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Isn’t it called “Beijing”?
Sorry, but the capital of China had been known as Peking in the English language for over three hundred years. Even after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the name “Peking” continued to adorn English language maps and official stationery printed in China. It was only in the mid-1970s that the Chinese government insisted upon the outside world replacing “Peking” with the modern pin yin spelling “Beijing.”
It escapes me why the English-speaking world bent over backwards to accommodate this demand. “Peking” is a far more evocative name that reaches back through the centuries and conjures images of China’s majestic culture. Nor does “Beijing” lend itself to a more accurate pronunciation of the capital’s name by foreigners, who slur the “j” and wind up producing a grating sound like “beigezhing,” a city not yet identified in China.
And why should there be a change simply for change’s sake? We all know that “Moscow” becomes “Moskva” in Russian, but there is no great rush for a revision of the English name. “Krung Thep” is a name puzzling to most, but everyone recognizes “Bangkok.” In Chinese, “New York” becomes “Niu Yue,” a name that sounds like something to do with Central Asian silk routes and not the Big Apple. Why not live and let live?
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