Bopomofo
will not be easy to scrap
Hugo
Tseng 曾泰元
Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), who
campaigned to be her party’s candidate in the Tainan mayoral election, proposed
abolishing Mandarin phonetic symbols — also known as zhuyin fuhao (注音符號,
commonly known as Bopomofo) — and adopting romanized spelling — also called
pinyin (拼音) — as one of her platform policies.
Taiwan
is the only nation that uses Mandarin phonetic symbols, while Chinese-language
education around the world uses “romanization,” she said, adding that Taiwan’s
practice puts more of a burden on schoolchildren, while failing to connect with
the international community.
I
largely agree with Yeh and support most of her political views. However,
adopting romanized spelling is one thing, but abolishing Mandarin phonetic
symbols is a more radical idea and no trivial matter. If such a policy were to
ever be adopted, it would likely have considerable repercussions.
First,
there is something that Yeh needs to clarify: namely, what she means by
“romanization.” Does she mean the dominant Chinese spelling system used
worldwide, Hanyu pinyin (漢語拼音), or Tongyong pinyin (通用拼音),
which was a flash in the pan some time ago? Or does she mean the Wade-Giles
spelling system, which used to have pride of place, or some other system of romanization?
“Romanization”
is an umbrella term that means using Latin letters, or the Roman alphabet, to
transliterate other kinds of script. There are many romanization systems for
Chinese. The process was started by Western missionaries, and after several
centuries of competition and evolution, Hanyu pinyin eventually emerged the
winner.
Hanyu
pinyin is the international standard for spelling Chinese and is now the main
system used in the international community.
Before
that, Wade-Giles was for a long time the dominant system, while other kinds of
romanization, such as the postal system, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, Yale romanization,
Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, Tongyong pinyin and so forth, have all taken the
stage for a while, but have later gone quiet and been relegated to history.
If what
Yeh means by romanization is Hanyu pinyin, that is the standard in Taiwan.
However, after the DPP got into government in 2000, it adopted Tongyong pinyin,
a system designed by Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉), who at the time was an
associate researcher at Academia Sinica, as Taiwan’s official romanization
system.
It is
reasonable to think that Tongyong pinyin was derived from China’s Hanyu pinyin,
with certain adjustments and revisions. The purpose of these changes was to
make it different, thereby expressing the difference between the two sides of
the Taiwan Strait.
When
the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) got back into office in 2008, it stopped
using Tongyong pinyin and started using Hanyu pinyin instead, in an attempt to
be more similar to China. In part, it was done for the sake of cross-strait
integration and aligning more with international standards.
After
the DPP in 2016 got back into power, it has continued the policy of its
predecessor. It remains to be seen what will happen, but Yeh’s policy proposal
might guide official attitudes.
Taiwan
uses Hanyu pinyin mainly to transliterate the names of streets and other
places. Not all counties and municipalities use it and it has very little
impact on the general public.
If
Yeh’s Hanyu pinyin policy ends up being implemented, thereby establishing a
unified system instead of Taiwan’s spelling mess, it would be a boon.
However,
Mandarin phonetic symbols have been a foundation of education in Taiwan for
decades. Abolishing them would be an enormous challenge and any attempt to do
so would no doubt provoke a powerful backlash from many quarters.
The
upside is that Yeh is a well-known DPP politician, so she need not worry about
the pan-green camp painting her as pro-Chinese for wanting to use Hanyu pinyin.
At the same time, by calling for Mandarin phonetic symbols to be abandoned, she
can “de-blue” the idea by drawing a line between her proposal and the KMT, and
standing on her own authority.
When
Premier William Lai (賴清德) was mayor of Tainan, he called
for English to become Taiwan’s second official language. Now Yeh, although she
failed in her bid for Tainan mayoral candidacy, has been calling for Mandarin
phonetic symbols to be abolished in favor of romanized spelling. Tainan
deserves a round of applause for its courage and determination.
Hugo
Tseng is an associate professor and former chair of Soochow University’s
Department of English Language and Literature.
Translated
by Julian Clegg