Why the different names? Peking or Beijing?

It can be confusing reading/talking about places in China. Most folk know the capital of China as Beijing now, but also know it was called Peking. Or should I say is! Hangchow or Hangzhou? Soochow or Souzhou? One is Mandarin and the other is Pinyin.

Why is this? The explanation is simple, but confusing. It is about the romanization change. So that we westerners can more easily learn the language, and that Chinese children can more easily learn their own language. The best explanation I think is on Wikipedia. I know that is not necessarily the "authority" but it is a good explanation. Click here.

Another site to read.

It is a bit complex. Students in China studying English will have three names. Their Chinese name (Chinese characters), their name in Pinyin, and oddly their English name. Strange as it might be, students choose a name so that their English teacher (if a foreigner can remember, and pronounce his/her name.)

An oddity with this is that Chinese names are different. Perhaps a few wise words. "Heavenly Child", for example. While we might call a girl "Grace" if we want to think of her as a heavenly child, we use a "name" not a "description".

Chinese students choose a strange English names, according to what we are familiar with. Sunny, Moon, Moonshine, Winter, Wind, Eleven, etc. Any word can be a name for a Chinese student. And they change their names from time to time. THAT is confusing.

English Names

The students in the college choose their own English names - so that their English teachers can write/understand their names. I'm not sure at which stage they choose their names, but suspect it is when they first start learning English.

They choose names for all sorts of reasons - some you'd hardly guess.

And they change them if they don't like them - or perhaps an English teacher has said that the name is not appropriate. Most of my classes have English names that I recognise, but it is not uncommon to find a name that is truly quite creative. I won't write them here - that is not fair, but I will say that some have named themselves after a vegetable, (you can guess who I call Spud), and numbers.

One young lady says her name with a slight French accent, and expects us to do the same as it is a French name.

On the first day I met the students, several of them announced their new English name. "Yesterday I was called ........... but from today I want to be called ............." which must be confusing for all their friends.