Hanyu pinyin to be official in 2009

[tango42]

Not sure if this is exact or true but it will help Taiwan's competitiveness in the world if so... and make my life easier.

News article paraphrase: Hanyu Pinyin will be adopted as the main transliteration in Taiwan, instead of the Tongyong Pinyin, which had been used island-wide for the last six years. The Cabinet approved a proposal by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Tuesday. Hanyu Pinyin is to help Taiwan's internationalization and international competitiveness, said the MOE.

[Icon]

YES!!! YES!! YES!!!

It's official.

Now I have to get my act together.

EDIT:

Waaait a moment...now we have to change Taibei and other place names

[hannes]

Not sure if this is exact or true but it will help Taiwan's competitiveness in the world if so... and make my life easier.

News article paraphrase: Hanyu Pinyin will be adopted as the main transliteration in Taiwan, instead of the Tongyong Pinyin, which had been used island-wide for the last six years. The Cabinet approved a proposal by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Tuesday. Hanyu Pinyin is to help Taiwan's internationalization and international competitiveness, said the MOE.

Link, please?

Finally.

Problem is, DPP ruled local governments (the few that remain) will probably continue sticking to their own way of transliteration. The central government should be able to enforce this kind of law islandwide.

[tango42]

I don't have link but is United Daily News page 11 I think.

[Feiren]

Here's the link. Under the proposal, central government websites will begin using Hanyu pinyin. If a local government wants a subsidy for an "activity" that involves transliteration, it will need to use Hanyu pinyin to be eligible for funding. Funds will also be available for local governments that want to replace Tongyong from central government funding for local governments. The idea is to gradually phase out Tongyong rather than appropriating massive funding for an immediate switch. Ovid Tseng, who chaired the meeting that approved the policy, urged the Ministry of Education to amend its Principles Governing the Use of Chinese Transliteration to adopt Hanyu pinyin officially. According to the Ministry, the government should emphasize that this measure has no ideological significance in terms of the debate over independence or unification. Also, Kaohsiung City, which is under DPP administration, has also proposed switching to Hanyu pinyin.

The only possible holdout I see locally is the Kaohsiung County government, but I predict they will give in quickly once they are denied funds.

So we will have a few more years of chaos while we switch road signs back from Tongyong before we end up with what should be a relatively uniform pinyin situation.

[Dragonbones]

Sounds too good to be true.

[Feiren]

I suppose. On the one hand, it may make things a bit easier for new arrivals. On the other hand, anyone who doesn't see that this is part of the new government's highly ideological policy of rolling back all symbols of Taiwanese sovereignty is deluding themselves. This was not done to 'internationalize' or convenience foreigners. It was done to Sinify. Be careful what you ask for.

[sjcma]

I mean really, did this take anyone by surprise?

And if the DPP wins the next presidential election, will we get a reversal once again?

[Feiren]

I doubt seriously we will see another reversal. Hsieh and Tsai Ying-wen both take a more pragmatic approach to these issues with the exception of CKS Memorial Hall.

[alidarbac]

I love HP as much as the rest of you guys, but I'd hold off on breaking out the metaphorical champagne just yet. Just because it's being mandated doesn't mean government officials outside Taipei city will know how to use it. I predict that within 5 years, you'll see a lot of incorrectly used HP: misspellings (re for ri, chi for qi), outright typos, incorrect spacing (the equivalent of Zhongxiaofuxing or Zhongxiao Fuxing), misusage of apostrophes, intercapitalization, etc.

Indeed, I predict cranky laowai's blog will be filled with more posts than before with complaints about how some schmoe in rural Yunlin or Taidong county misused an apostrophe.

Hsieh and Tsai Ying-wen both take a more pragmatic approach to these issues with the exception of CKS Memorial Hall.

I believe you mean Xie and Cai Yingwen?