Good Characters, Inc. Blog

The Greater China is a term used to describe a group of regions that share the same Chinese culture and language and have close economic ties, such as:

• China
• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• Macau
• Singapore

1. TREND MICRO
2. ASUS
3. ACER
4. MASTERKONG
5. BENQ
6. MAXXIS
7. ZYXEL 
8. GIANT
9. JOHNSON
10. D-LINK

Link:

• Taiwan’s Top 10 Global Brands 2006 (Chinese)

Among the Chinese there is much confusion about the most appropriate word for panda. Both Mao Xiong and Xiong Mao are commonly used. The character Mao means cat. Xiong (pronounced shee-ong) is a bear. Since the giant panda is a mammal classified in the bear family. Mao Xiong, literally a cat-looking bear (cat bear), is more appropriate than Xiong Mao, bear-looking cat (bear cat).

Links:

• Giant Panda From Wikipedia
  The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca “black-and-white cat-foot”) is a mammal classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central and southern China.
• The correct name for Xiong Mao is Mao Xiong (Chinese)
  熊猫的正确名字应是猫熊

The first place East meets West for many Chinese is in their personal names. At one time, only the very few Chinese who had influence among foreigners had English names. Today, however, college students are being required to choose English names for themselves. And they want those English names. As China moves farther and faster onto the world stage, young Chinese are readying themselves for the leap forward into the Westernized international marketplace.

Traditionally, choosing a name in China is a long and involved process. One needs to consider the sounds, the meanings, the associations with ancient literature and historic figures. In the 19th century, choosing an English name involved family, English tutors, foreign friends, and Chinese sages. Today’s young people, however, are often bypassing this tedious route. They are simply selecting English names that either sound like or have meanings similar to their Chinese names. So, Di chooses Eddy for the sound similarity, Chao translates his name literally as Super, and Wentao calls herself Wendy.

The English names are easier for Westerners to say and remember. Chinese youth use them because they want to establish rapport and good will among their Western friends and clients. They use them as a bridge between East and West. The bridge goes two ways. Westerners who want to experience the good will and win the respect of their Chinese associates would do well to consider having a Chinese name.

Link:

• English names catch on among Chinese
  Young bridging a gap with West

If your last name was Palms or Butz, would you name your child Harry? If your name was Bochs, would you call your daughter Candy? I know a woman named Ima who married a man with the last name Davenport. The images that a name conjures up in the hearer’s mind—the meanings attached to the words—make an impression for good or ill.

This is true in Chinese as well as in English. Take, for example, a taxi driver named Wu An-Quan. An-Quan means safety. Good name for a taxi driver, right? Actually, not when combined with the surname Wu, which sounds identical to another character that means “no.” When people hear Wu An-Quan, they think “not safe.” Or consider Duan Zhen, a school nurse. Zhen means highly valuable. But Duan Zhen together sounds exactly like a phrase with different characters: Duan, broken, and Zhen, needle. Who wants to go to a nurse who breaks the needle when giving an injection?

This is why translating or transliterating names in different languages must be done so carefully. A perfectly good name in one language can be translated to a name with very negative connotations in another. This article — It’s Important to Carefully Select a Name that Doesn’t Have Negative Connotations (in Chinese) — gives 21 actual examples of personal name blunders in the Chinese language. This article — Good Meanings Alone Are Not Enough
– illustrates that simply combining characters with positive meanings does not always result in a Chinese name with positive connotations.

Links:

• It’s important to carefully select a name that doesn’t have negative connotations (Chinese)
  起名千万要慎重
• Good Meanings Alone Are Not Enough

When someone belongs to two countries, who gets to name her? That is precisely the question Atlanta, Georgia zoo officials had September 6 when a panda cub was born there to two pandas on loan to the zoo from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China. Although the animals are on long-term loan, China actually owns all the pandas, even the ones born in America. Of the four other pandas born in U.S. zoos, one name was chosen by Chinese officials, another was given by the American zoo, and two were selected by online voters from a list of names suggested by the zoo and China.

The name selected by Chinese officials, Hua Mei, means “China USA.” The American-selected name, Mei Sheng,  means “Born in the USA.” The two names given by the public are Su Lin, “A little bit of something very cute,” and Tai Shan, “Peaceful mountain.”

The newest panda’s father, Yang Yang, was originally called Jiu Jiu. He was renamed by three organizations in the Netherlands that “adopted” him. His name means “little sea.”

The cub’s mother, Lun Lun, was called Hua Hua until she was adopted by Taiwanese rock star Su Huilun. He gave her the name Lun Lun, from his own name. Names that are repeated, such as Jiu Jiu, Yang Yang, Hua Hua, and Lun Lun, are expressions of affection in China, much like JFK’s name for his son, John John.

The zoo officials can delay the decision until December 15. The zoo will follow the Chinese custom of holding a naming ceremony 100 days after the cub’s birth.

Link:

• China’s link to panda cub frames timetable, options

When you think of China, do you think of the large country on the mainland or the little nation on an island? Do you think of the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China? Do you know the difference between the two? Many people do not, and that is the problem with having two countries with nearly the same name. 
 
Until 1971, the Republic of China (ROC) represented the Chinese people in the United Nations. But in that year, the U.N. Security Council voted to expel the ROC and replace it with the People’s Republic of China (PRC, on the mainland). The ROC lost its status as an independent nation and recognition among other countries as China. It was more often known by the name of the largest island it occupied: Taiwan.

Since then, Taiwan has tried 14 times to gain readmission to the U.N. But the U.N. already has a Republic of China, so Taiwan applied under the name “Republic of China on Taiwan.” That was rejected. Taiwan applied again as “Republic of China (Taiwan).” Again it was rejected.

Because the PRC is so much larger than the ROC—in area, economic influence, military might, and political muscle—other countries have given in to its claim to the name China. And since most nations recognize only one China, Taiwan cannot use the name “China” in international affairs. In the Olympics, athletes from Taiwan compete under the banner of “Chinese Taipei.” In the World Trade Organization, Taiwan is called the “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.”

Taiwan’s president, Chen Shuibian, believes it is time for a new name. He, along with 79% of the 23 million people he rules, wants to make the official name of the country “Taiwan.” And he wants to apply once more for admission to the U.N., this time under the new name. The reality is that the international community recognizes, if not officially, two independent sovereign countries: a large Communist country it calls China and a small democratic country it calls Taiwan. The probable reality is that the two nations will not be united again. It is time, Chen believes, for the name to reflect the reality.

But Chen will have difficulty getting the name he wants. For one thing, popularity is plummeting for his corruption-laced administration. For another, China has threatened to attack the island if it openly asserts its independence with a new name. And finally, the choice of the name Taiwan may not be best. Chen, who likes to use the Taiwanese dialect in his speeches in an effort to move away from China, must realize that in that dialect the name is pronounced “Daiwan.” In English, it would be pronounced “Die One.” Not exactly the image a strong country wants to project to the world!

Links:

• Taiwan Benefits from Failed U.N. Bid
• Taiwan Will Try New Approach to Joining United Nations
• Chen Advocates Using “Taiwan” in Bid for U.N.

In China, where there are a billion people, even if you’re one-in-a-million, there are still a thousand just like you. That’s the case with some popular names. Parents in China are limited in their choices of names for their children. The results are that . . .

• 3,937 people in Shanghai have the name Chen Jie.
• almost 900,000 people in Shanghai have the surname Zhang, and
• 3,751 of them have the name Zhang Min.
• Over 1.5 million people in Beijing have the surname Wang.

Although China has more than 700 family names, most people use one of the 20 most popular. The proliferation of identical names is causing problems in banks, schools, and elsewhere. In China at least, being one in a million is just not very unique.

Links:

• Shanghai Muddle over Popular Name
• Shanghai Muddle over Popular Name (Chinese)
  上海人口張姓最多, 叫陳潔的 3937 人

What is the price of not having properly translated Chinese names? For the city of San Francisco, the answer is “More than $25,000.”

The problem arose just prior to an election when seven candidates for local offices found their translated names absent from the Chinese-language voting materials. Even though the English names were on the voter handbook and absentee ballot, Supervisor Mabel Teng complained that not having her name translated into the language of the voter was the same as not having it on the ballot at all. The federal Voting Rights Act as well as state law requires that precincts provide voting materials in languages other than English if a sufficient number of voters need them.

The omission cost San Francisco about $19,000 for printing and mailing of new materials for the 3,000 voters who requested Chinese-language election materials and up to $7,500 for running ads in Chinese-language newspapers to inform voters. It could have cost $105,000 to $310,000 if all the voter handbooks and absentee ballots had to be reprinted and resent.

The whole mess could have been avoided. If every public figure whose name might appear in a Chinese-language publication had an official translation of his or her name, that name would be readily available. It would be handy when a reporter calls or when filling out an application to run for public office.

Link:

• Ballot Brouhaha–A Federal Case?
  Campaigns, city compromise on corrections, but debate over omitted Chinese names continues

“Beauty is in the ear of the beholder.” And the Chinese ear and the English ear behold the same sounds completely differently. More and more Chinese companies trying to expand to the west are finding this out. As they seek to build international brands, they are discovering that Chinese names do not always translate well into English. Some examples:

A Chinese word for fragrant is fang. Since the word is also associated with beauty, one Chinese business named its lipstick brand “Fang Fang.” In China, it is lovely and sweet-smelling; to English speakers it is a sharp, pointed tooth of a snake or a dog. Not what most western women want to put on their lips!

In China the rooster is an especially well liked fowl. So the brand “Golden Rooster” has good connotations. But in America, “Golden Rooster” became “Golden Cock,” and all respect for the brand was lost.

China has a popular brand of playing cards, much like our bicycle cards. The name, Ma Xi Pu Ke, means Circus Poker Cards. Sounds innocent enough, but when the name was transliterated directly into English as Maxipuke, no one wanted to play cards!

A little more evidence that neither direct transliteration nor simple translation is adequate in international business. A professionally developed brand name makes a huge difference.

Link:

• English Transliterations of Brand Names a Nightmare for Chinese Companies (Chinese)
  商标译名成中国企业走出国门的”拦路虎”
  Chinese brand name’s English transliteration becomes Chinese companies’ obstacle (“a tiger in the way”) of expanding overseas