I’m working on a story set in China and need to know something about how Chinese names are used. This would be pre-revolution China, so any changes made by the Communist regime can be ignored; I’m looking for traditional practices.
I understand how names are formed: Family name first, then personal name. But how do you refer to people? If the name was Qian Chao-Ru, for instance, would people refer to him as Qian? As Chao-Ru? Would a friend use one or the other? How about a spouse? A government official? In what contexts would Qian be acceptable as a reference?
Also, in fiction, if you have a character would you use Chao-Ru roughly the way you use a character’s first name in English language fiction? Does “Chao-Ru said” have the same context as “Tom said”?
Would it ever be appropriate to call him “Chao” instead of “Chao-Ru”? Is that like a nickname, or is it just not done?
Any other guide to usage would be appreciated.
It all depends on context. Who is talking to whom, and what station they are.
Boss Qian, Director Qian, Manager Qian etc. Old Qian, young Qian. Usually pretty formulaic around the family name for outsiders and work related. Plays on the name for family, good friends, etc.
Also you need to stop using pinyin and go back to one of the more archaic romanization systems if you want to be accurate.
As China Guy already said, most of the time he would expect to be called by some variation (depending on formality and whether the other person was older/younger than him) of his family name. He’d most likely be referred to in the third person by his name, “Chao-Ru”, if the people talking already know him, otherwise his full name. In some contexts the last part of his name (the third part) could be invoked as a very familiar diminuitive form (“Ah Ru”, “Xiao Ru”), which is even more familiar than “Lao Qian” would be.
Traditionally the “second” part of the name (in this case, “Chao”) would be used for all of his brothers as well, so he might be Chao-Ru, his brother would be Chao-somethingelse, etc., so nobody would ever call him by just “Chao” in any context I can think of.
I like the suggestion to use a pre-pinyin Romanization to further suggest the pre-Revolution era.
Can someone who speaks Chinese translate the brief dialogue between the two soldiers in this video? (in particular what the guy with the bloody face is saying)
From about :30 to :55 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLsKpavt_Gw
TokyoWife, a native Taiwanese says that it’s really hard to understand. There is a lot “get down” “hurry” and “shoot” but it’s hard to tell who is saying what. It doesn’t help that TW doesn’t like war so she wasn’t interested in trying really hard to help.
Why is that more accurate? This is a time when neither system existed.
Wade-Giles or Yale or the old postal code romanization systems in place at that time. Here’s a link and here’s another one.
I was going to say that, but then I thought maybe the OP was basing the story in the 9th Century or something, when “neither system existed”.