Hebei’s rules on the use of pinyin

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I stumbled across this earlier.
source

Notice on transmitting the people’s government of Hebei about standardizing and using Chinese Pin Yin to spell the standard place name further of Ministry of Civil Affairs

(release on May 26, 2003)

The 102nd of letters of the people (2003) May 26, 2003

Every Bureau of Civil Affairs of province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government (office), the place name administrative department in charge in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai:

To spell, translate and write the place name according to relevant national regulation is the request of masses of the people, it meets the desirability of urbanization, informationization, and globalization. It is the duties of the people’s governments at all levels to strengthen the work of management and service of the place name, and to improve the standardization of the name of the place. People’s government in Hebei province attaches importance to the work of standardization of name, issued the notice on standardizing and using Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to spell the standard place name further recently, has made the clear regulation in the way of writing, spelling the standard place name, the range of standard name included and the request of standard name using. Publicize here for reference.

After joining WTO, in order to meet the needs of internationalization, our country has improved the speed of stepping in line with international standards in such fields as economy, etc. The place name, which is taken as a media in people’s society’s association and economic activity, has been closely related to various kinds of economic activities and the people’s daily life. Especially in the modern society, with the development of market economy and quickening of the economic globalization process, place name, as an indispensable propagation information carrier, the frequency of its utilization is higher and higher, and the voice to make it keep up with international standards is stronger and stronger. So the demand of standardization, formalization and informationization becomes more and more urgent.

The spelling of the Roman alphabet of Chinese place name is regarded as Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet which announced by the country as the norm of unifying. It is proposed by our country, passed through discussion in “The Third Meeting of the Standardized Place Name” in the United Nations, accepted and used extensively in many countries including main country of American-European area in the world as an international standard. Some country’s relevant laws and regulations as NATIONAL LAW OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGES IN COMMON USE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. RULES OF PLACENAME MANAGEMENT, etc. have done the clear provisions with this. Hope all parts carry out laws and regulations and policies of the national relevant place name conscientiously, and do a good job of standardization of the place name of our country.

Notice on standardizing and using Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to spell the standard place name further of the people’s government of Hebei province.

The 35th of policy letter of Ji (2003)
April 17th, 2003
Each municipal government which set up administrative sanction, each department in provincial government:

According to the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet which was passed in the “The Third Meeting of the Standardized Place Names” in the United Nations as the international standard spelling of the Roman alphabet of Chinese place name, and the State Council regulations “Use the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet to Spell the Standard Place Name of Our Country”, now notify the problems on further standardizing Chinese phonetic alphabet and using it to spell the standard place name as follows:

  1. The writing and spelling of standard place name

    1. Writing the place name with Chinese characters, should use national standard Chinese characters confirmed.
    2. Spelling Chinese name with the Chinese phonetic alphabet, must spell according to THANSLITERATION RULES FOR CHINA’S PLACE NAMES INTO CHINESE PHONETIC ALPHABETS (chapters of Chinese place names).
    3. Translating and writing of Chinese characters of the place name of ethnic minority according to relevant regulations; Its spelling method is carried out according to THANSLITERATION MEASURES FOR PLACE NAMES FROM MINORITY LANGUAGES INTO CHINESE PHONETIC ALPHABETS
    4. Cannot use English and other foreign languages to spell the place name.
  2. The standard place name includes

    1. Such administrative division names as the province and city, county (including the county-level city , district ), township (town ) ,etc., such names as the villagers’ committee, natural village, subdistrict office, residents committee, etc.;
    2. Names of Street, road, path, lane, small lane, Li, Nong;
    3. Development zone, industrial area, trade and business district, residential block, biotope and such names as the number (unit plate, room plate) ,etc.
    4. Such entity’s names of physical geography as mountain, river, lake, sea, shallow lake, bay, mud flat, island and reef, etc.;
    5. The names of platform, stand, port, field, railway, road, bridge, floodgate containing, reservoir, channel, scenic spot, scenic spots and historical sites, commemorative site, excursion center, buildings (group) , cultural stadium , enterprises and institutions, etc., which have meanings.
  3. Must use the standard place name in the following activities and items:

    1. The agreement that signed in foreign language with foreign countries;
    2. The document, announcement, and certificate which are issued by the organ, army, public organization , enterprises and institutions;
    3. All kinds of newspapers and periodicals, the map or relevant books and broadcast, movie ,TV , etc.;
    4. All kinds of trade mark, board, advertisement, official seal, etc.;
    5. The street (way) lane (small lane) sign , floor (institute) number (unit plate, room plate), scenic spot direction sign , traffic sign , public transport station board;
    6. Effective certificate, business license and household registration for Postal service, communication, and domicile.
  4. Relevant regulations issued before, if not in accordance with a content of announcement ones, subject to this notice. If not go with the notice, correct it immediately.

Tongyong Pinyin and Taipei County

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I’ve seen a few new street signs in Banqiao, Taipei County, in Tongyong Pinyin. Even the whole issue of Tongyong Pinyin vs. Hanyu Pinyin aside, the new signs are terrible, with the romanization far too small to read. Another bunch of money down the drain, making a bad situation worse.

出版品英譯 中縣府決採中央版
記者柯永輝／豐原報導 03/24 04:25
縣府為營造雙語生活環境，昨初步決定往後縣府出版品等，都沿用行政院提供、採通用拼音原則的英譯名稱，如「豐原」過去譯成「Fengyuan」，新規定將改成「Fongyuan」，再度引爆通用與漢語拼音之爭。

4年多前，中央為了通用或漢語拼音吵翻天，後來仍無定論，但行政院研考會在92年10月出版「外部標示英譯用語參考手冊」和「內部標示雙語詞彙」，依通用拼音原則，對各公家單位、縣市、鄉鎮市、姓氏等英譯名稱，提出建議。

縣府資訊室近來將建立縣府英文官方網站，計畫室昨天也為統一縣府出版品、名片、文宣品的英譯名稱，向副縣長張壯熙請示要採何種拼音譯寫。

張壯熙認為，內政部92年已行文明定各縣市、鄉鎮市英譯名稱，從「務實」層面考量，須依循中央命令，所以往後府內出版品採「中央版」譯名。

豐原市長張溢城說，只要全國統一，他不會堅持採何種譯法，若縣府改成通用拼音，他也願配合。

豐原區的親民黨籍縣議員陳清龍則持反對立場。他說，從懂英文以來，豐原英譯一直是「Fengyuan」，且中央當初提出通用拼音，根本是政治考量，漢語拼音是世界上最廣泛運用的，不能為了「全國統一」就忽視「與世界接軌」，縣府應該多堅持一些。

typical example of the confusion about Chinese characters

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When I first heard about a new book, Mr. China: A Memoir, by Tim Clissold, it sounded like a much-needed debunking of pie-in-the-sky Western investments in China. Unfortunately, however, Clissold’s book spends several pages reinforcing myths about the Chinese languages and Chinese characters.

Chinese characters are central to the language. They provide a link with the past quite unlike that provided by European languages. The characters represent complete ideas rather than just sounds, like liters, so they are different from alphabetical spellings in that they resist changes over the years or between regions. Pronunciation of Chinese words might change over the centuries, but the written character remains constant. The character ? may be pronounced xiang, heung, or hong, but it always means “fragrant.” Separate from the sound and recognizable across thousands of years, the characters keep history alive. When China’s earliest philosophers recorded their ideas on bamboo spills as far back as the sixth century B.C., they used characters, many of which are still in daily use. It’s as if, with a little effort from the reader, the words of Plato or Aristotle leaped from the page in the orginal.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. These are myths.

Later, the author relates the shi shi shi story. Like almost everyone else, he completely misunderstands the piece and reaches entirely wrong conclusions.

The book has many such errors.

Mao tried to simplify the language by modifying the characters.

This statement is a good example of the confusion of language and script that Clissold displays more than once.

Really, this is all quite sad — and typical!

fonts and sinograph limitations

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A reminder that right now there are many thousands of Chinese characters that are not included in font sets and that fonts with Chinese characters will always have to play catch-up:

政协委员：电脑字库该强制更新
http://www.sina.com.cn 2005年03月14日18:17 金羊网-羊城晚报

　　本报北京专电　特派记者周敏、蒋铮、余颖、张演钦、李宜航报道：常会出现电脑“不识字”(打不出来)的状况，不是“脑子笨”，而是字库旧。全国政协委员李德毅建议坚决强制更新使用新型汉字字库标准，令6000万中国人不再遭遇无名尴尬。

　　李德毅讲了个故事：学生杜餻在银行的存款到期了。银行遗憾地通知他，无法再为他办理续存业务，因为电脑里打不出“餻”。以前这个字用同音字“义”代替，实行实名制 后行不通了。由于姓名用字比较生僻，杜餻们的姓名被使用时，要么被“杜益鸟”之类代替，要么用同音字或者拼音代替，要么干脆用三角或者星号代替。在一些地方，遇到电脑打不出的生僻字，户籍管理部门甚至会要求改名后再上户口。在换发二代身份证的过程中，就经常出现人名中的生僻字无法输入的问题。

　　出现这种情况，是电脑中安装和执行的字库标准仍然是国家标准总局1981年5月颁布的GB2312-1998《信息交换用汉字编码字符集———基本集》，该标准仅收录了6763个汉字。为了解决汉字字库编码陈旧，不适合信息技术发展和社会需求的问题，国家标准总局2000年推出了GB18030-2000新标准，含2.7万多个汉字，强制执行，过渡期到2001年8月1日为止。但实际中，还有不少系统在使用旧字库，没有更新。

　　据不完全统计，中国人姓名中使用GB2312规定的6763汉字之外的字，大约占4.5%；使用GB18030-2000新标准的2.7万个汉字之外的字，大约占0.5%。(本报北京专电)

street-sign woes in Nanjing

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Even more InTerCaPiTaLiZaTion — the horror!

新街口地下通道路标乱套了 给市民出行带来不便
sina.com.cn 2005年03月15日09:10 龙虎网

【龙虎网讯】路名标志不全；该标箭头的不标；违反民政部规定，路牌上用英文拼写地名；同一路牌上，有的路名用汉语拼音，有的却用英文……这些怪现象都出现在新街口。昨天，南京市政协委员薛正毅与快报记者一起，给这个南京市最繁华地段的路标挑刺。薛正毅感叹，如此混乱路标给群众出行带来不便，是南京创建文明城市的不和谐音。

　　地下用英文，地上是拼音

　　新街口广场地下过街通道刚启用不久，地下所有指路牌清一色标注英文。如中山东路路牌下加一行EastZhongShanRoad；洪武路路牌下加一行HongWuRoad；王府大街路牌下加一行WangFuAv-enue。但一出地下通道，迎面新百门前的中山东路路牌标注的却是汉语拼音ZhongShanDongLu。

　　淮海路地下过街通道内的路标同样较乱。从中央商场门前下去，迎面就看到一块大路牌，上面标有带箭头的两个地名，其中大洋百货用的是英文GrandOcean；三元巷用的却是汉语拼音SanYuanXiang。不远处另一块路牌上，中央商场用的是英文CentralEmporum；淮海路又用的是汉语拼音HuaiHaiLu。

　　公共场所路牌到底该用英文还是汉语拼音？薛正毅委员当场用手机打电话给南京市地名办咨询。一位邱姓女士答复说，地下通道路牌应该用拼音，国家民政部明确规定，标准地名必须一律用汉语拼音拼写，不得使用英文及其他外文拼写地名。她特地引用 2003年5月26日民政部颁布的文件规定：“设置街（路）巷（胡同）标志、楼（院）门牌（单元牌、户牌）、景点指示标志、交通指示标志、公共交通站牌等；标准地名是指街、路、道、巷、胡同、里、弄等名称”必须用拼音。薛正毅不客气地说，新街口出现这么多加注英文的路牌，其实是赶时髦的念头在作怪。店名、产品名称都爱起个洋名，路牌加注英文似乎就能与国际化接轨了。

　　地下通道少了“四号”标志

　　站在新街口广场地下通道中心，四周有4个大出口，分别标有5、6、7、8等四个黄底白字的大号字，十分醒目。在5号出口处，左侧墙壁写着“4号，中山南路、东方商城”；右侧墙壁写着“5号，汉中路、王府大街、金鹰国际商城”。这两处路牌字较小，走近才能看清。薛正毅指出，5号出口处应在左侧加上一个黄底白字的大号4字，那样就方便了。

　　在这一通道的8号出口处，路牌标注的是中山东路，但走进这一出口却有左右两处通向地面，向左是中山东路，向右则通向中山南路。薛正毅说，前天晚上，他本想经此出口到中山东路，上去才发现走到了中山南路。他说，该通道4个出口地面都在新街口广场拐角上，地下灯箱指路牌应严格与地面路名相一致，并画出指路箭头。他是南京本地人，都分不清，要是外地游客，更不方便了。

　　新街口地下通道路标乱套了 给市民出行带来不便

　　作者：赵诚

（来源：现代快报）

Taiwan to tout traditional characters abroad

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推廣華語 繁體質感取勝
記者李名揚／台北報導 03/15 03:52

華語已成為全世界第二大語言，中國大陸的簡體中文挾帶「量」的優勢進軍全世界，教育部則透過外交部協助，與美國大學理事會取得共識，未來美國高中先修課程中，華語課的教材和考試，將繁體字和簡體字並用、漢語拼音和通用拼音並列，希望爭取華語市場大餅。

教育部官員指出，大陸官方已成立了「國家對外漢語教學領導小組辦公室」，計畫在全世界開辦100所「孔子學院」，第一所在韓國已經掛牌，美國馬里蘭大學、瑞典、比利時也都相繼成立。

教育部次長范巽綠表示，行政院已將「對外華語文教學」列為「人才培訓服務業之發展」三大旗艦計畫之一，教育部研議利用國內現有17所設在各大學的華語文研習中心及華語僑校，編修內容更貼近台灣生活面貌的教材，讓外國人認識台灣的多元文化，並招收各國對華語文有興趣的學生或民眾來台學習。

范巽綠說，教育部也透過駐外單位協助，讓台灣具有華語文教學能力的大學校院，與歐美大學合作，編寫適合當地需求的教材，並在當地培訓高中先修課程的華語文師資，例如美國今年有2400所高中急聘華語教師，台灣協助培訓的師資就備受重視；至於東南亞，則結合台商在當地培訓師資。

教育部官員分析指出，大陸攻占全世界華語文教學與研習市場的策略是以「量」取勝，因為他們人口眾多，又有外交優勢；台灣必須走重「質」的精緻路線，因為繁體字能吸引國外高學歷、學術界以及企業幹部來台學習。

state of Tsou language, dictionary

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From a Reuters article in the Taiwan News:

Aborigines battle to save their culture
Taiwan’s Tsou tribe struggles to preserve langauge and mores
2005-03-14

[…]Aside from Christian missionaries, no foreigners intruded on them until the Japanese colonization from 1895 to 1945.

The Japanese stopped customs that they considered barbaric, such as the Tsou practice of taking human heads as war trophies. The Mayasvi was itself halted for a about a decade.

Then, when the Chinese Nationalist government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the mainland to the Communists, the Tsou language was smothered. The Nationalists imposed Mandarin Chinese in schools and banned all other languages and dialects.

“People say we are gradually losing our culture but it’s actually happening very quickly,” said Liao Chin-ying, a Chinese primary school teacher who married into a Tsou family in the neighbouring village of Dabang, next to Tefuye.

She said less than 10 percent of young people can speak Tsou, compared to 90 percent of the elderly. The government now allows schools to teach Tsou once a week, but Liao thinks that is not enough to pull the language back from the brink of extinction.

“If you don’t teach the mother tongue, then you lose your culture. Without your mother tongue, your culture becomes fossilized and doesn’t truly exist any more,” she said.

Dying language

Liao speaks only Tsou to her 2-year-old daughter but says her little girl insists on replying in Mandarin because the other children in the village do not speak their native tongue.

Christian missionaries are trying to help preserve the Tsou language by using a romanization system.

“Some of the priests here speak better Tsou than me,” said Yangui Iuheacana, a Tsou woman who teaches village children how to spell Tsou words using the alphabet.

“They’re helping to put together the first-ever Tsou dictionary and are translating the Bible into Tsou,” she said.

It’s easy to see why small villages like Tefuye and Dabang, with only about 1,200 residents between them, fear assimilation. Mandarin is essential for anyone seeking further education or work, and for men doing compulsory military service.

Yet Tsou pride in tradition is evident everywhere, from the carefully observed Mayasvi to the scars on Peongsi’s arms and legs – the legacy of his numerous tussles with boars, bears, deer, goats and monkeys.

The Tsou still teach their boys how to hunt and farm up in the lush mountains far away from Taipei’s bustling streets and the high-tech microchip plants that helped turn the leaf-shaped island into the world’s 15th-largest economy.

I’d be surprised if this is really the first Tsou dictionary. Has no one at Academia Sinica, for example, made one already?