|
What's in a name? More specifically, what's in the spelling of a place name? Should the Chinese capital be spelt Beijing or Peking? In a survey jointly conducted by China Youth Daily and Sina.com, a vast majority - 81 percent - opposed the old spelling, with only 10.7 percent supporting it and the rest not caring one way or the other. Opponents of "Peking" hold the view that Chinese proper names should be spelt with the standard pinyin. They further elaborate that pandering to the old spelling demonstrates a lack of cultural confidence and subservience to the Western mindset. For me, this argument reflects the simplistic thinking of some people, especially the young, who habitually flaunt their political correctness. Cultural matters do not fall simply into right or wrong. As in the jianti versus fanti debate, which I discussed in this column last week, it is often a tradeoff between two equally flawed choices. Peking was a Wade-Giles spelling, which was formalized in 1906 by the Imperial Postal Joint-Session Conference; and the pinyin system, which converts it to Beijing, was formally accepted by the UN in 1979. Love it or hate it, the old form has accumulated so much baggage that you cannot change everything in one fell swoop. For example, the standard name for China's national opera is still Peking Opera. Why not change it to Beijing Opera? I guess Peking Opera was already known throughout the world when the city itself took on the new spelling. Ditto for Peking roast duck and Peking University. | 
