Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc.
| From: | Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 4:32 |
|---|
Dana Nutter wrote:
> I have to admit though I'm guilty of using some of the older
> names for places. I still say Bombay and Saigon even though
> they were Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City at the time I was there.
> It's really just a habit because those names were used for so
> long.
>
And Burma...... <rant> I can't bring myself to refer to Ho Chi Minh City
(when were you there?), because I was there in the Good Old Days when it was
still definitely Saigon, the Paris of the Orient (well, more or less). This
was 1958*, not long after the French had lost out, and the street signs had
two names-- new Vietnamese and ex-French. The main drag was Duong Tu Do,
ex-Catinat; my quarters were on Tran Hung Dao, ex-Blvd. Galliéni (some
general or other I think)...Only rarely would a taxi- or pedicab driver--
when you said "Rue Catinat!"-- harumph and correct you to the Vietnamese
name.</rant>
I am sorry to say that most of us Americans there at the time (and I include
myself) did not have very high regard for the Vietnamese...............
*OMG I just functioned-- FIFTY YEARS AGO!!!!!!
Replies