Nicholas Leifker <nightelf@thekeep.org> wrote:

As for me... I'll be honest: Whenever I have seen the Chinese name 'shan'
translated into English, it has been spelled 'Xian' - and I don't mean
fanfic, either.

No, don't think so. These are two different syllables in Chinese, though
they might sound similar to us foriegners. ("Xi'An" is yet another
totally different sound, which I've also seen used for Shamps' name.)
"Shan" also means mountain (different character, same pronounciation). I
once visited Huangshan (yellow mountain); I guarantee that no one (who
knows what he/she is talking about) ever refers to the place as
Huangxian.

Not that there aren't different ways to romanize Chinese. There's the
modern Pinyin system, and also the older Wade-Giles. "Xian" is Pinyin;
in Wade-Giles, the same character would be written as "hsien," I think.
"Shan" is the same in both systems. Oddly enough, the name for Mousse
that usually gets used with Xian Pu, Mu Tsu, is Wade-Giles Romanized
whereas Xian is Pinyin.

 Now, from Chinese to Japanese to English would likely be
different, as Japanese doesn't have an 'X'.  So... they translate it in
kana like it sounds: "Shan".  Now, I'm no expert in translation from
Chinese to anything else; I don't know the methods involved.  But, I do
think some leeway needs to be given in a case like this.

Well, how do you feel about the names Ranma Satome, Soon Tendo, and Ukyo
Kunoji? I've seen these in fanfics -- and to the their credit, the
people who wrote them all corrected them when I pointed them out.

I don't see how "Xian Pu" is any less wrong than the above, or any less
wrong than spelling the Japanese word for uncute as "kauaiyikunei,"
which would likely earn one a right good @bapping on the FFML. :)


Gary