according to taiwanheadlines.gov.tw the government will require those who teach mandarin to foreigners to use the TongYong pinyin as opposed to hanyu pinyin. is this true? WIll this only affect public universities? Even still,this is a major blow to Chinese programs in Taiwan. what books will they use?
It’s bollocks. It’s utter and complete nonsense, and I am uncharacteristically angry about it. What sort of a bunch of patronising w@~*ers are they to tell the likes of me who has been studying Chinese for 11 years and have spent two years of that quite happily studying at Taiwanese universities, that the system of romanisation the rest of the world and I use cannot now be used to instruct me in Taiwan !!! Jesus suffering **** !
So what about the likes of the British Association for Chinese Studies (hello Delia) who send students on scholarships to Taiwan. Oh, sorry lads, you have to learn a new romanisation that is sufficiently similar to HYPY to (a) be pointless, and (b) confuse the hell out of you. Bugger that, they will say, off we go to China.
I mean if it were foreigners who invented it you could see through it, but it’s some fing Chinese w*****!!! who will NEVER EVEN HAVE TO USE IT !!! God !!! (wife, where’s the valium?)
(Notice how restrained I was in my use of expletives ? Eh ?)
Hexuan: According to the China Times, the new guidelines state that Chinese language programs at schools for Overseas Chinese and the children of Taiwanese businessmen will be required to use Tongyong.
Also, if you read the reports of the Cabinet’s decision carefully, you will notice that they use the word ‘he2bei4’ ‘prepare to approve’ rather than ‘he2zhun3’. He2bei4 is a purely poltical term that has no legal force. In other words, nothing has been decided yet, and this is probably a trial balloon for now. I suspect the Cabinet will water the their Tongyong proposals down even further. The long-term strategy is interesting though–the Cabinet will cut off funds for new road signs for those counties and cities that fail to adopt Tongyong. According to the China Times this morning, Taizhong has already given in.