2002-09-01
I see nothing in the article that indicates
Taiwan is reverting to old measures. There is the phrase about the cost of
cabbage using pounds, but that could have been an example put forth by the BBC
correspondent as you suggested. And, we have to remember that Taiwan never
used pounds or any other FFU unit. They had their own Chinese units.
If there was a reversion, it would be to Chinese
units, not British.
I'm sure that in Taiwan it is permissible to ask
for amounts in old units, but they have to be weighed in metric units.
When I was in Taiwan in the mid-90s, all I saw, even in the street markets,
were scales in kilograms only. Not knowing the language, I could not
tell what the people were ordering in. Nor do I know if traditional Chinese units have been set to rational
values in SI. A reversion to old units would serve no purpose at this
time.
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, 2002-09-01 17:05
Subject: [USMA:22010] Pound of
cabbage
>
> Through the night, I heard this news item on the BBC World Service. I didn't
> believe what I was hearing so I looked up the item and found it at:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2229208.stm
>
> As you can see, either the Mayor of Tainan has decided that his city will
> revert to old measures such as pounds for trade, or the BBC reporter, Damian
> Grammaticas, has translated from kilogram to pound for his own purposes. I
> suspect the latter.
>
> Dear Joe,
>
> Do you know when Taiwan and Korea adopted metric measures. I seem to recall
> that these two nations now have the most severe laws about using old
> measures. This is one of the reasons that I don't think that the Mayor of
> Tainan would be training his citizens to use pounds.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pat Naughtin
>
>
