Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese): Difference between revisions
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Use [[pinyin]] for [[place names in China]] unless another form is more well-established in current English usage. (ex. [[Sichuan]] not Szechwan, but [[Hong Kong]] not Xianggang). Past English usage which has fallen into disuse in modern English-language sources, such as "[[Guangzhou|Canton]]" and "[[Qingdao|Tsingtao]]" should not be used to title an article. For places without a well-established English name and have competing names from transliterations of pinyin vs. ethnic minority languages, which is often the case in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet, use the name preferred by [[Xinhua News Agency|Xinhua]] or similarly authoritative organs. For example, [[Kashgar]] not Kashi, [[Shigatse]] but not Rikaze; ''conversely'', [[Baotou]] not Bugat, [[Kangding]] not Dartsedo. |
Use [[pinyin]] for [[place names in China]] unless another form is more well-established in current English usage. (ex. [[Sichuan]] not Szechwan, but [[Hong Kong]] not Xianggang). Past English usage which has fallen into disuse in modern English-language sources, such as "[[Guangzhou|Canton]]" and "[[Qingdao|Tsingtao]]" should not be used to title an article. For places without a well-established English name and have competing names from transliterations of pinyin vs. ethnic minority languages, which is often the case in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet, use the name preferred by [[Xinhua News Agency|Xinhua]] or similarly authoritative organs. For example, [[Kashgar]] not Kashi, [[Shigatse]] but not Rikaze; ''conversely'', [[Baotou]] not Bugat, [[Kangding]] not Dartsedo. |
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The default naming pattern is "X Class", e.g. [[Taihang Mountains]], [[Wuzhishan City]], [[Taiwan Province]]. Articles for provinces and cities can leave out the class name, e.g. [[Liaobei]], [[Beijing]]. Naming "X Mountain", "Mount X", "X Shan" depends on English usage, e.g. [[Mount Everest]], [[Tian Shan]]. |
The default naming pattern is "X Class", e.g. [[Taihang Mountains]], [[Wuzhishan City]], [[Taiwan Province]], [[Republic of China]]. Articles for provinces and cities can leave out the class name, e.g. [[Liaobei]], [[Beijing]]. Naming "X Mountain", "Mount X", "X Shan" depends on English usage, e.g. [[Mount Everest]], [[Tian Shan]]. |
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===Topographical=== |
===Topographical=== |
Revision as of 05:37, 11 March 2012
![]() | This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
These guidelines mainly deal with the systematic naming of Chinese-related articles. Please follow the conventions below when dealing with such articles. If you disagree with any of the conventions, please discuss the issue within the talk page. Additional information can also be found at:
- Wikipedia:Naming conventions for naming conventions in general
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style for China-related articles for the style of China-related articles.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject China for ongoing news and tasks relevant to China-related topics.
Introductory sentences
Li Bai (example) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese | 李白 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Any encyclopedia entry with a title that is a Chinese proper name should include both the Chinese characters and the Hanyu Pinyin representation for their names in the first sentence. The article title itself is normally the pinyin representation with the tone marks omitted: "Mao Zedong", not "Máo Zédōng", unless another spelling is common (see below).
The {{zh}} template may be used to add Chinese to articles' introductory sentences in a consistent manner. For example:
- '''Zeng Guofan''' ({{zh|s=曾国藩|t=曾國藩|first=t|p=Zēng Guófān|w=Tseng<sup>1</sup> Kuo<sup>2</sup>-fan<sup>1</sup>}}) outputs:
- Zeng Guofan (traditional Chinese: 曾國藩; simplified Chinese: 曾国藩; pinyin: Zēng Guófān; Wade–Giles: Tseng1 Kuo2-fan1)
If the topic is one in which simplified and traditional characters vary, then you should add the other version. The simplified version should be presented first for modern mainland China/Singapore subjects and the opposite should be done for modern Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau subjects. The {{zh}} template puts simplified characters first by default, use the first=t option to put traditional characters first, as in the example.
However, where there are many parameters in use in a given article, prefer using a {{Chinese}} box instead of {{zh}}. This removes the characters, romanization and pronunciations from the opening sentence, thus making it more readable, while retaining the information off to the side so that the reader can still see it— see the top of this section for an example that uses the {{Infobox Chinese}} template (see {{Infobox Chinese/doc}} on how to use it). Special templated boxes have also been implemented for Chinese emperors, such as {{Qing namebox}} (e.g. Kangxi Emperor) and {{Chinese Emperor}}.
Characters
The use of italics and bold text is to be avoided with Chinese characters, as it tends to make them less legible: [国 国 国 国] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). To help establish a simple and clean appearance, if a term is Wikified and has an article, do not provide characters or romanization again. For example, the following is redundant.
- Li Shimin (李世民), along with King...
It could easily be rendered as:
- Li Shimin, along with King...
which simplifies the article. If the reader wishes to find out about the native text, he or she can simply click on the link (where the writer should direct the Chinese characters if not already present).
If, however, there is no article, then it is essential to insert traditional or simplified Chinese characters and full Hanyu Pinyin with tone-marks, as a minimum. Those characters can later be removed once a stub/article has been created. Non-English insertions should minimize interruption to the flow of reading. They should always be put within parentheses, as if they were call-outs not part of the sentence. Try reading the sentence aloud by skipping everything within the parentheses. If an English reader can read the sentence in a grammatically correct way without any unpronouncible interruption, then the sentence is in acceptable form. For example:
- "His name was Li Shimin (李世民)."
is acceptable provided that there is no existing article for Li Shimin.
- "His name was 李世民 (Li Shimin)."
is not a readable English sentence. Chinese insertions to list and table entries can be done without parentheses because these items are seldom read like sentences.
Accessibility
Template:Contains Chinese text Many browsers are not set up to correctly render Chinese text. If an article contains several instances of Chinese text, such as this page, consider using the template {{contains Chinese text}} near the top of the article, shown at the top of this section. This will alert users to the missing information. The uncertainty of the Chinese characters' display is another reason why you should always provide some type of romanization when referring to Chinese concepts in articles.
If you are not using the {{zh}} template or other template designed for Chinese characters, wrap your characters in {{text}} for accessibility and many other reasons. For example:
- Ink and wash painting ({{lang|zh-Hans-CN|水墨画}}) produces:
- Ink and wash painting (水墨画)
Linking to Wiktionary
Our sister-project, Wiktionary, contains the full Unihan database, and is consequently an invaluable Chinese reference tool. All Ruby characters are automatically linked to Wiktionary. In some exceptional cases, you may need to manually insert a link to the Wiktionary entry for a character.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg/40px-Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg.png)
The {{Linktext}} template can be used to link directly to Wiktionary. For example {{zh|c={{linktext|中国}}}} produces Chinese: 中国. Separate characters with a pipe (|) symbol to link them individually. If you want to insert a link in a box to one side, use {{Wiktionarypar|字}} (see box on the right).
Romanization
In general, the titles of Chinese entries should be in Hanyu Pinyin (but without tone marks). Exceptions would include:
- When there is clearly a more popular form in English (such as Yangtze River)
- When the subject of the entry is likely to object to romanization in pinyin.
When an entry is not in pinyin form, a redirect to the article from the pinyin form could be helpful. Wikipedia now has clickable characters with diacritics under the edit box; you can also use an IME such as Pinyinput or an online converter such as Google Translate's phonetic reading function to make it easier to type in pinyin. Italicise pinyin to differentiate it from the English text.
Apostrophes
Apostrophes are crucial in both Hanyu Pinyin and Wade-Giles. In Wade-Giles, an apostrophe is a part of the syllable, while in Pinyin it serves as a syllable delimiter.
Chinese Romanization: Pronunciation and Orthography gives the following rules for using the apostrophe in Hanyu Pinyin:
- Always when a syllable begins with a, o, or e, and follows another syllable: fāng'àn (方案), Cháng'é (嫦娥), Jiàn'ōu (建瓯).
- Never when the syllable starts a word: Àomén (澳門), or is separated by a hyphen: Rì-É Zhànzhēng (日俄战争)
In many cases, the apostrophe reduces ambiguity in word boundaries. Xī'ān (西安), for example, might be interpreted as a single syllable xiān (先) if the apostrophe and the tones were not present. Without the apostrophe, fāng'àn (方案) could be confused with fǎngǎn (反感). (Some writers, such as the Library of Congress, write fǎn'gǎn, but this reading is already implied in the absence of the apostrophe.) Note that not every required apostrophe reduces ambiguity, as in Tiān'é (天峨) where tia is not a legal syllable.
Hyphens
In pinyin, hyphens are rarely used, mainly in conjunction of independent words, abbreviated compounds (luèyǔ), and four-character idioms, including double reduplication of the schema AA-BB. (See pinyin#hyphenation.) Character sequences for words with a single meaning, often consisting of two characters, seldom three, are written without intervening hyphen or space. This also holds for compound words combining two words to one meaning: hǎifēng (simplified Chinese: 海风; traditional Chinese: 海風, sea breeze).
Summary from the Library of Congress:
- Join, without hyphen or space, multi-character proper nouns, for example:
- Person's name
- Family/clan name (姓)
- Given name (名)
- Style/Courtesy name (字)
- Pseudonym
- Buddhist name
- Placename
- But separate the following from the placename proper:
- Jurisdictional name, such as shì (市, "city")
- Topographical name, such as shān (山, "mountain")
- But separate the following from the placename proper:
- Era name
- Ethnic group name
- Religion name
- Language name
- Person's name
Ruby characters
Ruby annotation is a way of putting pinyin in small letters over the top of a Han character. It cannot be used for normal inline text on Wikipedia because the small size at which characters are displayed means that the even smaller text on top is illegible. However, it is appropriate for Han characters that have a line or paragraph to themselves. It has the advantage of keeping the transcription very close to the character, and is thus didactically helpful. In browsers that do not support it, it degrades gracefully into a transcription in parentheses after the character.
Example:
- Chinese characters (trad.) with pinyin transcription added using ruby annotations
- 北方 有 佳人 ,絕世 而 獨立 。
- 一 顧 傾 人 城 ,再 顧 傾 人 國 。
- 寧 不 知 傾 城 與 傾 國 。
- 佳人 難 再 得 。
- English translation
- In the North there is a lady, stunning and singular.
- One look confounds a city; a touch dooms an empire.
- Rather not wishing to know, the ruination that may follow,
- rare beauty is here and now.
The markup to display text like this is as follows:
" {{ruby-zh-p|梦|mèng}} " displays " 梦 ".
Browser support:
- IE — perfect... except if you put it inside a table, in which case it crashes the browser.
- Mozilla / Firefox with support installed — problems with wrapping long lines, but otherwise fine.
- Mozilla / Firefox without support installed — displays in parentheses.
- Opera — displays in parentheses.
- Safari — Supported.
- Chrome — Supported.
Lists of pages currently using this template: ruby, ruby-ja, ruby-zh-b, ruby-zh-p.
Tones
The tone mark is added to the vowel in the syllable that comes first in this sequence: a o e i u ü. For example, ai takes the tone mark on a, and ia also takes the tone mark on a. The only exception is iu which takes the tone mark on u. To help you type pinyin, Wikipedia now has clickable characters with diacritics under the edit box; you can also use an IME such as Pinyinput or an online converter such as Google Translate's phonetic reading function to make it easier to type in pinyin. Italicise pinyin to differentiate it from the English text.
The diacritics used are:
- The first tone is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:
ā ē ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
- The second tone is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ):
á é í ó ú ǘ Á É Í Ó Ú Ǘ
- The third tone is symbolized by a caron (inverted circumflex) (ˇ):
ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
- Please do not use the breve (a curved downward circumflex) for the third tone.
- The fourth tone is represented by a grave accent (ˋ):
à è ì ò ù ǜ À È Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
- The fifth or neutral tone is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
(There is no need to indicate neutral tones with numbers or with dots before the syllable: "·ma")
a e i o u ü A E I O U Ü
Tone diacritics are not used to transcribe names or terms that appear in the normal flow of an article (e.g. "...early Ming Dynasty scholar Gù Yánwǔ..." or "...a bronze dǐng excavated from a Zhou Dynasty tomb..."). They should only be used in templates and parentheticals (e.g. Chinese: 顧炎武; pinyin: Gù Yánwǔ) or in infoboxes.
Names of people
General principle
The encyclopedia should reference the name more familiar to most English readers. For most historical figures this means that the encyclopedia entry should use the transliteration, usually romanized in Hanyu pinyin (but figures from the early twentieth century, like Sun Yat-sen, should follow the customary transliteration when it is more common than pinyin), rather than an anglicization; because English usually does. However, there are exceptions for figures whose English name is more familiar (such as Confucius), and for figures who were raised in non-Chinese societies and whose Chinese names are unfamiliar (such as Vera Wang and Maya Lin).
Order of names
Personal names in Chinese, unlike Western names, present the family/clan name first. Unlike other instances where this occurs, it is standard practice in English to also present the family name first (for example, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Bai Ling).
There is an exception for people whose Chinese name is familiar but with English ordering (for example, Wen Ho Lee). In this case, the primary entry should be under the English ordering with a redirect from the Chinese ordering.
Romanization of names
Chinese names should be written in Hanyu Pinyin unless there is a more common romanization used in English (for example, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen) or when the subject of the article is likely to prefer a non-pinyin romanization as is often the case with people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and older overseas Chinese communities (for example, Lee Teng-hui, Tung Chee Hwa, Lee Kuan Yew).
When using Wade-Giles, a hyphen should be put between the two syllables of a given name, and the second syllable should not be capitalised (for example, Lee Teng-hui, not Lee Teng Hui).
Names of groups
The main entry for a Chinese group should be under the name most familiar to English speakers. In some cases, this will be the translated name (for example, Aluminum Corporation of China Limited). In other cases, this will be the transliterated name (Tzu Chi and Tongmenghui). When the name is transliterated, the name should use the spelling conventionally used by English speakers (for example, Tzu Chi). Where this is not the pinyin transliteration there should be a redirect to the article from the pinyin name.
When a group uses a translated name, the Chinese characters should always be included, because there is not always a 1:1 correspondence of terms between Chinese and English. For example, the title of the President of the People's Republic of China uses the term "zhuxi" (主席 zhǔxí) to mean President, but there are other words in Chinese, such as "zongtong" (總統 zǒngtǒng), which are translated as "President" in English.
Similarly Chinese characters should be included for the Democratic Progressive Party because the standard term used for the party (民進黨 Mínjìn dǎng) is a contraction of the full name (民主進步黨 Mínzhǔ jìnbù dǎng). Characters should also be included for National People's Congress because there are a number of different Chinese terms to translate Congress, and the entry should identify which one is used.
Names of emperors
The general principle is to use the name most commonly used in English reliable sources, per policy.
Summary of guidelines used:
- Emperors before the Tang Dynasty: use posthumous names, such as Emperor Wu of Han (漢武帝).
- Emperors of the Tang, Song, Liao and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties: use temple names, such as Emperor Taizong of Tang (唐太宗).
- Emperors of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty: use era names (same as reign names), such as Kangxi Emperor (康熙帝).
The above is a rough guide and there are many exceptions. See the complete list of Chinese monarchs, and follow the conventions given there.
Because these are reign names and not personal names, the correct phrasing for emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties is the "Kangxi Emperor" rather than "Emperor Kangxi".
Place names
Use pinyin for place names in China unless another form is more well-established in current English usage. (ex. Sichuan not Szechwan, but Hong Kong not Xianggang). Past English usage which has fallen into disuse in modern English-language sources, such as "Canton" and "Tsingtao" should not be used to title an article. For places without a well-established English name and have competing names from transliterations of pinyin vs. ethnic minority languages, which is often the case in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet, use the name preferred by Xinhua or similarly authoritative organs. For example, Kashgar not Kashi, Shigatse but not Rikaze; conversely, Baotou not Bugat, Kangding not Dartsedo.
The default naming pattern is "X Class", e.g. Taihang Mountains, Wuzhishan City, Taiwan Province, Republic of China. Articles for provinces and cities can leave out the class name, e.g. Liaobei, Beijing. Naming "X Mountain", "Mount X", "X Shan" depends on English usage, e.g. Mount Everest, Tian Shan.
Topographical
Type | char. | Normal | Disambiguate | |
---|---|---|---|---|
by location | by type | |||
Mountain Range 山脉 山脈 |
1 | Qin Mountains 秦岭 | no example yet | no example yet |
>1 | Taihang Mountains 太行山 |
no example yet | no example yet | |
Mountain Peak 山峰 |
1 | Mount Tai 泰山 | Mount Heng (Shanxi) 恒山 | Huangshan 黄山 |
Mount Heng (Hunan) 衡山 | Huangshan City 黄山市 | |||
>1 | Mount Emei 峨嵋山 Mount Wutai 五台山 |
no example yet | Wuzhi Mountain 五指山 | |
Wuzhishan City 五指山市 | ||||
River 河流 | 1 | Huai River 淮河 Xiang River 湘江 |
Min River (Sichuan) 岷江 | no example yet |
Min River (Fujian) 闽江 | no example yet | |||
>1 | Jinsha River 金沙江 | no example yet | Mudan River 牡丹江 | |
Mudanjiang 牡丹江市 | ||||
Lake 湖泊 | 1 | Lake Tai 太湖 | no example yet | Chao Lake 巢湖 |
no example yet | Chaohu City 巢湖市 | |||
>1 | Hongze Lake 洪泽湖 | no example yet | Poyang Lake 鄱阳湖 | |
Poyang County 鄱阳县 |
Administrative
Note: Towns and townships in the three districts of Heilongjiang's Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture and in Hubei's Shennongjia Forestry District may simply be disambiguated by province, unless further disambiguation is needed.
Established translations elsewhere
Here are some established translations, officially used in China or frequently employed in Sinology literature.
- Political divisions of China
- Administrative divisions of the Republic of China
- History of the political divisions of China
- Classical political divisions
Transport
When naming articles of expressways, highways, railways, railway stations, or airports in China, use the common English name if it can be determined, e.g. Karakorum Highway. Otherwise, follow these rules to determine the article title name:
For roadways, highways, expressways and railways whose names in Chinese consist of two- or three-character abbreviations (usually of terminal cities), do not simply adopt the pinyin version of the Chinese abbreviation as the English article name. Instead, spell out the full English name of each location mentioned in the Chinese abbreviation and connect the location names by an en dash (–).
- For the 宁芜铁路, use Nanjing–Wuhu Railway as the article name not, Ningwu Railway.
In this example, the character 宁, pinyin romanized as ning is a shorthand for the city of Nanjing, the eastern terminal on this rail line, and the character 芜, pinyin romanized as wu, is the shorthand for the other terminal city, Wuhu. Ningwu is an abbreviation for Nanjing–Wuhu.
The {[full English spelling of terminus 1]–[full English spelling of terminus 2] [Expressway/Railway]} article naming format is intended to identify expressways and railways with precision and avoid ambiguity. The Nanjing–Wuhu Railway from the example above, if written as Ningwu Railway in its article title, is confusingly similar to the Ningwu–Kelan and Ningwu–Jingle Railways.
Similarly, Nanfu Railway may refer to:
- Nanchuan–Fuling Railway, a railway in Chongqing under construction since 2008.
- Nanping–Fuzhou Railway, a railway in Fujian built in 1959.
The Chinese abbreviated name, e.g. Ningwu Railway, should still be mentioned in the first sentence of the article as a secondary name of the expressway/railway, and should be made a redirect link to the article. This Chinese abbreviated name can be freely used in the article itself and in other articles. The rule above applies only to article names. Where there is ambiguity in the pinyin version of the Chinese abbreviated name, create a disambiguation page for the ambiguous name.
Please capitalize Expressway/Railway in the article name. Each expressway or railway is a proper noun.
Please connect location names with an en dash (–) in the title instead of a hyphen. The en-dash stands for to or through. The Nanjing–Wuhu Railway, therefore means, the railway from Nanjing to Wuhu. For the sake of convenience of writers who cite the article using hyphens, please also create a redirect to the hyphenated version of the article name, e.g. Nanjing-Wuhu Railway.
Railways
- 京九铁路 - Beijing–Kowloon Railway not Jingjiu Railway
- 宝成铁路 - Baoji–Chengdu Railway not Baocheng Railway
- 皖赣铁路 – Anhui–Jiangxi Railway not Wan'gan Railway
- 精伊霍铁路 - Jinghe–Yining–Khorgas Railway not Jingyihuo Railway
Where the pinyin spelling of a location name differs from the official English spelling of the place name (especially in the case of non-Chinese place names) use the official English spelling.
- 滨州铁路 - Harbin–Manzhouli Railway not Haerbin-Manzhouli Railway
Use the location names mentioned in the Chinese abbreviation even if a location's actual name has changed.
- 临策铁路 - Linhe–Ceke Railway not Bayan Nur–Ceke Railway. The article's introduction should explain that the railway’s eastern terminal city, formerly known as Linhe, is now called Bayan Nur, but the railway name still uses Linhe.
Use the same naming format for China's high-speed railways
- 武广高速铁路 - Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway not Wuguang High-Speed Railway
Exceptions to the full-spelling naming format:
Where the Chinese name is descriptive, translate the descriptive name:
- 北疆铁路 - Northern Xinjiang Railway not Beijiang Railway.
Where the Chinese abbreviation is no longer considered an abbreviation but a name into itself. This usually occurs when the abbreviated name has survived changes in the underlying names.
- 陇海铁路 - Longhai Railway not Longxi–Haizhou Railway because Longxi is no longer used to describe eastern Gansu Province and Haizhou is now part of Lianyungang
Roadways
For expressways, add the expressway number as a prefix to the expressway name in the article. The prefix and the expressway name should be separated by a space.
- 京沪高速公路 - G2 Beijing–Shanghai Expressway not Jinghu Expressway
- 京承高速公路 - S102 Beijing–Chengde Expressway not Jingcheng Expressway
The Chinese abbreviated name should be mentioned in the first sentence of the article as a secondary name of the expressway and should be made a redirect link to the article.
For National Highways that are numbered simply follow the format {China National Highway [number]}:
- 国道102 - China National Highway 102
National Highways can be abbreviated with "G{no. of highway}", e.g. G105 as a redirect link for China National Highway 105.
Railway stations
Articles for railway stations in China should be named using the city's name (or in some cases the station's unique name— for example, 丰台火车站) followed by the English translation of the cardinal direction in the railway station name, if applicable (North, South etc.), and then [Railway Station]:
- 北京站 - Beijing Railway Station
- 北京西站 - Beijing West Railway Station
- 丰台火车站 - Fengtai Railway Station
Abbreviated forms of the railway station name should be mentioned in the article's first sentence as secondary names and should have redirect links to the article name.
Airports
Airport articles should have the city's name followed by the [airport's name] if applicable, followed by [International Airport] or [Airport] as applicable:
- 北京首都国际机场 - Beijing Capital International Airport
- 上海浦东国际机场 - Shanghai Pudong International Airport
- 广州白云国际机场 - Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Culture
For the cuisine of China, use established terms that are understandable, particularly if such names are in daily use in the English-speaking world. Try to avoid Chinese abbreviations.
- Sichuan cuisine or Szechuan cuisine (川菜) not Chuancai or Chuan cuisine
- Cantonese cuisine (粤菜) not Yuecai or Yue cuisine
- Mandarin cuisine or Beijing cuisine (京菜) not Jingcai or Jing cuisine
- Peking duck not Beijing duck
- General Tso's chicken not General Zuo's chicken or Zuo Gongji; Kung Pao Chicken, not Gongbao Chicken
- Dim sum not Dianxin
For the various Chinese operas or other performance arts, use an established translation, or, if that is not available (which is usual), use pinyin.
- Peking opera (京剧) not Jingju
- Pingju (评剧) not Hebei Opera (that term is also used for Hebei Bangzi 河北梆子)
And as always, work individual articles out on a case by case basis rather than let these conventions constrain you!
Languages or dialects
In general, one should avoid using the term "Chinese" to be synonymous with the spoken Mandarin Chinese.
The status of the various spoken varieties ("lects") of Chinese is disputed. Sociolinguistically, they can be considered dialects of a Chinese language, but they satisfy the criteria of being separate languages by standards of mutual intelligibility and differences in grammar, phonology, and vocabulary. Due to these differences, linguistic classifications, and for practical reasons, the primary branches of Chinese should be treated as de facto separate languages, for the purposes of classification, listing, categorization, and terminology.
- Thus, in lists or categories such as "Number of speakers by language" or "Films by language", it is appropriate to list the primary lects separately.
- Top-level divisions of Chinese (Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, Hakka, Min, etc.) should be listed separately as top-level languages in lists or categories by language.
- When describing loanwords, terms, place names, or personal names, it can be appropriate to include the names, characters, and/or romanizations from the originating language or dialect. Including the Shanghainese term would be appropriate for a place name in Shanghai or a Shanghainese dish; including the Taiwanese names for the same would not.
Nonetheless, linguistic classifications do not necessarily correspond with social conceptions and traditional Chinese classifications, and considering all of Chinese as a single language is an important part of the cultural identity of many Chinese people. Therefore, for NPOV purposes, avoid explicitly naming them either languages or dialects. Simply use the name itself if there is no ambiguity. If there is, then use "xxx Chinese" or "xxx Min" when there's dispute over whether to call it a language or dialect—this includes all first-level divisions and the second-level divisions of Min. For lower-level varieties, use "xxx dialect" or "xxx Mandarin" etc.:
- Standard Chinese (普通话/國語)
- Mandarin Chinese (北方话/官话)
- Min Chinese (閩語)
- Min Nan (閩南語)
- Hokkien (福佬話)
- Taiwanese Hokkien (Taiwanese) (台語)
- Hokkien (福佬話)
- Min Nan (閩南語)
In such articles, mention should be made of the language/dialect controversy. The issues over identification of the varieties of Chinese should be mentioned in the first-level divisions. However, the existence of this controversy shouldn't preclude them from being named as de-facto languages.
In the event a language name is also the name used to refer to the people (i.e. Shanghainese), the language should take precedence as the primary article name with a disambiguation page for the people.
Common, established English names of Chinese languages are preferred over that of their pinyin romanization, especially if the language has a wide diaspora of speakers outside of mainland China. This applies to such languages as Hakka, Teochew, Hokkien, and Amoy.
Political NPOV
- In many cases "China" can be used to refer to the modern state officially known as the "People's Republic of China".
- When discussing politics or diplomatic relations, it may be necessary to use the full official name "People's Republic of China". This may be necessary to avoid confusion with the Republic of China if it may have been referred to as "China" at the time or place being discussed. For instance "the PRC replaced the Republic of China as China's representative in the United Nations in 1971." and "The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949..." and "The People's Republic of China objected to the Vatican inviting diplomats from the Republic of China to represent 'China' at the funeral of the pope."
- When mentioning official documents, institutions, or positions, it may be preferable to use the full official name "People's Republic of China". For example, "The Constitution of the People's Republic of China...". However, subsequent mentions in the same article may use the adjectival form "Chinese". For example, "Chinese premier Wen Jiabao".
- In cases where there is ambiguity (we need to explain this ambiguity), use the more specific "People's Republic of China"
- When discussing geography, those places within the territorial control of the People's Republic of China should generally be said to be in "China". For example, "Zhongguancun has become a major centre of electronics in China", "... a novelist from Chengdu, China".
- The term "mainland China" refers to the People's Republic of China when contrasting with the islands of the Republic of China. The term also usually excludes Hong Kong and Macau. Because of the ambiguity of the term, it should only be used when a contrast is needed and when a simpler construction such as "China, except Hong Kong" is unworkable. For example, "Lo Wu is the most heavily trafficked border crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China," "Due to the relocation of many manufacturing and labor-intensive industries to mainland China, unemployment in Taiwan reached a level not seen since the 1973 oil crisis."
- Consistency of language across all articles is not a requirement of Wikipedia. It is also not necessary that a single article use one term consistently over the other. Where "China," or "People's Republic of China" is used it should not be changed arbitrarily. In many contexts the terms can be used interchangeably. Which one is used in such contexts is largely a matter of editorial style. In cases where either "China" or the "People's Republic of China" both seem appropriate editors should use their own discretion.
Identifying people
When identifying people by ethnic group in China-related articles, refer to the Han people or Han rather than "Chinese people", especially when contrasting that ethnic group to other ethnic groups in China, such as Zhuang or Tibetans. "Chinese" can also refer to nationality, so be careful to avoid implying that ethnic minorities are not or should not be citizens of China. Use parallel terms, such as Han Chinese and Zhuang Chinese, or Han people and Zhuang people, or Han and Zhuang, but never Han Chinese and Zhuang people, unless the nationalities of the distinguished groups clearly differ.
Some find a distinction between "Chinese" and "Taiwanese" to be objectionable and the terms "Mainland Chinese"/"Taiwanese" are more politically neutral and use will depend on the context. The term "Mainlander" poses some issues. It is sometimes ambiguous whether this is referring to a resident of Mainland China or a member of the group that fled with the KMT to Taiwan in 1949. In referring to the latter group, the name is mildly objectionable when used in English and strongly objectionable when translated literally in Chinese. Preferred unambiguous names for the two groups are "Mainland Chinese" and "Wàishěngrén".
Jiedushi
The office of jiedushi was originated in mid-Tang Dynasty, and gradually grew in usage. Originating out of the military command structure of Tang border forces, the use of the office spread to the rest of the realm and remained as an important office with both military and civil responsibilities until the early Song Dynasty. In general, when discussing the office of jiedushi, except in the article about the office itself:
- While using the term as an office held by a person, use "military governor (jiedushi) when referred to first time in the lead and first time in a section of the article, and then only "military governor" thereafter.
- When used in an article to refer to a specific jiedushi office rather than a specific person (e.g., Pinghai Jiedushi), use the term directly -- but --
- When used to refer to the region or area of responsibility governed by the specific jiedushi office rather than the office or the person, use "<name of office> Circuit" (e.g., in the case of Pinghai, mentioned above, "Pinghai Circuit") --
- Unless the jiedushi in question is specific to a roving army (e.g., Shuofang Xingying Jiedushi (朔方行營節度使)) in which case use "Shuofang Expedition Army" or
- Unless the jiedushi in question is specific to a military base or bases (e.g., Heyang Sanzhen Jiedushi (河陽三鎮節度使)) in which case use Three Garrisons of Heyang"