How do you say "The Beatles" in Chinese? I'm getting conflicting answers. 披頭四 or 披头士? Surely it isn't 甲壳虫?

[WoAiJolinTsai]

So, which way do you say it? And which region says what?

I assumed Mainland China said it 披頭四 and Taiwan said it 披头士? But I'm watching this video about Paul McCartney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Vx2ogiJ9w, and she says it 披头士? But she looks Taiwanese?

Maybe I'm wrong!

Any clarity?

[Lu]

Looks like China says 披头士, in simplified characters. Chinese websites Zhihu and Douban write it like that.

And Taiwan says 披頭四, in traditional characters. Googling it written like that gives you some Taiwanese websites.

甲壳虫 seems to be the Volkswagen Beetle as well, and the spelling Baidu Baike uses for the band.

 

On 6/29/2023 at 6:32 PM, WoAiJolinTsai said:

But I'm watching this video about Paul McCartney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Vx2ogiJ9w, and she says it 披头士? But she looks Taiwanese?

I don't know how to tell if someone 'looks' Taiwanese, but the subtitles and the description of that video are all in simplified characters, as is the channel's title, so the channel at least is Chinese. I don't feel qualified to judge whether the woman's accent is Chinese or Taiwanese. As far as I can tell, it could be either, but I'm probably just not listening for the right things.

[Dlezcano]

The first name I heard for this group was 甲壳虫(乐队) in Mainland China over 20 years ago and my brains sticked to it. I can't tell whether the other names are more common or not since they don't talk about the Beatles very often.

[Demonic_Duck]

I've only ever heard 披头士 in mainland. And I've heard it decently often as I'm English, so it's a common entry in the "list every English thing I've ever heard of" spiel I sometimes get after telling someone my nationality.

[Dlezcano]

Just asked two Mainlanders, they told me they call them 甲壳虫, one of them even said she did never hear 披头士/四. That is all I can say.

[Jim]

Wife had heard 甲壳虫 but says she would say 披头士 if unprompted. Mainlander from Fujian. She'd not heard the 四 version.

[carlo]

for what is worth, I also heard 甲壳虫 when in a band 20+ years ago in Beijing. Though I might have also heard 披头士 and mistaken it for an accented pronunciation of the English word.

[Cateran]

As a native Chinese living in mainland China over 40 years, I use 甲壳虫乐队 and 披头士乐队 interchangeably. I've never heard of 披头四 before。But it is easy to understand that 披头四 is another name for 披头士 cause their pronunciations are very similar.

[suMMit]

Watched this today and this guy says 披头士. He seems to be from the mainland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi9PiD3dQaU

 

My vocabulary database lists 3: