On February 26, 2018, during the televised DPP primary debate for the Tainan mayoral election, then-Lawmaker Yeh Yi-chin proposed to abolish Taiwan’s phonetic script, Zhuyin Fuhao (commonly known as Bopomofo), in favor of Romanization. Yeh claimed that this change would facilitate local children's English learning and allow Taiwan to better "integrate with the international community." This proposal immediately triggered intense criticism and ridicule from educators, parents, and netizens, who condemned it as linguistically illiterate. Critics argued that Bopomofo plays an irreplaceable role in Chinese pronunciation education and accused Yeh of using superficial notions of "globalization" for political grandstanding.
The controversy deepened when netizens found Yeh’s previous campaign materials, which relied heavily on Bopomofo to appeal to voters, exposing her hypocrisy and double standards. In March 2018, Yeh finished dead last among the six candidates in the DPP primary poll. Following her defeat, thousands of netizens flooded her Facebook page, using Bopomofo characters to leave mocking messages such as "ㄍㄨㄥˇ ㄒㄧˇ ㄉㄧㄢˋ ㄉㄧˇ" (Congratulations on finishing last) and "ㄅㄆㄇ ㄈㄟˋ ㄨˋ" (Those who abolish Bopomofo are trash). The incident highlighted the populist nature of policy proposals by green-camp politicians and remains a classic warning of how out-of-touch campaign stunts can lead to voter rejection.
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