Taiwan is joining the international recoginition of the Hanyu Pinyin.
The Ministry of Education just passed it a few weeks ago.
The system will be in full effect starting in 2009.

This is kind of cool. Finally some standization.

I thought Taiwan has always used Zhuyin, instead of pinyin. Not long ago, Taiwan invented Tongyong Pinyin, which is slightly different .from Hanyu Pinyin. Now, it's going to change to Hanyu Pinyin. The news is at http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.x...nt_10050165.htm

Yep. Now I think westerners can be less confused when reading romanization.
Globlization ftw.

Imagine people calling taibei (taipei) as 'thai-bay' in the future!

hanyu pinyin for the win!

It seems like some of the last hold-outs of the "Republic of China" are disappearing and giving way to the dominance of the "People's Republic"?

Some veteran ROC-lovers may be upset, but this may also more accurately reflect the realities of modern history (i.e. "the Communists won the civil war, get over it"). Alas, I'm actually beginning to doubt whether the PRC is as capable of "opening up" as many, including me, have been led to believe up till now. I'm guessing people here have seen something about Yasheng Huang's new book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics? I'd like to believe that the PRC has a bright future, but I'm also aware of the need for reality checks. In either case, the fate of the PRC does not affect my confidence in the future of China.

As far as romanization systems go, I sometimes find Wade-Giles more aesthetically appealing than Pinyin. This is not always the case, however, and I have found Pinyin to work better for me in terms of studying Mandarin.

So what's the nest step for ROC after adopting Hanyu Pinyin? Adopting the Simplified Chinese form? Just Kidding. But I do find what ever the various current romanization systems using in TW are confusing since they are not uniformed and their pronunciation sometimes does not match with the way the alphabet is. Join the club with mainland, Singapore and HK in Hanyu Pinyin is a smart move.

Alright...next step: Mainland China should revive the traditional Chinese characters.

I really hope not. If Taiwan is adopting the Hanyu pinyin, then Mainland should revive the traditional Chinese form.

I think this is a great thing, finally some standardization. This is not to destroy Taiwanese culture or tradition, but it's just so useful at international level!
I agree that now PRC should revise its simplification of the characters, and try to make them more meaningful and relevant to the traditional characters.

I realize I do not have to write all those traditional characters, but I like them so much better then the simplified ones

I would love to see the traditional characters re established officially.

Nope. Screw that.

I am a westerner here in China learning Chinese (very slowwwly). I already know several hundred characters, and I really don't wish to relearn what I have learned, and the "Simplified" form has been around China for about 50 years and this is what the kids know and study.

XXX