My roommate, who writes English textbooks for junior high school students, recently received a cryptic comment from the Ministry of Education demanding a revision: “This sentence is too long.”
The sentence, the shortest one in the text, contained one offending phrase, up until now the least controversial possible: “Taiwan, Republic of China.” Part of the phrase had to be removed, and though my roommate was left guessing which part, she knew well enough which part she was being asked to strike out.
Last week President Chen Shui-bian promised to do his own striking out – by removing the “China” in the nation’s postal and petroleum enterprises and replacing them with Taiwan, an explicit step toward further “Taiwanization.”
The postal union revolted. Chaos didn’t ensue.
Instead, Taiwan woke up earlier this week to find a country more or less like the one it woke up to last week – just serviced by one Taiwan Post.
A quiet revolution? Dunno. But I’d save my R.O.C. stamps. They may become collectors’ items.
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