Taiwan Up? Who owns English anyway?

Over the last week there's been a flurry of controversy over how Taipei chose to illuminate Taipei 101 for New Year's Eve. Taipei 101 is one of the tallest buildings in the world and every New Year's Eve fireworks are set off from it. This year it also had the proudly displayed slogan of "2010 Taiwan Up." I've barely run into a foreigner in the last week who hasn't been condescendingly amused by the poor grammar and I've hit upon several blogs that are severely critical of the incident. To all of them I have but one message: That fireworks show was not made for you.

Most Tawainese people have a limited command of English. Many can understand a large amount of basic words, "up" being among them. "Up" was written there to give the idea that Taiwan was going to get better and better. The best translation might have been "Taiwan prospers" but that wouldn't have fit on Taipei 101 and most Taiwanese people wouldn't be sure what it meant. But, seeing the phrase "Taiwan Up" makes good enough sense to most Taiwanese people. It was basically using English words in a Chinese way where the central idea of one word automatically adapts to the context of a sentence or to another word around it.

I agree with many foreigners that official English translations in Taiwan are often terrible. When it comes to maps, emergency information, subway instructions, etc etc etc I think the responsible parties should make sure that their translation is accurate but that is not what Taipei 101 was illuminated for- it was there to make its audience happy... an audience of largely Taiwanese people.

English also imparts a notion of cosmopolitanism. There's a magazine in Taichung which has the slogan "Your gateway to the English lifestyle," meaning the language of commerce and travel and mass culture. Even using English instead of Chinese is rife with symbolism; an English speaking Taiwan feels like an important part of the wider world and not just an isolated island in the shadow of China.

With English being the decidedly dominant language in the world diverse groups of people, many of whom have studied it for decades, will use it in ways that are immediately culturally relevant. We shouldn't be offended by other cultures adapting our language to themselves- it's mostly flattering. But once they have English they are free to use it however they want. Language is like open source coding for software- it's free for people enrich their lives as they see fit.

So, in summation, I agree with the city of Taipei. This year I want nothing more than "Taiwan Up."