Good Characters, Inc. Blog

There are many naming experts who advise on the do’s and don’t’s of naming, but then there are always creative entreprerneurs who break the rules.

A store in Hong Kong named “Delay No Mall” is a good example. It has a name that sounds profane and yet caters to teens’ rebellion and anti-establishment imaginations. 

As any resident of Hong Kong would tell you, the English pronunciation of “delay no more” sounds just like the curse phrase “F*** your mother” in Cantonese.

It’s sort of like the Chinese version of FCUK, which is, supposely, the acronym for the clothing company French Connection (FC) followed by the abbreviation for a branch location, the UK. The clothing company exploited the association of the F word and produced extremely popular t-shirts.

Doing a search on Wikipedia, I found that the company French Connection “apparently first discovered the acronym when a fax was sent from their Hong Kong store FCHK to FCUK.”

To cool accusations that Delay No Mall is in bad taste, the store’s staff has been instructed to pronounce the name as “Delay No Mao” instead of “Delay No Mall.”
 
Links:

• Delay No Mall (Ming Pao) 
• French Connection UK (Wiki)
• Delay No Mall partially open!
• Delay No Mall (Chinese)
  港出位商場以髒話命名取諧音”罵人娘親”
• A Survey of Language Usage (Chinese)
  性暴力語言意見調查
• Delay No Mao (Chinese)
  商場名似粗口 不讀 Delay No Mall 強讀 Delay No 貓

Bloomberg has an article about Google’s Chinese name titled China Can’t Spell G-O-O-G-L-E as Search Engine Falters as Verb. Here are some points from the article and some comments:

1. “Google is struggling to become a verb in China.”
    
   No matter how hard Google struggles, Google’s Chinese name will never become a verb in China. The Chinese translation of Google means “harvesting song.” It does not have verb potential.
    
2. “G-O-O-G-L-E is not of normal Chinese spelling and people don’t pronounce it right.”
    
   This is not a factor because, as with any English term, the Chinese have to learn how to spell it. And it’s easy to remember the word Google.
    
3. “China, the world’s second-largest Internet market with 162 million users, may overtake the U.S. in three to five years.”
    
4. “Google last year acquired the ‘G.cn’ domain so users who misspell the company’s name still get directed to its Chinese-language Web site ‘Guge,’ or ‘harvesting song.’ The adoption of the name in 2006 prompted criticism that it was a song about something going downhill because ‘gu’ also means valley.”
    
   G.cn is one of the shortest domain names in the world.
    
5. “It’s a name that would appear to have been picked by someone who doesn’t know Chinese,” said Liu Bin, an analyst at Beijing-based researcher BDA China Ltd. “It hasn’t helped their marketing.”
    
   I am sure the name has been reviewed and evaluated by many Chinese-speaking managers and engineers at Google before the final decision was reached. Being reviewed by Chinese doesn’t guarantee that the best name was chosen, however.
    
   When you have a committee trying to make a decision on a name, the tendency is for the majority to pick a name that is safe and usual. That way, nobody gets fired because of a name. However, typically a name that will become engraved in a person’s mind is a name that is unusual, and may even be disliked. Most people say they want to have a great name, but they lack the guts to be bold for fear that the name may be too extreme. Instead, most people opt to follow the crowd with what is safe and, therefore, merely good, but not the best name.
    
6. The company will begin “some experimentation” for advertising in the next 30 days, Lee said. “In China, we need to do more. If people don’t know Google is a search engine, or if they can’t spell Google, they don’t know you are better.”
    
   Some experimentation for advertising will surely cost more than if they had just adopt a better name such as Guge, Brother Gu, as suggested in my 2006 blog entry Danger: Google’s Lost in Translation … Try it. It’s better than singing a sad song in the valley. People can easily make “Wen Gu Ge” (ask Google) and “Zhao Gu Ge” (search Google) part of their daily language. You can’t ask a Song anything.

The Article:

• China Can’t Spell G-O-O-G-L-E as Search Engine Falters as Verb

In western society a name can be used freely and even trivially. One can grant a name to just about anything with no worries, while in Sudan a teacher who named a teddy bear Mohammed is now being prosecuted by the Sudanese government and is facing harsh punishment. This incident has caused great controversy and has shocked this side of the globe. Americans may deem Sudan’s attitude towards the teddy bear incident as extreme and irrational, but one must also take in to account that there are many existing cultures that believe there is a great significance behind a name. 

Hundreds of years ago in China names were not to be used trivially. Just recently, I was going over my family tree and realized that my family name was linked to one of ancient China’s emperor. In the record of my family line, at some point in time one of the Chuang’s was an artist to the emperor who carried the same name. Out of respect for the emperor his name had to be changed. Historically in China, your whole family could be killed if the name was already that of a royal figure. In western society a name could be taken for granted, but in China as well as in other countries, a name must be taken very seriously.

News Links:

• The “Teddy Teacher” Incident… More Than Muslims Can Bear
• The Blasphemous Teddy Bear

Cameron Diaz made a good name for herself in Japan, Taiwan, and China when she visited to promote the movie “Shrek the Third” in May. A month later she, however, made a bad name for herself in Peru and had to apologize because the Communist Chinese military-style bag she wore evoked hurtful memories among Peruvian locals.

The bag had a large red star in the center with some Chinese characters beneath it. She now knows the red star is linked with the communist party and that those characters represented Chairman Mao’s claim “Serve the People.” 

This type of mistake is rather common among trendy Westerners nowadays, given the popularity of communist memorabilia as a fashion statement. For people who suffered at the hands of communists, such symbols are not cool, but rather painful reminders of the past.

When you travel to Taiwan, Hong Kong, or China for business, avoid wearing, carrying, or having anything associated with political symbols or slogans. What may seem cool to you could be offensive to the locals. Politics are usually too sensitive and too complex for outsiders to understand. 

By the way, we couldn’t help noticing that Cameron Diaz doesn’t have an official Chinese name. A quick online search reveals her name has been transliterated at least 7 different ways:

• 卡麥蓉狄亞玆
• 卡麥蓉迪亞
• 卡梅隆迪婭茲
• 卡梅伦迪亚兹
• 卡梅隆迪亚茨
• 卡梅伦迪亚斯
• 金美侖戴雅絲

Imagine having 7 different names!

Link:

• Cameron Diaz on Japanese TV Show Eating A Shrek Sushi (YouTube)

Do these Chinese brands sound like any names you know? A car dubbed Hongda? A retail store called Wumart? A Redberry wireless e-mail device? Some non-Chinese companies think so. And they are not happy with what appear to be attempts to capitalize on their good names.
 
The imitation of well known brands is probably not really an effort to defraud. Many Chinese companies are just beginning to venture into the international market, and they are not used to the branding competition there. With little effort or originality, they simply choose names they hope will allow consumers to recognize the type of product or service they offer.

So a Chinese automobile manufacturer produces a car that looks like a Land Rover and calls it “Roewe.” Another car maker builds a vehicle very similar to the Chevy Spark and names it “Chery.” The Chinese Internet company Baidu.com features BaiduSpace and Baidupedia. A coffee retailer uses the name “Xingbake,” which is “Starbucks” in Chinese.

Whether innocent marketing choices or deliberate attempts to cash in on someone else’s success, these names are angering the companies they imitate. Those companies are expressing that anger in complaints and lawsuits.

As Chinese firms expand their international business, they will need to learn how that market works. Consumers, especially Western consumers, want brands they know and trust. To sell to them, Chinese companies will need to develop and promote their own brands. They will need the sophistication, expertise, and experience of brand-consulting services.

Links:

• Copycat Chinese Brand Names Drawing Multinational’s Ire
• From Hongda to Wumart, China Brand Names Have Familiar Ring

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.”

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

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)

In New York, voters have a legal right to a ballot in their language (The New York Voter’s Bill of Rights). But for Chinese-speaking citizens, that ballot does not guarantee them the ability to vote. The reason is that the candidates’ names can be so poorly translated on the ballot that their identities are truly lost in translation.

This happened in the September 12 Democratic primary election. The names of office seekers were simply transliterated without regard for meaning or how the names usually appeared in Chinese newspapers. The result was that some candidates ended up with names with negative connotations—not a good thing for politicians—and other well known people were given names that no one recognized. These careless translations confused many voters and may have cost some candidates the election.

Among my Top 10 Reasons You Need a Naming Professional to Design a Chinese Name for You is the fact that “if more than one person writes about or refers to you, you could end up with several versions of your Chinese name. The different versions will confuse your clients.” 

The more important a name is to a Chinese audience, the more critical it is to have it professionally designed and officially written.

Links:

• New Yorkers’ Voting Rights
  A Voter’s Bill of Rights guarantees citizens of New York a number or rights when casting ballots, including the right to a ballot in their language.
• Voting Rules and Restrictions by State
  A number of U.S. counties provide election assistance for people speaking a language other than English. They provide ballots in various languages, translations of voting materials, and bilingual poll workers. In New York city, about 30% of Chinese-American voters used ballots in the Chinese language
• Many Transliterations of the Same Candidates’ Chinese Names Confuse Voters (Chinese)
  The wide variety of transliterations for each candidate’s name makes selection difficult for Chinese voters. Elections officials urge voters to become informed about the names and take their time in voting.
  候选人中文译名五花八门, 投票遇”天书”要耐心
• Confusing Transliterated Chinese Names in an American Election (Chinese)
  Imagine losing votes because voters don’t recognize your name and don’t know who to vote for.
  美国选举中文译名五花八门
• Confusing Transliterated Names Have Negative Impact on Chinese Voters’ Turnout (Chinese)
  Eliot Spitzer’s supporters had to spend extra effort explaining to voters that his transliterated name on the ballot is different from what they are used to.
  纽约联成公所批选举局译名混乱: 影响华人投票
• No Chinese Transliterated Names on the Chinese Ballot in Massachusetts
  In Massachusetts’ first use of bilingual ballots, September 2006, some Chinese voters complained that candidates’ names were printed in English with no Chinese transliteration. The Department of Elections explained that there are no official translations for the candidates’ names. The English-only names made voting difficult for many.
  美麻州初选首用双语选票, 未印中文译名华裔不满