RE: RECOMMENDATIONs( Term Asian is not used properly on Computers and NET)

From: Ayers, Mike (Mike_Ayers@bmc.com)
Date: Thu Jun 07 2001 - 20:40:36 EDT


> Um, Han doesn't mean Chinese. It means the Han dynasty and its
> cultural and ethnic successors. These are *Han* characters in all
> three languages.
>
> > Jungshik Shin
>
> "Chinese" would be
>
> zhongguohua zhongguoren zhongwen
> jungkgukmal jungkuksalam
> chukokugo chukokujin
>
> or perhaps baihua, putonghua, or some other variation of
> Beijing/"Mandarin" Chinese. Or, of course, the names for the
> Cantonese, Hokkien, etc. dialects/languages as spoken or written in
> each or any.
>
> The term "Chinese character", literally "zhongguozi" "jungkukja"
> "chukokuji" is not used.

        You are making distinctions that the Chinese do not make. As far as
I've been able to tell (this includes directly asking), "Han" means
"Chinese" unless one is talking specifically about ethnic groups, so
translating "Hanzi" as "Chinese characters" is not only generally correct,
it is *specifically* correct. Note that "zhongwen" is the usual way to
refer to Chinese literature, and "zhongguoren" is the usual way to refer to
Chinese people (by country, not ethnicity). "Zhongguohua" is, I believe,
gramatically incorrect, if such is possible in Chinese.

/|/|ike



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