Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Chinese)

These guidelines mainly deal with the systematic titling of Chinese-related articles. For issues of style within the article text, please see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/China-related articles. If you disagree with any of the conventions, please discuss the issue within the talk page. Ongoing news and tasks relevant to China-related topics can also be found at WikiProject China.

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:

1. Use 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).
2. Do not use when the syllable starts a word: Àomén (澳門), or is separated by a hyphen: Rì-É Zhànzhēng (日俄战争)
3. In the case of the erhua, omit the e in ér: tàngr (趟儿), gōngyuánr (公園兒), xiǎoháir (小孩儿).

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")
  • Era name
  • Ethnic group name
  • Religion name
  • Language name

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 emperors

See also: Wikipedia:History standards for China-related articles

The general principle is to use the name most commonly used in English reliable sources, per policy.

Summary of guidelines used:

1. Emperors before the Tang Dynasty: use posthumous names, such as Emperor Wu of Han (漢武帝).
2. Emperors of the Tang, Song, Liao and Jin (1115-1234) dynasties: use temple names, such as Emperor Taizong of Tang (唐太宗).
3. 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".

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 state organs

This is an incomplete list of reference material. People who are familiar with the matter are welcomed to provide better source.

• sank0916 (2006-11-10 17:19). "国家机关翻译表". Baidu Zhidao. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |author= (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• "国务院机构英文译名" (MS DOC). Center of International Cooperation and Exchanges (Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs), North China University of Technology Office. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "单位及部门名称英译概述". junpengyuan (in Chinese). 2008-10-7 12:39. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help) This looks like an excerpt of a manual.

Place names

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Tibetan)

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. 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

Type	char.	Normal	Disambiguate
			by location	by type
Province 省	>1	Zhejiang 浙江省 Rehe 热河省	Fujian Province, Republic of China	Heilongjiang 黑龙江省
				Heilong River 黑龙江
Aut. Region 自治区	>1	Ningxia 宁夏回族自治区	no example yet	Tibet Autonomous Region 西藏自治区
				Tibet 藏区 / 吐蕃
Municipality / City (plc / clc / pc / ccc) 直辖、地级、县级市 直轄、省轄、縣轄市	1	no example yet	no example yet	Mang City 芒市
			no example yet	Mang
	>1	Beijing 北京市 Nanjing 南京市 Yiwu 义乌市 ROC: Taipei 台北市 ROC: Keelung 基隆市 ROC: Banciao 板橋市	Yichun, Heilongjiang 伊春市	Jilin City 吉林市
			Yichun, Jiangxi 宜春市	Jilin 吉林省
League / Banner 盟旗	>1	Alxa League 阿拉善盟 Harqin Banner 喀喇沁旗	no example yet	Naiman Banner 奈曼旗
				Naiman (people) 奈曼部
(Aut.) Prefecture 地区 / 自治州	>1	Haidong Prefecture 海东地区 Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture 延边朝鲜族自治州	no example yet	Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture 海南藏族自治州
				Hainan 海南省
(Aut.) County 县 / 自治县 縣	1	Pan County 盘县	She County, Anhui 歙县	no example yet
			She County, Hebei 涉县
	>1	Fugou County 扶沟县 Dachang Hui Autonomous County 大厂回族自治县 ROC: Hsinchu County 新竹縣	Wushan County, Chongqing 巫山县	Poyang County 鄱阳县
			Wushan County, Gansu 武山县	Lake Poyang 鄱阳湖
District 区 區	1	no example yet	Jiaoqu, Jiamusi 佳木斯市郊区	no example yet
			Jiaoqu, Yangquan 阳泉市郊区
	>1	Chongwen District 崇文区 but also: Pudong 浦东新区 ROC: Beitou 北投區	Chaoyang District, Beijing 北京市朝阳区	Hebei District 天津市河北区
			Chaoyang District, Changchun 长春市朝阳区	Hebei 河北省
Town / Township* 乡镇 鄉鎮	>1	Zhouzhuang 周庄镇	Huayuankou, Zhengzhou 郑州市花园口镇	Huanren Town 桓仁镇
			Huayuankou, Jingyu County 靖宇县花园口镇	Huanren Manchu Autonomous County 桓仁满族自治县

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.

• Beijing West
• Beijing South Station

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)

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.