1.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
2.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
3.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
4.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
5.
Bopomofo
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Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect. The first two are traditional terms, whereas Bopomofo is the term, also used by the ISO. Consisting of 37 characters and four marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system, the Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, and at the International Organization for Standardization in 1982. The informal name Bopomofo is derived from the first four syllables in the ordering of available syllables in Mandarin Chinese. The four Bopomofo characters that correspond to these syllables are placed first in a list of these characters. The same sequence is used by other speakers of Chinese to refer to other phonetic systems. The original formal name of the system was Guóyīn Zìmǔ and Zhùyīn Zìmǔ and it was later renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào, meaning phonetic symbols. In official documents, Zhuyin is occasionally called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I, in English translations, the system is often also called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols. A romanized phonetic system was released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu, which was based on Zhang Binglins shorthand. A draft was released on July 11,1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education and it was later renamed first Guoyin Zimu and then, in April 1930, Zhuyin Fuhao. The last renaming addressed fears that the system might independently replace Chinese characters. Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones, in elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Zhuyin as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News. In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some communities use Zhuyin as a learning tool. The Zhuyin characters were created by Zhang Binglin, and taken mainly from regularised forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. It is to be noted that the first consonants are articulated from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, Zhuyin is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters
6.
Hakka Chinese
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Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Southern Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintellegible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is classified as a variety of Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features, Taiwan, where Hakka is the native language of a significant minority of the islands residents, is a center for the study and preservation of the language. Pronunciation differences exist between the Taiwanese Hakka dialects and Mainland Chinas Hakka dialects, even in Taiwan, two local varieties of Hakka exist. The Meixian dialect of northeast Guangdong in China has been taken as the dialect by the Peoples Republic of China. The Guangdong Provincial Education Department created a romanization of Moiyen in 1960. The name of the Hakka people who are the predominant original native speakers of the variety literally means guest families or guest people, Hak 客 means guest, and ka 家 means family. Among themselves, Hakka people variously called their language Hak-ka-fa 客家話, Hak-fa, 客話, Tu-gong-dung-fa 土廣東話, literally Native Guangdong language, and Ngai-fa 我話, My/our language. The forebears of the Hakka came from present-day Central Plains provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, the presence of many archaic features occur in modern Hakka, including final consonants -p -t -k, as are found in other modern southern Chinese varieties, but which have been lost in Mandarin. Due to the migration of its speakers, Hakka may have influenced by other language areas through which the Hakka-speaking forebears migrated. For instance, common vocabulary is found in Hakka, Min, in recent times, many She people have become Hakka speakers. A regular pattern of change can generally be detected in Hakka, as in most Chinese varieties. Some examples, Characters such as 武 or 屋, are pronounced roughly mwio and uk in Early Middle Chinese, have an initial v phoneme in Hakka, being vu and vuk in Hakka respectively. Like in Mandarin, labiodentalisation process also changed mj- to a sound in Hakka before grave vowels. Middle Chinese initial phonemes /ɲ/ of the characters 人 and 日, among others, for comparison, in Mandarin, /ɲ/ became r-, while in Cantonese, it merged with initial /j/. The initial consonant phoneme exhibited by the character 話 is pronounced f or v in Hakka, the initial consonant of 學 hɔk usually corresponds with an h approximant in Hakka and a voiceless alveo-palatal fricative in Mandarin. Hakka has as many regional dialects as there are counties with Hakka speakers as the majority, some of these Hakka dialects are not mutually intelligible with each other. Surrounding Meixian are the counties of Pingyuan, Dabu, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua, each is said to have its own special phonological points of interest
7.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
8.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
9.
Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
10.
Hokkien
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
11.
Taiwanese Romanization System
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The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan
12.
Eastern Min
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Eastern Min, or Min Dong, is a branch of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. The prestige form and most-cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min varieties are mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province in Peoples Republic of China, in and near the cities of Fuzhou and Ningde. They are also encountered as the mother tongue on the Matsu Islands. Additionally, the inhabitants of Taishun and Cangnan to the north of Fujian in Zhejiang also speak Eastern Min varieties, Eastern Min generally coexists with the official standard Chinese in all these areas. Cities with high concentrations of immigrants include New York City, especially Little Fuzhou, Manhattan, Sunset Park, Brooklyn. They are also found in various Chinatown communities in Europe, including London, Paris, Chinese communities within Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan as well as Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia have significant populations of Eastern Min speakers. Fuzhou communities can also be found in Sitiawan, Perak and Yong Peng, the Eastern Min group is conventionally divided into three branches, Houguan dialect subgroup, including the Fuzhou dialect, Fuqing dialect, Lianjiang dialect and the dialect of the Matsu Islands. Funing dialect subgroup, including the Ningde dialect and the Fuan dialect, manjiang dialect, spoken in parts of Taishun and Cangnan, Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Besides these three branches, some islands in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong were classified as Eastern Min. Zhongshan Min is a group of Min varieties spoken in the Zhongshan county of Guangdong, according to Nicholas Bodman, only the Longdu dialect and Nanlang dialect belong to the Eastern Min group, while the Sanxiang dialect belongs to Southern Min. A preliminary report on the dialects of Mintung, the Gutian dialect of Min Dong District
13.
Fuzhou dialect
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The Fuzhou dialect, also Fuzhounese, Foochow or Hok-chiu, is the prestige variety of the Eastern Min branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in eastern Fujian province. Like many other varieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes which carry lexical tones, while the Eastern Min branch that it belongs to is closer to Southern Min than to other Sinitic branches such as Mandarin or Hakka, they are still not mutually intelligible. Centered in Fuzhou City, the Fuzhou dialect covers eleven cities and counties, Fuzhou City Proper, Pingnan, Gutian, Luoyuan, Minqing, Lianjiang, Minhou, Changle, Yongtai, Fuqing and Pingtan. It is also the local language in many northern and middle Fujian cities and counties such as Nanping, Shaowu, Shunchang, Sanming. Fuzhou dialect is widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The city of Sibu in Malaysia is called New Fuzhou due to the influx of immigrants there in the late 19th century and early 1900s. Similarly, quite a significant number of Fuzhounese have emigrated to Singapore, Taiwan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, in older works, the variety is called Foochow dialect, based on the Chinese postal romanization of Fuzhou. In Chinese, it is sometimes called 福州語, native speakers also refer to it as Bàng-uâ, meaning the everyday language. After the Qin Dynasty conquered the Minyue kingdom of southeast China in 110 BC and it once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Min Chinese phonology. In 1842, Fuzhou was open to Westerners as a treaty port after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, but due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convert Fuzhou people, those missionaries found it necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below,1856, M. C, White, The Chinese language spoken at Fuh Chau 1870, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin, An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect 1871, baldwin, Manual of the Foochow dialect 1891, T. B. Adam, An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect 1893, Charles Hartwell, Three Character Classic of Gospel in the Foochow Colloquial 1898, baldwin, An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition 1905, T. B. Adam, An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition]1906, The Foochow translation of the complete Bible 1923, T. B. Adam & L. P. Peet, An English-Chinese dictionary of the Foochow dialect, 2nd edition 1929, one of their most famous works was the Japanese-Chinese Translation, Fuzhou Dialect published in 1940 in Taipei, in which katakana was used to represent Fuzhou pronunciation. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largely monolingual, but for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the vernacular in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. Recent reports indicate that less than 50% of young people in Fuzhou are able to speak Fuzhou dialect, in Mainland China, the Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and promotion work is being systematically carried out to preserve its use
14.
Foochow Romanized
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Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê, is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized in the 1890s, Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of Church circles, and was taught in some Mission Schools in Fuzhou. But unlike its counterpart Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien, even in its prime days Foochow Romanized was by no means universally understood by Christians. After Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of First Opium War, faced with widespread illiteracy, they developed Latin alphabets for Fuzhou dialect. The first attempt in romanizing Fuzhou dialect was made by the American Methodist M. C, white, who borrowed a system of orthography known as the System of Sir William Jones. In this system,14 initials were designed according to their voicing. ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨k⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ stand for, and, besides the default five vowels of Latin alphabet, four diacritic-marked letters ⟨è⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ò⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ were also introduced, representing, and, respectively. This system is described at length in Whites linguistic work The Chinese Language Spoken at Fuh Chau, the most significant change was made for the plosive consonants, where the spiritus lenis ⟨᾿⟩ of the aspirated initials was removed and the letters ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩ and ⟨g⟩ substituted for and. In the aspect of vowels, ⟨è⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ò⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ were replaced by ⟨a̤⟩, ⟨e̤⟩, ⟨o̤⟩, since the diacritical marks were all shifted to underneath the vowels, this left room above the vowels which was occupied by the newly introduced tonal marks. Thus Foochow Romanized avoids the potentially awkward diacritic stacking seen for instance in the Vietnamese script, the sample characters are taken from the Qi Lin Bayin, a renowned phonology book about the Fuzhou dialect written in the Qing Dynasty. The pronunciations are recorded in standard IPA symbols, note that Foochow Romanized uses the breve, not the caron, to indicate Yīnpíng and Yángrù tones of Fuzhou dialect. Everything You Want To Know About Foochow Romanized Gô Iók Cŭ, The Old Testament, sĭng Iók Cŭ, The New Testament, in Foochow Romanized. An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, by T. B, adam,1905 Learning material of Foochow Romanized at the Wayback Machine
15.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
16.
Politics of the Republic of China
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in primarily with the parliament and limited by government, the Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The party system is dominated by the Kuomintang, which favours closer links to mainland China, the ROC currently has jurisdiction over Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and several smaller islands. Taiwans six major cities, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei, the rest of the territories are divided into 3 cities and 13 counties. The government in Taipei officially asserts to be the legitimate government of all of China, which it defined as including Taiwan, mainland China. In keeping with that claim, when the KMT fled to Taipei in 1949, they re-established the full array of political bodies. However, the National Assembly has not officially changed the national borders and it should be noted that neither the National Assembly nor the Supreme Court has actually defined what the term existing national boundaries, as stated in the constitution, actually means. The latter refused to do so claiming that it is a political issue. The original founding of the Republic centered on the Three Principles of the People, nationalism, democracy, however, this five races under one union principle and the corresponding flag were abandoned in 1927. In reality these three principles were left unrealized, Republican China was marked by warlordism, foreign invasion, and civil war. As the central government was weak, little could be done in terms of land reform or redistribution of wealth either. Politics of this era consisted primarily of the political and military struggle between the KMT and the Communist Party of China in between bouts of active resistance against Japanese invasion. The first national government of the Chinese Republic was established on 1 January 1912, in Nanjing, Provincial delegates were sent to confirm the authority of the national government, and they later also formed the first parliament. The power of national government was both limited and short-lived, with generals controlling all of central and northern China. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty, Yuan maintained power locally by sending military generals to be provincial governors or by obtaining the allegiance of those already in power. Foreign powers came to recognize Yuans power as well, when Japan came to China with Twenty-One Demands, it was Yuan that submitted to them, after the death of Yuan in 1916, the parliament of 1913 was reconvened to give legitimacy to a new government. However, the power of the time passed to military leaders. Still, the government had its use—when World War I began, several Western powers and Japan wanted China to declare war on Germany
17.
Government of the Republic of China
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This government moved to Beijing in the same year with Yuan Shikai as President, and continued under his successors as the internationally recognized government of China until 1928. In the Republican period, there were a series of governments, the Nationalist government, led by the Kuomintang, was originally formed as a rival military government under Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou in 1917. After Suns death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek led the Northern Expedition to unify the country and this government gained diplomatic recognition but did not control all the territory of the Qing dynasty. The Tutelage Constitution of 1931 was replaced by the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 and this new constitutional government moved to Taipei, Taiwan, in 1949 because of its military losses in the Chinese Civil War. It remains in Taiwan and exercises control over other islands including Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu, Itu Aba, Control of the government had historically been dominated by the Kuomintang, but the situation has changed as the Republic of China evolved into a multi-party democracy. The first Chinese national government was established on January 1,1912, in Nanjing, provincial delegates were sent to confirm the authority of the national government, and they later also formed the first parliament. The power of national government was limited and short-lived, with generals controlling both central and northern provinces of China. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty, Yuan maintained power locally by sending military generals to be provincial governors or by obtaining the allegiance of those already in power. When Yuan died, the parliament of 1913 was reconvened to give legitimacy to a new government, however, the real power of the time passed to military leaders, forming the warlord period. The impotent government still had its use, when World War I began, several Western powers and Japan wanted China to declare war on Germany, there were also several warlord governments and puppet states sharing the same name. See also, Wang Jingwei Government, Warlord era, known as the Nanjing Decade, the government ruled as a one-party state, as laid out by Sun Yat-sens Three Stages of Revolution and his policy of Dang Guo. The first stage was military unification, which was carried out with the Northern Expedition, the second was political tutelage which was a provisional government led by the KMT to educate people about their political and civil rights, and the third stage was constitutional government. The KMT considered themselves to be at the stage in 1928. With the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invading Imperial Japanese Army managed to capture Nanjing on December 13,1937, the Japanese then proceeded to sack the city, and massacred hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians. With the fall of Nanjing, the government was forced to move first to Wuhan and it retreated further inland to Chongqing, which was the wartime capital until 1945. Although Chongqing was located in the western province of Sichuan. With the end of the war, the National Government moved back to Nanjing, the Kuomintang then proceeded with the drafting of a new constitution for China, which were boycotted by the communists. The Constitution of the Republic of China was adopted by the National Assembly on December 25,1946, the constitution was seen as the third and final step in Sun Yat-sens Three Stages of Revolution - constitutional government
18.
Constitution of the Republic of China
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This made China the most populous paper democracy in the world. The latest revision to the constitution was in 2004, drafted by the Kuomintang as part of its third stage of national development, it established a centralized republic with five branches of government. Following the KMTs retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion gave the KMT government extra-constitutional powers, despite the Constitution, Taiwan was an authoritarian one-party state. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Constitutions origins in mainland China led to supporters of Taiwan independence to push for a new Taiwanese constitution and it was only agreed to reform the Constitution of the Republic of China, not to create a new one. It was lastly amended in 2005, with the consent of both the KMT and the DPP, the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China was drawn up in March 1912 and formed the basic government document of the Republic of China until 1928. It provided a Western-style parliamentary system headed by a weak president, Yuan regularly flouted the elected assembly and assumed dictatorial powers. Upon his death in 1916, China disintegrated into warlordism and the Beiyang Government operating under the Constitution remained in the hands of military leaders. The Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek established control over much of China by 1928, the Nationalist Government promulgated the Provisional Constitution of the Political Tutelage Period on May 5,1931. In Leninist fashion, it permitted a system of dual party-state committees to form the basis of government, the KMT intended this Constitution to remain in effect until the country had been pacified and the people sufficiently educated to participate in democratic government. The current Constitution traces its origins to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the impending outbreak of the Chinese Civil War pressured Chiang Kai-shek into enacting a democratic Constitution that would end KMT one-party rule. The Communists sought a coalition of one-third Nationalists, one-third Communists, however, while rejecting this idea, the KMT and the CCP jointly held a convention at which both parties presented views. Amidst heated debate, many of the demands from the Communist Party were met, together, these drafts are called the Constitutional Draft of the Political Convention. The Constitution was seen as the third and final stage of Kuomintang reconstruction of China, the founding of the ROC was centered on the Three Principles of the People, which called for the establishment of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A government by the people sought to create a Western parliamentary democracy, originally, the National Assembly was the parliament of the republic, but it lost relevance in the 1990s and was abolished in 2005 with its powers transferred to the Legislative Yuan. Dr. Sun also added two branches of government from the legacy of Chinas imperial past to the three branches of Western governments, the five branches or Yuan are, the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan, and Control Yuan. As a result, the current government is in practice a semi-presidential system, a government for the people means that the government to a certain extent must provide services that are essential to the well-being of society. Examples of this principle in practice are the New Life Movement, the Three Principles of the People are Minzu, Minquan, and Minsheng, roughly defined as nationalism, democracy, and the livelihood of the people. Later that year, Chen Yi was dismissed and the Taiwan Provincial Government was established, from March 1947 until 1987, Taiwan was in a state of martial law
19.
Taxation in Taiwan
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Taxes provide an important source of revenue for various levels of the Government of the Republic of China. The tax revenue of Taiwan in 2015 amounted NT$2.1 trillion, the Ministry of Finance, which is part of the Executive Yuan, is the highest government entity responsible for implementing taxation policies and overseeing the leveling and collection of taxes. Taxation occurs at both the national and local government level, two broad categories of taxes exist at the national level, customs duties and inland taxes. Customs duties are administered by the Directorate-General of Customs, which has offices throughout the country. Five national tax administrations who are subordinate to the central government handle oversight of all inland taxes. Rather, taxes are governed by a series of laws and regulations related to a specific type of tax. As the chief legislative body, the Legislative Yuan plays an important role in formulating and revising tax related laws, the Income Tax Act is the primary law that governs individual income and profit-seeking enterprise income taxes. Both residents and non-residents are assessed individual income tax on Taiwan-sourced income unless an exception is provided in the Income Tax Act, individuals are considered residents of Taiwan for tax purposes if they are either domiciled there, or spend more than 183 days or longer in a taxable year. One major exception to this rule exists for non-residents who are present in Taiwan for less than 90 calendar days in a year. Taiwan has implemented a tax system for individual income taxes. For the 2011 tax year, the tax rates were as follows, By default, Income tax returns are due by May 31 of the following year, with no extension of time allowed. Taxpayers, including foreigners, are able to complete and file their tax return electronically through software provided by the taxing authority. All profit-seeking businesses in Taiwan are subject to the Profit-Seeking Enterprise Income Tax, sole proprietors and partners must file a return. However, their portion of the income is reported on their individual income tax return. In 2010, the top tax rate was reduced from 25% to 17%, therefore, the current profit-seeking enterprise tax rates are as follows, The amount of tax payable shall not exceed half of the amount of the taxable income in excess of NT$120,000. This tax is paid by sellers of Republic of China securities at a rate of 0. 3% of the proceeds from the sale of shares issued by companies. A rate of 0. 1% applies on the proceeds of corporate bonds, however. This tax is governed by the regulations set forth in the Securities Transaction Tax Act
20.
President of the Republic of China
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The President of the Republic of China is the head of state of the Republic of China and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The ROC was founded in 1912, to all of China, however, after the ROC lost control of mainland China. The existing office of President was created in 1948 under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, the first president under the constitution was Chiang Kai-shek. Tsai Ing-wen succeeded Ma Ying-jeou on 20 May 2016 as the first female president in the nations history, but Sun soon resigned from the provisional presidency in favor of Yuan Shikai, who assumed the title Great President in March 1912. Yuan induced the Last Emperor to abdicate, ending thousands of years of rule in China. The 1913 Constitution called for a presidential system with notable checks on the president by the National Assembly. However, Yuan soon began to assert dictatorial power, ignoring the National Assembly, in 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor of China in a largely unpopular move and was forced to retract his declaration shortly before his death in 1916. With Yuan Shikais death the Warlord Era began, Vice President Li Yuanhong succeeded Yuan as president and attempted to reassert the constitutional government, but was soon forced to resign by military strongmen. The presidency, though leading an internationally recognized government, was thereafter to be headed by a series of prominent warlords and this presidency ended in 1928 when the Northern Expedition, led by the Kuomintang, succeeded in conquering North China. Sun Yat-sen established a government in Guangzhou in 1917 and took the title of Generalissimo of the Military Government. He was ousted in 1918 but returned again to Guangzhou in 1921, Sun, again expelled from Guangzhou in 1922, returned in 1923 to take the title of Generalissimo of the Military Government. The government was organized into five branches, with the Executive Yuan, headed by the premier, the new Constitution of the Republic of China, promulgated on 25 December 1947, established a five-branch government with the office of president as head of state. On 20 May 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was formally elected by the National Assembly to be the first term president, the members of the National Assembly continued in their office until 1991, and continued to elect Chiang Kai-shek as president until his death in 1975. Presidents were elected by the National Assembly until the first direct election in 1996. The president is selected by a plurality voting direct election of the areas administered by the Republic of China for a term of four years. Before 1991, the president was selected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China for a term of six years, the Constitution names the president as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The president is responsible for conducting foreign relations, such as concluding treaties, declaring war, the president must promulgate all laws and has no right to veto. Other powers of the president include granting amnesty, pardon or clemency, declaring martial law, the President can appoint Senior Advisors, National Policy Advisors and Strategy Advisors, but they do not form a council
21.
Tsai Ing-wen
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Tsai Ing-wen is a Taiwanese politician currently serving as the President of the Republic of China, commonly referred to as Taiwan. Tsai is the president from the Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai is also the first woman elected to the office and she is the incumbent chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party, and was the partys presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Tsai previously served as party chair from 2008 to 2012, Tsai graduated in law and was subsequently a university professor. After DPP President Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, Tsai served as Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council throughout Chens first term as a non-partisan and she joined DPP in 2004 and served briefly as a DPP-nominated at-large member of the Legislative Yuan. From there, she was appointed Vice Premier under Premier Su Tseng-chang until the mass resignation in 2007. She was elected and assumed DPP chairpersonship in 2008, following her partys defeat in the 2008 presidential election and she resigned as chairperson after losing her 2012 presidential election bid. Tsai ran for New Taipei City mayorship in the November 2010 municipal elections but was defeated by former vice premier. Tsai was born in Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan on August 31,1956 and her given name, Ing-wen, could be translated as heroic literature or English language. During her middle school period, she studied in Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School and she studied law at the behest of her father. Upon her return to Taiwan, she taught law at the School of Law of Soochow University and National Chengchi University and she was also appointed to the Fair Trade Commission and the Copyright Commission. She served as consultant for the Mainland Affairs Council and the National Security Council and she also led the drafting team on the Statute Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau. In 2000, Tsai was given the appointment of chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council. Confirming the widely held belief that she maintained Pan-Green sympathies, Tsai joined the Democratic Progressive Party in 2004 and she was subsequently nominated by the DPP to be a candidate in the 2004 legislative election and was elected as a legislator-at-large. On January 26,2006, Tsai was appointed to the post of president of the Executive Yuan. She concurrently served as chairwoman of the Consumer Protection Commission, on May 17,2007, Tsai, along with the rest of the cabinet of out-going Premier Su Tseng-chang, resigned to make way for incoming Premier Chang Chun-hsiung and his cabinet. Premier Chang named Chiou I-jen, the incumbent secretary-general of the Presidential Office to replace Tsai as vice premier and she then served as the chair of TaiMedBiologics, a biotechnology company based in Taiwan. The Kuomintang accused Tsai of contracting government work out to TaiMedBiologics during her term as premier, while planning to leave the government
22.
Vice President of the Republic of China
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The Vice President of the Republic of China is the second-highest executive official of the Republic of China. The existing office was created in 1948 under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China, after the Kuomintang lost mainland China to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the government, along with its presidency, retreated to Taiwan. The Communist Party has since established the Peoples Republic of China on the mainland, chen Chien-jen is the current Vice President. In case the office of both the President and the Vice President should become vacant, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President. In case the President should be unable to attend to office due to any cause, in case both the President and the Vice President should be unable to attend to office, the President of the Executive Yuan shall act for the President. After the Vice President succeeds as president, the office of Vice President remains vacant for the remainder of the term, until 1996, the vice president was elected by the National Assembly of the Republic of China. Two vice presidents have succeeded to the president upon the death of the president, yen Chia-kan became president in 1975 upon the death of President Chiang Kai-shek and Lee Teng-hui became president in 1988 upon the death of President Chiang Ching-kuo. Yen stepped down as president three years later in favor of Chiang Ching-kuo Another, Li Tsung-jen, formally acted as president from January 21,1949 to March 1,1950. President Chiang Kai-shek had resigned amid heavy losses during the Chinese Civil War, Chiang remained as Director-General of the Kuomintang and continued to give orders to the army as if he were in control. Chiang retreated to Chengdu and finally moved the government to Taiwan in December 1949, Li would nominally remain as vice president in absentia until 1954 until being impeached by the Control Yuan for failure to carry out duties due to illegal conduct. Due to the lack of formal power of the position. Standard of the Vice President of the Republic of China was instituted in Act of Ensign of the Republic of China Navy, the insignia was abolished with invalidation of the act on 3 January 1986. President of the Republic of China
23.
Duke
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A duke or duchess can either be a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch. During the Middle Ages the title signified first among the Germanic monarchies, Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king. During the 19th century many of the smaller German and Italian states were ruled by Dukes or Grand Dukes, but at present, with the exception of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, there are no dukes ruling as monarchs. Duke remains the highest hereditary title in Portugal, Spain, in Sweden, members of the Royal Family are given a personal dukedom at birth. The Pope, as a sovereign, has also, though rarely. In some realms the relative status of duke and prince, as borne by the nobility rather than by members of reigning dynasties, varied—e. g. in Italy. A woman who holds in her own right the title to such duchy or dukedom, Queen Elizabeth II, however, is known by tradition as Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands and Duke of Lancaster in Lancashire. A duchy is the territory or geopolitical entity ruled by a duke, a dukedom is the title or status of a duke, a rank in the present or past nobility, and is not necessarily attached to a duchy. A few examples exist today, The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a independent state and its head. In Scotland the male heir apparent to the British crown is always the Duke of Rothesay as well, the Channel Islands are two of the three remaining Crown Dependencies, the last vestiges of the lands of the Duchy of Normandy. The Islanders in their loyal toast will say La Reine, notre Duc, however, the Channel Islands, part of the lost Duchy, remained a self-governing possession of the English Crown. While the islands today retain autonomy in government, they owe allegiance to The Queen in her role as Duke of Normandy. During the Middle Ages, after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed, in 1332, Robert of Taranto succeeded his father, Philip. John took the style of Duke of Durazzo, in 1368, Durazzo fell to Karl Thopia, who was recognized by Venice as Prince of Albania. The Visigoths retained the Roman divisions of their kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and they were the most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected the king, usually from their own midst. They were the commanders and in this capacity often acted independently from the king. The army was structured decimally with the highest unit, the thiufa, the cities were commanded by counts, who were in turn answerable to the dukes, who called up the thiufae when necessary. When the Lombards entered Italy, the Latin chroniclers called their war leaders duces in the old fashion and these leaders eventually became the provincial rulers, each with a recognized seat of government
24.
Executive Yuan
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The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the central government of the Republic of China. It is headed by a president, and has a president, and twelve cabinet ministers, various chairpersons of commissions. The vice premier, ministers and chairpersons are appointed by the President of the Republic of China on the recommendation of the premier. Empowered by various laws, or even the Constitution, under the Executive Yuan Council several individual boards are formed to enforce different executive functions of the government, unless regulated otherwise, the chairs are appointed by and answer to the Premier. Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Overseas Community Affairs Council There are, or would be, the chiefs of these five institutions would not be affected by any change of the Premier. However, the organic laws are currently under revision or dispute. The secretary-general and the deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan also attend, as well as heads of other Executive Yuan organizations by invitation, the Executive Yuan Council must present the Legislators with an annual policy statement and an administrative report. The Legislative Committee may also summon members of the Executive Yuan Council for questioning, the Executive Yuan may, in turn, ask the Legislators to reconsider. Afterwards, if the Legislative Council upholds the resolution, the premier must abide by the resolution or resign. The Executive Yuan Council may also present an alternative budgetary bill if the one passed by the Legislative Committee is deemed difficult to execute, politics of the Republic of China Government of the Republic of China Official website
25.
Premier of the Republic of China
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The President of the Executive Yuan, commonly known as the Premier of the Republic of China, is the head of the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of the Republic of China. The premier is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, before the establishment of the Executive Yuan in 1928, the premier of the Republic of China was created as Premier of Cabinet in 1912. It was changed to the Secretary of State in 1914 and Premier of State Council in 1916 in the Beiyang Government, in 1928, the Kuomintang Government established the Executive Yuan and Tan Yankai served as the first President of the Executive Yuan. The premier presides over the Executive Yuan Council, which makes up the official cabinet, the vice premier, ministers, and chairpersons of the Executive Yuan Council are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the premier. Laws and decrees promulgated by the President must also be countersigned by the Premier, in the event of vacancies in both the presidency and the vice presidency, the premier serves as Acting President of the Republic for up to three months. One-third of the Legislators may initiate a vote against the premier. If approved with majority, the premier must resign from office within ten days. If the motion fails, another motion against the same premier cannot be initiated for one year. This power has never been used, power shifted to Premier Chiang Ching-kuo after President Chiang Kai-sheks death but shifted to the presidency again when Chiang Ching-kuo became president. The first three premiers under Lee, Yu Kuo-hwa, Lee Huan, and Hau Pei-tsun were mainlanders who had initially opposed Lees ascension to power, the appointment of Lee and Hau were compromises by President Lee to placate the conservative mainlander faction in the party. The subsequent appointment of premier Lien Chan was taken as a sign of Lees consolidation of power, the established constitutional convention is that the premier is responsible to the President and does not have any responsibility to the legislature other than to report on his activities. However, the Pan-Blue Coalition has contended that Chens actions are unconstitutional and has proposed to name its own choice of premier and this has renewed calls for a constitutional amendment to better define the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. List of premiers of the Republic of China President of the Republic of China Politics of the Republic of China Elections in the Republic of China
26.
William Lai
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William Lai, also known by his romanised name Lai Ching-te, is a Taiwanese politician and the incumbent mayor of Tainan. He took office on 25 December 2010, after the municipality was created from the merger of Tainan City and he served as a legislator in the Legislative Yuan from 1999 to 2010. Lai then studied at the Harvard School of Public Health for a Masters degree in public health and he became an expert on spinal cord damage and served as a national consultant for such injuries. After serving as part of the team for Chen Ding-nans unsuccessful electoral bid for Governor of Taiwan Province in 1994. The next opportunity for election to a body was the 1996 National Assembly. Lai then joined the New Tide faction and stood as a candidate in the 1998 Legislative Yuan election and he was successful in this election, and subsequently was reelected three times in 2001,2004, and 2008. In total he served 11 years as a legislator, and was selected as Taiwans Best Legislator four times in a row by Taipei-based NGO Citizen Congress Watch. With the 2010 reorganization of the municipalities in Taiwan, Tainan City and Tainan County were amalgamated into a single municipality and he took office on 25 December 2010. In 2013 an opinion poll ranked Lai as the most popular of the 22 city and county heads in Taiwan, Lai stood for reelection on 29 November 2014 against Huang Hsiu-shuang of the Kuomintang. Lai, on the hand, did not plan many campaign activities. He eventually won the election by 45 percentage points, the largest margin of victory in any of the races in the election
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Legislative Yuan
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The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Taiwan. It is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, although sometimes referred to as a “parliament”, the Legislative Yuan, under Suns political theory, is a branch of government. According to the Judicial Yuan’s interpretation number 76 of the Constitution, starting with the 2008 legislative elections, drastic changes were made to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 2005. The Legislative Yuan has 113 members, down from 225, legislators are elected to office through the following ways,73 are elected under the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies. 34 are elected under the supplementary member system on a ballot, based on nationwide votes. Any party which receives 5% or more of the Party vote can enter the parliament, for each party, at least half of the legislators elected under this system must be female. 6 seats are elected by voters through single non-transferable vote in two three-member constituencies. Members serve four-year terms, with the 9th Legislative term serving from 1 February 2016, the 5 largest parties with 3 seats or more can form caucuses. If there are fewer than 5 such parties, legislators in other parties or with no party affiliation can form caucuses with at least 4 members, the previous legislature had 225 members. 8 were allocated for overseas Chinese and were selected by the parties on the basis of the proportion of votes received nationwide,8 seats were reserved for the aboriginal populations. The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original Capital of Nanjing after the completion of the Northern Expedition and its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, according to KMT political theory, these first four sessions marked the period of political tutelage. The current Constitution of the Republic of China came into effect on December 25,1947, six preparatory meetings had been held on May 8,1948, during which Sun Fo and Chen Li-fu were elected President and Vice President of the body. In 1949, the fell to the Communist Party and the Legislative Yuan was transplanted to Taipei. On February 24,1950,380 members convened at the Sun Yat-sen Hall in Taipei, the first Legislative Yuan was to have been elected for a term of three years ending in 1951, however, the fall of the Mainland made it impossible to hold new elections. As a result, the Judicial Yuan decided that the members of the Legislative Yuan would continue to hold office until new elections could be held on the Mainland and this decision was made in the belief that the KMT would retake the Mainland in a short time. However, over the years, as the prospect of regaining the Mainland diminished, the body thus came to be called the Non-reelected Congress. Over the years, deceased members elected on the mainland were not replaced while additional seats were created for Taiwan starting with eleven seats in 1969
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Su Chia-chyuan
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Su Jia-chyuan is a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party. In 2010 he narrowly lost to Jason Hu in the election for Mayor of Taichung, Su was the vice-presidential candidate on the losing DPP ticket for the 2012 Presidential election. In 2016 legislative elections Su placed on the proportional representation ballot, Su was elected the eleventh President of the Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2016, when the members of the ninth Legislative Yuan met for the first time. Su became the first DPP speaker in the Legislative Yuan, Su was impeached by the Control Yuan on 3 September 2012, for illegally constructing a luxury farmhouse on agricultural land without engaging in any agriculture. Sus villa, built on land, was a controversial issue in the 2012 presidential elections
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Judicial Yuan
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Its Justices of the Constitutional Court, with 15 members, is charged with interpreting the Constitution. The President and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan are chosen from among the Honorable Justices by the President, eight of the grand justices, including the president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan, serve four-year terms, and the remaining Honorable Justices serve eight-year terms. Judicial Administrative Power of the Constitutional Court, there are currently 21 District Courts in the Taiwan Area, Each District Court may establish one or more summary divisions for the adjudication of cases suitable for summary judgment. The civil summary procedure is for cases involving an amount in controversys of not more than 300,000 New Taiwan dollar, currently there are a total of 45 divisions in Taiwan. Additionally, there is a Taiwan Kaohsiung Juvenile Court, established in accordance with the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases, Each division has a Division Chief Judge who supervises and assigns the business of the division. Each District Court has a Public Defenders Office and a Probation Officers Office, a single judge hears and decides cases in ordinary and summary proceedings as well as in small claims cases. A panel of three judges decides cases of importance in ordinary proceedings as well as appeals or interlocutory appeals from the summary. Criminal cases are decided by a panel of three judges, with the exception of summary proceedings which may be held by a single judge, the Juvenile Court hears and decides only cases involving juveniles. The High Courts and its Branch Courts are divided into civil, criminal, Each Division is composed of one Division Chief Judge and two Associate Judges. Additionally, the High Court and its Branch Courts have a Clerical Bureau, Cases before the High Courts or its Branch Courts are heard and decided by a panel of three judges. However, one of the judges may conduct preparatory proceedings, the Supreme Court is the court of last resort for civil and criminal cases. The current administrative litigation system adopts a Two Level Two Instance System litigation procedure, the administrative courts are classified into the High Administrative Court, which is the court of first instance, and the Supreme Administrative Court, which is the appellate court. The first instance of the High Administrative Court is a trial of facts, the Supreme Administrative Court is an appellate court. Article 80 of the Constitution states that Judges shall be above partisanship and shall, in accordance with law, hold trials independently, furthermore, Article 81 states that Judges shall hold office for life. No judge shall be removed from office unless he has been guilty of an offense or subjected to disciplinary measure. No judge shall, except in accordance with law, be suspended or transferred or have his salary reduced
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Supreme Court of the Republic of China
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The court in Taiwan was originally established in 1896, the second year after Taiwan became a part of Japan. The Taiwan High Court at this era, can be considered to be the de facto Supreme Court in Taiwan, because the case cannot be further appealed to the Supreme Court in Tokyo. After the second war, Japan gave up its sovereignty on Taiwan. The Supreme Court of the Republic of China was originally established as the Dali Yuan in 1909. After the Chinese reunification, the government of the Republic of China renamed the Dali Yuan to the Supreme Court in 1927, on March 1949, the Court was moved to Canton with the Judicial Yuan. Shortly after in August 1949, the Court was moved to Taipei, Taiwan, originally it was located at Judicial Building at Chung-king South Road, but it was later moved to its current location on Chang-sha Street since 1992. The Organic Law of the Court states that the system shall be composed of the Supreme Court, High Courts. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort for civil, one thing special about the Supreme Court of Taiwan is that it has many chambers. Now there are 9 criminal chambers and 8 civll chambers, each consists of 5 judges, all the appeal cases are decided by these chambers. Because these chambers might have different opinions, the function of the Supreme Court to unify the construction of the law in the country is substantially diminished, in order to unify the opinions, judges in civil chambers and criminal chambers hold meetings regularly and make resolutions on legal questions. Those resolutions are not officially binding, but have de facto binding effect, Cases are forwarded to either the Civil Section or the Criminal Section, which will record the case according to the year, class of case, as well as order of receipt. The case is reviewed by the Rules for Initial Review of Civil, after review, if the Court finds the case is defective, it will send the case back to the original court or order the party to amend the defects. If the Court finds the case to be in form, the case is then sent to the Case Assignment Subsection. Cases before the Supreme Court are heard and decided by a panel of five judges, with the Division Chief Judge acting as the presiding judge and the chairperson in deliberation. The Court decides only issues of law, and must base its decision on the facts ascertained in the judgment of the court of second instance, an appeal may be made to the Court only on the grounds that the original judgment is in violation of law or order. Documentary review proceedings are the norm, but if necessary, the presiding justice hear oral arguments in which issues of law are debated. The Supreme Court has a President, who is of the special appointment rank and who is in charge of the affairs of the entire court. Official Website of the Supreme Court of ROC Taiwan Law Resources The Judicial Yuan The Ministry of Justice Taipei District Prosecutors Office Legislative Yuan Executive Yuan
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District Courts (Taiwan)
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In the law of the Republic of China, the District Courts are the ordinary trial courts of general jurisdiction. The civil summary procedure is for cases involving an amount in controversy of not more than 500,000 New Taiwan dollars, the small claims cases are cases demanding payment for less than 100,000 NTD. Currently there are a total of 45 divisions in Taiwan, additionally, there is a Taiwan Kaohsiung Juvenile Court, established in accordance with the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases. Each division has a Division Chief Judge who supervises and assigns the business of the division, each District Court has a Public Defenders Office and a Probation Officers Office. A single judge hears and decides cases in ordinary and summary proceedings as well as in small claims cases, a panel of three judges decides cases of great importance in ordinary proceedings as well as appeals or interlocutory appeals from the summary and small claims proceedings. Criminal cases are decided by a panel of three judges, with the exception of summary proceedings which may be held by a single judge, the Juvenile Court hears and decides only cases involving juveniles. They said the people of all are innocent
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Examination Yuan
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The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants in the Taiwan. It is one of the five government branches of the Government of the Republic of China, founded by Chinese nationalists at the beginning of the 20th century, the Examination Yuan is based on the old Imperial examination system used in Imperial China. After the end of Northern Expedition in 1928, the Nationalist Government set up the office of the Examination Yuan in October 1928 in which the organic law was promulgated. In May 1929, the headquarter of Examination Yuan was inaugurated at Kuankung, in January 1930, the Examination Yuan and its subordinates Examination Committee and Ministry of Civil Service were formally established. In December 1937, the headquarter was relocated to Chungking during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in January 1950, the headquarter was relocated temporarily to Taipei Confucius Temple in Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War. In December 1951, the headquarter was moved to Muzha District, in March 1990, the Yuheng Building of the Yuan was inaugurated
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