news and discussions mainly related to Chinese characters and romanization
Victor Mair passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 28, 2026, surrounded by family and friends. Some of the basics of his life are given in the brief obituary by his department at the University of Pennsylvania. I put off writing Continue reading
Recently, Victor Mair posted an image from Taichung of an apostrophe r representing Mr. (Alphabetic Mr. and Mrs. / Ms. in Chinese) Here s a companion image for a Ms. Huang.
Last week Taiwan s legislature passed an amendment stating that members of Taiwan s tribes will no longer be forced to adopt names written in Chinese characters. Instead, their names can be presented solely in romanization if so desired. Thus, at least Continue reading
Xu Xudong ( / ), a member of the Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference and a professor at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, is advocating that public schools in China allocate substantially more time to the teaching of Hanyu Pinyin. G ngl Continue reading
Japanese newspapers are reporting that Japan will officially switch from Kunrei-shiki romanization to Hepburn romanization. In a front-page column last week, the Asahi Shimbun said, A draft report recently published by the Council of Cultural Affairs pointed out that the Continue reading
The University of Hawai i Press is having a sale, with deep discounts on many titles, including three great books from Pinyin.info s list of recommended readings. ABC Chinese English Dictionary, edited by John DeFrancis. $28.00 $3.00 Asia s Orthographic Dilemma, by William C. Continue reading
Tomorrow, February 7, 2024, Mark O Neill will give an online talk on The Father of China s Pinyin System: Zhou Youguang. David Moser will moderate. The talk is sponsored by the Royal Asiatic Society, Beijing. General admission is 100 RMB. Details. Continue reading
Santa s in his bus and all s right with the world. Although coach buses in Taiwan often use the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization system, this bus uses SAN TA for , which is Wade-Giles.
Earlier this evening I went to a rally for Hsiao Bi-khim, the Democratic Progressive Party s candidate for vice president of Taiwan. Most of the speakers at the rally, including Hsiao, spoke in Taiwanese, or in fluent code switching between Taiwanese Continue reading
Earlier this week I wrote about San Francisco politicians and what constitutes a Chinese name. There has been some pushback against the new policy in San Francisco of not letting candidates for office use their own choice of Chinese name Continue reading
San Francisco will begin its own enforcement of a 2019 bill that places restrictions on the use of self-submitted Chinese names (i.e., names as written in Chinese characters), requiring that candidates prove they’ve had the names since birth or that Continue reading
A candidate for the Indigenous constituency in Taiwan s Legislature has, in protest over government policies mandating the use of Chinese characters, changed her name to Savungaz Valincinan, which translates as Li I want to list my tribal name separately; my Continue reading
Recent years have been difficult for postsecondary foreign language programs in the United States, with enrollments down 16.6% overall between fall 2016 and fall 2021. Anecdotal evidence points to even steeper declines since then. This post provides a look at Continue reading
US Doctorates in Chinese and Japanese, 1983-2014 As you can see, in most years more doctorates were awarded in Chinese than in Japanese. The total doctorates over the covered period are 666 for Chinese and 471 for Japanese. By way Continue reading
In March, Taiwan s Chunghwa Post (Zh nghu Y uzh ng / ) issued new postage stamps commemorating Zhuyin Fuhao ( ) (aka bopomofo, bopo mofo, or bpmf). The postal service has released another three sheets of these stamps, finishing the series. sources: 733 ( 1 ) Continue reading