Jose Posted January 19, 2005 at 08:11 PM Report Posted January 19, 2005 at 08:11 PM From Yahoo! China: http://cn.news.yahoo.com/050119/346/288yo.html 韩国汉城市长宣布汉城中文名称改为“首尔” (The mayor of Seoul announces that the Chinese name of Seoul has been changed from 汉城 to 首尔) This is the reason he's given, from the same article: 李明博说，绝大多数国家都将“ＳＥＯＵＬ”按照与英文标记相似的发音来称呼，汉语中的华盛顿、伦敦、莫斯科也都是根据这些地名的固有发音来标记的，只有汉城的中文名称一直沿用古代名称“汉城”。 Frankly, I can't understand the reasoning behind this. If Seoul has a traditional Chinese name that has been used for centuries, why replace that with a transcription? Am I the only one who thinks 首尔 is a horrible name?
skylee Posted January 19, 2005 at 11:50 PM Report Posted January 19, 2005 at 11:50 PM No, you are not the only one. I don't like the new name. But I guess it has to do with korean's national identity (Seoul is a pure hangul name). While the old names 漢城/漢陽 etc probably originated from the name of river 漢江, the word "han" may have other implications to koreans.
geraldc Posted January 20, 2005 at 12:26 AM Report Posted January 20, 2005 at 12:26 AM I thought they were going to move the capital away from Seoul to some city further down south. I do admire the way Koreans just decide on something then just do it.
woodcutter Posted January 20, 2005 at 02:39 AM Report Posted January 20, 2005 at 02:39 AM They decided to move the capital down south. Then they had a bout of fisticuffs in parliament. Now they are not going to do it. Admirable?
in_lab Posted January 20, 2005 at 04:37 AM Report Posted January 20, 2005 at 04:37 AM I saw this on the news yesterday. I think Chinese people can and will ignore the official name. And they should. Not because it's an unwelcome attempt by Korea to change the Chinese language, but because 首尔 is a horrible looking and horrible sounding name
smithsgj Posted January 20, 2005 at 01:22 PM Report Posted January 20, 2005 at 01:22 PM They must mean the name in Korean when it's written in Chinese, surely? How can they prescribe a name for a city or anything else in another language? Imagine if the UK government announced that London's Chinese name were to be changed. Ludicrous.
HashiriKata Posted January 20, 2005 at 02:45 PM Report Posted January 20, 2005 at 02:45 PM I doubt that the new name will often be written like this (首尔) among Koreans or within Korea but it'll be in Korean script. For us sinophiles, whether we like "首尔" or not doesn't matter much, does it? How can they prescribe a name for a city or anything else in another language? Imagine if the UK government announced that London's Chinese name were to be changed. Ludicrous. I don't think this is the case. I don't think the Koreans are forbidding anyone using 漢城 outside Korea to refer to Seoul.
in_lab Posted January 21, 2005 at 04:38 AM Report Posted January 21, 2005 at 04:38 AM smithsgj is write, they don't have authority to forbid other from using han4cheng2, but they are prescribing the use of shou3 er3. There's one line in the article 随着韩中两国的往来与交流日益频繁，名称造成的混乱越来越多。 What is the 混乱 that this is talking about? I only see 混乱 in changing the name.
yonglan Posted January 21, 2005 at 10:56 AM Report Posted January 21, 2005 at 10:56 AM What is the 混乱 that this is talking about? I only see 混乱 in changing the name. It seems they mean that the rest of the world has something approximating Seoul's name as written in Hangul. Hancheng doesn't sound remotely like it. We now have two threads on this subject . . . http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?p=31435#31435
Quest Posted January 21, 2005 at 11:35 AM Report Posted January 21, 2005 at 11:35 AM Okay, discuss in that other thread, I will close this one.
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