Shouting “We want Taiwanese Tongyong Pinyin,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians and independence supporters yesterday protested against the Taipei Bus Station’s decision to adopt Hanyu Pinyin for the English translation of destination city or town names.
The romanization of destination names on information boards in the bus station has previously used different systems. Taipei City’s Department of Transportation released a notice on Thursday ordering the company to standardize all destination names using the Hanyu Pinyin system within a week.
DPP Taipei City councilors Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) said the Taipei City Government was fawning on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and China by using a system of romanization developed in China.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
“The Tongyong Pinyin system is widely used for the romanization of ‘Taisi’ (台西) Town in Yunlin County (雲林). Why should it be spelled ‘Taixi’ instead?” Chuang said in the bus station.
DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) later climbed a ladder and covered the “Taixi” on the destination board above the bus gate with a card reading “Taisi.”
Liu called for the city government to respect the use of Tongyong Pinyin in other parts of Taiwan.
“We are Taiwanese, and Taiwanese use Tongyong Pinyin. We refuse to adopt the romanization system used by China,” he said.
Cheng Chia-liang (鄭佳良), director of the department’s public transportation division, said Taipei City has adopted the Hanyu Pinyin system, and the department was only following regulations.
“Some residents complained about the different spellings used for the destinations in the station, and so we standardized the English transliterations. We adopted Hanyu Pinyin because it is the system used by the Taipei City Government,” he said.
The former DPP government adopted Tongyong Pinyin as the official romanization system in 2002. Ma, however, adopted a policy of using Hanyu Pinyin in Taipei City when he was mayor.
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