Does the three letter acronym CHN mean anything day to day in China?

[kakram]

Hello all,

I am posting this question here as I am interested to know if the three letters CHN mean anything in China.

In the same way that say USA means America and GBP means Great Britain.

So for example, if a web site had the domain name chnclassifieds.com (example) or chnautos.com - would that be *instantly* interpreted as 'Chinese Classifieds Web Site' or 'Chinese Auto Website'.

How strong is the association between 'CHN' and 'China' or 'Chinese'

Thank you.

[gougou]

GBP means Great Britain.

Actually it means British Pound.

I think CN is much more commonly used than CHN, but I can't comment on how well they are understood on an absolute scale.

[kakram]

Yes of course! My apologies - GBP means Pound. I meant to write GBR! :-)

So CN is more common. Interesting.

[roddy]

cn is very commonly seen as it's the top-level domain, like jp for Japan, ca for Canada, etc. CHN is a standard three-letter code like JPN and CAN used on, eg, passports, I guess maybe the mail service.

[kakram]

Hi - sure. I understand that both CHN and CN both mean 'China' as such. - to westerners

My question is more - would Chinese people - on the Chinese Main recognise it instantly as meaning 'China' in the same way that I as a native British guy in England instantly associate GBR with 'Great Britain' or an American would instantly recognise USA as meaning 'America'

[Shelley]

What does GBR mean. Great Britain is usually just GB. I have not seen GBR before and I am in the GB. I would actually expect to see UK more often.

[roddy]

I'd be more concerned about their ability to understand 'classifieds' or 'autos'. I'm not sure you can expect the 'China market' in general to recognise abbreviations from a foreign language in a foreign script, especially without a word boundary*. People used to working with English will do better.

*I've always wondered what possessed the 国家税务总局 to choose the url chinatax.gov.cn...吃。。那。。。他。。x?

Shelley - it's used in specific applications where a standard three letter abbreviation is used. Look at the machine-readable bit of your passport.

[Shelley]

i don't have a passport

[kakram]

Hi Roddy ... I just used 'classifieds' and 'autos' as an example. Let me be more specific.

I am a web site designer and I'm investigating whether the www.chnsingles.com would be a suitable name for a Chinese dating/marriage web site.

So 'singles' is understood in China right? And 'Chn Singles' should be pretty obvious - I am assuming... or am I assuming incorrectly?

[roddy]

Chnlove.com seems to have done ok - it's the #1 international dating site, says so right in the header.

[kakram]

:-)

yes - have seen their site. I am pretty sure chnsingles will be fine as a name. I wanted an insight from Chinese people - what would be the ideal name for a Chinese dating site.

chnsingles is designed to appeal to overseas Chinese (UK/USA/CAN) as well as native Chinese people living in China... it will be more a like a Global Chinese dating/marriage service - connecting Chinese people around the world rather than just in China.

[imron]

So 'singles' is understood in China right?

Not really, I think the word you are looking for is 单身.

I am a web site designer and I'm investigating whether the www.chnsingles.com would be a suitable name for a Chinese dating/marriage web site.

Well, according to the whois information you've already purchased the domain, so you might as well run with it.

[kakram]

imron - I can't use 单身. in the domain name .. yet .

Yes - I *have* purchased the domain name -- but I want to make sure it is acceptable to Chinese culture before I start the build. If it isn't I'll sell it and buy something more suitable.

[imron]

I can't use 单身. in the domain name .. yet .

I realise that. I was trying to point out the possibly mutally exclusive requirements of using an English word and having instant recognition amongst a Chinese audience. Many Chinese sites tend to use either the pinyin form of the characters, or an acronym made from the first letters of the pinyin syllables, or a mix a both, probably with a good helping of numbers for good luck.

Anyway, 单身 in toneless pinyin is 'danshen'. danshen.com is already taken, but something like zhdanshen would more closely approximate what you are asking for in English. Whether that's a suitable name for a dating site, I have no idea.

[msittig]

Yeah, what Imron said. It's sort of like a Chinese asking whether 美国单身 or 美洲单身 would be a better name for a dating site aimed at Americans.

Go with 5912.cn or something