Meanings
- A system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese developed and implemented in the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the 1990s.
Taiwan’s still official but probably-not-long-for-this-world romanization system for Mandarin is Tongyong Pinyin.
2008 August 7, “Taiwan Google searches: Hanyu Pinyin vs. Tongyong Pinyin”, in Pinyin.info, archived from the original on 12 Aug 20085 more examples
With regard to romanization, several different systems are concurrently being used in Taiwan, including Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音, Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh.
2003, Julie Ju et al., editors, A Brief Introduction to Taiwan, Government Information Office, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 16By now, you may be as puzzled as most American visitors to Taiwan are. And there is more confusion to come. For the purpose of this book, keep in mind that we are using Tongyong Pinyin throughout, with Hanyu Pinyin in parentheses when the spelling is different.
2006, David C. King, Taiwan (Enchantment of the World), Children's Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 89Rickshaw Magazine is a Tainan-based publication targeting expats, and free in many hotels and bars, while FYI South also has decent Tainan listings. The city has opted to use the Tongyong Pinyin system, with streets well marked in English and Chinese.
2007, Stephen Keeling, Brice Minnigh, The Rough Guide to Taiwan (Rough Guides), Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 316Although a few authors, long familiar with Wade-Giles or other older systems (or Tongyong Pinyin, a more recent system still used by some in Taiwan), have not switched to Pinyin in their writings, Chicago joins librarians in urging that Pinyin now be used in all writing about China or the Chinese language.
2017, “Languages Other than English”, in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, University of Chicago Press, →DOI, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 651This promotion of Tongyong pinyin reflects Taiwan-identifying political elites seeking to supplant Guoyu with Taiwan-accented Mandarin as the prestige language variety in Taiwan.
2017 January 22, Martin Boyle, “Pinyin and a Taiwanese identity”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2017, Editorials, page 6
Origin
From the Tongyong Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 通用拼音 (Tongyòng Pinyin).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Cantonese 通用拼音
- 通用拼音 (tung¹ jung⁶ ping³ jam¹)a romanization system of Mandarin Chinese
Chinese Mandarin 通用拼音
- 通用拼音 (tōngyòng pīnyīn)a romanization system of Mandarin Chinese
Polish tongyong pinyin
- tongyong pinyina romanization system of Mandarin Chinese
Cite this entry
Tongyong Pinyin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tongyong%20Pinyin
“Tongyong Pinyin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tongyong%20Pinyin. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Tongyong Pinyin,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Tongyong%20Pinyin.
Source: Tongyong Pinyin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.