Firaxis needs to change Chinese cities naming!

[spicytimothy]

Just saw the official screenshots on Firaxis' site and was very disappointed that they're still using both the Wade-Giles and PinYin system in naming Chinese cities...

The Chinese have converted to Pinyin for quite some time now and even international scholars are using the newer, more accurate system for Chinese words... Why hasn't Firaxis change theirs?

eg.
Tsingtao is QingDao
Canton is QuangZhou

with the exception of Hong Kong and Macau I don't see any other Chinese cities getting named other than Pinyin...

which reminds me... put Hong Kong into the Chinese list!! :-D

 

[Gogf]

Most people are more familiar with the current names, and know how to pronounce them better.

 

[ogmoir]

It's ironic that, on the other hand, they spell the religion 'Daoism', according to Pinyin, though the Wade-Giles transcription (Tao) is more common.

 

[Louis XXIV]

The Chinese names seem to be ones more familiar to US consumers.

 

[dc82]

yeah i was writing about that - although u wouldn't uppercase the first letter of each syllable. it's somewhat in consistant since they still keep beijing beijing (instead of peking). i was writing how indian cities such as bombay shud be corrected (it's being recognized more now as mumbai)

Tsientsin -> Tianjin
Tsingtao -> Qingdao
Nanking -> Nanjing
Canton -> Guangzhou
Hangchow -> Hangzhou

u also notice a city called xinjiang in the background - prob. is, that's the name of a province not a city. it's like having a city called montana or idaho. -_-'

 

[microbe]

I think they should put Chinese directly.

 

[spicytimothy]

yeah i was writing about that - although u wouldn't uppercase the first letter of each syllable. it's somewhat in consistant since they still keep beijing beijing (instead of peking). i was writing how indian cities such as bombay shud be corrected (it's being recognized more now as mumbai)

Tsientsin -> Tianjin
Tsingtao -> Qingdao
Nanking -> Nanjing
Canton -> Guangzhou
Hangchow -> Hangzhou

u also notice a city called xinjiang in the background - prob. is, that's the name of a province not a city. it's like having a city called montana or idaho. -_-'

haha yup yup... Did I capitalize the second character? I guess I was thinking Chinese since I just got a Ancient Chinese midterm an hour ago :-D


I don't think just coz US consumers are familiar then they should do what they did...
1. How many "US consumers" are actually "familiar" with Chinese cities?
2. Does it even matter? e.g. do they know that Gao was part of the Mali empire? haha i didn't :-/

 

[spicytimothy]

I think they should put Chinese directly.

Actually I was thinking of that! Like.. every country use their own language... :-D

 

[tcjsavannah]

Maybe Firaxis will be kind and include a feature that lets you rename your cities when you found or conquer them.

 

[Theoden]

Maybe Firaxis will be kind and include a feature that lets you rename your cities when you found or conquer them.

That feature is already exsistant in civ3 and will probably still be in cIV.

 

[Tomoyo]

These names have always bugged me!

...

Especially Canton/Guangzhou. What also bugs me is that most Americans pronounce Guangzhou "Gwong Shoo"...

Besides, there's a Canton in Ohio. Names like Guangzhou and Qingdao sound a lot more Chinese than Canton or Tsingtao. Isn't that what matters? Won't the playeres want a more "Chinese" sounding name list for the Chinese?

 

[ogmoir]

Names like Guangzhou and Qingdao sound a lot more Chinese than Canton or Tsingtao.

I thought Qingdao and Tsingtao sound exactly the same.

Anyway, I agree. Pinyin transcriptions of Chinese names would be better, although many wouldn't recognise them.

 

[dc82]

well... the fact remains though that these are the offical spellings of the names, whether you're at lax or reading the newsweek article on China. any map u look up will also use the pinyin names. the older generation may be more familiar with the older spellings, but the new spellings shudn't be that foreign.

 

[RoboPig]

i was writing how indian cities such as bombay shud be corrected (it's being recognized more now as mumbai)

actually most people still know it as bombay (i'm from india,trust me), also they spelt Goa ,G-A-O

 

[Evie]

Gao and Goa are two different places.

 

[Naokaukodem]

And where does "Canton" comes from, hmm? Let it be, they'll not change the whole thing just because of a new conversion.

Oh, and why not? Well, I personnally prefer the old one.

 

[Trade-peror]

"Canton" sounds most similar to a Romanization of the Cantonese Chinese word for the province of Guangdong, which contains the city of Guangzhou.

So "Canton" is wrong anyway, because it refers to a province, not a city. But even if we don't get that technical, Guangzhou is still better because it is the official translation China uses. By ignoring this, Firaxis is subtly maintaining a Western-centered view in a game not only about Western civilization.

EDIT: By the way, the Pinyin system has been used for some half a century--way before Civ1 came out. That Civ4 still won't acknowledge the change is disappointing.

 

[oldStatesman]

Hey, give them some credit, at least they are using major city names for the most part...not 'ferry terminals' re Lauwersoog in Civ3.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=114706

 

[tcjsavannah]

That feature is already exsistant in civ3 and will probably still be in cIV.

No, really?

 

[DBear]

Tsingtao is well-known because it is a brand of imported from China.