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Updated Monday, January 4, 2010 9:43 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Taiwan remains 'UP,' despite slogan critics buzz

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Most Taiwanese people said they remain upbeat for the advent of the New Year, despite some international visitors commenting on the imperfection of the English language slogan “Taiwan UP,” which appeared on the landmark Taipei 101 Tower during the iconic New Year's Eve firework display.

Some foreigners conceded that they were a little at loss when the words “2010 Taiwan UP” popped up amid the colorful and spectacular firework display, whilst local revelers interpreted the expression as relaying the message of growing optimism about 2010.

President Ma Ying-jeou and Taipei City Mayor, Hau Lung-bin, were in the crowd celebrating the arrival of the New Year. Ma and Hau, who earned their doctorate degrees from prestigious higher learning institutions in the United States and formerly worked as professors at leading universities in Taiwan, joined tens of thousands of people enthusiastically repeating the “Taiwan UP” slogan.

Yet the Chinese-language United Daily News and cable TV news networks reported yesterday that some of the more critical professors teaching English at local universities, and foreigners living here, pointed out that the catch phrase only exposed the generally below-par English proficiency in Taiwan.

One professor teaching translation said it was a pity to waste a rare opportunity for Taiwan's international publicity campaign by using an ineligible English expression.

However, some others said there is no need to be too finicky about the strict precision of certain expressions considering the limited space for words.

A top executive of the company that owns Taipei 101 said this year's fireworks display was sponsored by the Ting Hsin Group, which is also the company's largest shareholder.

Ting Hsin had asked the Taiwan branch of multinational ad agency, the Ogilvy & Mather, to select words that would best reflect Taiwanese people's “spirit of striving upward” in the year ahead after gradually pulling themselves from the doldrums of the international financial meltdown.

The executive conceded that with a tight space for only six or seven English letters each line, it is a formidable challenge to come up with something to satisfy everyone.

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Comments

January 4, 2010 tetsuo@

What a bunch of backpedaling, half-cocked nonsense. This is not a matter of "the strict precision of certain expressions," this is a matter of it MAKING ANY SENSE AT ALL IN ENGLISH. If you can't make it make sense in English, USE CHINESE. Taiwan speaks Chinese, why be ashamed to use it at one of the biggest celebrations in the country?

"Taiwan UP"? Taiwan up my arse more like.

January 4, 2010 elumpen@

Could have been worse. At least it wasn't rendered as 'up Taiwan'.

January 4, 2010 gobigblue101@

I'm 100% for the slogan and I really don't see anything at all wrong with it. Ever heard the slogan "Man up"? Seems to me that Taiwan is attempting to Man Up to the New Year. Although, I would agree that using Chinese would have been preferred.

January 5, 2010 the_alliance47@

When I saw the words "Taiwan UP", I did not understand what it meant either. I thought it implied that Taiwan was currently "down" and that it needed to stand back up.

Then the question becomes, what caused Taiwan to fall down? How will it get back up? This should be the questions people ask instead of "why was there bad English on 101?".

January 5, 2010 talon@

This is ridiculous.. I’m from the US and I see tons of nonsensical slogans every day. My understanding is English has the most contradictory grammatical rules on the planet.

Taiwan UP is fine.

January 5, 2010 darkwaterdoug+cp@

I couldn't figure out what it means. I asked my Taiwanese friends and my students and none of them understood it either. They were going to ask me.

January 5, 2010 chereon@

Agreed, as a native English speaker, my first thought was - boy that's awkward.

January 5, 2010 fcosme@

tetsuo@ wrote:
What a bunch of backpedaling, half-cocked nonsense. This is not a matter of "the strict precision of certain expressions," this is a matter of it MAKING ANY SENSE AT ALL IN ENGLISH. If you can't make it make sense in English, USE CHINESE. Taiwan speaks Chinese, why be ashamed to use it at one of the biggest celebrations in the country?

"Taiwan UP"? Taiwan up my arse more like.

It's disappointing that an ad firm as Ogilvy & Mather could only come up with such a catch phrase, especially when it works in international markets. Sub par effort.

February 2, 2010 rr6@

talon@ wrote:
This is ridiculous.. I’m from the US and I see tons of nonsensical slogans every day. My understanding is English has the most contradictory grammatical rules on the planet.

Taiwan UP is fine.

Yes, I totally agree with you, if you talk about language, there is no rule! Even in Chinese, rules only happen in the test.

Taiwan remains 'UP,' despite slogan critics buzz

The “2010 Taiwan UP” slogan which appeared on the Taipei 101 Tower to usher in the New Year has drawn divided comments. Although some pointed out the imperfection of the English ...

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