Asia-Pacific News
Taiwan to adopt China's phonetic spelling system
Sep 17, 2008, 13:59 GMT
Taipei - Taiwan, putting aside long-standing political considerations, said Wednesday that it is adopting China's phonetic spelling system to prevent confusion in communications with foreigners.
The cabinet said Taiwan's local and county governments must use China's Hanyu Pinyin when translating place names and road names from Chinese into Roman alphabets.
Those who refuse to follow the order would not receive subsidies for transliterating place names from the central government.
'Hanyu Pinyin is being used by the United Nations and world libraries,' Education Ministry official Chen Hsueh-yu said. 'Adopting it can make it easier for foreigners to do business or travel in Taiwan.'
The Education Ministry is to revise guidelines on transliterating Chinese so people will know how to correctly translate place and road names, she said.
When teachers teach Chinese in foreign schools, they would also use Hanyu Pinyin, she added.
Taiwan has been split from China since 1949 when the Chinese Nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan to set up their government-in-exile.
To assert its legitimacy over all of China, the Taiwan government preserved the old Chinese characters and phonetic symbols, which are complicated and difficult to learn.
China, for the sake of wiping out illiteracy, simplified Chinese characters and phonetic symbols. Taiwan had refused to follow suit because of political reasons.
Taiwan's adherence to the old Chinese characters and phonetic symbols has caused many foreign students wanting to learn Chinese to avoid Taiwan and created obstacles in contacts with foreigners.
Taiwan not only uses the old Wade-Giles spelling system but also in 1958 launched another spelling system, and Taiwan's people can romanize Chinese any way they like.
For example, a busy avenue in Taipei can be spelled as Chunghsiao East Road, Chonghsiao East Road and Jhongsiao East Road. Under China's Hanyu Pinyin system, there is only one way to spell it - Zhongxiao East Road.
So far, Taiwan has not indicated it might adopt China's simplified Chinese characters. Most people in Taiwan regard them as too simple and ugly.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Maps printed in mainland China under communist control before 1949 do not show Taiwan as part of the Chinese state.
They should have done it long ago.
I think the rules won't be strict and people will still write the 'traditional way' - in bastardised Wade-Giles (with missing apostrophes, thus mixing different phonemes), especially for established English names of the cities, people, etc. I read that there will be flexibility in personal names. So, the confusion will continue. Taiwan is not China - the government says 'we start using hanyu pinyin', everyone follows.
BTW, the articles uses the old way to romanise the names: Chen Hsueh-yu and Taipei, not Chen Xueyu and Taibei (Hanyu Pinyin).
After having extensive exposure to both the Taiwan and mainland Chinese phonetic spelling systems, I strongly support Hanyupinyin-based standardization for the exact reasons reported in this article.
However, it's obvious to me that the author of this article clearly does not understand the history of cross-strait relations, nor does he/she understand the motivations of Taiwan for retaining use of traditional Chinese characters.
I agree with Rebecca, the adoption of Hanyu Pinyin will likely be a boon for the Taiwanese and visitors alike, but the author has clearly not read any linguistic research on the pros and cons of romanizations and on 'the old characters'. The efficacy of a romanization in a social context has less to do with its ease as much as to the extent to which it is promulgated. Also, traditional characters are used in Taiwan and yet Taiwan has a higher literacy rate than China--literacy isn't about the writing system, it's about access to education.
page: 1
PeterSep 17th, 2008 - 16:19:29
'Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan to set up their government-in-exile':
Please, Taiwan was not and is not 'in-exile'! It was not and is not a foreign land. Please stop misleading the readers!
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