Puzzles in Chinese Names

1900

"When I went to school I was always at the head of the class in geography," said the Studious Citizen. "I could 'bound' anything and name the nearest route to almost any place. I've always kept up my interest in geography, but latterly the pursuit is almost too much for me. The world is growing, I suppose, and I'm getting old.

"The Spanish-American War put a heavy strain on me; had to learn a lot of new places, you know. Well, that soon ended. I was getting pretty well acquainted with the Philippines, when the South African War came along.

"I wouldn't like to say, on the spur of the moment, which are the harder to spell, pronounce and remember, Philippine names or South African names. But neither can compare with the Chinese names that we have to keep track of now."

The Studious Citizen spread out his reference books and invited the guest to look on. "Why, sir," he added, testily, "if you'll believe me, the geographers and statisticians don't know how to spell 'em themselves!

"Take the 'royal province' of China, the province that contains the capital city of Pekin. (Call it 'Peking,' if you want to; you'll find books to back you up.) The 'Statesman's Year-Book' names that province 'Chili' and `Chihli.' 'Rand & McNally's Atlas' calls it 'Chihli.' 'Cram's Atlas' adds some decorative frills and brings forth 'Pe-Chi-Li.' And 'Lippincott's Gazetteer' gives you three guesses, 'Pe-Chee-Lee,' 'Chee-Lee' and 'Chi-Li.'

"Suppose we look up that city from which the allies started for Pekin. 'Tient-sin' the 'Statesman's Year-Book' calls it on one page; on another page it prints the name as one word, without any hyphen. 'Cram' declares it is 'Tien-sin,' the 'Rand Atlas' prefers 'Tientsin,' and 'Lippincott' drops in an extra capital and gives us 'Tien-Tsin.'

"But the time the map-makers really get into the worst tangle is when they come to name the northern terminus of the Imperial Railway, a city at the head of the Gulf of Liao-Tung — or Leao Tong, or Liautung. The 'Year-Book' calls it 'ChenChou'; 'Cram' says 'Kinchow'; the 'Rand Atlas' pronounces for 'Kinchau,' and 'Lippincott's Gazetteer,' which is nothing if not generous, suggests 'Kin-Choo,' 'Kin-Tchoo' and 'Kin-Tchou.'

"'Who shall decide when doctors disagree?' Well, these are all authorities, and probably it would be as safe to follow one as another. But he will be a clever man who, when writing about Chinese matters, doesn't sometimes spell a name in two or three different ways. I shall have a great deal of sympathy for editors while this trouble lasts.

"I wonder they don't all print in their papers some such notice as that which was hung over the dance-hall piano in the Western mining-camp. You remember it? 'Please don't shoot at the piano-player,' it said. 'He is doing the best he can.'" — Youth's Companion.