Chinese names in current China news

By Karen Christensen

The press has done a fairly good job with Chinese names in all the recent reporting, though I did see a few references to “Bo Bo Guagua.” But this interesting Bloomberg report goofed at one point:

Through Hitoro, Wangjiang and Wangning, who retained her Chinese citizenship, owned Beijing Jiahua Investment Consulting Co. via China Murder Suspect’s Sisters Ran $126 Million Empire – Bloomberg.

Their names should be Gu Wangjiang and Gu Wangning (or in Berkshire styling, on first use, as GU Wangjiang and GU Wangning). Unless one is trying for a tabloid effect (“Brad and Angelina”), the long form is the right one, even with sisters. Let’s be thankful that the Chinese family names are so short.

I like this Taiwanese website’s inclusion of the Chinese characters for the names used in the article. (See end for the names.)

By Karen Christensen|2012-04-15T18:21:49-04:00April 15th, 2012|Uncategorized|0 Comments

About the Author: Karen Christensen

Karen Christensen is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and occasional scholar who also writes about how women gain and wield power. She is the owner and CEO of Berkshire Publishing Group, a research associate of the Fairbank Center at Harvard, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and founder of the Train Campaign. She was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Press, Read Karen’s occasional dispatches from the frontlines of international publishing at Karen's Letter on Substack, and follow her on Twitter etc @karenchristenze.