Forum - View topicINTEREST: Pikachu Name Change Protest Highlights Language Tensions in Hong Kong
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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It's none of my business, but they probably should have called it Pei Ka Chiu from the start. Just saying.
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fencer_x
Posts: 278 |
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Cantonese has no differentiation in voicing for stops. That would not be possible in their language. Mod edit: No need to be a complete jerk about it. -Galap |
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manapear
Posts: 1526 |
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Given I very recently had a lesson in the way Cantonese is treated versus Mandarin, this is a very interesting article. I hope their petition goes through and the name isn't changed. I also hope Cantonese (and certain groups of Chinese people) face less discrimination.
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falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
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Definitively let's hope they have luck to change the course. Kudos for HK.
This is really interesting because they are protesting over a name change, incredible. 
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Gemnist
Posts: 1758 |
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Damnit China. When will you learn that you are supposed to RESPECT the people you control? Also Nintendo - Japan has parliamentary elections, so don't support those socialists, please.
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Asian Caveman
Posts: 3 |
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I'm a regular reader from Hong Kong, made an account just to add a bit more info. I did not expect ANN to actually pick up news from HK...
Just add to the main post it's not just pikachu's name that is being changed but pretty much every single one of them, Pikachu's name was just used as an example because it's better known. The original cantonese name "bei ka chiu" and the other pokemon names has been used for roughly 16 years now, ever since the anime was translated and broadcasted and has been used in pokemon events so it can be assumed they are the official names in HK. Them stepping in and changing it after the names are that deeply rooted for such a long time in my opinion is insanely insensitive especially when HK was the first chinese speaking area to localize pokemon. I'm not sure if they still do now but back in the days, most japanese translated anime were usually first translated from HK and then China translates it from HK, Taiwan might've done the same but I'm not certain so they should give us some credit for pokemon's success in the region. Opinions aside, it can't really be called discrimination on their part because if you have not been keeping with the new features of the new game, sun and moon offers simplified and traditional chinese. Simplified chinese is what's used by China excluding HK and Macau (HK term for them is mainlanders so that will be how I shall refer to them for now). It makes sense for simplified chinese to follow the Mandarin names since that is what mainlanders mainly speak, even if it's not their native tongue they still speak it. The issue is with the traditional chinese release. Both Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional chinese as their writing system however taiwan mainly speaks Mandarin (A small portion speaks taiwanese but in daily interactions they still use mandarin) but Hong Kong natives as mentioned speaks Cantonese with no exceptions, educated people may be able to speak mandarin to varying degrees. This is what is causing the problem, Nintendo probably didn't notice the problem (I don't want to say they overlooked it) and localized it for Taiwan without accounting for Hong Kong which is what is causing all of this. Again in my opinion it's actually easy to rectify, just add n additional option named something like HK traditional chinese or whatever and switch the names, nothing else needs to be changed really and then the Mainlanders will get their version, Taiwanese will get their version and Hong Kong will get their version. Additional note, they actually changed the chinese name of pokemon to something that was not used by any of these regions which also caused an outrage. To answer the earlier post, why did we not call it pei ka chiu? Because that pei is not how you think it sounds, it is a low sounding dropping e instead of bei which is a rising high sound e which is slightly closer to the sound of pi than pei. There are closer sounds of pei but that actually means fart so I doubt you wanna use that as a name. |
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Asian Caveman
Posts: 3 |
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A little bit on the protest itself, it was a really stupidly set up protest. They hosted it on Monday morning when everyone was either at school or at work, they might've gained some more ground and supporters if they picked a better time to do it.
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2238 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Superficially this would seem to be a silly thing to actually protest over, but I agree that it's not silly at all in this case.
This is a perfect symbol of the conflict going on in Hong Kong society and the pressures from the mainland... If ANN had the resources, I'd love to see an indepth article about this. Like with proper research into the history of pokemon in hong kong and china and with a good description of the differences between mandarin and chinese, as well as the recent history of the battles over local control in the country and all the various conflicts with young people that are happening. This is just a symptom of bigger struggles, but its easy to understand symbolism I think is really useful. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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And so Nintendo and Game Freak have just learned how even the smallest changes can result in huge repercussions...the hard way. In any case, I'm interested in seeing how this protest will play out. As someone above mentioned earlier, options to play in any of the three language versions (Mainlander, Taiwanese, Hong Kong) would be one quick way of solving this issue.
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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This doesn't seem superficial or petty at all! Best wishes to the Hong Kong protesters, this does sound pretty big.
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Engineering Nerd
 Posts: 898 Location: Southern California |
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Huh...did you even read the article to know what is going on? Oh, a little research will not hurt either. The Japan part is also confusing at best, how on earth are those two events even remotely related at all? Please refrain from blank judgments and stereotyping if you are too lazy to find out the hidden message in this "protest". |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10438 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Really not sure what you're on about socialism... And Nintendo was likely given the following choice, "Change the names to Mandarin throughout the Chinese speaking world, or you will sell fewer products in Mainland China." China has a history of locking companies out of the market when they don't play ball. -t |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10438 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Are you certain there was no pressure to use Mandarin names from some level of government ? |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I would definitely say that the old names should be kept in some fashion--if those are the names they've been using for well over a decade, then those are the names Pokémon fans in China would have grown used to, regardless of dialect. I would also say the best option I can think of is to have both Mandarin and Cantonese available as language options. I'm sure The Pokémon Company can afford it.
Of course, if there is pressure from the government to change it directly, and remove the Cantonese, then that's a totally different story...and the protestors would be blocked out of the media before long, as that's how information in China works. |
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Asian Caveman
Posts: 3 |
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You're not wrong about China having a history of locking companies out when they don't play ball however it's a different story for video games. China has only recently lifted the ban on selling video game consoles however bans on games are still heavily in effect (it would be bad if people started playing just cause 2 and killing communists). This has actually made the video game market pretty much non-existant in China and everyone there out of habit has always bought video games and related from Hong Kong, this still has yet to change, especially when Hong Kong has the full catalogue of both Japanese and American games. Being able to sell games in Mainland is really just a added bonus, not a deal of a lifetime.
I'm not certain, but neither am I certain there is any either. I'm not really a big fan of mainlanders, I live in an area where mainlanders constantly invade with their suitcases to plunder all our baby milk products and drive up shop rent by buying gold and jewelry, enough to fill a pirates treasure vault and making shops that sell anything other than baby products and gold unable to compete. 70% of the stores here are those that do or they are expensive brands like Gucci or Luis Vuitton. All but one store that sells video games and anything else anyone cares about buying to close up and convert to the said shops. You can't turn the corner and not see at least 5 mainlanders stockpiling stuff into their damn suitcases on the weekends and walk 5 feet without getting your feet run over by their suitcases. I can sit here and rant all day about the mainlanders and the government however seeing as the traditional chinese release seems to be targetting Taiwanese fans makes me less convinced that it's the mainland government trying to enforce Mandarin and more of an oversight by Nintendo. If it was something like Traditional chinese is not available im HK, you must play simplified then I'll be more than convinced that it's those @ssh0*** doing their dirty underhanded tricks again, but as it stands there isn't a lot of proof that it's the case this time. |
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