David on Formosa

Pinyin News and Michael Turton both blogged on Premier Su’s recent remarks that Taiwan may consider abandoning the ROC calendar and use only the Gregorian calendar. The story was reported in the Taipei Times and China Post yesterday.

Both blogs comment on the differences between the reports in the two papers. The Taipei Times is known for favouring the DPP and Taiwan independence while the China Post staunchly backs the KMT and “reunification”. Mark of Pinyin News has some less than favourable comments about the China Post on Michael Turton’s blog.

I recommend that people go through an issue of the China Post to see for themselves what is original to that paper. (Let’s not even bother to wonder which, if any, ideas there are original.)

So, get a copy of the China Post. Cross out everything by “China Post staff.” Then cross out all the articles by AP, Reuters, CNA, DPA, Agence France-Presse, and the other news agencies. Then cross out all the ad copy that’s printed to resemble stories. Then cross out all the other ads.

Then, if you like, see more of what a newspaper it is by crossing out all the remaining pieces that are not actually news but simply puff pieces on restaurants or celebrities.

Quite likely all that will be left are the editorials.

Mark has also previously blogged about problems with Taiwan’s use of the ROC calendar, dubbing it the “Y1C problem“. Currently it is the year 95 in Taiwan. The years are counted from the founding of the Republic of China in 1911 (the year 1912 having been designated 1).

The Taipei Times has an editorial on the topic today. The editorial laments the fact that the issue is so political.

A proposal was raised in the legislature on Friday to abolish the Republican (minguo 民國) calendar and replace it with the Gregorian calendar, the time system used in most of the world today. A simple and commonsense proposal, one might think, which should win unwavering support and pose less of an obstacle to foreign consumption.

But nothing escapes the curse of the “Greater China” ideology.

Indeed, one would have been surprised if die-hard pan-blue-camp supporters did not jump up and slam the proposal as evidence of pro-independence sentiment and splittism.

It seems that one of the greatest obstacles to better government in Taiwan is the polarisation of politics into pro-reunification and pro-independence camps. The issue of romanisation and the use of Hanyu Pinyin has also failed to get the consideration that it deserves as a result of this. These issues should, in a rational world, not be political. Alas, it is not the case in Taiwan.

I really do hope the changes to the calendar system don’t end up politically stone-walled. While the rest of the world enters the twenty-first century, Taiwan should not remain langering in the first!

Links

Taiwan may drop idiosyncratic Republican calendar – Taipei Times, 25 Feb 2006
Premier backs replacing ROC dating system – China Post, 25 Feb 2006
Editorial: The welcome death of a calendar – Taipei Times, 26 Feb 2006

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UPDATE: The Taiwan News has published an editorial on the topic. See Taiwan dating needs to change to Common Era (1 March 2006).

Here are some links to a few other Taiwan bloggers who wrote about this issue.
The Abolish of Republican Calendar
My Favorite Year