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Showing posts from November 15, 2010

Why it is Peking and not Beijing

[As at January 2011, this web site cannot be viewed from within China.] Lord Carrington explained it most clearly when he said that English speakers do not call Moscow Mockba. I see two fundamental misunderstandings on names and languages. First, English speakers do not need the permission of the CCP to decide how to name the capital of China in English . English speakers do not seek Italy's permission when they call Roma Rome. The list goes on. Similarly, Britain does not, and cannot, insist that the Chinese do not call London 伦敦 but London. Britain cannot object the French from calling that same place Londres. President Obama cannot command that the Chinese call him 奥峇马 instead of 奥巴马. In summary, if users of a language decide to name something X, no one else from another language can come and say it must be Y instead. Second, the capital of China in Chinese is 北京, not Beijing. This second point may be a bit subtle.  "Beijing" is 100% not a Chinese word. C