Simplified Characters removed from gov't websites

Mayor Ma of Taipei in 2002 ordered that Hanyu Pinyin, the official PRC romanization system, be used on all signs because it facilitated Taiwan's globalization. President Ma in 2011 drew the line at simplified characters.....

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday told the Tourism Bureau to remove the simplified Chinese version from its Web site, saying all government agencies should use traditional Chinese characters in official documents and on the Internet.

The president’s instructions came in the wake of a dispute over the use of simplified characters to cater to an expected influx of Chinese free independent travelers (FITs).
The Tourism Bureau had provided simplified Chinese among other languages on its Web site. The simplified Chinese version was removed yesterday morning.

“To maintain our role as the pioneer in Chinese culture, all government bodies should use traditional Chinese in official documents and on their Web sites, so that people around the world can learn about the beauty of traditional characters,” Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) quoted Ma as saying.

An interesting call by Ma, who has worked hard to shape the discourse on China from his bully pulpit as President (remember when he demanded that everyone in the gov't refer to China as "the mainland?"). The Tourism Bureau already uses simplified characters in their promotional materials in China, and called on shops and restaurants frequented by Chinese tourists to add menus and other information in simplified characters.
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Daily Links:

• 40 Reasons to Love Taiwan
• Haha. Tainan mayor now wants direct flights to China from Tainan airport.
• Gov't forms task force to lower impact of Korea-EU FTA, will lobby EU for FTA. Where are all those FTAs we were promised three years ago when ECFA had to happen now now now or else Taiwan would be left out in the cold. 
• Philippines ups ante in South China Sea dispute, will now call that body of water the West Philippine Sea. 
• Seediq Bale trailer out!

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This is just Silly

中 (-chung) is in every sign that mentions 台中 (Taichung) in and around the city. Think about how common it must be. Despite this, apparently sign makers and sign placers didn't notice that there are two different romanizations of 中, both of which are wrong. How hard can it be to get the romanization right for a character that you had to put up 10,000 times?

In the last decade the nation has used at least three romanization systems, never mind what the signmakers are constantly inventing. Isn't it time to switch to the internationally used and understood system, Hanyu Pinyin? Yes, I know it's supposedly associated with the PRC. But really, this sort of stupidity -- "zhueng" AFAIK doesn't even represent a sound used in Chinese -- is long past inexcusable.

ADDED: David on Formosa notes that being literate in a romanization should be a basic requirement of literacy in this culture.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Games Nationalists Play

Caught this giant grasshopper making off with a pearl of water from our yard.

The struggle over language in Taiwan continues. The KMT news org reported on it from a Chinese nationalist perspective:

The term “Guo Yu (National Language),” which is used in “language skill indicators” in elementary and junior high school textbooks, will be replaced by the term “Hua Yu Wen (ethnic Chinese language)” starting next year, causing a public controversy. Some scholars accused the government of following the former DPP government’s “de-sinicization” policy. 【Translator’s Note: Up to 2000, under the KMT administration, the terms Mandarin Chinese and National Language were used synonymously. However, the DPP administration (2000-2008) changed the definition of National Language to include Mandarin, Hoklo, Hakka, and 11 aboriginal dialects.】

The Office of the President yesterday expressed its position on the issue, saying, “The language used by nationals should be addressed as “Guo Yu (National Language)” and the term used in ‘language skill indicators’ in the textbooks should follow this principle for consistency. In response, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that it would study the issue following the guidance of the Office of the President.

What struck me was the editor's note:

[Editor’s Note: Mandarin Chinese is National Language, which means the language of this nation. However, Mandarin Chinese is used by other nations, such as Singapore. Therefore, in those countries, Mandarin Chinese is not called National Language, but ethnic Chinese language, meaning language used by ethnic Chinese. The DPP government (2000-2008) downgraded Mandarin Chinese to just one of the 14 national languages of this country and tried to get everyone to call it “Hua Yu” (ethnic Chinese language), the language used by “ethnic Chinese” in this country. “Hua Yu” is a term commonly employed in other countries for the language used by ethnic Chinese residing in these countries; therefore, the term is not appropriate to be used in this country. In fact, Hoklo (Min-nan) and Hakka are different pronunciations of the same Chinese language, using the same characters (Kanji), not different languages.]

Hakka and Hoklo are not different languages from "ethnic Chinese language"? The KMT's Han chauvinism and assimilationist rhetoric really stand out. Note that this issue is so important that the President's office stepped in publicly to ensure that it was settled in the "right" way. Language is a key aspect of the creation of a KMT Nationalist Chinese identity for Taiwan.

ADDED: Had the DPP won in 2008, English would probably have been one of the official languages of Taiwan. ADDED: See comments below for good insights.

Meanwhile, down in Taichung -- political games as usual? A "bribery" probe of the DPP's Su Chia-chuan, the party's candidate for Taichung, stinks of political motivation, says the DPP:

“This issue doesn’t look like it has anything to do with bribery — yet they are [wasting] the resources of police and prosecutors,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, referring to the event in which Su, while meeting with the coach and players from Shi Yuan Senior High School hours before they left for the World Junior Baseball Championships in the US last month, gave the group a NT$20,000 donation and promised them a dinner when they came back.

As the article notes (1) there is an exception in the strict vote buying laws for politicians giving money to temples or other cultural events and entities and (2) oh yeah -- Su is not officially registered as a candidate yet, so he can give money to whomever he likes. Jason Hu, Su's KMT opponent for the mayor's job in Taichung, feted the team before in his role as mayor.

When Ma came to power there was a spate of "corruption" cases in which DPP officials appeared to be targeted. After international complaints the situation quieted down. Hopefully this thing against Su is an isolated case cause by a purely local complaint.

Take it as a backhanded compliment -- Su is becoming a quietly effective candidate. With the DPP currently doing well in 4 of the 5 municipalities up for election this November, the KMT is feeling the heat. Within the party there is quite a bit of disaffection with Ma's leadership, with the rightist President criticized for being weak, ineffective, and too close to/not close enough to China. Moreoever, his appointment King Pu-tsun as his hatchetman within the party has been unpopular. If the DPP wins big in November, it will be interesting to see how the KMT treats Ma.
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Daily Links:

• Frozen Garlic on the Flora Expo: it was a decision of Ma.
• Ben goes over Premier Wu's truly dumb comment about unpaid leave.
• Drew on Taiwan's cycling culture.
• Pingpu denied recognition as aboriginal people
• Nanshan deal not dead yet; Chinese finance firm acquires stake in Morgan Stanley which has stake in Chinatrust which was talking about buying Nanshan. My head hurts.
  
• US evangelical abstinence loons now active in China -- clearly the government there wants a population boost
  

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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Now Online: The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Advocacy of Local Autonomy, by Christine Louise Lin

Mark from Pinyin News writes to tell me that he has put online Christine Lin's 100 page magnum opus on the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the independence and democracy movement originally published in Sino-Platonic Papers. The file is 8.44 mb, so give it some time. Lots of fascinating detail on language, politics, and culture:

By the end of World War II, Japanese was the primary means of written communication among the educated. However, churchgoers who did not know how to write in Japanese continued to use romanized Taiwanese to communicate with each other. The romanized Taiwanese vernacular was mostly used by Taiwanese Christians and was not a widely used means of mass communication outside of the Presbyterian Church. Although romanization was an easier system for people to learn, the government prohibited non-church publications from using it, and the knowledge of Taiwanese romanization was regarded as a symbol of being Christian. Tainan Theological College promoted literacy in Taiwanese by using romanization for the register used for teaching classes. The College also used romanized Taiwanese script for drafting sermons, reading the Bible, and singing hymns.

...or....

In 1974, copies of a Taiwanese-English dictionary, compiled by a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, Bernard L. M. Embree, under the auspices of the Taipei Language Institute were smuggled into Taiwan after the Nationalist government had banned their circulation on the island. The Nationalists banned the dictionary because it contained romanized Taiwanese. A government official said, "We have no objection to the dictionary being used by foreigners. They could use it in mimeographed form. But we don't want it published as a book and sold publicly because of the Romanization it contains. Chinese should not be learning Chinese through Romanization." The irony of this statement was that the dictionary not only gave the romanized forms of words, but also the Chinese characters. The romanization was present since it allowed for a more accurate pronunciation of the words. However, the government did not fmd any use of romanization tolerable since it believed romanization promoted the Taiwanese language. From the beginning of Nationalist rule in Taiwan, the KMT government limited the use of Taiwanese and implemented a program of "Mandarization," in which they forced schools, the military, and the government to use only Mandarin Chinese. Native Taiwanese, who were much more comfortable with their own language, despised this policy since the government limited television programming in Taiwanese to only one and a half hours per day.

Go thou and read!
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Language and Culture Here and There

The Washington Post reported on changes to Taiwan's language policy a couple of days ago:

Taiwan is considering abandoning its long-standing policy of recognizing Mandarin Chinese as the island's only official language, the premier said Tuesday, in a move that would likely anger rival China.

Su Tseng-chang said the Cabinet is examining a draft for a "National Language Development Act" to promote the use of local dialects and prohibit linguistic discrimination.

"Taiwan is a plural society, and all languages should have equal standing and be respected and supported," Su said, indicating an intention to confer equal status on the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese, as well as Hakka, another Chinese dialect.

Such a move would likely be renounced [sic] by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes any efforts by the island's leadership to loosen cultural and other bonds.

These changes were probably inevitable -- though I have never been in favor of them. It is fascinating to watch how both sides share the same assumptions about cultural imperialism -- Beijing defines what "being Chinese" means, and Taiwan either accepts this or rejects this. The weird fact is that the government here is recognizing other Chinese languages as national languages -- and both sides regard this as becoming less Chinese. In fact, I am sure that the pro-China crowd is going to scream that increased use of Chinese languages like Hakka and Taiwanese is an act of "de-Sinicization." Pro-China legislators actually made that charge yesterday:

Lawmaker after opposition lawmaker grilled Su on the language bill, which was condemned as another move to de-Sinicize Taiwan.

Opponents of the proposed bill describe it as one "to get rid of guo yu."

Sadly, by insisting on only one unitary Chinese culture defined by Beijing, Beijing is strangling the development of Chinese culture. In the later stages of the Cold War era scholars descried the way Taiwan was falsely presented as an idealized Chinese cultural location, where you had to go to get the Authentic Chinese Culture because the Communists had killed it in China. Ironically, this is now slowly becoming true: as Taiwan attempts to permit a number of different Sinic cultures to flourish under the rubric of Chinese/Taiwanese culture, China is slowly making everyone learn Mandarin and bow to Beijing's definition of what Chinese culture is. China is becoming a state that has never existed in Chinese history -- unified under one government, speaking only one language, enjoying a unitary culture -- whereas Taiwan is looking more and more like China used to look -- one government, many languages in use, and a diversity of cultures.

Meanwhile the Washington Post has positioned the story somewhat incorrectly. Taiwan is not getting rid of the official language; it is merely elevating the status of the other languages. As the Taipei Times reported the other day:

"The core purpose of the bill is to prevent native tongues from dying out as a result of `incorrect' language policies that were adopted by the government in the past," Su said.

Su was responding to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起), who asked whether the government was planning to make Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) rather than Mandarin Chinese, the official language.

The Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday that all languages would in future be regarded as "national languages."

Su said that the new policy was intended to preserve all languages rather than encouraging their extinction by forcing everybody to use Mandarin Chinese. All languages should be regarded as "national languages," but there is still only one "official language," he said.

Council for Cultural Affairs Chairman Chiu Kun-liang (邱坤良) noted that, more than a decade ago, UNESCO listed Taiwan as a place where mother tongues are vanishing.

Language-wise Taiwan will probably resemble the US, where English is more or less the official language, but many other languages are officially recognized.

[Taiwan]