More romanization news – it looks bad – in the Taiwan News today. But that paper’s website isn’t working and the other papers don’t seem to have picked up on the story.
Don’t give up the faith. Keep on using Hanyu. Come the revolution (when Taiwan decides that they don’t want the president of the high school audiovisual club as president of the nation), locals will understand how they’ve been led down the garden path. If Mayor Ma were as astute in every issue as he is in this one, he’d be a shoe-in for prez.
The story Cranky is referring to is here. It doesn’t look good, but at least Taipei is sticking to its guns. As I have said before, this policy is simply a continuation of the lack of policy that has continued for decades, lasting throughout several different and equally disasterous attempts at creating a “different” pinyin system. Two things will not change as a result of this decision: Tongyong will not become a viable standard, and Hanyu will continue to be the international standard. Foreigners will continue to use Hanyu and be mystified by the plethora of unlikely spellings seen throughout Taiwan.
Thank god this doesn’t apply to the main streets in our capital city. We have the numbered avenues and boulevards for that.
One Country Two Systems. Splendid.
Whatever this Taiwanese Pinyin is for, it certainly has nothing to do with romanising Chinese characters. Is it really just a childish wish to be “different” ? This is the ne plus ultra of fuckwittage. I suggest all foreigners write to their various home governments and suggest that Chinese characters will be written differently outside China, forcing all Chinese going abroad to learn a totally new writing system for use abroad. To make it really Taiwanese, each country must adopt a slightly different version of Chinese.
Right, I am off to Newport Place (London Chinatown) to start pulling down street signs.