According to the article Yang Yi-te (楊義德), the Commissioner of Taipei County’s Department of Civil Affairs , said the County Government chose “Xinbei City” as the official name because “New Taipei City” would be too similar to Taipei City.

The Taipei Times also reported on a group of Tongyong Pinyin advocates protesting against the use of the Hanyu Pinyin “Xinbei”. Chang Shu-feng (張淑芬), director of Taiwan Pinyin League, said the government should use “Sinbei City” or “New Taipei City” as the English name. The article also says a final decision on the English name of the city will be made by the Taipei County Council in September.

An article (中文) in the United Daily News (聯合報) says that both the KMT and DPP candidates for mayor of the new municipality favor “New Taipei City”. KMT candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) says that this is the original public consensus. DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen says that it’s most important for foreigners to know what the city is called. Foreigners won’t know that “Xinbei” is just the transliteration of some Chinese characters, but “New Taipei City” makes it very clear that this is a newly developed metropolitan area.

The United Daily News article also quotes Deputy Commissioner of Taipei County, Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), saying that the Ministry of Interior determined last year that place names should be transliterated using Hanyu Pinyin. Therefore “Xinbei City” met the standard. This decision was sent to the Ministry of Interior and Taipei County Council in April this year and won’t be changed.

A survey of Taiwan’s major English-language media organisations shows a variety of usages. The China Post, Taiwan News and Focus Taiwan (published by CNA) use Xinbei City. The Taipei Times, which supports Tongyong Pinyin, uses Sinbei City. While Taiwan Today (published by the GIO) uses New Taipei City.

In an e-mail Kaihsu Tai suggested the name Běixīn Shì (北新市) which could be written in English as “Basin City”. This is a reference to the Taipei Basin, a key geographical feature of the Taipei area.

There is a thread at Forumosa.com discussing the issue. Screaming Jesus suggests that they should go back to “Taihoku”, the Japanese name for Taipei. ludahai writes, “If India can handle Delhi and New Delhi, I think Taiwan can handle Taipei and New Taipei.”

Other uses I have seen around the web include “New North City” and “Sin City”. The latter should really be used for Taichung though!

My opinion is that the regardless of whether it is written as Xinbei City, Sinbei City or New Taipei City the name for the upgraded municipality simply lacks originality. While I have no specific suggestion for a new name I think it should be something that better reflects local history and culture. It is also important that there is public consultation on the issue and a range of alternatives be considered. Taiwan still has a long way to go in addressing issues of name rectification. The renaming of Taipei County is a good place for a fresh start.

• Clear day, brown haze
• More on population density
• North Korean wins human rights award
• Exploring the city of Kaohsiung
• 4 May is Bike Day

              

I have made sporadic efforts at studying Taiwanese but so far I haven't got beyond learning a few of the most common words and phrases. However, I think the language is important and useful and it is something that I really want to learn.

The teacher is Xiao Laoshi (蕭老師). She has a Master's Degree in Teaching Southern Min Dialect as a Second Language. As far as I know she is the only specialist Taiwanese language teacher at Shi-Da. She is very enthusiastic and I like her teaching style.

The first class used Xiao Laoshi's own materials. The class mainly covered phonetics. The Peh-oe-ji (POJ) romanisation system was used. POJ is sometimes referred to as Church Romanisation because it was originally invented by Presbyterian missionaries. The teacher commented  indirectly that she uses this system because it is the most well known. There are other systems but they are not in common use.

A few of the students in the class already knew a little Taiwanese. Others knew none at all. There was quite a bit of material covered. As well as the phonetics we also learnt a simple conversation. For the complete beginners it might have been a bit overwhelming.

My only complaint is that the class is only once per week. I think it is disappointing that Taiwan's largest Chinese language school cannot offer more classes in Taiwanese.

I will write some more about the class and the Taiwanese language over the next couple of months.

• Starting classes at Shi-Da
• Reading about Taiwanese History
• Taiwanese language learning materials
• Article at culture.tw
• More Taiwanese Chinese

              

Russian Literature is the theme of the 2007 Book Exhibition 

I went to the Taipei International Book Exhibition today. There were plenty of books there to see (and buy). The exhibition can rightly call itself international as there were stands from many different countries in the international section including Australia, Iran and Poland. 

Far East Pinyin Quickstart Guide (遠東漢語拼音全球通)

I was particularly interested in looking for Chinese language learning materials at the exhibition. I was disappointed to find that there were very few books on display. Only the Far East Book Company had a good selection of books and language learning software. It was there I found the interesting book in the photo above. The Far East Pinyin Quickstart Guide (遠東漢語拼音全球通) is written in Chinese to teach people how to correctly use Hanyu Pinyin. I hope it becomes a bestseller in Taiwan!

A History of Taiwan in Comics (認識台灣歷史)

Another interesting stand was the Third Nature Publishing Company. They publish the ten volume bilingual (Chinese and English) A History of Taiwan in Comics (認識台灣歷史). They also publish a range of books about environmental topics. 

Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association (法鼓山) stand at the book exhibition 

There were also a number of Buddhist publishers with stands. It was interesting to see that they featured not just titles written by well-known Taiwanese Buddhist teachers, but translations of books written by Buddhist teachers from the West.  

Two models dressed as the characters in Nana

The second exhibition hall was dedicated to comics (漫畫 or manga) and was lively and colorful. The two models in the photo above were acting as the characters in the Japanese manga (and movie) Nana. This area was popular with the younger crowd. The third exhibition hall was for children's books, but I didn't have time to visit it. 

Comics on sale at the exhibition 

The exhibition runs until Sunday (4 February).  

• 2009 Taipei Book Exhibition
• Taipei Book Fair
• Tony Wheeler in Taiwan
• 2008 Taipei Book Fair
• A Tibetan in Taiwan

              

Over the past three years the number of students studying Chinese in Taiwan has risen by around 1,500 to 9,143, according to MOE statistics. This is a 5 percent annual increase, but set against the explosion in demand for learning Chinese it is a meager return. Taiwan should be riding the wave of learning Mandarin, instead it appears to be floundering around in the shallows.

It is disappointing that Taiwan has failed to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the rapidly expanding market for learning Mandarin. The article discusses some of the reasons why. These include difficulties obtaining visas and the use of traditional characters and various systems of pinyin.

I think the visa problem is the most serious one. The problem of people abusing student visas and working illegally cannot be ignored. However, instead of a knee-jerk reaction which makes it more difficult for people to study legimately other options should be explored. 

I think people often make too much of a fuss about different systems of pinyin. While I think Hanyu Pinyin should be the preferred system, any student who has a good knowledge of one system can quickly learn another. Similarly for traditional and simplified characters there is a lot of overlap between the two systems. Switching from one to the other doesn't mean starting again from zero. 

Given China's massive size Taiwan cannot hope to compete with it directly. Instead it has to market its differences and advantages. Most people will automatically look to China as the place to study Chinese. Even capturing a small percentage of the growing market for Chinese language learning will bring many benefits to Taiwan.  

Perhaps there are already people in government and education thinking this way. The article mentions,

Toward the end of last year a conference was held in Taipei titled, Opportunities for Taiwan Amid the Global Craze for Learning Chinese. Participants touted Taiwan as superior to China culturally and educationally and emphasized the high standing of National Taiwan University's (NTU) International Chinese Language Program (台大國際華語研習所), or ICLP, formerly known as the Stanford Center. The aim here is to take the high ground of teaching Mandarin and leave the mass market to China.

I hope these ideas translate into workable policies and results. While China will always take a bigger share of the market for Chinese language learning than Taiwan there is no reason why Taiwan can't be the best place in the world to learn Chinese. 

Update: Mark has posted his thoughts on the article on his blog. Prince Roy has also left some interesting comments below.  

• Problems at BOCA
• Chinese classes continue
• A new Chinese book
• Taiwan Studies at NCCU
• Surviving Chinese

              

I earlier reviewed the Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary. The ABC Dictionary actually takes the organisation of Chinese words by pinyin a step further. Rather than just indexing characters by pinyin it indexes individual words by pinyin. ABC is actually a clever acronym meaning "Alphabetically Based Computerized".

It is a revolutionary approach to the language. It is easy to get trapped into thinking Chinese is a language made up of characters (字), but in fact it is made up of words (詞). Most of these words have multiple syllables, and hence multiple characters.  

Making the switch from a character based dictionary to this dictionary does take a little getting used to. It also shows that there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems of indexing. Chinese characters are without a doubt cumbersome to index. There will always be a few characters where it is difficult to figure out the exact number of strokes or the exact radical to find the character. With the ABC Dictionary as long as you know the pronunciation of the word then it is very fast and easy to find it in the dictionary. 

This dictionary is particularly useful for finding words that you hear spoken and are not sure of the meaning. It is often very difficult to find words that you hear in character based dictionaries even if you know the exact pronunciation. For example, if you hear the word jīfĕng (譏諷) you will have to look through the individual entries for about 30 characters to find the word in a character based dictionary. If you are unsure of the tone of the first syllable finding the word becomes a near impossible task. In the ABC dictionary you can find it right between jìfēn and jífēng. Even if you are unsure of the tone then it is only a matter of checking a few entries which are located next to each other. (Many Taiwanese people don't clearly pronounce the different sounds like z/zh and s/sh, so sometimes you need to cross check the entries for both sounds.)

However, when you don't know the pronunciation and have to look up the character by radical or stroke number then some of the advantage of using the ABC Dictionary is lost (it does have a radical index at the back). 

The dictionary has been compiled using lexical data from both China and Taiwan. Where there are differences in usage between the two countries this is noted using PRC or TW in the entry. Another great feature of the dictionary is that where homophones occur these are ranked in order of frequency.  

One disadvantage of this dictionary for users in Taiwan is that it uses simplified characters. Single character entries show the traditional character (where it is different), but multiple character words are only shown with simplified characters. For example, the entry for wèi shows 卫 (衛) but the entry for wèishēng only shows 卫生 not 衛生. There are radical indexes for both simplified and traditional characters at the back of the dictionary. 

The usage of the roman alphabet in some Chinese words is also included in the dictionary with entries such as A-xíng gānyán (A型肝炎) meaning hepatitis A and T-xù (T恤) meaning T-shirt. There is even an entry for kălā OK (karaoke). This reflects the contemporary usage of Chinese. (KTV doesn't get an entry though.)

One advantage of a character based dictionary is that words with similar meanings are grouped together. Words that have the same first character will often (although not always) have related meanings. For example, in a character based dictionary, shèjì (設計) meaning design would be immediately followed by shèjìshī (設計師 meaning designer) and shèjìtú (設計圖) meaning design drawing. In the ABC Dictionary shèjì is bracketed by shèjí (涉及) meaning to involve and shèjì (社稷) meaning the state or country. 

I don't think any single dictionary can cater to a language learner's every need. This dictionary is best used as a reference for looking up words that you hear. When reading texts it is probably easier to use a character based dictionary. However, this dictionary would make a very useful addition to the library of any serious student of Mandarin.

• The little red book
• Book review: Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary
• On reading Chinese
• Learning to read Chinese
• Some books about Taiwan

              

The above sign could perhaps best be described as Chinese with Japanese characteristics. The first two characters, inside the picture of the bomb, are 炸彈 (zhàdàn). However, the form of dàn is actually Kanji rather than the traditional (彈) or simplified (弹) Chinese character. The difference is quite small. The simplified Chinese has two dashes at the top of the character, the traditional Chinese two squares and the Kanji has three dashes.

The Japanese flavour of this sign extends a little further. The next part says 日式豚 (rìshì tún) meaning Japanese-style pork. The character 豚 is used for pig or pork in Japan, but in Taiwan and China 猪 (zhū) is the character used for pig or pork. 

There are also two katakana following the characters. I am not sure what they say. Update: Thanks to Mark and Greta for their comments. 豚カツ (tonkatsu) means pork cutlet. See the Japanese wikipedia article for more details (if you can read Japanese) or see the English wikipedia article.

This sign is a good example of bad design. There are multiple problems here. The first is writing the English and pinyin sideways down the sign making it very difficult to read without tilting your head. It would be almost impossible to read while driving past in a car. Also the sign is visually cluttered. Reading some of the Chinese is difficult simply because it is too small, especially the 3公里 (3 kms) in red at the top and the 台江文史生態之旅 on the left hand side. 

The other major problem with this sign is the strange combination of pinyin, English and Arabic numerals. There is also a spelling mistake in the English, gress instead of grass.  

The first character of the sign, 四, has been written as 4 rather than written in pinyin as si. The next character, 草, has been written as grass (with a spelling mistake) rather than the pinyin cao. The next two characters, 大眾, are written in Tongyong Pinyin as Da Jhong. This is the only part that might be considered correct. The last character, 廟, is written as miao. While this is correct pinyin it would usually be translated to the English word temple. 

The best way of writing the pinyin and English on this sign would be Sih Cao Da Jhong Temple (using Tongyong Pinyin) or Si Cao Da Zhong Temple (using Hanyu Pinyin).  

NOTE: You can see higher resolution versions of these photos in my photo gallery. 4 Gress Da Jhong Miao and Bomb.

Also if I have made any mistakes or misinterpretations don't be afraid to correct me in the comments. 

• Certification for Mandarin teachers in Taiwan
• Protesting the KMT referendum boycott

              

Pinyin.info is undoubtedly the best resource available to understand the romanisation of Mandarin Chinese. This is especially important in Taiwan where romanisation is used inconsistently and there are several different systems in use. 

I am sure most readers of this blog will have read Pinyin News at some time or another. The blog section of the website comments on news related to pinyin and also more general news related to languages and linguistics in Northeast Asia.

The readings section of the website contains a list of recommended books related to romanization in English. There are sample chapters of some of the books and these are well worth reading to better understand some of the issues related to romanization and Chinese languages. 

Some other pages of the website that are essential for reference include: 

• list of Taiwan place names in Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin and "old forms"
• Taipei street names in Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin
• Romanization comparison chart (compares Hanyu Pinyin with Zhuyin Fuhao, Wade-Giles, MPS2, Yale, Tongyong Pinyin, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh)
• Rules for writing Hanyu Pinyin 

There is an older version of this website, romanization.com, which also contains some useful information. One page there worth bookmarking is Taipei MRT stations–with tone marks.

Please note: This website has a controversial side that seems to promote a lot of passionate debate. I have recommended it primarily because it contains a lot of useful information as noted above.

• Recommended website #1: Central Weather Bureau
• Recommended website #5: Wild at Heart
• Recommended website #2: Taipei Times
• Recommended website #4: Teaching English in Taiwan
• Reading about Taiwanese History

              

HSR passenger service counter at Banqiao Station

Taiwan's High Speed Rail (HSR) is scheduled to open on 31 October. Whether it will actually open on time or not is a subject of speculation. It has already been reported that there are difficulties constructing the section of the line between Banqiao and Taipei, so initially Banqiao will serve as the HSR's northern terminus. Similarly services will terminate at Zuoying Station, rather than Gaoxiong Station, in the south. There have also been concerns about sinkage on some section of the track near Miaoli (reported in the Taipei Times on 25 April 2006, 30 May 2006, 31 May 2006, 3 June 2006, and 22 July 2006).

Today I spent some time walking around Banqiao and Taipei Stations and snapped a few photos of the signs, counters and platform entrances. Obviously installing signs in a station is much easier than ensuring the tracks are laid to the correct specifications, the rolling stock is functioning, the staff are trained and prepared and all systems are operational. 

 Some shots from Banqiao Station

Signs in the Banqiao Station spell Banqiao as Banciao. This is Tongyong Pinyin rather than Hanyu Pinyin which is used in Taipei City and the MRT. The signage in and around the Banqiao Station is quite a mess with a mixture of Hanyu and Tongyong Pinyin. Also many signs there make incorrect use of capital letters and spaces.   

Some shots from Taipei Station

I will be watching for any further developments in Taipei and Banqiao Stations that might give some clue about when the High Speed Rail will open. It will be an exciting new development in transport for Taiwan whenever it does. 

UPDATE: While travelling through Taipei Station last night I noticed that the barrier separating the HSR platforms from the regular train platforms had been removed. This allowed a good view of the HSR platforms. Some work was still going on, but the platforms looked close to completion. (10 September 2006)

Links
Taiwan High Speed Rail – Wikipedia article
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation

• HSR from Taichung to Taipei
• High speed rail delayed
• Reuters on “Kiss and Ride”
• Kiss and ride the high speed rail
• High speed rail ready?

              

When I first saw this sign I thought it was yet another example of extremely bad romanisation that is often seen in Taiwan. Not only are there several different systems of romanisation in common use, but often the signs are just plain wrong. Tay Tzyy would be written as tàizĭ in Hanyu Pinyin.

The pinyin on the sign is actually written in Gwoyeu Romatzyh (國語羅馬字). This system is designed to avoid the need for tone marks, by adding letters to the end of the word to indicate the tone. It seems like a good idea in theory, but it is overly complicated and not particularly intuitive.

To find out more about Gwoyeu Romatzyh have a look at this information from Pinyin.info and Wikipedia.

I don’t know why they chose to use Gwoyeu Romatzyh on this sign. Perhaps the company that did the stone carving had a dictionary that used the system. The English translation on this sign is actually an even bigger disaster. The latter two characters are 綠地 (lǜdì). The first character 綠 (lǜ) means green, and the second character 地 (dì) means ground. How they came up with “greening area” as a translation I don’t know. The use of area is fine, but greening is obviously wrong. “Green space” or “green area” would be a better translation.

The very small green space

This above photo gives the sign some more context. The “greening area” is disappointingly small. Why they went to so much trouble carving a sign into such a big stone for such a small space I don’t know.

• A monkey in the mountains
• History in the hills of Taipei
• More on population density
• Visit to village relocation site in Alishan
• Trip to Bali

              

Cover of Qibai Zi Gushi

So far most of my study has been based on reading stories from the book Qibai Zi Gushi (七百字故事 or 700 Character Stories). This book was written for Taiwanese children. It was not intended as a text book for foreigners studying Chinese. Still I have found it useful, although not perfect for my needs.

The book is made up of short stories. Most of the stories are traditional Chinese tales, although some are drawn from other cultures, too. That many of the stories are well known helps with reading as it makes it much easier to guess the meaning of new words and also to predict what is going to happen.

The way I approach reading the stories is to read through one time without the aid of a dictionary. I circle any words or phrases that I am not sure of. I will then check these words in the dictionary before reading the story a second time. If there are still some parts where I am unsure of the meaning I will read it again at a later time.

The number of words I don't know in each story varies from about two up to ten. I think there has been some improvement in my reading skills as I have worked through the book. I probably haven't learnt a huge number of new words or characters, but I have become more comfortable with reading something written in Chinese characters. Many of the stories contain some repetition of words or sentences. Also many grammatical structures and common connecting words are repeated from story to story.

Sample text of Qibai Zi Gushi

Although the book was written for children I still find the stories interesting to read. The best thing about this book has been to have some reading material that is both interesting and appropriate to my level. There is a sample page from the text above (click on the photo to see a larger resolution image).

The book is not designed as a text book though. If I were to redesign the book as a text for foreigners learning Chinese I would do the following. First, I would remove the Zhuyin Fuhao from the text. Although I learnt Zhuyin when I came to Taiwan, I have mostly relied upon Hanyu Pinyin. I can read characters (at least those I know) faster than I can read Zhuyin. For someone that knows Zhuyin well its placement next to the characters would make it too easy to avoid reading the characters. Second, I would list the more difficult words and phrases at the end of the text with Hanyu Pinyin and English translations. There could also be some explanations of the grammar or set phrases. A brief explanation in English of the history of the story might also add depth and understanding.

The book is not perfect as it lacks the structure of a textbook. I recommend it as a useful supplementary material for any student who is at an intermediate level.

• A new Chinese book
• Reading Chinese newspapers
• Learning to read Chinese
• Starting classes at Shi-Da
• End of semester at Shi-Da