[part 1 of 2 long posts]
This is incorrect, though I was pleased to see the Taipei Times correctly noted that in general Taiwan has not used proper Wade-Giles but bastardized Wade-Giles. In terms of official signage, four systems are common in Taiwan: Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin, MPS2, and bastardized Wade-Giles. It is important not to omit MPS2, as it is found on many, many street signs throughout Taiwan. Other systems – and lots of mistakes – can also be found.
I have not seen any Tongyongization “with a vengeance” within Taipei County, which is where I live. And I believe I am more attentive to such changes than most. Perhaps you could supply examples. Elsewhere you attribute the change to the efforts of the Taipei County Government, so a look at the situation around the seat of government might be instructive. Immediately surrounding Taipei County Hall a few of the street signs have been changed to Tongyong Pinyin, though almost as many have been changed to Gwoyeu Romatzyh, a system that although official for decades was basically never used! Other signs around Taipei County Hall remain as they have been for years, which is to say not in Tongyong. And at least one of the new Tongyong signs by the Taipei County Hall is misspelled, a situation that should surprise no one. And in the case of almost all of the Tongyong signs, they did not simply replace old signs but were put up as part of substantial roadwork in the area that required the installation of altogether new signage and equipment.
Elsewhere in Banqiao, almost all street signs remain in MPS2. Such is the case in many if not most other parts of the country.
Then use the power of your editorial page to get the government to work harder to see that old and incorrect signs are replaced, preferably with well-designed signs in Hanyu Pinyin.
It’s also important to keep in mind that romanization matters not just so people can see one spelling in a newspaper and the same thing on a sign. It’s also crucial that people be able to speak with each other. All the consistency in the world would never be enough to render bastardized Wade-Giles a useful romanization method because it does not provide reliable information about how the Mandarin words were meant to be pronounced. Remember how horrible the pronunciations on the MRT announcement system used to be? “Tam-shoo-ee” for “Danshui”, “XIAO4 nan men” for “Xiao Nanmen”, “Koo-ting” for “Guting” – all this and much, much more – consistent but stupid. Similarly, think of the city’s “nicknumbering” system: Even if all the signs are “correct” in this system, it’s still useless because no local has any idea where the hell “Seventh Boulevard” is. And it really is basically pointless. Romanization of Mandarin is meant to communicate the Mandarin names for things, not create some hideous, unnecessary pidgin (for example “key lung” for Jilong).
So using Hanyu Pinyin, which is known by pretty much everyone who knows at least one romanization system for Mandarin, is a logical and defensible choice even where local usage might dictate otherwise. Anyway, local usage is a chimera except in Taipei, which is consistently in Hanyu Pinyin. Following local signage just won’t work in most cases because it’s simply too inconsistent. In the bad old days before Mayor Ma fixed Taipei’s street signs, would your paper have insisted that a bar be listed as being on “Patch Road” simply because that was what the street sign nearest the establishment happened to have on it?
Hanyu Pinyin is most emphatically not a “rubbish system.” It was designed with care by skilled linguists, unlike Tongyong Pinyin. The more I have learned about it, the more impressed with it I have become. And all the trash talking in the world won’t change the fact that Hanyu Pinyin is the internationally accepted standard for Mandarin. This situation is not going to change because of several factors: whatever people may say of its approach, Hanyu Pinyin does work, so there is no serious movement to replace it; it is supported far more than any other romanization system; support for Hanyu Pinyin is growing, not declining.
This seems to equate the difficulty of learning a romanization system with that of learning to read Chinese characters, which is an absurd comparison. Many, many expats who have been in Taiwan for years, decades even, remain unable to read more than a few characters. Learning Hanyu Pinyin, on the other hand, is an infinitely easier task – and one that is aided by dictionaries, websites, books, phrasebooks, travel guides, etc.; this, however, is not the case for other romanization systems.
Anyway, the fact remains that Taiwan is not a hermit kingdom that wishes to cut itself off from the world. It has no choice but to use romanization in many situations – such as in newspapers. Or perhaps the newspapers would like to do away with romanization altogether and have people read the characters instead? Hell, why not just get rid of the English papers and have people read the Mandarin-language ones. What the heck do they need English for anyway?
You’ve got to be kidding. The street signs of Taiwan’s capital were an international laughing stock. Even people on brief visits would notice their unreliability. The two top foreign business chambers, AmCham and ECCT, have in the past complained long and loud about how badly done the street signs of Taipei (and of Taiwan as a whole) were. I would say that every foreigner on the whole island – and plenty of Taiwanese, too – knew the signs were a huge mess; but, to my astonishment, this common knowledge seems not to have made it into the offices of the Taipei Times.
Moreover, the changing of Taipei’s street signs began under the administration of Mayor Chen Shui-bian. This is also when the ridiculous practice of InTerCapITalIZaTion began. Under Chen, signs started going up in Tongyong Pinyin. But then the main person behind that system acted against the advice of linguists and changed the system, rendering many of the signs obsolete. (One example of the differences in old and new Tongyong: “Zhong[color=#000040]s[/color]iao” became “[color=#000040]Jh[/color]ongsiao”.)
This is correct. Highway signs – both on the highways themselves as well as on streets leading to highways – are generally but not exclusively in Tongyong.
I do not agree at all with this assessment. More than at any other time in Taiwan’s history, signs are up in correct romanization. That they are not in a consistent romanization system does not change this fact, especially since they were not consistent in anything to start out with. Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Ma, Taipei’s streets are now labeled more accurately and consistently than ever – and, to the best of my knowledge, more accurately and consistently than the signs in any other part of the country. Although the task was large it was not likely to win him any votes, he didn’t shirk the challenge. The city is the better for it.