| Beijing or Peking? | |
|---|---|
| Mar 24, 2008 02:41 |   |
 | A recent poll conducted by a journal China Youth reveals that 81% Chinese oppose adopting Peking as the official name in international exchange activities. Only 10.7% Chinese are for the translated term “Peking”. 8.3% Chinese think it does not matter. The majority of the surveyed still likes “Beijing” instead of “Peking”. “Beijing” is the Chinese Pinyin version. Which one do you prefer? |
| Mar 24, 2008 02:46 | #1 |
| i prefer Beijing |
| Mar 24, 2008 06:27 | #2 |
| Beijing has been the cities name for decades and should be used. It is not that difficult to say and since the Olympics, it has become the pronunciation that most people are now familiar with. Peking is just a bad translation and these days can be confusing. |
| Mar 24, 2008 21:47 | #3 |
| I prefer Beijng, because the spelling is regular in Pinyin. I don't know why some institution used "Peking". For example, China's first-class university "北京大学" is named "Peking University" in English. |
| Mar 24, 2008 22:39 | #4 |
| 'Peking' is just the old romanization of the Chinese. At the time it was a fair attempt at writing in a western script the way that the Chinese words sounded, but these days it's consistently mispronounced and so can no longer serve this function. Perhaps 北大 chooses to retain the 'Peking' label because it was the original western script and it now has historical connotations. It may not be modern, but since when have universities (particularly the older ones) been too bothered about having a modern image? If anything, a university like 北大 may want to make the most of its traditions and history, as these are part of what makes it special. For newer organizations, though (or for organizations that want to project a more modern image), then clearly the official Pinyin 'Beijing' is the only choice. |
| Mar 25, 2008 04:48 | #5 |
| GUEST7426 | "Peking" has been abandoned.The Pinyin "Beijing" can represent the new image of modern "北京". It seems to me " Peking" is of misspelling. |
| Mar 26, 2008 16:40 | #6 |
| As far as I am aware, Peking is the name of the capital of the PRC written in the Wade-Giles romanisation system. Someone able to pronounce Wade-Giles as it is/was supposed to be pronounced would pronounce Peking in much the same way that a speaker of putonghua pronounces 北京. However, as very few people are aware of Wade-Giles pronunciations most of them pronounce Peking incorrectly as pea (a round green seed) + king (male ruler of a country). Beijing is, in my opinion, far closer to the way that most westerners would write 北京 in roman script after having heard it spoken. I therefore prefer Beijing to Peking as romanising 北京 as Beijing should allow most westerners to pronounce it in a way that speakers of putonghua would recognise as 北京. In any case, one should at least romanise the name of the capital of a country in the way that the government of that country considers to be correct. |
| Mar 26, 2008 23:31 | #7 |
| Beijing |
| Mar 27, 2008 01:47 | #8 |
| I always grew up calling it "Peking" |
| Mar 27, 2008 21:32 | #9 |
| Quote: I always grew up calling it "Peking" . DESTRUCKDOZ, Why? I wonder. Is " Beijing" pronounced and spelt as " Peking" in Cantonese? |
| Mar 27, 2008 22:21 | #10 |
| When I was studying World History in elementary, I’ve always known it as Peking. Fast forward, now it’s Beijing. I asked my Chinese friend about this, what’s the difference? He said nothing really and it doesn’t matter so I left it at that. ^_^ |
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