Good Characters, Inc. Blog

Soon after George W. Bush became president of the United States, a rumor fueled by the Internet spread through the Chinese community claiming that Mr. Bush decided his official Chinese name should be Bu-Xu. The names Bu-Shi, Bu-Shu, and Bu-Xi were used among the Chinese in various regions. The rumor turned out to be a hoax but it serves to illustrate the complexity and the difficulties attendant on transliterating English words into Chinese.

We call this the “One Greater China, Many Names” problem. Greater China is a term used to designate a group of regions that follow Chinese culture, speak the Chinese language, and have close economic ties. These regions are Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore. The term Many Names refers to the fact that a single global brand may be called by a number of different Chinese names. For example, Mercedes-Benz is known by four distinct Chinese names: Mei-Sai-De-Si Ben-Chi in Mainland China, Ping-Zhi in Hong Kong, and Peng-Chi and Bin-Shi in Taiwan. Oil of Olay is Yu-Lan-You in China and Ou-Lei in Taiwan.

It can be quite a challenge to create for a company or product one Chinese name that is appropriate and available, not only in Mainland China, but also in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and preferably in Macau and Singapore as well. Each of these regions has its own cultural and linguistic distinctions and they are under separate trademark authorities.

Top considerations in developing a Chinese name:

• Cultural and linguistic analyses: Have professionals in different regions review name appropriateness for the four main Chinese spoken languages: Mandarin (the official Chinese language), Taiwanese (also known as Minnan or Hokkien), Cantonese, and Shanghainese.
• Traditional and simplified Chinese scripts: The difference between the two written Chinese scripts is similar to “You are welcome” vs. “u r welcome.” Traditional characters are used in Taiwan and Hong Kong while simplified characters are more prevalent in China and Singapore. Some simplified characters look nothing like the traditional ones. It is easier to maintain visual consistency when the name looks similar in the two scripts.
• Sound and good meaning: Unlike letters in an alphabet, a Chinese character represents a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language) that is hardly ever an “empty vessel.” A transliterated name can closely resemble the original in sound but not have a good meaning, or it can have a good meaning but less resemblance in sound. Transliteration should be evaluated on the nuances created by the characters.

Because the economies of the regions of Greater China have become more integrated, it is important to maintain consistency in communicating a brand in the different Chinese languages. Consistency in name and message is the key to building a successful brand in Greater China.