Yeah tis not really that hard. But if the PRC is using this to chisel away at the ROC, they sure dont want China Airlines to be renamed Taiwan Airlines. Maybe thats different.
Since the ROC numbers its commercial aircraft with a “B” the PRC in the last few years insisted on using that same letter B for its commercial aircraft.
So now commercial aircraft from the PRC, HK, Macau and Taiwan all use the letter B. As in B-1880 etc.
[quote=“BigJohn”]but one under threat - as the ROC is - can use them;…
Plus, look, it’s easy: GY = ROC Y + 11. Or ROC Y = GY - 11. Simple, just establish if it’s the ROC year or the Gregorian year.[/quote]
I’m all for getting rid of this ridiculous ROC year system…having to add or deduct 11 all the time when someone tells me their age really bugs me :fume: …more importantly, in my line of work (I sell IC’s and Semiconductors), this numbering system can really be a pain in the A.S.S. …The most important aspect of any IC’s, Electronic Components, Semicondutors etc are their Date Codes i.e the year in which they were manufactured…while most Taiwan IC Manufacting companies have already changed their ROC year system to the International standard, there are still some which use the ROC year. I remember a few months ago I sold some IC’s to a USA company, on the labels of which were boldly printed “Mfg Date: '98.11.10”…upon receiving the product, my customer immediately emailed me, “I specifically asked for 2009 date codes…you know I cannot use anything older than 2009…I asked you to confirm like a million times and you said “yes, these are 2009”…but you still sent me 98 date codes…Give me a refund asap or I’m going to report your company to all the online websites…my client is very angry with me…you wasted my time and money” 
…Needless to say, I had to email him explaining why Taiwan is still 11 years behind the entire world and what he recd. were actually 2009 date codes and not 1998…I pointed him to a link on Wikipedia…but he was still skeptical and asked for a written confirmation from the Manufacturer…after jumping thru many hoops to get that confirmation letter, he finally accepted my parts…this ordeal took almost 2 weeks of back and forth emailing to my customer, to the manufacturer etc…BIG HEADACHE :fume: it wasn’t a small order…it was almost USD80K…if my customer were to return these parts, we would have suffered a huge loss as the disty whom we bought these parts from made me sign a NCNR (Non Cancelable, non returnable) contract.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened…in my 7 years in this industry, I had numerous customers who were totally baffled by Taiwan’s Year numbering system…it’s high time we got rid of it.
[quote=“catfish13”]As long as Japan still uses their figurehead emperors’ names to number their years, Taiwan would not change.
In addition, there are tons of retooling costs involved behind what seems to be a simple enough change. Computer systems would have to be changed to accommodate 4-digit fields for years and they would also have to modify existing data to reflect the changes.[/quote]
Are you telling me that Taiwan’s computer system is going to crash when year 100 rolls around? AGGHHHHH!!!
[quote=“Abacus”][quote=“catfish13”]As long as Japan still uses their figurehead emperors’ names to number their years, Taiwan would not change.
In addition, there are tons of retooling costs involved behind what seems to be a simple enough change. Computer systems would have to be changed to accommodate 4-digit fields for years and they would also have to modify existing data to reflect the changes.[/quote]
Are you telling me that Taiwan’s computer system is going to crash when year 100 rolls around? AGGHHHHH!!![/quote]
I’ve been warning people about that for years.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=68916
Why would any company use an ROC-style date stamp on a product intended for the international market? :loco:
True enough. But they really should scrap it. Or at least, if they keep it, make the international system the standard that gets taught in schools etc. Keep it on coins and anything of cultural significance.
There’s nothing more irritating than asking someone something related to dates and they first go through the counting in Taiwanese years, converting to international years, converting from Chinese to English in their heads and then (after an inordinate amount of time) finally giving you the answer. Which is then wrong, or they forgot something and the process starts again.
Or, “When were you born?”
“Um…'73.”
“Oh, so you’re 37 this year? You look great for 37!”
“Huh? What? Nooooooo!!! 
Um…it’s 1985…”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. Can I see your ID card?”
“Sure!”
you check the date…do the math…
“Um…you’re actually born in 1984…”
"Oh… :ohreally: "
[/quote]
Oh, exactly. I have lost count of the number of times I have been through that conversation procedure during my many years here. Time for Taiwan to modern up. There’s nothing wrong with retaining the old system for culturally significant things, as Bismarck suggested, but otherwise, let’s join most of the rest of the world in the 21st century.
haha yes. Back home I forgot my ID one night but still had my ARC in my wallet. The lady looked at it and went…born in 66? Fake ID!!!
My ARC says 1986. Maybe it depends on what you write on the application.
But I don’t think the Minguo calendar is so bad. I really don’t see any problem in it. I think, if you are in Taiwan, you should be able to substract or add 11 to any year. Outside of Taiwan, it is never used, so no confusion.
Japan also manages to hold onto it. And for them it’s even more difficult, because it changes every time the Emperor dies.
I think, the Imperial System is much more crap (well, I wouldn’t mind if just the Americans had to live with it, but unfortunately it becomes exported to the rest of the world. Why is a television 66 cm, but a computer screen 17 inches? Also its weird when they say “it’s 100 degrees” in movies (aren’t you getting cooked at 100°? Oh, shit, it’s this weird Fahrenheit - no idea how hot that really is.)). Or stuff like “5.13.2010”. Wtf? What weird order is that? Medium, smallest, biggest? Why not write 13.5.2010 or 2010.5.13?
Taiwan is much more coherent with the 21th century than some other countries in the world.
It should be abolished. It’s self-centred atavistic throwback that would be best jettisoned.
In my humble opinion: Unless you are Taiwanese, it is none of your business. Why should they have a bunch of foreigners telling them what to do?
Actually, I think it would be far more appropriate if it were jest bettisoned…
Oh dear. We “foreigners” live here (some of us for decades), pay taxes, contribute to the economy, society, culture and so on. We are not colonial masters ordering people around, we are participants in this society perfectly entitled to opinions, suggestions, petitions and campaigns. The government here is also perfectly entitled to ignore us, which they almost certainly will.
China is already on Jesus time, despite being Communists. If Taiwan stitches to Jesus time too, they can’t very well complain, can they?
Do you know what other country considers this year to be the year 99? North Korea! They call it the Juche calendar.
Chunghua Minguo Yi Bai Sui!
I don’t think its as big a problem as you all make out. Looking at the imperial system, I come from a generation in the UK who were completely confused - we were taught metric at school but no-one in the real world could use it. It was only when Europe brought in rules stating that everything had to be metric that anyone started to bother trying to use it.
So I know in my head what a Stone is, and I know that 2.2lbs is a Kilo and a Meter is 3.3feet which is approximately a yard but I’m buggered if I can tell you what any of those look or feel like. Good job I’m not an engineer. Added to this the Americans have a system that uses the same names such as gallon to mean different things, and what the hell is a “cup”? I have many different sized cups in my cupboard.
Let Taiwan carry on with its little quirky year thing until we can tell how much gas/petrol we put in our cars and how far we can drive on them.
Tommy 525 said:
"J[quote]apanese (and Koreans) have some sort of connection to CHina as well, because they are largely Han people as well. Korea in Korean is Hankuk, which is Han country as i recall.
Course the japanese have some ainu mixed up there and also barbarian blood of the northern tribes , same as koreans.
Taiwanese are chinese, taiwanese aboriginal mixes along with a dash of westerner here and there. "[/quote]
Well, Tommy, if we go back far enough we’re all from Africa. But whisper that in the Far East.
You might also be interested to google/wiki 'Chinese mummies" A program by National Geographic a little while back showed that, alas for our Chinese brothers, (yeah they’re not heavy, they’re our brothers :roll) the bloodline got “contaminated” by Europeans a long time ago.
Those dastardly red-headed barbarians strike again!
The rest of Europe has given up on the Brits ever going fully metric due to the whinge brigade 
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6988521.stm
So the ridiculous mish-mash of both systems will continue 
really do not see why this is such a big deal, I have to admit that it was a trouble for me especially in my first days here but eventually you get used to it. It is part of their history, part of their culture, as long as they also use the international year i do not see why there is a problem. Muslims have also their own year numbering system, some Christian Orthodox also use a slightly different calendar (no difference in years but in days). All these differences are what make every culture different and beautiful in a way.