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<h1>Chinese to English translation and transliteration of Chinese names</h1>
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One of the biggest pitfalls of
Chinese to English translation is the rendering of a Chinese
person</span></span>'s name into English. Due to the sensitivities of the
person whose name is being translated, this is one of the
easiest places for a translator to commit a faux-pas and find
his or her organization criticized for the quality of the
translation. For this reason, special care and extra time in
research is necessary when dealing with the translation of
Chinese names into English.<p>It goes without saying that the
first step, if possible, is to ask the client or the person
whose name is being translated directly. Failing that,
regardless of what region of the world they come from, check </span>
</span>
online to see if there is an accepted way that the name is
being translated. </p>
<p>Here are a set of general guidelines for translating or
transliterating a Chinese person’s name into English:</span></p></td>
</tr>
</span>
<tr>
<td><h2>Transliteration of Chinese
names in China</h2><b>
</span></b><p>
Chinese to English translation of the names of persons from
Mainland China are the easiest as they follow a very standard
set of rules. They rarely use an English first name in printed
form, even if they adopt one for informal use. The
transliteration follows the pinyin system which can be looked up
in any good Chinese-English dictionary from mainland China. The
names never use tone marks. When the person has more than one
first name, the two </span>
</span>
</span>
first
names never have a space between them and
the
</span>
family
name</span>
(which always comes first)
is never capitalized, for example:</p>
</span>
<p>
</span>
</span>
<span>
邓小平</span>
Deng Xiaoping<br>
</span><span>
温家宝</span><span>
Wen Jiabao<br>
</span><span>
江泽民</span><span>
</span>Jiang Zemin
</span>
<p>Exceptions to
the rule in mainland China occur with historical
individuals including anyone born before 1900. A famous
example is:<br>
Sun Yat-sen - 孫逸仙<br>
Some famous individuals in Chinese history are now
written in modern Pinyin, while others have kept the
original Wade-Giles spelling. The context, the age of
the document and the origin (where written) all play a
role in deciding what transliteration method to use. As
a general rule, translation of documents written in
China before 1949, written in Taiwan at any time, or
written outside of Greater China by a Taiwanese expert
should be rendered in Wades-Giles, while the translation
of documents written in China or by an academic or known
person associated with the People’s Republic after 1949
regardless of their location should adopt the modern
Pinyin transliteration.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p>
Transliteration of the name becomes
vastly more complicated when one leaves mainland China,
as, outside of the region, there are no set standards.</span><b><h2>Transliteration of Chinese names
in Taiwan</h2></p>
</span>
</span>
</b>
<p>In Taiwan, the vast majority of Taiwanese today
romanize their names in Mandarin pronunciation using Wades-Giles
or a similar system, which can be easily distinguished
from the Hanyu Pinyin
used for romanization in</span></span>
Mainland China and Singapore
by the lack of the use of "q", "zh", and "x", by the use
of "hs" and by the inclusion of hyphens between the two
parts of the first name. </span>
Unlike Mainland China, romanization of names in Taiwan is not standardized and
one can often find idiosyncratic variants such as Lee or
Soong, </span>among others. Last name comes first followed by the
first names. A hyphen separates the two first names, and
the second first name is never capitalized.</span>
The rendering of the names for two of Taiwan's last six presidents serve as good examples:
<p>
<span>
蔡英文</span> Tsai Ing-wen</span><br>
馬英九</span> Ma Ying-jeou</span><br>
陳水扁</span> Chen Shui-bian<span><br>
李登輝</span> Lee Teng-hui</span><br>
蔣經國</span> Chiang Ching-kuo</span><br>
嚴家淦</span> Yen Chia-kan</span><p> However, there are Taiwanese individuals who use
English first names, and when this is done, it is necessary to
use their English first name in translation, rather than a
transliteration of the Chinese. In such a case, the first name
comes first, as in English.</span></p>
<p><span>謝長廷</span>
Frank Hsieh</span></p>
<p>When translating a very formal,
government or academic document, and </span>one encounters the name of
an individual with an English first name, then it is more usual
to include both the English and Chinese first names</span>, with
the English name coming before the surname and the Chinese first
name following the surname:</span></p>
<p><span>謝長廷</span>
Frank Hsieh Chang-ting</span></p>
<p>For any well-known individual, a
search </span>online will answer the question. For lesser
known people, if you don’t have access to their business card,
you would do best to call their office and ask in order to avoid
a mistake. When no other avenue is available, as a last resort
you can use the Wades-Giles transliteration of the name, without
use of the apostrophes or diacritical marks.</span><p>
Never use the mainland China pinyin transliteration for a
Taiwanese person’s name. This would be considered a major
translation error. </span>
<div style="border:5px solid #ff0000; padding:5px;">
<p align="center"><b>
Double</b>-<LANG><b>character<br>
Chinese surnames</b></p>
</span>
<p>There are a handful of common and a long list
of less frequently encountered double-character
or double-syllable Chinese surnames. Care must
be taken not to think of the second character as
being part of the first name rather than part of
a double character Chinese surname, especially
when the individual has a single character first
name.</p>
<p>Using the transliteration standard common in
mainland China, the most common six are:</p>
<p>Zhuge (诸葛),
Ouyang (欧阳), Shangguan (上官), Situ (司徒 in
Cantonese: Szeto), Sima (司马) and Sikong (司空).</p>
<p>Less frequently found however, still among
the top 500 Chinese surnames are:</p>
<p>Mosi (万俟), Xiahou (夏侯), Wenren (聞人), Dongfang
(東方), Helian (赫連), Huangfu (皇甫), Weichi (尉遲),
Gongyang (公羊), Dantai (澹台), Gongye (公冶),
Zongzheng (宗政), Puyang (濮陽), Chunyu (淳于), Danyu
(單于), Taishu (太叔), Shentu (申屠), Gongsun (公孫),
Zhongsun (仲孫), Xuanyuan (軒轅), Linghu (令狐),
Zhongli (鐘-離), Yuwen (宇文), Zhangsun (長孫), Murong
(暮容), Xianyu (鮮于), Luqiu (閭丘), Jiguan (亓官),
Sikou (司寇), Xiangli (相里), Dugu (獨孤), Zhuansun
(顓孫), Duanmu (端木), Wuma (巫馬), Gongxi (公西),
Qidiao (漆雕), Yuezheng (樂正), Rangsi (壤駟),
Gongliang (公良), Tuoba (拓跋), Jiagu (夾谷), Zaifu
(宰父), Guliang (谷梁), Duangan (段干), Baili (百里),
Dongguo (東郭), Nanmen (南門), Huyan (呼延), Ziche
(子車), Yangshe (羊舌), Weisheng (微生), Liangqiu
(梁丘), Zuoqiu (左丘), Dongmen (東門), Ximen (西門),
Zhongchang (仲長), Gaotang (高堂), Diwu (第五),
Nangong (南宮).</span>
</div>
<br />
<b><h2>Transliteration of
Chinese names in Hong Kong</h2></b><p>
Most, but not all, Hong Kong individuals have an English first
name, and, with the exception of government documents, the
English name is the one to use in translation. Similar to the
rules for Taiwan above, try to determine the English name via an
online search, by asking the translation client or by calling
the person’s office. If the person does not go by an English
first name, or no determination can be made, translation follows
the English rules for transliteration of Cantonese in Hong Kong.
Exceptions abound, so, attempt to determine the person’s
accepted method for transliteration before following the
standard. When using the Cantonese transliteration of the
Chinese name, last name comes first, following by the first
name. The two first names are separated by a space, are usually
not hyphenated, with the second half of the first name
capitalized. To see the level of variation, note the accepted
transliteration of these famous Hongkongers who chose not to
have an English first name:</p>
<p>All three names capitalized <span>
– no hyphens:</p>
<p>歐偉倫 Au Wai Lun (born 1971)<br>
郭家明 Kwok Ka Ming<br>
李健和 Lee Kin Wo (born 1967)<br>
張錦青 Cheung Kam Ching (born 1963)<br>
董建華 Tung Chee Hwa (born 1937)<br>
董兆榮 Tung Chao Yung (born 1912)<br>
周佳榮 Chow Kai Wing (born 1947)<br>
胡國雄 Wu Kwok Hung (born 1949)<br>
狄志遠 Tik Chi Yuen<br>
董兆榮 Tung Chao Yung (born 1912)<br>
鍾士元 Chung Sze-yuen (born 1917)<br>
李嘉誠 Li Ka-shing (born 1928)<br>
梁國雄 Leung Kwok-hung (born 1956)<br>
王家衛 Wong Kar-wai (born 1958)<br>
黃仁龍 Wong Yan-lung (born 1963)<br>
黃金寶 Wong Kam-po (born 1973)<br>
袁國勇 Yuen Kwok-yung</p>
<p>Here is an example of an exception. The transliteration of
Hong Kong industrialist, tycoon, billionaire and philanthropist,
Chen Din Hwa (陳廷驊) is a hybrid of mainland China Mandarin
pronunciation and Hong Kong Cantonese transliteration as he was
born in Ningbo. 陳 is Chan in Cantonese. Other exceptions to the
rule are:</p>
<p>錢似鶯 Chin Chi Yung<br>
關信基 Kuan Hsin-chi</p>
</span><b>
<h2>Transliteration of Chinese names in Macau</h2> </b>
<span>
</p>
<p>In Macau, Chinese names are usually transliterated based on
Portuguese orthography.</span>
<h2>Chinese names in Southeast Asia</h2>
<b></span></b><p>Chinese in
</span> Southeast Asia</span> and other old</span>er diaspora
communities are likely to romanize in their own dialect, such as
"</span><span>吳</span>"
becom</span>ing Ng in Cantonese, while the same
character would be Wu in Mandarin. </span>Romanization based on </span>
the Cantonese, Min Nan (a.k.a. Hokkien) and Hakka dialects is the most prevalent. Although not a Chinese dialect, ethnic Chinese in Vietnam romanize
their names according to Vietnamese pronunciation using quoc ngu,
making them almost indistinguishable from Vietnamese names.
In Singapore, individuals, or their parents, are free to choose
to romanize their Chinese names in Mandarin, in any Chinese
dialect, or in any other form as deemed fit. In general,
however, the romanized name in dialect and in Mandarin (in pinyin)
are both depicted on the person's national registration identity
card (NRIC), unless the bearer chooses to drop either of them.
</p>
<p>Chinese from diaspora communities in Malaysia and Singapore
can also be identified by the inclusion of spaces in their first
names such as Tan Cheng Lock, however, as in Hong Kong,
exceptions abound, for example, in Malaysia 楊永強
Yeoh Eng-kiong.
<h2>An example of a Chinese surname
with many English variants</h2><p>
<span>The number of the possible
variations in the transliteration of a surname can be evidenced
in this list of famous people for the pinyin-spelled Ouyang
surname:</span></p>
<p>
·
Ouyang
Ziyuan (</span><span>欧阳自远</span><span>)</span>,
</span><span>chief scientist of China's lunar
exploration program and an academician at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences</span> </span>
<br>·
Ouyang Xiu</span>
(</span><span>simplified Chinese: </span>
<span>
欧阳修</span><span>;
traditional Chinese: </span><span>
歐陽修</span><span>)</span>,
Chinese statesman, historian, essayist and poet of the
Song Dynasty <br></span>
·
Ouyang Xun</span>
(</span><span>simplified Chinese: </span>
<span>
歐陽詢</span><span>;
traditional Chinese: </span><span>
欧阳询</span><span>)</span>,
Confucian scholar and calligrapher of the early Tang
Dynasty <br></span>
·
P. K. Ojong</a>,
co-founder of Indonesia newspaper
Kompas
<br>· </span>
<span>
<a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/econ/owyang/">
</a>Michael T. Owyang</span></a>,</span><span>
Ph.D. economist and Research Officer at the Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis<br></span>
·
Chung
Owyang, M.D.</span>, </span><span>Professor, Department of
Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan<br>
</span>·
Jin Au-Yeung</span>
(</span><span>traditional Chinese: </span>
<span>
歐陽靖</span><span>;
simplified Chinese: </span><span>
欧阳靖</span><span>)
Hip Ho</span>p Artist <br></span>
·
Bobby Au-Yeung
(</span><span>歐陽震華</span><span>)
</span>Hong Kong actor <br></span>
·
Byron Au
Yong
Chinese-American composer and musician<br>
·
J.H.
Au-Yong,
mobile communications researcher <br>
·
Ouyang
Yongle,
researcher in Chinese constitutional law <br>
· Sharon
Owyang</a>,
film producer and book author<br>
·
Lucille
Ouyang,
assistant director of many major movie titles <br>
·
Juliet
Ouyoung,
costume designer <br>
·
Darryl
O'Young,
Canadian-born Hong Kong racing driver <br>
·
Gui Rong Ou
Yang (</span><span>欧阳贵荣</span>)
Founder of
ouyang.com
<br>·
Eric
Owyoung,
lead musician for the rock alternative band
Future of
Forestry
(formerly known as
Something
Like Silas)
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