Taiwan Bopomofo (注音符號): The 37 Symbols Every Taiwanese Kid Learns That Mainland China Doesn’t Use Anymore

Open any children’s book in Taipei and you’ll see something that doesn’t exist anywhere else on Earth: tiny rows of curly symbols printed alongside the Chinese characters. They look a bit like Japanese hiragana, a bit like shorthand, and absolutely nothing like the alphabet you grew up with. That’s Bopomofo (注音符號) — Taiwan’s homegrown phonetic system, and one of the most quietly stubborn pieces of cultural identity on the island.

Wait, what is it called?

“Bopomofo” is just the nickname — taken from the first four symbols in the system: ㄅ (bo), ㄆ (po), ㄇ (mo), ㄈ (fo). The official name is Zhuyin Fuhao (注音符號), literally “phonetic notation marks.” There are 37 of them in total: 21 initial consonants, 16 finals (vowels and glides), plus four tone marks layered on top.

It’s not an alphabet. It’s not pinyin. It’s the only phonetic writing system still used as the primary way to teach Chinese reading anywhere in the world.

The fact that surprises everyone

Bopomofo was invented in 1913 by China’s Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation — adopted officially in 1918 across all of China. For nearly 50 years, every Chinese child in mainland China and Taiwan learned to read using these little symbols.

Then in 1958, mainland China rolled out Hanyu Pinyin — the Romanized system you’ll see on every Chinese textbook abroad today — and phased Bopomofo out of schools entirely. By the 1980s, almost no one on the mainland still used it.

Taiwan? Taiwan never switched. Every kindergartner on the island still learns ㄅㄆㄇㄈ before they ever touch a Chinese character. It’s the first thing they read, the first thing they type, and a quiet daily reminder that Taiwan kept the older system going while the rest of the Chinese-speaking world moved on.

Where you’ll spot it in the wild

Once you know what to look for, Bopomofo is everywhere in Taiwan:

• Children’s books — Every character is printed with its Zhuyin spelling running vertically to the right. Adult readers tune it out; kids use it as training wheels.
• Keyboards — Look at a Taiwanese laptop and you’ll see two sets of letters on each key: English on the top-left, Bopomofo crammed in the bottom-right. Almost all Taiwanese type Chinese this way, not with pinyin.
• Karaoke screens — Many KTV systems print Zhuyin under the lyrics so older folks who never learned pinyin can still sing.
• Baby names — Pregnant parents flip through name dictionaries that index characters by Zhuyin pronunciation.
• Internet slang — Taiwanese netizens chop Zhuyin into shorthand the same way English speakers use “lol” or “brb.” ㄅㄉ = 白癡 (dumb), ㄓㄉ = 真的 (really). It’s called 注音文 (Zhuyin wén), and it’s a whole micro-dialect of online Taiwanese teens.

Why this is more than a writing system

Bopomofo is one of those small, easy-to-miss markers of how Taiwan quietly does things its own way. Mainland China dropped it. Singapore and Malaysia teach Mandarin in pinyin. Hong Kong uses Cantonese romanization. Only Taiwan held on — and it’s now woven so deeply into how kids learn, how typists type, and how grandparents read that it’s effectively a cultural fingerprint.

Next time you see a Taiwanese keyboard with mysterious curly symbols nestled next to the QWERTY keys, you’re looking at a 1913 invention that outlasted everything that tried to replace it.

Try it yourself

Want to type your name in Bopomofo? “Taiwan” in Zhuyin is ㄊㄞ ㄨㄢ. “Bubble tea” — ㄓㄣ ㄓㄨ ㄋㄞˇ ㄔㄚˊ (zhēn zhū nǎi chá). Once you’ve seen the symbols, you start spotting them on every menu, MRT sign, and snack package.

If you want to keep digging, our guide to every language spoken in Taiwan covers how Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, and the indigenous languages all coexist on the island — and how Bopomofo helps stitch them together for kids growing up in a multilingual home. For more island quirks like this, our Taiwan culture guide is the place to start.

And if you love the kawaii energy of ㄅㄆㄇㄈ as much as we do, browse the Taiwan Merch shop for Taiwan-themed tees, totes, and stickers that celebrate the island’s quirks — pop culture, language, food, and all.