Chinese language

I hadn't heard of "Peking" before I came to this site. "Beijing" is used far more often. Anyway, I would try to learn Mandarin if the pronunciation weren't so hard and it had an alphabet. I don't have a good way to learn it either.

Peking duck is one exception. It just sounds right over Beijing duck. :) After rereading your messages,
"I respect the French who do not succumb to politically correct nonsense and continue to call Peking Pekin in French. It is their right to call the place whatever they please."
I have a second thought. You should have been thinking China used its political power to force the whole world to call Beijing Beijing. I know nothing about it. So I won't get started on this. My point from right the beginning is when a country like Korea (who's not likely to put any pressure on us) renamed their captial seoul's Mandarin version, we automatically accepted. The original was 'han cheng' which was Han's city in Mandarin, which was used for a hella long time. Now the new one is 'shou er' which means 'the head or top' (hmm...), and we are just cool with it. I don't understand what's up with you people that can't do the same thing like us. You call it whatever you are pleased but don't think of us? And mandarin verion of your places' names are all matching the name in your native languages. If you are not happy with it, you can just ask China to change it (btw, I'm no official). When it comes to our change of names, I don't understand why you react this way. If so, fine then, it doesn't affect me in any way except I have a feeling you don't respect us.
And again, the change of English version is not nonsense.
Beiping (dead) = Peking
Beijing (same as in Beijing Olympics Games) = Beijing
Blah~

"China used its political power"
I mistakenly post here as China doesn't have that much power to force anyone. Forget about this part.

"I hadn't heard of "Peking" before I came to this site. "Beijing" is used far more often. Anyway, I would try to learn Mandarin if the pronunciation weren't so hard and it had an alphabet. I don't have a good way to learn it either. "
I heard it once from a Beijing native when he was introducing himself. My reaction was like what the hell was that, then he told me he's actually from Beijing and I was speechless sitting there. I don't think Mandarin is difficult in pronunciation and grammar but it takes time to advance your abilities in speaking and especially writing (hard for me personally and I already forgot how to write). I guess most non Chinese get to learn our language mostly for personal interests. Don't think it's that imporant to learn but in some business around Chinatown, employees are required to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. Oh well, Vancouver is a classic, you get the point.

If I am wrong, teach me what right is? I experienced my childhood in China main land, my own stories in China main land as well! It is well-known that Taiwan is the inseparable part of China. So the so-called Taiwan language is one kind of Chinese! Why the two different languages don`t have the same character? It is a good question. And it also shows it telling that Taiwan is the inseparable part of China. We know China is a large country with an area of 9,600,000 square kilometres (Taiwan is included). In such a large country, different people have different habits, and according to their different habits they create different things just as the two different languages. China P.R.C. was founded in 1949, meanwhile, Jiangjieshi was forced to accept the failure as the final results and to escape to Tanwan! In order to make our real character be much more easier to be understood and be widely used, Chinese learder managed to simplize the the character. When you are going to start your Chinese lesson, you`d better start it from learning real Chinese character! Because it is much more easier to be understood and widely to be used in the world!

Jijia, don't start a flame war. We're not here for this.
And simplifying characters was in order to promote Chinese education simply because traditional Chinese is way too hard to write. No? Anyhow, that's what my Chinese teacher told me. And glad they did that, writing characters gives me headache.

I'm not sure how useful Chinese would be to me, unless I go to China. I would enjoy visiting China someday... My mother and grandparents once took a trip to Hong Kong and China (they weren't unified at the time). My grandmother is half-Chinese, but she looks fully Chinese; so apparently many people mistook her for a Chinese woman. She couldn't talk to the them though because she only speaks English and Hungarian. I wouldn't have that problem though, since I don't look very Chinese at all. My mother doesn't either. I find it funny that a mother can look very Chinese and her daughter doesn't at all. It's strange how the genes work out...

Dear ke,

Peking, Peiping, Paking, Beijing etc. "Northern Capital"; it has many different forms according to Chinese I've talked to from both Hong Kong and The People's Republic. I read that "Beijing" was used for a while during the later part of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644); then it was called Peking or Peiping until the Communists renamed it Beijing in 1949.
An exotic name which the Mongols had for the city in the 13th & 14th centuries was "Kanbalu" and this was the name that the Europeans first knew it by.

I'm sure that "Beijing" is a temporary thing like "Ho Chi Minh City" and that both will eventually be renamed again just as Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd and Leningrad and Karl Marxstadt reverted bacK to St. Petersburg and Chemnitz.

Growing up in the 1950's & 60's I heard it called only "Peiking". Beijing didn't start becoming the trendy or politically correct thing to call it in the United States until at least the late 1970's after diplomatic relations with Mainland China were re-established.

I know of this girl who's completely Chinese. She came down to Aussie a couple of years ago and now she somehow looks like mixed. Could be the food and water, he he, I dunno. My friend's second cousin who's 1/8 portuguese and looks pretty mixed. Both her parents look Chinese totally tho.

"I'm sure that "Beijing" is a temporary thing like "Ho Chi Minh City" and that both will eventually be renamed again just as Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd and Leningrad and Karl Marxstadt reverted bacK to St. Petersburg and Chemnitz"
Overseas Viet people still call that place Saigon. Beijing is different. Chinese are cool with it. We didn't name it with someone 'great'. I believe even if the communist party was not in the lead, Beijing would still be Beijing and nothing is going to change. Beijing was called 'bei da du' (which I know of) which means northern capital when Mongolians had the entire China. Beiping (Peking) means northern something (not sure how it was named), bei da du means northern capital and Beijing means northern capital as well. See the relationship among those? We just need to have a name or sign identifies that place is the centre of China and is in the north. Beijing sounds absolutely alright and I don't see a need to change it. You can ask today's Beijing natives if any of them want a change of their city's name. The answer should be fairly obvious. NOOOOO! I could survey later on. :)

Yeah, it's weird. I look totally white even though my grandmother looks totally Chinese. I guess it just has to do with chance... Genes come in pairs (one from each parent). It's entirely random which of the two gets passed down. I suppose that a "mixed" person would have half their genes from one race and half from the other. By chance they might pass down most of the genes from one race, and their child wouldn't be very mixed (assuming the husband had the same race).

Ke you are mistaken... Peking is the way the Westerners understood the name 'Beijing' when they first heard it -- at the time the initial of the _jing_ syllable wasn't as palatal as it is today, it sounded more like _king_. Beiping would've given something like *Peping in European languages.

So, yes, Peking and Beijing ARE the same name. The former is the Westernised version, the latter is the Mandarin (pinyin) version. I think it's OK to call Beijing 'Peking' in English, just as it is OK to call München 'Munich' in English, and just as it is OK to call the United Kingdom 'Yingguo' in Mandarin.

the evil nerd

evilnerd, yea, that makes sense to me. When I was thinking about Nanking as in 'The Rape of Nanking', I wondered how Beiping was called Peking. How westerners call it doesn't really matter to me right now (if it's not about switch between 'beiping' and 'beijing' involving political elements) as it's pointless to argue something that is not going to change. The world is getting to call it Beijing and you can keep calling it Peking also. Besides, I was telling people something that I know not what people should do. Maybe I didn't do it in a decent way. I did say 'please'! And it IS technically outdated! Then tell me what I'm supposed to say. Excuse my crappy English there. And thank evilnerd for the answer.
Finally the comment below is still like a knife stabs me through the heart.
'Lighten up Ke, you are not going to dictate to people what to think and say although I know that is the habit in China.' The Habit???????????

UPS.. sorry guys I did not intend to start this Peking - Beijing row. It was by mere accident that I used this name. It came to my mind because I have recently watched "Peking to Paris" rally on Travel Channel. Apart from that, I DO know that it is Beijing. :)) Anyway, returning to my original question: what language do the Chinese people from Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaisia, USA and other Chinese communities use if they meet together? English?

We are likely to speak Mandarin. Sure people from Beijing, TW, S'pore, Malaysia can speak Mandarin; HK people generally can pick up Mandarin within months if they hang out with Mandarin speaking people; as for the rest, they'd be able to speak Mandarin if they go to their local Chinese schools, otherwise they may pick up Mandarin immediately if they already speak a Chinese dialect, same thing like HK people.