Yesterday, I saw a news report from Central News Agency (CNA) in Japanese on Twitter, and I found that CNA used the term “Taiwan Shinkansen” to replace the term “Taiwan High Speed Rail” that is familiar to our citizens. It left me confused at the moment I saw it.
Is this terminology a deliberate joke by the reporter, or a serious insult to national dignity?
Does CNA, in its domestic news, refer to Japan”s Shinkansen as “Japan High Speed Rail”?
It doesn”t seem so, in fact!
This image below shows my search for the number of times CNA has mentioned “Japan High Speed Rail” in the past two years; essentially, zero times.
Caption: CNA search for Taiwan Shinkansen
Japan is a country with a strong acceptance of foreign loanwords, often widely incorporating (plagiarizing) terms from other countries for its own use. When making international introductions, it also respects the terminology used by the local country, because this not only involves railway terminology but also concerns the corporate image of a listed transportation company in Taiwan.
For example, in a news report introducing mainland China”s bullet train and high-speed rail systems, it was written as “中国では動車と高速鉄道は「同じではない」のだという” (In China, bullet trains and high-speed rail are not the same), where both “動車” (bullet train) and “高速鉄道” (high-speed rail) use the correct terms.
So, why does CNA, which never does such a thing domestically, resort to being Japanophilic with its own national proprietary terms just for a change of language in its introductions?
Since CNA reporters understand and respect the professional terminology of Japan”s Shinkansen, why do they not respect their own country”s professional terminology?
It is clearly Taiwan High Speed Rail, yet they insist on calling it Taiwan Shinkansen. Has Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation already registered as “Taiwan Shinkansen Co., Ltd.” in Japan, or has it perhaps been placed under the operational management of the Kyushu Shinkansen?
I don”t think either is the case, right!?
CNA should not forget that it is still the official news agency of the Republic of China 🇹🇼 --- but ever since its chairman was replaced by the DPP government, it somehow feels less surprising…