The government yesterday urged stores to refrain from replacing traditional Chinese characters with simplified characters in product descriptions or menus.
The call was issued against the backdrop of a new initiative allowing Chinese free independent travelers (FIT) to enter Taiwan.
“It’s not necessary to have product descriptions or menus available in simplified edition,” the Executive Yuan said in a press release, which did not ban the use of simplified characters outright.
One of the reasons Chinese tourists visit Taiwan is to experience the differences in culture, local traditions and customs between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the statement said.
It said Chinese tourists can learn the beauty of traditional Chinese characters, adding that values and meanings inherent in the traditional form makes them better for interpreting Chinese culture than their simplified counterparts.
Elaborating on the government’s position, Government Information Office Minister Philip Yang (楊永明) said that keeping things as they are, including the use of traditional characters, would help Chinese tourists understand the real Taiwan.
It is the government’s position to promote the use of traditional Chinese characters, he said, referring to a government bid to gain UNESCO World Heritage status for traditional characters.
On Sunday, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Chairman Shao Qiwei (邵琪偉) announced for the first time that the program would start on June 28 and would initially be open to residents from select Chinese cities.
The public announcement of an exact launch date caught Taiwan by surprise. The government did not comment on it until Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) first indicated on Monday that work still needed to be done.
After the Democratic Progressive Party criticized what it referred to as China’s unilateral announcement of the start date for the FIT program, Liu yesterday said that the two sides had engaged in various negotiations on opening Taiwan to individual Chinese travelers, but some details of the program had yet to be confirmed.
Liu said the Travel Agent Association of ROC, Taiwan, and the CNTA were working on the legal and executive processes for the program. The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), will then confirm the program and exchange paperwork before sending official documents to the Executive Yuan for approval.
“If everything goes well with the procedures, the program should be effective before June 28 and free Chinese travelers will be able to visit Taiwan immediately,” Liu said.
Officials from the SEF and ARATS declined to reveal the start date on Wednesday last week when they met in Taipei to discuss the effects of cross-strait agreements signed over the past three years.
Under the current framework for the program, a daily maximum of 500 independent Chinese tourists from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen will be allowed to enter the country.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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