TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators held a press conference on Thursday (March 30), slamming the New Taipei City government for using simplified Chinese characters in official communications, and called on mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) to explain.
The simplified characters appeared in educational pamphlets produced to promote the city’s environmental protection plan, per FTV, but they will now be reprinted to make them easier to read, according to city officials. Meaning “wind power generation,” the simplified characters "风力发电" appeared on the cover of the pamphlet, which appear as "風力發電" in traditional Chinese characters.
DPP legislator Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷) slammed the New Taipei City government for the blunder and said this was proof it could not protect Taiwan. "If you can't even protect the traditional characters of the Republic of China, how can you possibly be able to protect the Republic of China and Taiwan," he said.
The DPP legislators alleged that the textbooks were ordered from the Chinese online retail giant Taobao, but the city government denied this and said they were manufactured in Tainan. The city government said that training will be put in place for city employees to ensure the mistake is not repeated.
The educational product's instruction pamphlet is shown with simplified characters appearing throughout. (Facebook, Cho Kuan-ting photo)
They also denied the legislators’ accusation that NT$5.1 million (US$170,000) had been spent on the pamphlets, and issued a statement saying only NT$9,975 was spent. The spokesperson for the environmental protection wing of the city government, Hsu Ming-chih (許銘志), warned that these accusations are not in the public interest.
This is the second time simplified characters have caused political controversy in recent weeks, with independent legislator May Chin (高金素梅) receiving criticism for using briefing notes written in simplified characters during a parliamentary debate on March 15. In 2019, simplified characters were discovered on road markings in Kaohsiung, and were subsequently re-written using traditional characters.
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and many overseas Chinese communities use traditional Chinese characters, while China, Malaysia, and Singapore use simplified characters. A small number of simplified characters appear in informal settings in Taiwan, though it is generally regarded as unacceptable to use simplified characters for formal communications.
