized.

  While I'm not familiar with the Tongyong system, which I hear is perfectly adequate and can accommodate Hoklo and Hakka, it is clear that its biggest selling point is that it is seen to be pro-Taiwan. The Hanyu Pin-yin (漢語拼音) system is used throughout China and most of the Chinese-speaking world and is the official Romanization sys-tem of the UN. The Tongyong system, on the other hand, will be used widely throughout Taiwan (though probably not Taipei). So a parochial, local system has been favored over an almost universal standard.

  Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉) is quoted as saying ("Ma throws a spanner in the Pinyin works." July 12, page 1) that if the Hanyu system is adopted "Taiwan will lose its unique cultural traits and national identity." What rubbish! Are we to believe that national identity hinges on how a foreign alphabet is to be used?

  The debate has become clouded by issues of nationalism and cross-strait relations. Most people in Taiwan couldn't care less how Mandarin is Romanized. Is it really necessary to have one system to cover all of Taiwan's languages? I don't see why. If Tongyong is so good for teaching Hakka and Hoklo then use it for that purpose, and keep Hanyu for Mandarin. That way we could also avoid the possibility of multiple Romanizations on street signs.

  Richard K. Cotton

  Tainan

  T'an Ch'i or Tan Qi? No matter how you spell it, the Chinese word for "sigh" is all the response I can muster for this latest round in Taiwan's perennial and everlasting Pinyin Holy Wars.

  In any event, patience is not a reaction that seems to flow naturally at this point, so forgive me for being blunt with whoever are in charge of this decades-long humiliation and debilitation of Taiwan's people.

  Use Hanyu for Mandarin. Always. (I'll let other letter writers explain why, as I've done so myself already too many times over the years.)

  Do not eliminate Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號, commonly known as Bopomofu). Continue to base local Mandarin education on this familiar syllabary.

  Teach Hanyu in schools, not as a replacement for Zhuyin Fuhao, but simply as one of the essential "skills" needed for literacy in Mandarin.

  Teach Tongyong in schools. Not for Mandarin, but for the other local languages it is designed to accommodate. The so-called "pro-Taiwan" activists who insist that the use of Hanyu would somehow amount to caving in to the unificationists are really missing the point. If their goal, as your article says, is to preserve Taiwan's "unique cultural traits and national identity" and if they see Hanyu as running counter to that goal, then it stands to reason that they see China's culture as distinct from Taiwan's. I couldn't agree more.

  But that is precisely why the use of Hanyu actually affirms Taiwan's uniqueness. Because it acknowledges outright that Mandarin is an "imported, foreign" language, with only 50 years of history as a lingua franca in only limited portions of the country. First we had 50 years of Japanese, then another 50 years of Chinese.

  Isn't it about time Taiwan gave all its languages equal status and respect? And isn't it about time the people of Taiwan stopped letting a few politically motivated academic hotheads make this entire country look like a worse-than-third-world intellectual backwater with their stubborn refusal to admit that Hanyu is the world standard?

  John Diedrichs

  Taipei

  The debate about whether to use the globally accepted Hanyu system is one that continues to emphasize the silly and reactionary nature of the bureaucracy that exists in many ugly forms within Taiwan's government. More lucid and practical individuals like Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) see the issue for what it is: foreigners today learn Hanyu when they learn Chinese. When erecting signs, therefore, one should use Chinese characters for citizens of Taiwan and Hanyu for foreigners.

  Students of Chinese no longer learn the Wade-Giles system and have never learned Bopomofo or Tongyong unless they have sought out such instruction once in Taiwan. These systems are as useless today as the bureaucratic institutions that continue to perpetuate and promote their usage.

  This in its own should be reason enough to use Hanyu.

  Hanyu is, granted, a rather confusing system to learn. But it can be learnt quite easily, because it is consistent. Why does the Academia Sinica consider Tongyong system -- concocted by diplomatic-minded professors -- a part of the "unique cultural traits and national identity" of Taiwan? This is an academic question regarding the Romanization of Mandarin Chinese, not a political issue of surrendering sovereignty to China.

  Isn't the entire purpose of Romanization to accommodate foreign visitors? It is disheartening to see such bureaucratic buffoonery taking the reins in the promising democracy of Taiwan.

  Ben Zoll

  Seattle, Washington

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