I just signed up at Opine-It.com. While I was registering I was annoyed to discover that in the country list Taiwan was listed as “Taiwan (Province of China)”.
I wrote an email to the webmaster, Kris Moore, complaining about it. I explained that it should be ‘Taiwan, R.O.C.’ as this is how Taiwan officially refers to itself. I gave a link to the Taiwan government information office’s website and asked him to correct the error.
Result: I got an email several hours later saying that it had been changed to ‘Taiwan (Republic of China)’. The guy said that he had just copied the country list of another site.
If you come across sites like this, write them an email to complain. I recommend NOT going into great detail about the historical background of Taiwan-China relations. Just point out that it is an error that needs correcting and you’re more likely to get a result.
[Mods, I wasn’t sure where to post this so please feel free to move it if needed.]
Plenty of websites list Taiwan as a province of China - serves the Taiwanese governments right for harping on about the anachronistic and false ROC for all these years.
I did the same when I started using my favourite on-line retailer, saying that the stuff is unlikely to arrive if it was posted to ‘China’, they promptly changed it.
The bit about packages going to the wrong country isn’t just a scare story; it has happened to me. This was a big problem for me, not only because delivery was delayed considerably because of this. I had also had the package sent to my work address. And when you work for the Taiwan government, receiving packages with big redirect stamps in English and simplified Chinese characters for “Taiwan, province of China” … well, it’s a potentially embarrassing situation.
I’ve done the same. Some population site (I forget its name) had the cities Taipei, Taizhong etc listed undr China (Taiwan). I pointed out the error (nicely) and got a firendly e-mail back from the admin and it was changed.
What about webistes that have only one version of Chinese on them - simplified. I pointed out that there is another type - traditional, and the web manager added another translation.
I also corrected several sites that had a Taiwanese flag, that once clicked, led to a simplified Chinese page.
Actually, I even got paid for pointing out the mistake and getting someone to check the new site for them.
Not quite on topic, but I saw a singer’s website once that proclaimed that he had sung in Shanghai, and went on to add - “This was the first time a Western musical had ever been performed in the Republic of China!!” (their exclamation marks, not mine). I thought, my, Taiwan is winning the public relations war…
