Comments on: Obama left China with a new name

By: Abbey Bridgeford

Abbey Bridgeford — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:24:21 +0000

How often do you write your blogs? I enjoy them a lot

By: Garrett

Garrett — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:10:03 +0000

Really Great info, I really enjoyed it!

By: Cai nong

Cai nong — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:36:21 +0000

Saw this on douban
Come to discuss Obama/Aobama/Oubama with us

We Chinese know best aobama is the only correct way and nobody should challenge it. using oubama would confuse the chinese people – we have a tradition of making sure that foreigners names use special characters to distinguish them from Chinese.

This is only understandable by Chinese what we call
夏夷之别, 正名 or separating the ethnic groups by giving correct names.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:10:03 +0000

Well, yes Konrad, you may use whatever translations you want for your own purposes, but would you be equally happy if English speakers felt that Hu Jintao was not a good translation. And Zhongnanhai is definitely not a customary English way of translating the residence of China’s leader.

The question is Who Decides? (pun not intended)

I submit that China should adapt to the modern age and recognize that individual countries know best how to translate their own names.

By: Konrad

Konrad — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:38:19 +0000

I see no reason why (Mainland) Chinese version of Obama should be Oubama instead of Aobama. Neither sound really close to English at all. Besides, it is almost a tradition to translate O- into Ao- in China. Name translation is already quite messy in Chinese now and a breach of customs would not definitely help.

Bai Gong means that the White House is not some every normal ordinary white house but it is THE White House. We do not have articles or capitalisation systems in the Chinese language, so could you English speakers please be a little more considerate and allow us to make some variations? Besides, I do not see how living in a “palace” affects any notions on democracy. What’s more, “gong” does not necessarily translate into “palace”. Also, we have expressions like the House of Windsor in English. You can always relate “house” to a king or a prince or anything that’s not elected.

By: George

George — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:40:21 +0000

Why is this an even issue? When China wanted to change the translation of 北京 was that less masculine that Peking? These are only phonetic transcriptions just like Mumbai instead of Bombay, or Myanmar instead of Burma, etc. If Hu Jintao was transcribed as Hoo Gene Tow surely the Chinese government would not stand by idly.

If I understand your article correctly, we should still be saying Peking, Bombay, Burma, Mukden, Formosa, Ivory Coast in English..

There are heaps of mistranslations, some insulting, floating around in the Chinese media so it is good to see countries like the Republic of Korea and the US of A finally take a position on this matters, trivial as they may be.

By: George

George — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:43:38 +0000

“A loosing battle”

You have got to be kidding..

Should governments around the world surrender and let the Chinese press decide how to label their institutions and leaders?

The official translation for White House (白屋) means “white house” in Chinese. How is that ridiculous? Translating it as 白宫, which means “White Palace” is not only ridiculous, it misleads people about the nature of a Democratic system, where the head of state is a public servant, elected by the people, not a king in a palace.

Maybe the English press should change the translation of 中南海 into the “New Forbidden City”