Category: facebook

I’m currently reading Liu Cixin’s “The Dark Forest,” and I realized that I don’t understand how to pronounce Chinese names transcribed into Latin script, like Quang or Xin. I decided to educate myself on the topic and dug up some information. Below is a little guide for the similarly curious, who were perhaps too lazy to figure it out themselves.

For transcription into Russian, there is the Palladius system (Google it if you speak Russian). Generally, all of the information below is from there and from the Pinyin system (a romanization system for Chinese).

In general, most letters can be pronounced more or less (very roughly speaking) as in the English alphabet, except that the voiceless consonants p, t, k (for example) come with aspiration, but there are exceptions:

* q — pronounced like the Russian “ч” or the English “ch” (as in the word cheese) with a light aspiration. For example, Qiang is read as “Ч’ань”. Other names: Qing, Qin.

* x — resembles the soft Russian “ш/щ” or the English sh/sch. For example, Xia is pronounced as “Ща”. Other names: Xin, Xiu.

* r — something between r and zh/ж. In the Palladius system, ran is prescribed to be read as zhàn (жань), and rang as zhan (жан), and rao as zhao (жао). In Pinyin, it’s written that r is read as in red with a slight zh hue.

* z — like “ds” in the word “reads”.

* c — like the Russian “ts” as in “cats”.

Therefore, Xi Jinping is read as Си Цзиньпин. And Dèng Xiǎopíng is cyrillicized as Дэн Сяопин.

In Chinese names, the last name comes first, followed by the given name. For example, in “Li Wei,” “Li” is the surname, and “Wei” is the given name. Máo Zédōng, the name here is Zédōng, not Mao. Or Dèng Xiǎopíng, where the given name is Xiǎopíng. In the case of the author of “The Dark Forest,” Liu Cixin, the given name is Cixin.

However, I learned that addressing Chinese people by their full name is impolite and even rude. According to Chinese etiquette (in China), it is customary to address by last name, adding a title of social status/position (engineer, doctor, professor, academic, ambassador, teacher, master, foreman, director, etc.) or a general salutation (Mr., Comrade, Ms.). For example, Mr. Wu (in Chinese: Wu xiansheng), Ms. Zhang (in Chinese: Zhang nüshi). But that’s there, in China. In the case of international teams, where someone like Li Wei is a frontend developer, of course, it’s normal to write “Hi Wei.” But not “Hi Li.”

By the way, Chinese people often change their names when moving out of China. Jackie Chan, for example, was 成龙 (Chéng Lóng) back home, Bruce Lee was 李小龙 (Lǐ Xiǎolóng).