The Ministry of Education's decision on the standardized Mandarin Romanization system for use in Taiwan is to be made by the education minister today, before being passed to the Executive Yuan for review and a final decision.
The minister's decision, whatever it may be, is sure to spark further debate.
The controversy concerning the official system for the Romanization of Mandarin has simmered for weeks after the Ministry of Education's Mandarin Promotion Council (MPC) decided on Oct. 7 to recommend Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音), a system created by a group of Taiwanese scholars who consider it more suitable for use in Taiwan than Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音), which is the predominant system in China and other Mandarin-speaking countries.
"The decision will not be made until tomorrow, as I am still pondering the pros and cons of both systems and awaiting the result of the surveys conducted by local governments," Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) said yesterday, refuting stories in yesterday's national newspapers, which said Tzeng had decided to choose Hanyu Pinyin over Tongyong.
Numerous reports have speculated that Tzeng might present the case for both systems to the executive branch because, on the one hand, he has repeatedly made his preference for the Hanyu system known to the public due to its prevalence in the international community, while, on the other, he would not wish to be disrespectful to the MPC's choice of Tongyong.
Tzeng yesterday denied such speculation, saying he would only present one system for the Executive Yuan to determine and that he would provide a detailed explanation of his choice.
Responding to the media's questioning as to whether he would choose Hanyu, Tzeng replied by saying merely that Hanyu was still on his mind.
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