Root cause analysis of the differences between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese

Anyone who speaks Chinese understands there exist differences between the Chinese used in Mainland China and in Taiwan. Examples include

• Mainland uses simplified characters; Taiwan uses traditional characters
• Mainland uses Hanyu Pinyin, a Chinese Romanization scheme, as the standard for teaching Chinese and denoting pronunciation in dictionaries; Taiwan uses Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ)
• For metric length units, Mainland uses "米, 釐米, 毫米"; Taiwan uses "公尺, 公分, 公釐"
• Mainland uses Gregorian calendar; Taiwan uses the Minguo calendar (although Gregorian is becoming ever more common)
• For Western movie names, Mainland often translates literally; Taiwan often adds its own interpretation, e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is known as "加勒比海盜：黑珍珠號的詛咒" in Mainland; and "神鬼奇航：鬼盜船魔咒" in Taiwan, I, Robot is known as "我，機械人"; and "機械公敵" in Taiwan
• For technology terms, Mainland also translates verbatim; while Taiwan usually uses words that are more literary, e.g. "computer" is translated as "計算機" in Mainland; and "電腦" in Taiwan (although many Mainlander are used to "電腦" too), "mobile phone" is translated as "移動電話" in Mainland; and "行動電話" in Taiwan
• The quotation mark is different too. Mainland uses “”; Taiwan uses「」 (Most people probably don't notice this)

Upon reading the first bullet point, old-guard Kuomintang would immediately raise the banner of "The communist is the destroyer of traditional Chinese culture" and use the same rhetoric to explain the rest of the bullet points. But do you really think that Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and their fellows thought "we are the bad guys, so we must destroy traditional Chinese culture. To destroy traditional Chinese culture, we must do this, this, and that". Of course not. To find the root causes of these differences, one must start from the different ideologies of the two sides.

During the martial law period, the Republic of China reiterated itself as "the Chinese people", "the legitimate representation of the Chinese culture", and "the guardian of traditional values". Such ideology culminated during the Chinese Cultural Renaissance, started in 1966 in response to Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic. Because of this, Taiwan continued to use traditional characters and Bopomofo, created in the early years of the Republic. Taiwan uses "公尺, 公寸, 公分, 公釐" for metric length units because "尺, 寸, 分, 釐" were length units used in ancient China. The Minguo calendar is system similar to calendar era used in imperial age. And literary words are usually used to translate foreign terms.

On the other side, the People's Republic of China emphasized itself as the "New China", where new systems must be established, and remnants from the imperial age must be removed. In addition, Marxism downplays the distinction between races, and ultimately seeks to establish a world without racial boundaries and political borders. Under these principles, Mainland uses simplified Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin because they are "new". Mainland uses Gregorian calendar so that they have the same standard as (most of) the rest of the world, therefore removing the distinction between countries, and also moving away from a construct inherited from the imperial age. Using “” as the quotation marks is the same thing. As for metric length units in Mainland, the word "meter" was first translated phonetically as "米", then prefixed with words that represent 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000, namely "分, 釐, 毫", to construct "米, 釐米, 毫米". Such construction follows the same pattern as the origin of the metric system because "centi" means 1/100 and "milli" means 1/1000. By doing so, they adhere to the principle that the world is one big family and racial distinction should be deemphasized in Marxism.

If we only look at the intents of the two ideologies, both seem positive. So some people might say it is natural to have regional variants of the same language. No variant is better than others. However, there are still a lot of people looking at this subject with "good v.s. bad" in mind. So I feel that I must present my take on this. If we really have to evaluate the differences on a scale of "good or bad", how should we do it?

To criticize something, one must fully understand it first. One must not accept or reject something wholesale because of ideology. Every item must be evaluated separately, with science and logic. I personally think that Bopomofo is more suitable as a tool for teaching Chinese as the first language, while Hanyu Pinyin is more suitable for transliterating Chinese words with Roman letters (e.g. names on passport, or to export concepts of Chinese origin, such as Bagua). The detail reasoning of that probably warrants another full length article (Chinese only). I also think that Mainland's translation of the word "Islam", "伊斯蘭教", is better than the Taiwanese version, "回教" (the religion of Hui) because the Hui people are just a small part of the Muslims. The Gregorian calendar is better than the Minguo calendar. Imagine every country and regime has its own calendar system, isn't that very inconvenient and quite pointless. There's a reason someone invented the metric system. As for movie titles, I personally can't stand the Taiwanese practice of adding their own interpretation. How is "I, Robot" related to "公敵" (enemy of the state) in any way? Translations that are too literal or too colloquial are probably unsuitable for a cultural products in the Chinese world either. Slight modification is acceptable. For example, "Speed" (1994) is translated as "生死時速" (lit. per hour speed of life and death) in Mainland. At least the notion of "speed" is preserved. There is no way to rationalize the Taiwanese counterpart: "捍衛戰警" (lit. defending police). Last but not least, for computer and mobile phone, I think the Taiwanese version, "電腦" and "行動電話" are better because "計算機" can be confused with arithmetic-only calculator. Although "移動" and "行動" both mean "mobile", "移動" sounds more like a verb, while "行動" sounds more like an adjective. So "行動" is better.

Therefore, one must first fully understand the root cause, examine each item individually, and not have ideological prejudice.

The myth about speaking English

In urban Taiwan, there’s been an increasing trend in the belief that being able to converse in English to a foreigners on a street is cool, and being unable to do so is uncool. If I had to speak to a white person, a black person, or an Indian looking person in Taiwan, I would first try in Chinese. Only when the other party doesn’t understand me, I’d try English. I have two reasons

1. In the United States, people speak English to me. They won’t attempt in Chinese or Japanese just because I look like an East Asian. In France, people speak French to me. In Japan, people speak Japanese to me. So why must I speak English in Taiwan when speaking to foreigners? Chinese is the language of the land here, in other words, they bear the burden of speaking Chinese more than I bear the burden of speaking English. Therefore, Chinese has precedence over English. Conversely, if I were to work in the States, I’d speak English at work, even to those whose mother tongue is Chinese, when alone.


2. If I were to automatically speak English to strangers of a certain demographics (say white people), the implication of such action is that these people are unable or unwilling to immigrate to Taiwan. In these days, district offices, township offices, and public schools in Taiwan offer activities to immigrant spouses of foreign origin. Most of the activities involve language learning. By doing so, it means the society accepts them, and has faith in their ability to integrate with the society. But if I were to skip over Chinese for strangers of a certain demographics, it implies that these people cannot be immigrants. Such subconscious assumptions, may it be that our society doesn’t accept them, or these people are unable or unwilling to immigrate, are not good.

Make no mistake, I do not oppose learning English. In fact, I encourage anyone to learn any language. That said, I must impart my personal experience of English learning. During the process, I witnessed how a dominating language slowly erodes a weak language. There was a time when I was active on Wikipedia. At the time I chose the English Wikipedia because editing the English Wikipedia makes the most impact. While doing that, I met editors around the world whose native language isn’t English. But they all joined the English Wikipedia for similar reasons, that was to maximize their contributions, or the Wikipedias in their languages were not mature enough. For these reasons, the English Wikipedia has become the largest, and is still growing at the fastest speed.

English is not the only language that benefits from being dominant. During the course of history, Chinese has also made other languages extinct. Soon after the Xianbei people established the Northern Wei Dynasty, they started sinicizing themselves. The Manchurians did the same after the founding of the Qing Dynasty. Now the Xianbei language is extinct, fewer than 100 can speak Manchu. The Han people never forced them to sinicize because the Xianbei and the Manchurians were in power at the time. They voluntarily did so. From this example, we can see how a dominating language rolls like a snowball.

I have made some Indian friends in the States. They told me that in India, some schools choose English as the medium of instruction, some choose Hindi, while some choose the local state language. I’m not sure which kind of school did my Indian friends attend, but I know many of them do not speak their mother tongues fluidly. They have to pause and think when I ask if they know how to say simple words like “math” or “taxi”. Most of the time, they communicate in English on Facebook, with occasional use of Romanized Hindi. I also happen to know many people whose native language is Chinese, who went to high schools or colleges in the States. They, too, often use English only on Facebook.

I encourage everyone to learn English. But I must remind everyone, the more you learn, the more responsibility you have to protect your native language.

Further reading: "我的孩子不會講中文" (My kid does not speak Chinese) by 張湘君 ISBN: 9867894219

East Asian Culture Comparison Table

	Mainland China	Taiwan	Hong Kong	S Korea	N Korea	Vietnam	Japan
Lunar New Year	Restored in 1980	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but because of the time zone difference, new moon may be off by one day	Only before 1873. Okinawa Prefecture and Amami Islands of the former Ryūkyū Kingdom still do.
Chinese zodiac	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but with rat, ox, tiger, cat	Yes
24 solar terms	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duanwu Festival	Restored in 2008	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, but not a public holiday	Celebrated on Gregorian 5/5. Transformed into Children's Day
Mid-Autumn Festival	Restored in 2008	Yes	Yes, but on lunar 8/16	Yes	Yes	Yes, but not a public holiday	Yes, but not a public holiday
Pronunciation of the character "文"	wen2	bûn (Min Nan)	man4	mun	mun	văn, von	mon/bun/fumi
Is there a standalone word for 104	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Usually "mười nghìn", where "mười" means ten, and "nghìn" means thousand	Yes
Uses Chinese (Han) characters	Yes	Yes	Yes	Almost none	No	No, only visible at historical sites	Yes
1-char family names, 2-char given names are common	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Basic sentence structure (the ordering of subject, verb, object)	SVO (I eat rice)	SVO (I eat rice)	SVO (I eat rice)	SOV (I rice eat)	SOV (I rice eat)	SVO (I eat rice)	SOV (I rice eat)
Has level 1 municipality	Yes	Yes	/	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Multilingualism in the Greater China Region

Although Han Chinese constitute as much as 92% of the total population, cultural exchanges between different ethnic groups are common through out the history, within today's political borders or otherwise. Linguistic influences in both directions are also widespread. Even some Han Chinese don't know that the modern word for "brother" (哥) is borrowed in the Tang Dynasty from the Xianbei language, which is of Mongolic. There is a Chinese idiom that roughly translates to "With great diversity comes greatness" (有容乃大).

Below you will find public signs that are written in many different languages, starting from the Northeast region, then counter-clockwise

Korean in Yanji City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province

延吉市實驗中學 = 연길시 실험 중학 = Yanji Experimental Middle School

東北亞喜宴 = 동북아 희연 = Northeast Asian Wedding Banquet

Russian in Fuyuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province (where Russia is just across the river)

五金家電商場 = Амур бытовая техника --> Home appliances of Amur River

With some English

Russian in Aihui District, Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province (where Russia is just across the river)

РЕСТОРАН "ПУТИН" --> RESTAURANT "PUTIN"

Mongolian in Mongolian script and Russian in Manzhouli City, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (where Russia is 5 km away in minimum distance)

電器維修 = ремонт магнитафонов --> Tape recorde repair

(магнитафонов is a typo, should be магнитофонов)

Manchu, Han Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian in Mongolian script at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, Yonghe Temple, Dongcheng District, Beijing Municipality



Introduction in Japanese, Korean, and Russian at Juyongguan, Changping District, Beijing Municipality

居庸関長城のご紹介 = 거용관 장성 소개 = Краткие сведения о Стене Цзюйюнгуань = Introduction of Juyongguan

With some English

Mongolian in Mongolian script, Mongolian in Cyrillic alphabet, and British English in Erenhot City, Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

華聯商城 = ХУА ЛИАНЬ ХУДАЛДААНЫ ТӨВ = HUA LIAN COMMERCIAL CENTRE

Mongolian in Mongolian script in Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

With some English

Kazakh and Uyghur in Tacheng City, Tacheng Prefecture, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region

I cannot tell if the text above "中國農民銀行" (Agricultural Bank of China) is Kazakh in Arabic script or Uyghur. With some English.

Uyghur at the Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar City, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region (not far from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)

With some English

Uyghur and Sarikoli in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region (where Tajikistan is 19 km away in minimum distance)

With some British English

Tibetan in Chengguan District, Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region

有一些英語

Arabic, Tibetan, and Han Chinese in Chengguan District, Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region



Tai Nüa, Tai Lü, and Jingpho in Jiegao Townships, Ruili City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province (where Myanmar is just across the street)

I cannot tell if the text is Tai Nüa or Burmese

I cannot tell if the text is Tai Nüa or Burmese

Tai Lü in Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province

With some English

Tai Lü and Lao in Mohan, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province

With some English

Vietnamese in Dongxing City, Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

異國特產批發 = Bán buôn đặc sản nước ngoài

Russian and Korean in Tianya Town, Sanya City, Hainan Province



Portuguese, Japanese, and English in Macau Special Administrative Region



British English in Kowloon City District, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

土瓜灣體育館 = To Kwa Wan Sports Centre

British English in Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City, Republic of China

高雄市楠梓國民小學 = Nan-Tzu Primary School, Kaohsiung

American English and French in Minxiong Township, Chiayi County, Republic of China

嘉義縣表演藝術中心 = Chiayi Performing Arts Center
法國春天藝術節 = Printemps, Français de Chiayi --> Spring, French of Chiayi

American English in Lugu Township, Nantou County

遊客中心 = Visitor Center

Romanization and Katakana at Din Tai Fung, Hsinchu City, Republic of China

鼎泰豐 = DIN TAI FUNG = ディンタイフォン

With some English. The Katakana "ディンタイフォン" merely denotes the pronunciations. In regular Japanese text, the name is still written as Chinese characters "鼎泰豊".

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In addition to multilingualism in the Greater China Region, the language of Han Chinese is also widely accepted and used throughout the world.

Russian and Chinese in Zabaykalsk, Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia (where the border is 2 km away in minimum distance)



Mongolian in Cyrillic script, English, and simplified Chinese in Zamyn-Üüd, Dornogovi Province, Mongolia (where the border is 4 km away in minimum distance)



British English and Chinese in the City of Westminster, Greater London, England, the United Kingdom



Simplified Chinese and Burmese in Kokang (First Special Region), Shan State, Myanmar (where the border is 6 km away in minimum distance)

Chinese is the primary language at this place, which is politically and militarily unstable.

Thai, English, traditional Chinese, and Burmese in Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand (where Myanmar is just across the river the Chinese border is 119 km away in minimum distance)



Malay, traditional Chinese, English, and Tamil on Penang Island, Penang State, Malaysia



Malay, traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese on Penang Island, Penang State, Malaysia



English, simplified Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in Singapore

Note that it is common in Singapore to mix traditional and simplified Chinese for everyday use. This example contains only traditional Chinese.

Lao and simplified Chinese in Boten, Luang Namtha Province, Laos (where the border is 1 km away in minimum distance)



Indonesian, two Englishes??, simplified Chinese, and French in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia



Vietnamese, simplified Chinese, and English in Lao Cai City, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam (where China is just across the river)



Vietnamese, traditional and simplified Chinese in Móng Cái, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam (where China is just across the river)

Note that traditional and simplified Chinese coexist on the same object

American English, Chinese, Japanese, Korea, Spanish, Filipino, Vietnamese in Bell, California, the United States of America



Traditional Chinese and American English in possibly Richmond, Virginia, the United States of America



Canadian English and traditional Chinese in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

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With the sheer number of Chinese, some mistakes are inevitable.

Possibly in Tainan City, Republic of China

台南海鮮 (Tainan Seafood) = Platform South Sea Fresh

Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

餐廳 (Restaurant) = Translate server error

Chinglish

Good not easy.
Another has hole sky.
Hundred mouths cannot argue.
Cup bow snake shadow.
Not move sound color.
The dharma gateway of nonduality.
Fast horse add whip.
Insert wing difficult fly.
Face has difficult colors.
Powder body shatter bone.
River east lion roar.
Poor path end road.
Steal chicken touch dog.
Stupid stupid want to move.
Unforgiving when gaining reasons.
East see see, west see see.
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven.
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth?
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment.
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust.
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child.
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy.
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point.













Good not easy. 好不容易
Another has hole sky. 別有洞天
Hundred mouths cannot argue. 百口莫辯
Cup bow snake shadow. 杯弓蛇影
Not move sound color. 不動聲色
The dharma gateway of nonduality. 不二法門
Fast horse add whip. 快馬加鞭
Insert wing difficult fly. 插翅難飛
Face has difficult colors. 面有難色
Powder body shatter bone. 粉身碎骨
River east lion roar. 河東獅吼
Poor path end road. 窮途末路
Steal chicken touch dog. 偷雞摸狗
Stupid stupid want to move. 蠢蠢欲動
Unforgiving when gaining reasons. 得理不饒人
East see see, west see see. 東看看，西看看
The vengeance of non-co-load heaven. 不共戴天之仇
District district small event, how enough to hang on teeth? 區區小事，何足掛齒
It was late when speaking, but fast at the moment. 說時遲，那時快
One drum as gas, repeat then deplete, third then exhaust. 一鼓作氣，再而衰，三而竭
Old my old, and then old someone else's old. Child my child, and then child someone else's child. 老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼
First under heaven worry and worry, then under heaven happy and happy. 先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂
You calculate what east west. You give me small heart one point. 你算什麼東西，你給我小心一點

Translation is hard

(This article assumes a certain level of Chinese proficiency from the readers)
In recent years, the Chinese translation of movie titles of movies produced in English speaking countries has become a laughing stock among the bilingual community. It is evident when articles like "超搞笑的港臺電影名翻譯", "片名的遊戲版本0.3 之一" (之二, 之三), and "香港台灣電影片名翻譯" all point to the same twisted translation practice employed by the three major Chinese speaking markets (Taiwan, Hong Kong + Macau, and Mainland). These articles have summarized that countless movie titles are merely permutations of

「魔鬼戰將戰警絕地追殺令追緝令火線無敵烈火超級終極任務悍將王牌致命終結令絕命危機總動員奇兵女兒閃靈神鬼迫切第三類戰士魔宮也瘋狂本色傳奇獵殺不可能終結者第六感情挑時空遊戲捍衛威龍小鬼赤子駭客惡夜毀滅最後英雄戰場桃色戰慄出擊擋不住攔截驚爆（點）特區帝國刺激特攻隊靈異奪命禁入時刻密碼戰拼圖我的野蠻心靈獵X行動星際霹靂特務魔法重裝殺手生死戀公敵百分百未眠辣妹控訴愛XXXX難開女（男）人香異想世界麻辣戰地」(at least this is the long standing pattern in Taiwan)

The following pirate movie and science fiction movie further illustrate the problem

Original:	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (1)	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2)	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (3)
Chinese (literal)	加勒比海海盜：黑珍珠的詛咒	加勒比海海盜：死人的（寶）箱	加勒比海海盜：在世界的盡頭
TW	神鬼奇航：鬼盜船魔咒	神鬼奇航2：加勒比海盜	神鬼奇航3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from TW	Devine and Ghostly Voyage: Curse of the Ghost Pirate Ship	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 2: Pirates of the Caribbean	Devine and Ghostly Voyage 3: World's End
HK	魔盜王決戰鬼盜船	加勒比海盜：決戰魔盜王	加勒比海盜：魔盜王終極之戰
Reversal from HK	Demon Thief Lord v.s. Ghostly Pirate Ship	Pirates of the Caribbean: Duel with the Demon Thief Lord	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Final Battle of the Demon Thief Lord
ML	加勒比海盜：黑珍珠號的詛咒	加勒比海盜2：聚魂棺	加勒比海盜3：世界的盡頭
Reversal from ML	Pirates of the Caribbean: (The) Curse of the Black Pear	Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Soul Collecting Coffin	Pirates of the Caribbean 3: World's End

原名：	The Matrix (1)	The Matrix Reloaded (2)	The Matrix Revolutions (3)
Chinese (literal)	矩陣	矩陣重新載入	矩陣革命
TW	駭客任務	駭客任務2：重裝上陣	駭客任務3：最後戰役
Reversal from TW	Hacker's Mission	Hacker's Mission 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Hacker's Mission 3: The Final Battle
港澳翻譯	廿二世紀殺人網絡	廿二世紀殺人網絡2：決戰未來	廿二世紀殺人網絡3：驚變世紀
Reversal from HK	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 2: Battle of/for the Future	Internet Murder of the 22nd Century 3: The Century of Startling Changes
大陸翻譯	黑客帝國	黑客帝國2：重裝上陣	黑客帝國3：矩陣革命
Reversal from ML	Empire of Hackers	Empire of Hackers 2: Heavily Rearmed for Battle	Empire of Hackers 3: Revolution of the Matrix

In my opinion, other worse examples include

Speed = distance ÷ time

• Hancock→台：全民超人、港：街頭超人、陸：全民超人漢考克
• I, Robot→台：機械公敵、港：智能叛變、陸：我，機械人
• Speed (1994)→台：捍衛戰警、港：生死時速、陸：生死時速
• The Rock→台：絕地任務、港：石破天驚、陸：勇闖奪命島

Although these translations are crappy, I must point out that good ones are hard to come by. And the 4 examples above are the perfect proof. Can you provide a better one?

Many bilingual people like to mock these translations. But has anyone analyze what makes good translation so hard?

One important factor is the differentiation between "literary" (L) and "colloquial" (C) in the Chinese language. There's a phenomenon among southern Chinese dialects called the "literary and colloquial readings" (文白異讀), that is the same character has a reading in a literary context, and another in a colloquial context. Using Min Nan which has the most number of such differentiations as an example, the reading from 1 to 10 are

Character	一 1	二 2	三 3	四 4	五 5	六 6	七 7	八 8	九 9	十 10
Lit.	it	jī/lī	sàm	sù	ngó͘	lio̍k	chhit	pat	kiú	si̍p
Col.	chi̍t	nn̄g	saⁿ	sì	gō͘	la̍k	(as above)	peh/pəeh	káu	cha̍p

(Note: Some special diacritics cannot be displayed in IEor Google Chrome. Firefox can)

When describing monetary amount, the colloquial reading is used. The "一" in "一百塊" is read as "chi̍t". When describing a telephone number, like "0912", it is read as the litarary reading "空kiú it lī". In addition, even a character as simple "人" (person/people) is read differently in "有人" ("there's a person") and "人民" ("people" in a socio-political context). The primary cause such differentiation is that colloquial readings are inherited from some time between the Three Kingdom (三國) period and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (南北朝) (220-589 AD), while the literary reading is a result of southern Chinese trying to imitate the northern standard dialect during the Tang (唐) Dynasty (618-907).

So what does the "differentiation between L and C" (文白異讀, DbLC) have to do with translation of modern English movie titles? Although DbLC is (almost) non-existing in Mandarin, the distinction still exists in people's mind. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a New Culture Movement (新文化運動) some 90 years ago. That is to say it was not long ago when the educated Chinese population during the Ming (明) and the Qing (清) Dynasties (1368-1911) wrote literary text by imitating classical Chinese from the Qin (秦) and Han (漢) Dynasties (221 BC - 220 CE).

The title "I, Robot" is translated as "機械公敵" (Robotic Enemy of the States. Yes, 公敵 is part of it only because Will Smith played the protagonist in Enemy of the State) in Taiwan, and "我，機械人" in Mainland. Although "機械公敵" is not exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is more suitable as a title of an artwork; Although "我，機械人" is exactly the same as the original title, any Chinese native speaker will tell you that this title is not as suitable as a title of an artwork. Hancock is another good example. There are many more examples, the easiest being titles with only one noun, like The Mask, The One, or The Pianist.

The distinction between literary and colloquial is more pronounced in Chinese than in English. Therefore, if the original English title is a very commonly used word, then you can only choose between something that is faithful but too colloquial or something that is polished but distorted. (Of course, commercial incentive is another important factor for this chaos.)

So being bilingual doesn't really qualify a person to laugh at these translations, albeit not ideal, without examining the fundamental differences between the two languages and the collective habit on the choice of words between the two groups of speakers. In addition, there's no point with mainlanders mocking Taiwanese translation such as "捍衛" and "總動員" as a ghost of the past from Chiang Kai-shek's era, nor is there point with Taiwanese mocking HK translation as some cheap erotic or mainlanders' translation too colloquial. None of them are good at this.

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Now I'm done with English to Chinese. Let's move on to Chinese to English.

There's this one time when I found out from newspaper that a certain media or group of people make fun of "unofficial" translations of Chinese dishes before Beijing Tourism Administration published 中文菜單英文譯法 (English Translation of Chinese Dishes) during the Olympics. (Another news report, CNN report). The most frequently mocked examples of unofficial translations include

• 童子雞 → Chicken without sex life
• 麻婆豆腐 → Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman

Although such translation is indeed inappropriate, I must yet again question what the root cause is. I propose the following

1. Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language
2. English is a highly hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, the phonetic values are usually taken without looking at the meaning. (And if a borrowed word is written is Roman letters, then it is borrowed as-is)

Chinese is a strongly "semantic-oriented" language

When the Chinese world sees something alien, they usually first look at what it is, what its functions are, and what it means. Only when all those fail would the Chinese resort to phonetic borrowing. This phenomenon is quite unique in modern language transfusion. Even in Korean and Japanese, the two languages most influenced by Chinese, they both tend to borrow as-is in comparison to Chinese. These two languages are not as semantic oriented as Chinese.

JP	reading	KR	reading
エ	e	ㅅ	s
レ	re	ㄱ	g
ベ	he	ㄹ	l
ー	(long vowel)	ㅂ	b
タ	ta	ㅌ	t
コ	ko	final ㅇ	ng
ビ	bi	ㅡ	eu
ニ	ni	ㅏ	a
ス	su	ㅣ	i
ト	to	init. ㅇ	(silent)
ア	a	ㅔ	e
		ㅓ	eo

For example, elevator, invented in the West, is 電梯 in Chinese (tele-strair), "エレベーター" in Japanese (erebētā), and in Korean, it is sometimes "승강기", cognate to "昇降機" Chinese (elevator translated semantically), and sometimes "엘리베이터" (el li be i teo). Convenience store is "便利商店" in Chinese, a semantic translation, and "コンビニエンスストア" in Japanese (konbiniensu sutoa). Similar examples (where it's a semantic translation in Chinese and phonetic in Korean and Japanese) include escalator, remote control, allergy, and BlackBerry, the phone.

Because Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language, many Chinese use the same logic while exporting Chinese words. This is why 麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu) becomes "bean curd made by a pock-marked woman".

English is a high hybrid language. When borrowing foreign words, they are usually borrowed as-is)

Sources of English words. Latin takes up 28%

On the contrary, there are numerous borrowed words. English is a member of the Germanic language. But as you can see from the pie chart, words from Germanic sources only take up 25%, while words from French and Latin encompass 28% each. Both of which are Latino-Faliscan languages, which are not so close to Germanic. Despite that, there are still many loan words from French and Latin. As a result, a concept can be represented by many different words. For example, "kingly", "regal", and "royal" all mean "of or relating to a king", and "kingly" is from Old English, "regal" is from Latin, and "royal" is from French (although ultimately also from "regalis" in Latin); "Water", "aqua", and "hydro" all represent water, and "water" is from Germanic, "aqua" from Latin, and "hydro" from Greek.

More examples:

Eng.	Chi.	Related	Chi.	Latin root	Meaning
body	身體	corporeal	有形體的	corpus	body
hand	手	manual	手動	manus	hand
fire	火	ignite	點火	ignis	fire
light	光	photon	光子	φως(希臘)	light
death	死亡	mortality	死亡	mors	death
year	年	annual	每年的	annus	year

What about Chinese things? "風水" is feng shui, not "wind water"; "豆腐" is tofu, fewer use "bean curd"; Even "炒麵" (fried noodles) is sometimes written as "chow mein" or "chao mian".

All the examples above point to one thing, that is English often borrows words directly as-is. Those that are unaware of this probably doesn't know "mapo" is acceptable.

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White ____ ?

Diplomatic tussle: 'Aobama' or 'Oubama'? by The Washington Post is an unusual article about not politics, but linguistics. It shows the differences of opinion between the Americans and the (mainland) Chinese over some of the Chinese translation, which can be summarized as the follwing:

1. The Americans wants the Chinese to call White House "白屋" (lit. "white house"), and not the established "白宮" (lit. "white palace") because the U.S., as a federal republic, has no palace.


2. The Americans wants the Chinese to cal the current president "歐巴馬" (Ou-bama), where as the Chinese prefer "奧巴馬" (Ao-bama) because "奧" can mean "profound and deep" (深奧), and "歐" can mean Europe (歐洲). The Americans' rebuttal is that "歐" is closer to the actual pronunciation.

What do we see from this example? Although the Americans translators have learned the meaning of Chinese words and sentences, they are unaware of the distinction between literary and colloquial Chinese and the collective habit of native Chinese speakers. Second, both parties over-analyze the meaning of "歐" and "奧". In fact, either word carries only the phonetic value.

This article is quite long, but I have only 3 take-away points

1. The distinction between literary and colloquial words is stronger in Chinese than in English
2. Chinese is a strongly semantic-oriented language
3. English often borrows words directly as-is

Because of these reasons, translation can be a difficult task.

Learning a language is more than just knowing the meaning of words, mastering the grammar, and being able to live a life in that language. There's another layer of the cognitive process behind a language that needs to be understood.