President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday applauded the launch of an online cross-strait Chinese dictionary that incorporates a database on the languages used in Taiwan and China, a move to further bilateral cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
The launch of the online Chinese Language Knowledge Database (中華語文知識庫), compiled by the General Association of -Chinese Culture (GACC), an institution under the Presidential Office, implemented one of Ma’s campaign promises during the 2008 presidential election to establish a cross-strait dictionary and facilitate cross-strait cultural exchanges as people on either side of the Taiwan Strait use different Chinese characters and phrases.
“The best way to handle the differences between traditional and simplified Chinese characters is to list both and explain the -differences. The database will help the two sides understand each other and promote cultural exchanges. There are no political intentions,” Ma said at the launch ceremony.
Photo: CNA
While defending the use of traditional Chinese characters since his two terms as Taipei mayor, Ma said it would be difficult to ask China to adopt traditional characters or for Taiwan to use simplified Mandarin instead.
“What we should do is to understand the different languages and look at the characters from a non-political perspective. Maybe the two sides will develop a new set of characters that can be used and -that would be acceptable across the [Taiwan] Strait,” he said.
GACC chairman Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said the database includes a compilation that juxtaposes characters and phrases commonly used by people from both sides of the Strait in their daily lives.
The online platform (chinese--linguipedia.org) can also be operated in a way similar to that of Wikipedia, allowing users to suggest more content or edit posted content after a submission is approved by experts, he said, adding that the association would eventually launch applications to extend the database service to users of smartphones and tablet computers.
The site includes a search -engine that allows users to look up words spoken by people from Taiwan and China. In addition to the definition, it will also show the equivalent used by the other side.
Ma said the database would also help the growing number of people who are learning Mandarin worldwide understand the differences between the languages adopted in Taiwan and China.
One of the examples he gave was the term “playing the trumpet” (吹喇叭), which means “giving someone a blowjob” in Taiwanese slang, but means “fawning over somebody” in China.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Central Weather Bureau could issue a sea alert for Super Typhoon Mawar, as it is forecast to turn north and come closest to Taiwan from Tuesday to Wednesday next week. Mawar was downgraded from a super typhoon to a typhoon after sweeping across Guam on Wednesday night, knocking down trees and leaving much of the US territory without power. Many residents of Guam yesterday remained without power and utilities after Mawar tore through the remote US Pacific territory the previous night, ripping roofs off homes, flipping vehicles and shredding trees. There were no immediate reports of deaths and injuries, but the
ADJUSTMENTS: Over the next five years, every year except 2026 would have only one makeup workday to compensate for national holidays, the government said The Executive Yuan (EY) yesterday announced the official workday calendar for next year, which includes one makeup day and four holidays with more than three days off. It also announced new standards for makeup days in the event of consecutive holidays. The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration cited the importance of the Lunar New Year and Tomb Sweeping holidays to the public as its reason to mandate flexible off-days. The 115 total off-days dovetail with dates that international financial markets are closed, minimizing the effects of state holidays on stock and currency exchange trading, it said. Over the next five years, only the calendar for
Police on Sunday said they are on alert after the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) invited an alleged top leader of a Japanese criminal organization to visit Taiwan. The party and a branch of the Hongmen society reportedly invited Joji Uezu from the Kyokuryu-kai, the only yakuza group in Okinawa designated by Japanese police, to visit Taiwan along with six other people. Members of Taiwan’s Bamboo Union (竹聯幫) have reportedly participated in events hosted by the Kyokuryu-kai as early as 2015. The Okinawa Times in 2018 reported that Chang Wei (張瑋), son of former Bamboo Union leader and CUPP founder Chang An-le (張安樂),
INVASION UNPOPULAR: Chinese would likely accept their government having a softer stance toward cross-strait relations, one of the coauthors of the article said Interest among the Chinese public in the issue of China’s unification with Taiwan is low, researchers said, citing the results of a poll. An article titled “Assessing Public Support for (Non-)Peaceful Unification with Taiwan: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey in China,” published in the Journal of Contemporary China on May 14, showed that only 55 percent of those surveyed in China would support the use of military force to achieve unification with Taiwan. In the survey, which polled 1,824 people on the question of how they would like to see the issue of Taiwan’s unification with China resolved, “only one out of
RSS