Chinglish International Airport revisited
Posted by Pinyin Info on 04 Oct 2006 at 04:11 pm | Tagged as: Chiang Kai-shek, English, Taipei, Taiwan, Taoyuan, signage
I’ve just heard from a well-placed source that the official English name for Taiwan’s main international airport, formerly Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, has been finalized. The form “Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport” will not be used after all. Instead, it will be “Taipei/Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.”
Huh?
I’m still seeking confirmation.
Well, that’s like calling Newark International Airport (in New Jersey) “New York”. Sort of true if you are presbyopic and looking at an unmarked satellite photo but ultimately misleading and bound to piss off the locals.
Northern Taiwan Int’l Airport is becoming more attractive.
I think they should have just left it alone. They are wasting even more money. It’s just more fuel for the anti-Chen Shui-bian protestors.
For some Taiwanese people, it’s no difference to name it as Hitler International Airport or Frankfurt International Airport.
For some Taiwanese people, it’s a shame to name it “Chiang Kai-shek”. They’d like to remove “Chiang Kai-shek” no matter how much it costs.
As I know, Rose is the former. Pan-green is the latter.
Chiang Kai shek is hated by many, for he has killed millions of great grand parents, or ancestors of Taiwanese citizens, and what good reason would allow his name still be recognized? none. Although he was once a strong dictator in Taiwan, and kept the name “People’s republic” his massacre acts unbalances the good. He is the hitler of Taiwan, and if small money is spent to remold the right, then it should be done.
cibiscuit:
Because if it weren’t for him, Taiwan wouldn’t exist. Like him or hate him, he’s an inextricable and necessary part of Taiwan’s history. He may have been an absolute worthless shit of a human being, but erasing him from history is not going to happen, and shouldn’t happen.
[Regarding] your “Hitler of Taiwan” comment: Yes, Chiang was a horrible person, but don’t you DARE diminish the sheer evil of what Hitler did by watering it down with comparisons to some tinpot, two-bit dictator. Hitler attempted a systematic genocide of an entire ethnic group; Chiang just has people he didn’t like killed. World of difference.
[modified by the site admin]