Pinyin news

Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications is calling on the public to report confusing or unclear highway signs.

The ministry’s Institute of Transportation (Jiāotōngbù Yùnshū Yánjiūsuǒ) has set up a toll-free telephone line for people who want to report such signs. The number is 0800-231-900, extension 5. Or people can make submissions through the institute’s Web site (Mandarin only).

I doubt that the ministry can be convinced that the awkward typography and tiny lettering of the romanization on many signs are indeed errors that need correction. Still, it’s worth a try. But as for the use of Tongyong Pinyin….

Signs will be corrected within 15 days, according to the ministry.

sources:

• Public assistance sought to improve confusing road signs, CNA via the China Post, January 31, 2007
• Jiāotōngbù zhúbù gǎishàn lùbiāo — huānyíng tígōng jiànyán (交通部逐步改善路標 歡迎提供建言), Zhōngguǎng xīnwén wǎng (中廣新聞網), January 31, 2007
• 親和性圖形路標 駕駛不再霧煞煞, China Times, January 31, 2007

2 Comments »

Joel of Danwei has translated the gist of a list of the top errors in Mandarin use for 2006, as submitted by the readers of Yǎowénjiáozì (咬文嚼字), a magazine in China. (Yǎowénjiáozì is tricky to translate. Maybe “Pedantry,” though that sounds a bit harsh.)

I’ve reproduced the errors relating specifically to character use (7 out of 10), making the characters larger in order to help make the distinctions clearer. See Joel’s post for details.

1. 象 (xiàng) instead of 像 (xiàng)
2. 丙戍年 (bǐng shù nián) instead of 丙戌年 (bǐngxū nián)
3. 神州[六号] (Shénzhōu [liù hào]) instead of 神舟[六号] (Shén Zhōu [liù hào]) (Those responsible for naming the spacecraft, however, certainly intended the name to remind people of “the Divine Land” (Shénzhōu, 神州, i.e. China).)
4. 既 (jì) instead of 即 (jí)
5. 美發 (měi fā) instead of 美髮 (měifà) (The characters 發 (fā) and 髮 (fà) were both given the simplified form of 发, so people in China often end up with the wrong character when trying to use the traditional form of 发.)
6. 启示 (qǐshì) instead of 启事 (qǐshì)
7. 哈蜜瓜 (hā mì guā) instead of 哈密瓜 (Hāmìguā)

sources:

• Yǎowénjiáozì: 2006 10 dà yǔwén chācuò — yǔwén chācuò Zhōngguó Zhōngyāng Diànshìtái quánguó dì-yī (《咬文嚼字》06十大语文差错 语文差错央视全国第一), via Běijīng yúlè xìn bào, January 21, 2007
• Top language errors for 2006, Danwei, January 24, 2007

No Comments »

Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang (Sū Zhēn-chāng / 蘇貞昌), has instructed the Ministry of Education to back the Tái-Luó romanization system for Taiwanese.

Unless I’ve been misled by the local media, which has been known to confuse various romanization systems, this romanization system is simply what the Ministry of Education approved back in October 2006. (Tai-Luo means “Taiwan Romanization,” which is not a particularly specific name.) So the statement is likely simply as speculated in the media: that Su is seeking to bolster his “green” and “localization” credentials ahead of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s choice of a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. It’s hard to know if this is simply lip service or something that will lead to increased support for the romanization of Hoklo (Taiwanese), probably the former.

Su made the statement during a meeting last week with the head of the Taiwan Society, Chet Yang (Yáng Wén-jiā / 楊文嘉 / Yang Wen-chia). The Taiwan Society, an umbrella organization for pro-Taiwan groups, backs the same romanization system.

sources and further reading:

• Yàowén zǒng lǎn: Mǐnnányǔ pīnyīn Táiwān Shè: Sū Zhēn-chāng zhǐshì cǎi Tái-Luó xìtǒng (要聞總覽：閩南語拼音 台灣社：蘇貞昌指示採台羅系統), CNA, January 19, 2007
• Sū Zhen-chang Xiè kǎ wèi zhàn ／ xiàng Táiwān zhèngmíng Say Yes? Sū Zhēn-chāng xiàng shēnlǜ kàolǒng… (蘇謝卡位戰／向台灣正名 Say Yes? 蘇貞昌向深綠靠攏…), Dongsen, January 22, 2007
• MOE approves Taiwanese romanization; Tongyongists protest, Pinyin News, October 2, 2006

No Comments »

A neighborhood along a small lane in Taipei has found a change in the name of their street highly profitable. What was once Jilong Road Section 3 Lane 4 is now Dunnan Street. The area’s lǐzhǎng (neighborhood head) worked for three years to get the change approved.

Although the story below doesn’t mention this, the television report I saw on this had several people in the neighborhood stating that a prime consideration for them was the elimination of the dreaded number four from their address.

Another factor in the boost in the price of real estate there is the new name, Dunnan Street (Dūnnán Jiē / 敦南街), which (intentionally) closely resembles the name of one of one of Taipei’s priciest roads: the nearby Dunhua South Road (Dūnhuà Nánlù / 敦化南路).

Qiángbì shàng xiě zhe Jīlóng Lù 3 duàn 4 xiàng, dàn pángbiān de lùpái quèshì dàdà de “Dūnnán Jiē” 3 ge zì, méicuò zhè tiáo xiàngzi bànnián qián zhèngshì gǎimíng jiào Dūnnán Jiē. Dūnnán Jiē zhùhù: “yěyǒu gǎi Jīlóng Lù, yěyǒu gǎi Hépíng Dōnglù, xiànzài gǎi.. ‘Dūnnán Jiē,’ luànqībāzāo.”

Bùguǎn zhīqián shì jǐ xiàng jǐ hào, zài lǐzhǎng 3 nián de bēnzǒu xià, xiànzài quánbù gǎimíng jiào Dūnnán Jiē, ménpái yī huàn, shēnjià mǎshàng bù yīyàng, fáng zhòng yèzhě yùgū měi píng 30 wàn de hángqíng, tiào dào 40 wàn, huànsuàn yī hù 30 píng de fángzi, xiàn zhǎng 300 wàn. Fáng zhòng yèzhě Yáng Kūn-zhōng: “Yībān rén de kèbǎn yìnxiàng, yǒu gēn Dūnhuà Nánlù yǒuguān de, fángjià kěnéng huì bǐjiào hǎo yīdiǎn.” TVBS jìzhě Gǔ Cǎi-yàn: “Zhèlǐ jiùshì Dūnnán Jiē le, hòumian zhèige háo zhái, píngjūn yī píng yào 5-60 wàn, kējì shǒufù Guō Tái-míng, yīkǒuqì, céngjīng zài zhèbiān mǎi le 4 hù fángzi.” Jiù lián guō tái míng yě céngjīng shì Dūnnán Jiē de wūzhǔ, dēngjì zài tā hé qīzi de míngxià. Dūnnán Jiē zhùhù: “(shénme) Guō Tái-míng, (zěnyàng) màidiào le ba.” Bùguò gǎimíng jiào Dūnnán Jiē zhīhòu, bùyòng dǎzháo diànzǐ dàhēng línjū de zhāopai, fángjià yǐjing yǒu lā tái de xiàoguǒ, zhǐnéng shuō jiào shénme lù míng, zhēn de yǒu chà.

source: Jīlóng Lù xiǎoxiàng gǎimíng “Dūnnán Jiē” — fángjià dà zhǎng (基隆路小巷改名「敦南街」　房價大漲), TVBS, January 20, 2007

No Comments »

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has joined Al Gore, John F. Kennedy, and other prominent U.S. politicians in spreading the crisis/opportunity myth. Fortunately, though, Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post found Victor H. Mair’s essay danger + opportunity ≠ crisis here on Pinyin Info:

At one point, Rice said that the difficult circumstances in the Middle East could represent opportunity. “I don’t read Chinese but I am told that the Chinese character for crisis is wei-ji, which means both danger and opportunity,” she said in Riyadh. “And I think that states it very well. We’ll try to maximize the opportunity.”

But Victor H. Mair, a professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania, has written on the Web site http://pinyin.info, a guide to the Chinese language, that “a whole industry of pundits and therapists has grown up around this one grossly inaccurate formulation.” He said the character “ji” actually means “incipient moment” or a “crucial point.” Thus, he said, a wei-ji “is indeed a genuine crisis, a dangerous moment, a time when things start to go awry.”

sources and further readings:

• Rice Highlights Opportunities After Setbacks On Mideast Trip, Washington Post, January 19, 2007, p. A14
• Mair’s follow up Curse of the chaos crisis?, Pinyin News, June 22, 2006

5 Comments »

Two days ago was the 68th anniversary of the death of Qian Xuantong (Qián Xuántóng / 錢玄同 / 钱玄同 / Ch’ien Hsüan-t’ung) (1887–1939), a phonetician, philologist, and professor of literature at Peking University. Although he isn’t well known today, Qian was an important contributor to the reforms associated with the May 4 movement. He also helped renew debate about script reform in China.

Just about the time that the National Phonetic Alphabet succeeded in gaining ascendancy over the Mandarin Alphabet and other schemes, the evolution of literary and political movements into a new stage gave rise to renewed consideration of the roman alphabet as the basis for reform of the Chinese written language.

What seems to have initiated the new stage of discussion was a letter written in March 1918 by Ch`ien Hsüan-t`ung, a well-known philologist and professor of literature at National Peking University, to Ch`en Tu-hsiu, who at the time was editor of La Jeunesse, the leading organ of young Chinese intellectuals, and who soon afterward became one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. In his letter Ch`ien Hsüan-t`ung expressed approval of Ch`en Tu-hsiu’s demand for a break with the Confucian ideology which had dominated Chinese life for more than two thousand years, and also offered his idea as to how this was to be carried out. “If you want to abolish Confucianism,” he said, “you must first abolish the Chinese script.” To his mind there was little of value in Chinese literature, 99.9 per cent of which he dismissed as merely transmitting Confucian ideology and Taoist mythology.

It seemed to Ch`ien that the ideographic [sic] script could not be adapted to the needs of modern China. He also saw no solution in the attempts which had thus far been made to apply a phonetic system of writing to Chinese. Indeed, it appeared to him that it would be impossible to apply a phonetic system of writing to Chinese at all. These views also led him to the conclusion, reached earlier by Wu Chih-hui and others, that Chinese writing itself would have to be abandoned and replaced by Esperanto.

I seem to remember that someone in Japan was driven to distraction about that country’s orthography and making a similar proposal about switching from Japanese to Esperanto. Or am I imagining that?

At any rate, others soon convinced Qian of the error of his ways, and before long he was a strong supporter of romanization, as were many others of his generation, including Lu Xun. By the way, Qian was the one who convinced Lu Xun to start writing stories. That alone should be enough to make the world forever grateful to him.

I strongly recommend the first of the readings below, from which the above quote was taken. It’s interesting reading.

sources:

• “One State, One People, One Language,” from Nationalism and Language Reform in China, by John DeFrancis, 1950
• 1939 nián 1 yuè 17 rì: Qián Xuántóng bìngshì yú Běijīng (1939年1月17日 钱玄同病逝于北京), January 17, 2007

1 Comment »

Portions of some textbooks in the PRC are being turned into animated cartoons for primary- and secondary-school students.

Wang Ying, the general manager of the Children’s Art and Play Theater Co. and chief organizer of the activity, described this as “an innovative move to further develop cultural products for 367 million people in China aged under 18.”

The scripts for the screenplays are being selected through a nationwide competition.

The cartoons will cover such subjects as ancient poems, fairy tales, and foreign novels.

For more information, see the official website.

source: Chinese youngsters to enjoy cartoon plays based on textbooks, Xinhua, October 13, 2005

No Comments »

The government of Gaoxiong (Kaohsiung) has recently secured funding from the Executive Yuan to
waste on so-called translation agencies that wouldn’t know real English if it bit them on the ass, print up some signs on which the English is so small as to be almost unusable, put up even more signs in a romanization system few people know but many think is ridiculous at best, um, create an “English-friendly environment” in advance of the World Games, which will be held in the city in 2009.

The stories didn’t mention how much money will be involved in this. The project will be headed by the recently promoted Xǔ Lì-míng (許立明 / Xu Liming / Hsu Li-ming).

Let’s all hope the city does a much better job than is to be expected from past experience throughout Taiwan.

sources:

• Kaohsiung devotes efforts to build English-friendly environment, CNA, January 16, 2007
• Jiéhé Shìyùn: Gāoxióng Shì yíngzào Yīngyǔ tōng huánjìng (結合世運 高市營造英語通環境), CNA, January 16, 2007

No Comments »