Proper translation for the club name?

[Peng]

I have been appointed as the student adviser for Asian Deaf Club next school year. I've decided to write the club name in calligraphy.

I was thinking about using "東亞聾人會". But the new vice president (Korean decent) doesn't want to use "East Asia". She feels that the club is all about the whole Asia. Okay, I eliminate "東".

I look at 亞聾人會 and feels funny. "亞聾人" sounds like inferior deaf people. I realized "聾人" is considered as derogatory.

Anyone can come up with right translation for the club name? Many thanks!

[chrix]

What about using 亞洲 instead then? But if it was about the whole of Asia, it might be odd to use Chinese characters anyways.

As far as 聾人 goes, organisations in Hong Kong and Taiwan seem to be using this term. But these might have been grandfathered in as it were....

However, be aware that the CJK languages might diverge. For example in Japanese, the old term was 聾者 (usually written as ろう者), the new term is 聴覚障害者 (a term which was influenced by the Deaf culture debate in the US). As far as possible Chinese terms go, Wikipedia seems to suggest 聽覺障礙者, which in turn can be abbreviated to 聽障者 (look at this organisation's name). My Korean is quite poor, but it's likely their term would use the same characters as the Japanese or Chinese ones.

EDIT: I stand corrected, by myself. In the course of the Japanese character reform, 礙 was replaced by 害 so it is the same term in Japanese, at least for the new term. Google suggests that the short term 聴障者 is also used in Japan, but the longer version seems to be more common, for instance I haven't found any organisation that uses it.

Edited May 16, 2009 at 09:52 PM by chrix

[Meng Lelan]

Peng! Can I join your club, I'm deaf myself....hopefully you're in Texas too? But wait a minute...I'm not Asian...ah well.

They were using 聋哑人 up to just before I got to China in 1983, it means deaf-mute. Then a bunch of people from Gallaudet University came to visit and told the Chinese that no one in the Western world wants to use "deaf mute" anymore. So then they started using 聋人 when I got there and after. I think they still use 聋人 ， 听力障碍人 more often now. As far as I know it's not considered derogatory.

My deaf friends in the US are actually proud of the term deaf and in fact insist on capitalizing it as Deaf. Nothing derogatory, but again you have to be careful because some deaf people like me are so assimilated into the mainstream that we actually get mad about becoming a separate culture enough to be called "Deaf".

[chrix]

Very interesting case of varying connotation across different languages. I think in Japanese, the development was like this:

first, terms from the Native Japanese lexicon (wago 和語)　such as mekura (written 盲 or 瞽) for the blind and tsunbo (written 聾) for the deaf came to be seen as derogatory also by the society as a whole.

second, people started using Sino-Japanese terms (kango 漢語) instead, mōmokusha 盲目者 and rōasha　聾唖者 (and rōsha　聾者). These are now seen by advocates as discriminatory, and they propose the following:

third, using the more neutral terms shikaku-shōgaisha 視覚障害者　and chōkaku-shōgaisha 聴覚障害者 instead. I think since newspapers have started using them, many people have already accepted this usage.

[chrix]

Lelan, I know it might not be totally comparable, but in the US (and the European societies I am familiar with), some minorities have succeeded in reinterpreting formerly derogatory epithets as a proud symbol of their identity. For instance, the history of the words "gay" and "queer" comes to mind. This strategy does not seem to work in East Asia, as far as I can see...

(I am aware that the story behind Deaf with a big D is more complicated than that, so that's why I think it might not be totally comparable, but parts of it seem to go in the same direction).

[Peng]

OK, As I cooked dinner, something popped in my mind. I think I got mixed up with 聾人 and 聾子. 聾子 is derogatory, 聾人 isn't.

聽障者 is something new for me. But it's sort of too long for the club name, haha. Since the club mascot is dragon, I think it'd be nice pun if I use 聾 in the club name.

So far, all I can think of:

亞洲聾人會

亞洲聾會 (?)

亞洲聽障者會

Thanks, chrix and meng lelan! Oh, the club welcomes everyone, regardless their background, who is interested in Asian culture. haha. It's in Rochester, NY (Rochester Institute of Technology).

Edited May 17, 2009 at 03:46 PM by Peng

[Meng Lelan]

Zowie! That's where NTID is, and still is, right Peng? Maybe I'll come by up for a visit one of those days.

Yes, the deaf in China like that "pun", there was a deaf cartoonist there who named a deaf character Little Dragon 小龙. I think 亚洲聋人会 sounds nice. You might want to run that club name through some native Chinese to double check.