wfn.org | TCN: Scholars and politicians weigh in on authentic “Taiwanese” writing system

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>2990 Edition

>June 15~21, 2009

Scholars and politicians weigh in on authentic  “Taiwanese” writing system

>Reported by Chen Wei-jian

>Written by Lydia Ma

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou suggested on June 9th that Taiwan  and China

should come to an agreement on the use of Chinese characters. He  advocated that

students be taught to recognize or read traditional Chinese  characters and use or

write simplified Chinese characters. His comments outraged many  across Taiwan.

China currently uses simplified characters while Taiwan uses  traditional characters.

President Ma said that traditional Chinese used in Taiwan reflects  the richness of

Chinese culture but China currently uses simplified Chinese and an  agreement to

use a uniform system would facilitate dialogue.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members criticized  that as a

national leader, Ma should have shown more tact and higher regard  for the cultural

distinctiveness and cultural rights of Taiwan. The president not  only trampled his

own country’s culture with such comments but also wrecked  havoc upon the way the

>whole nation has learned to write.

After Ma’s comment and the nationwide backlash that ensued,  the Presidential

Palace issued a statement clarifying that the President meant to  say that he would

like to see China’s 1.3 billion citizens learn to recognize  traditional characters while

using simplified characters so that they would appreciate the  cultural nuances

conveyed through traditional Chinese characters.

With regards to this issue, Taiwanese scholar Wi-Vun Taiffalo  Chiung commented

that the pan-blue camp tends to support traditional characters as  the most authentic

form of Chinese writing while the pan-green camp tends to support  traditional

characters as a means to highlight Taiwan’s distinct and  separate identity from

>China.

In reality, both views have their limitations, said Chiung,  because neither traditional

nor simplified characters are distinctively Taiwanese. According  to him, the earliest

and most authentic form of writing Taiwanese is Romanized  Taiwanese.

Chiung pointed out that encouraging the use of Romanized Taiwanese  would

highlight Taiwan’s autonomy and its cultural distinctiveness.  Though there are few

Romanized Taiwanese users nowadays, Chiung suggests creating a  national, long-

term plan spanning over twenty or thirty years that would  encourage use of authentic

Taiwanese. This can be done by encouraging a system of writing  that includes a

mixture of Romanized Taiwanese and Chinese characters. “The  most important

thing is to get Romanized Taiwanese into the education  system,” said Chiung.

Taiwanese language has been largely ignored in the past few  decades and even

more so recently when items from the national budget that would  have funded

certification for Taiwanese were slashed. Though some funds were  allocated in the

end after a lot of lobbying, the government does not have a  long-term plan on how to

promote Taiwanese. Throughout the first nine years of a  student’s education,

mother tongues are only dealt with superficially.

Chiang believes that effective keyboarding software would go a  long way in

promoting Taiwanese. Fortunately, such software is now available  with the help of

Faith Hope Love Foundation. The organization unveiled a new input  system for

>computers a few weeks ago.

To promote this software, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan held a  news

conference and workshop on how to use the new program. According  to one

member from the PCT Promoting Taiwan Ethnic Languages Committee,  this new

input system will greatly promote the use of Taiwanese across  Taiwan.

For a free download of the program go to:  http://taigi.fhl.net/TaigiIME/

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