[quote=“Zhengzhou2010”]
The Western powers made China adopt names that were more complimentary. And thus we have the Heroic Country (England), the Virtuous Country (Germany) and the Law/Ruling Country (France, a reference to the Napoleonic Code perhaps?)[/quote]
No, these “complimentary” names are translated by western missionaries working closely with Chinese Emperors. And it is a Chinese tradition to pick good/complimentary words when writing to emperors or elders, and these missionaries knew that.
England was actually translated as 英吉利, not 英格蘭…, back then. 吉利 means good luck and good fortune.
I recall from my Chinese history classes in college that the original Chinese names for England, France, Germany and some other Western countries were actually very unfavorable. I don’t remember the specific Hanzi, but seem to recall my professor saying that the original Chinese names meant things like “Dog County” “Snake County” and “Rat County.” [/quote]
Interestingly enough in Irish the word for France is the same as the word for rat, but its just a coincidence. Less of a coincidence is that Wales is “Little Britain” and England is “Saxony”. In China when I tell people that I come from Ireland, I typically get followed up with questions: Ireland where is that? Isn’t that England? Men wear skirts in Ireland right? Then I wind up digging a hole where I try to explain. After repeating the exact same conversation about fifty times I just started telling people that I come from England. I’ve yet to tell someone that I come from “Waiguo”, but if you get really off the beaten path many people will just think you are from another part of China, seriously.
You shouldn’t give in to their stupidity. “I’m from Ireland, it’s the island next to the UK.” (我是愛爾蘭人，就是在英國隔壁的那個島) Also dumbed down but far less disparaging for Ireland.
Can you imagine a new zealander saying “that’s right, I’m from Australia” or an Austrian saying he or she is from Germany?
that’s what I say as well, next to UK. helps a little. china is interesting because some people can actually think you are Chinese from a minority group…sometimes…it’s very different than Taiwan.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]You shouldn’t give in to their stupidity. “I’m from Ireland, it’s the island next to the UK.” (我是愛爾蘭人，就是在英國隔壁的那個島) Also dumbed down but far less disparaging for Ireland.
Can you imagine a new zealander saying “that’s right, I’m from Australia” or an Austrian saying he or she is from Germany?[/quote]
Yea I say stuff like that too, but people are curious and want to know more, and have the same questions about pretty much the same topic as this thread. They want to know what “countries” there are in YingGuo and if they are all in the same country then how can they be different countries, and why part of Ireland is in that country but another part isn’t, and therefore isn’t Ireland is also two countries, and on and on, with the answer to many of the questions as “yes and no actually, let me explain”. All of it hampered by my Chinese ability and the fact that Chinese lacks some of the vocab on that topic to begin with. It’s trying to explain the politics of Taiwan to your deaf granny using only Swahili as a medium of communication…
Interestingly enough the word for Foreigner in Irish is “Gall” which comes from “Gaul” i.e. France, so all Foreigners in Irish are “Gaulish”, just like in Thai where the typical word for foreigner “Falang” just comes from “French”.
Even the British government uses 英國 for their consulates and embassies in China/TW.[/quote]
Because language is a funny, illogical, imprecise and fluid thing.
Yeah, I used to have fun with that one. I’d pretend to be from Xinjiang to get the local price at sights with two-tier pricing. It even worked at a hospital once, but I assume things have probably tighened up since then. The weirdest thing, though, was having people ask me if I was from Japan (I’m a white Californian). It happened several times…