Good Characters, Inc. Blog

The Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. (SAIC), China’s second-largest carmaker, has announced it will call its first self-made car the Roewe. The name seems to be similar to “Rover,” the BMW brand SAIC tried to buy earlier in the year. The sale, however, went to Ford instead.

The official word is that the name Roewe is inspired not by the Rover, but by 创新 (innovation), 殊荣 (honor and glory), 威 (might, power, or prestige), 仪 (appear), and 四海 (four seas, or, the whole world). When written in Chinese characters, it is 荣威 (rong wei). Its literal meaning is glory and power. But according to the official explanation, this Wei should be translated as prestige.

The name might seem prestigious in Chinese, but in English, Roewe, or Rong Wei, sounds like Wrong Way. Is this a good name for a car you hope will take you to the right place?

Could this be another Chinese-to-English Translation Blunders?

Links: 

• Rong Wei? Funny Name, Serious Car From SAIC of China
• Rover becomes ‘Roewe’
• The Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. Announces Rong Wei (Chinese)
  创新传塑经典，上汽自主品牌“荣威”全新亮相
• New Name Roewe Explained (Chinese)
  荣威 (Roewe) 品牌命名诠释
  This article explains the meaning behind the English Roewe and Chinese Rong Wei names. It says Roewe’s R is associated with “royal” and “-we” hints at we, us, representing unity and meaning “unity of will is an impregnable stronghold.” The English pronunciation of Roewe sounds like Rong Wei in Chinese; the Spanish pronunciation sounds like the Chinese term “ru yi,” meaning “as one wishes.”

Toyota announced in June 2004 that it was updating the Chinese pinyin of the name of its luxury model Lexus from the well-known Ling-Zhi to the new Lei-Ke-Sa-Si. Many wondered why.
 
The name Ling-Zhi means lofty aspiration. It projects an image of an ambitious, successful entrepreneur rising and soaring like an eagle. The image definitely rises above BMW’s Bao-Ma, meaning treasured horse, and Mercedes-Benz’s Ben-Chi, or gallop.

The new name Lei-Ke-Sa-Si, on the other hand, does not hint at nobility, speed, or luxury. Instead it shares two characters with Ke-Lai-Si-Le, Chrysler’s Chinese name. Chrysler is positioned lower than Lexus, in the near-luxury category. If someone tries to be funny, Lei-Ke-Sa-Si can mean “thunder overcomes SARS” since, literally, Lei is thunder, Ke is to overcome, and Sa-Si sound like SARS. Why would Toyota choose such a name for Lexus?

Toyota refused to confirm the speculation that someone else had registered the name Ling-Zhi before Toyota could, but insisted that the new name is a better choice phonetically. “We believe the use of Chinese pinyin will help the market to associate with ‘Lexus’ more easily,” a spokesman said.

Protect your name as soon as possible. Using a single name worldwide is a good idea for most languages in the world, but for Chinese you must be careful to have a good transliteration.

Acura, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz

Have you noticed that Honda and Toyota strategically place their luxury brands immediately ahead of those of their main competitors? In any alphabetically ranked list, Acura is listed before BMW and Lexus is before Mercedes-Benz.

(Originally Posted in July 2004)

When you want to buy a car in the U.S., too many salesmen may greet you on the lot. In China, too many car names can be just as overwhelming. Many, many auto manufacturers, domestic and foreign, sell their wares in China. Some have similar sounding names, so understanding the make of a vehicle is not easy. Add to that the practice of marketing cars not by their make (manufacturer name), but by their model, and the number of choices is enormous. Maybe the Chinese would prefer more salesmen and fewer names of cars.

Links:

• Confusing New Car Names (Chinese)
• A List of Chinese and Foreign Car Models (Chinese)

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.