Re: Confucius and the rectification of names

> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Mark J. Reed
> FWIW, nationality is my default interpretation of words like
> "Chinese".. The ethnicities don't map well to political borders in any
> event, but I would usually say "of Chinese descent" or similar.
> Of course, that leaves us needing to distinguish somehow between the
> PRC and the ROC.  We have "Taiwanese" for the latter but "Chinese" is
> still ambiguous in isolation.
Having worked with many Chinese, I can say they still use that term whether they come
from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia or even places like Vietnam
or the Phillipines. "Taiwan" also is still officially called the "Republic of
China" (中華民國=Jhonghuá Mínguó).


> "Mainland Chinese' is a mouthful, and
> "Red Chinese" seems to be politically incorrect these days.
Politically incorrect, but technically the PRC is still "red".

Reply