Good Characters, Inc. Blog

As FedEx and UPS are expanding their services in China, it is worth noting that they could have profited more from the positive sounds of their names transliterated into Chinese. The name FedEx has a strong association in Mandarin Chinese with fei, which is flying–a desirable name hinting at speed. The U of UPS also has a good association: it sounds like yo in Mandarin Chinese, meaning excellent. In Taiwan, UPS has its name transliterated as You Bi Su (literally “excellent-compared-to-fast,” insinuating quality service as well as speed). In our opinion, Fed Ex’s “flying” nuance more effectively expresses excellence with a picture of quick delivering speed.

According to their official Chinese Web sites, however, both FedEx and UPS chose to translate the meaning of their names rather than transliterate the already familiar American names. The result is a mouthful. FedEx is Lian Bang Kuai Di, meaning Federal Express; UPS is Lian He Bao Guo Yun Sung Fu Wu, meaning United Parcel Service. Fortunately for them and no surprise to us, people use the shorter, positive-sounding English name more often.

Consider the positive association your brand name might have transliterated into Chinese and take advantage of it.

Few people can miss McDonald’s global “I’m lovin’ it” campaign. You might have noticed the Chinese on their paper cups reading Wo Jiu Xi Huan, I’m lovin’ it in Mandarin, using simplified Chinese characters.

As China has become a very important market for McDonald’s expansion, and with the approaching of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, we will see more and more Chinese characters in American and worldwide media.

Learn from McDonald’s. Be quick to win Chinese attention.

Nissan’s Bluebird (sedan) is translated as Lan-Niao in Chinese. In Mandarin, lan means blue and niao means bird – no problem. However, the reading of the characters for lan niao in the Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese) is lan jiao, which also sounds like the word for male genitals. It’s rather complicated, but although blue in Minnan is lan and bird is jiao, the term lan jiao is bad, to put it mildly.

A better translation might be Qing Niao. Qing is another character for blue. Qing-niao distracts Minnan speakers from the negative association and is also more poetic. The word qing-niao appeared in a famous Untitled poem by Li Shang-yin (813-858), a Tang Dynasty poet. It also refers to a legendary messenger in Chinese mythology who served the goddess Queen Mother of the West. “The messenger” is in our opinion a better association for a car than the male genitals.

Translated coined names are not the only ones that need to be carefully examined for linguistic and culture appropriateness. Even “simple words” can create big problems when overlooked.