汉语在台湾

　　Lost in Romanisation

　　迷失拼音

　　Ideological warfare over spelling

　　拼写上的意识形态冲突

　　THE policy of détente with China espoused by Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, has caused fears among some Taiwanese that the island's rowdy democracy will be pushed into Beijing's political embrace. Fears of future reunification are even causing some Taiwanese cities to reject hanyu pinyin, the official system for Romanising Chinese words in both China and Taiwan, in favour of an older system.

　　台湾总统马英九就两岸关系主张缓和政策。这让台湾民众忧心忡忡，生恐岛内吵闹的政治局面将台湾推向大陆的怀抱。对于回归的担忧甚至引发部分台湾城市抵制汉语拼音，转而支持旧有的拉丁化方案。

　　Mr Ma's government declared more than five years ago that the country would start using hanyu pinyin. The reasoning is sensible. It is the phonetic system used virtually everywhere in the world, including the United Nations and the International Organisation for Standardisation, for transcribing Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet. The one problem: it was developed in Communist China in the 1950s and so, for some Taiwanese, remains suspect.

　　早在5年多以前，马英九政府就宣布台湾将开始使用汉语拼音。其理由也非常充分，这种拼音方案几乎被全球所有地区用来将汉字发音转化为拉丁字母，包括美国和国际标准化组织。唯一的问题在于：这个方案诞生于19世纪50年代共党治下的中国，因而台湾民众对它疑心重重。

　　汉语拼音.jpg

　　Officials argue that its use will improve Taiwan's economic competitiveness by co-ordinating with other Chinese-speaking societies. But some Taiwanese believe this is a ploy by Mr Ma covertly to integrate Taiwan more closely with mainland China.

　　官方认为使用汉语拼音的能够同其他使用汉语的社会统一标准，从而也能提高台湾的经济竞争力。但不少台湾人坚信这这是马英九暗中将台湾和大陆一体化的阴谋。

　　Hanyu pinyin is now used on street signs in the island's capital, Taipei, but some cities ruled by opposition mayors are staging a boycott. They include Kaohsiung, the island's second-largest metropolis, and Tainan, a popular tourist spot filled with charming temples. These cities are clinging to the Romanisation system known as tongyong pinyin, which was introduced in 2002 and is closely associated with Mr Ma's predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, a passionate advocate of independence. Tongyong pinyin is unique to Taiwan, and its use was once lambasted by Xinhua, the mainland's official news agency, as a move to rid Taiwan of Chinese influence.

　　汉语拼音如今已经用于首都台北的路牌，不过由反对党市长领导的城市仍在进行抵制。其中包括岛内第二大城市高雄和寺庙充盈的旅游胜地台南。这些城市坚持使用“通用拼音”，该拉丁化方案在2002年开始使用。这套方案的使用同马的前任—激进的台独分子陈水扁，有很大关系。通用拼音仅被台湾采用，并且曾被大陆官媒新华社斥责为意图消除台湾的中华传统。

　　Expatriate newcomers who cannot read Chinese characters easily lose their way. The Altar of Heaven, a temple in Tainan, is located on a lane off Jhongyi Road on the city government website, but is off Zhongyi Road on Google Maps. A lingering third system known as Wade-Giles, used before both the others, confuses visitors even more. Mr Ma's officials say there is no legal requirement for local governments to adopt hanyu pinyin and they are reluctant to push too hard, lest theystir up memories of the harsh martial-law regime that ended over two decades ago. But, even in language, Taiwan remains divided.

　　不懂汉语的移民后代重回台湾时，很容易就会迷路。比如，台南天坛位于忠义路边上的小巷中，这条路的路牌上写的是Jhongyi Road，而谷歌地图的显示是Zhongyi Road。还有第三种拼音方案叫做威妥玛式拼音法，曾被双方使用，但是却更让游客迷惑。马英九政府的官员表示，法律上并没有要求地方政府接受汉语拼音，政府也不愿意强制推行，以免让他们觉得回到了20多年前残酷的军统时期。即便是从语言上说，台湾仍出在和大陆分离的状态。