![]() In such a case, the first name comes first, as in English. ![]() 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. The rendering of the names for two of Taiwan’s last six presidents serve as good examples: A hyphen separates the two first names, and the second first name is never capitalized. Last name comes first followed by the first names. Unlike Mainland China, romanization of names in Taiwan is not standardized and one can often find idiosyncratic variants such as Lee or Soong, among others. 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 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. Transliteration of Chinese names in Taiwan Transliteration of the name becomes vastly more complicated when one leaves mainland China, as, outside of the region, there are no set standards. 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. The context, the age of the document and the origin (where written) all play a role in deciding what transliteration method to use. Some famous individuals in Chinese history are now written in modern Pinyin, while others have kept the original Wade-Giles spelling. ![]() When the person has more than one first name, the two first names never have a space between them and the family name (which always comes first) is never capitalized, for example:Įxceptions to the rule in mainland China occur with historical individuals including anyone born before 1900. ![]() The transliteration follows the pinyin system which can be looked up in any good Chinese-English dictionary from mainland China. They rarely use an English first name in printed form, even if they adopt one for informal use. Transliteration of Chinese names in ChinaĬhinese to English translation of the names of persons from Mainland China are the easiest as they follow a very standard set of rules.
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