I’d say considering the lack of love Mr. Soong has for the the Liberty Times Group, a win by the boys in blue might well signal the end of the Taipei Times. The journalistic kindergarten that the TT’s reporters currently romp in courtesy of a DPP government will all of a sudden disappear should Chen not be re-elected.
The Taipei Times began to decline in quality shortly after the DPP came to power. This was in part because a key check on the nuttiness of the Chinese management found a job in the government.
Also, it was no longer an opposition paper critical of the KMT government.
In addition, if the DPP loses power, friends of the party will be out of jobs. Perhaps lazy f&*kwits such as the editor in chief, news editor and features editor will be pushed aside to allow room for real Chinese talent currently employed by the government.
I once heard that Lin Rong-sang wanted Tsai Ing-wen to be president of the Taipei Times. I don’t know about her qaulifications, but she must be better than the Nutty Professor.
Probably why it is called the Taipei Times…
BTW, if anyone knows, please tell us what other names were considered and then rejected for what finally was named The Taipei Times?
Given the pro-independence stance of its backers, were names like the Taiwan Guardian, Taiwan Sentinel, or something in that vein ever considered?
I had to smirk when I saw the latest “sex-ed column” in the Youth Central section the other day: Sperm – Should one swallow or not?
Here is a partial list that I received from a source who wishes to remain anonymous:
The Taiwan Independent News
The Taiwan Truthbetolder
The Taibei Navel-Gazer
The Taipei A-bianer (this was 1999, after all)
The Taibei Slow-Decliner
There are dozens more on the list, but I think this is representative…
I think Lin Rong-sang wanted to call it the The Liberty Times after its Chinese parent.
Then why didn’t he?
Mayor Ma yesterdayay turned teacher.:
[quote]“What do you like to have?” Ma asked a boy in fourth grade. “I want a drum stick, corn bread and coke,” said the boy. Ma corrected his pronunciation for the word `drum’ three times, later emphasizing that pronunciation is important when learning English.
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003060671
[/quote]
Is the Typo Times to blame, or did our illustrious mayor get the question wrong?
I heard it was called the Taipei Times to be like the New York Times, the Times of London, both city names PLUS “times”. so the TT aspired to be like the august New York Times, with Taipei as its major city, like NYC is in the USA and London in UK.
Maybe one of the people who was there at its birth can tell us the real inside story.
It’s a good name. I like Taiwan News, too. What i postiively 4th street hate is: CHINA POST name. it’s a good little paper, but please, chairman with the hunky son who soddom dreams of, give it a rest: Call yourself by your country name: THE TAIWAN POST. or even the TAIPEI POST.
any wagers here on WHEN, date, the Post will finally change its name?
I say: on its 60th anniversary, 9 years from now. and not a day sooner
Generally, you are all wrong.
A designer from the Post made the TT? Wrong.
Comparing the number of copy editors among the papers to quality is specious.
It is interesting, however, to see the peanut gallery comment
Specious? What rot! Any copyeditor knows that manpower is DIRECTLY relevant, in any workload//time/quality scenario you care to contrive. 
And THEN there’s experience…
Oh, I get the hint: Wolf Reinhold designed the Taipei Times. Somebody put the Wolf on a leash, baby.
HakkaSonic: you seem to KNOW Wolf Reinhold or something. Was he the real designer? Did you guys work together at that rag and then have bad blood or you one and the same people, with diff names?
Formosa, we are not the same person. But since I don’t know who Wolf is, I guess it’s possible that Wolf is the designer of the TT or that we once worked together (I have worked with my share of grumpy people and Wolf could be any one of them).
We wanted to stay away from Taiwan and China in the name of the paper for obvious reasons. Anyway, Taipei is the center of the nation and where the paper is produced (New York Times, Washington Post sort of thing).
Otherwise, we tossed around just about everything that you could think of.
The Taipei Times is the best English-language paper on the island. It looks better than the other papers; it has the best features. It has Bradley Winterton writing book reviews and Brian Hsu reporting on military/defense issues.
Not that it’s important, but it also has the cleverest headlines. I’ve read a few that made me laugh out loud.
Could it be better? Sure, but then what couldn’t be better? You can find numerous typos in all three English-language papers, and the most horrendous errors I’ve seen – ones which just made me cringe – have not been in the Taipei Times.
magnolia wrote:
I’d add pay levels.
Then there’s the distinct problem of editing Chinglish. Copy editors here are not just proofing and re-jigging but usually re-writing whole articles. A re-write leaves the editor open to making their own typos or not catching someone elses. Now if those English teachers had’ve just done their jobs a little better . . .
HG
[quote=“Soddom”]Mayor Ma yesterdayay turned teacher.:
[quote]“What do you like to have?” Ma asked a boy in fourth grade. “I want a drum stick, corn bread and coke,” said the boy. Ma corrected his pronunciation for the word `drum’ three times, later emphasizing that pronunciation is important when learning English.
taipeitimes.com/News/Taiwan/ … 2003060671
[/quote]
Is the Typo Times to blame, or did our illustrious mayor get the question wrong?[/quote]
Here’e the skinny: The reporter was unreachable and I was loath to change a quote quoted in English. I’ll ask the reporter if that is actually what was said. Mayor Ma is not an English major and the child likely said “coke” and not “a coke,” don’t you think?
I certainly don’t expect Ma to be a good leader AND speak perfect English. It’s nice that he speaks as much as he does, having been away from college for so long.
Careful, Quirky, it could be dangerous if your bosses knew you were saying complimentary things about Ma (which I agree with entirely) – they hate him so much that they might be prompted to fire you for such a transgression.
And I might just add that, fan of the Taipei Times as I am, I do get rather irritated by their propensity to take pot shots at Ma on the flimsiest of pretexts – though to do them justice, I must acknowledge that they do also occasionally print pictures or stories that present him in a neutral or even mildly positive light.
I can’t find it in the online edition. What was their conclusion??
Shirley you must be joking?!?!