# How do we call the Chinese astronauts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518 "2003-10-15T06:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![\_xiao\_wenti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b782af/32.png) [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/21 "2003-10-16T01:41:45Z")
Kong Chi is space. If I was unsure how to say it to one of my chinese friends, I’d say Kong chi de ren. Kong chi yuan would be okay too. Ren for person, yuan for official. ---
**Author:** ![ChaosGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@ChaosGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChaosGod)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/22 "2003-10-16T04:58:41Z")
So, what will other xxx-nauts be called ? ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/23 "2003-10-16T05:04:02Z")
If astronaut indeed is American specific, what would be the neutral word for someone who travels in outer space? ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/24 "2003-10-16T10:13:34Z")
if the word ‘astronaut’ is imperialistic, china don’t seem to think so, as they use the word astronaut themselves in their english newspapers, whilst prefering the term yuhangyuan rather than taikongren in chinese. perhaps this naming convention is a relic from the cold war that should be dumped with this entry of the third and possibly more players later on? kong1chi4 is ‘air’, ‘tai4kong1’ is ‘space’ and ‘tai4kong1ren2’ is used as ‘astronaut’ here. doesn’t ‘taikonaut’ sounds at all wierd to those who don’t understand chinese? ---
**Author:** ![Nils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Nils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nils)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/25 "2003-10-16T17:16:40Z")
What about Exonaut as a neutral word for space travellers, regardless of how they where transported up there. It describes quite well where they are (out of earth’s atmosphere), and it sound quite cool (whereas e.g. Spacenaut doesn’t sound cool). ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/26 "2003-10-16T18:53:12Z")
My five cents: I’d drop the -naut ending entirely. After all, it’s from an Indoeuropean language. Why not simply “space traveller” respectively the translation of this term in the particular language? It describes what it’s about, everybody can immediately understand what it means, it’s neutral, not an arbitrarily created neologism, and it seems to be accepted in this thread already, judging from the question “how to call space travellers?” asked here. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/27 "2003-10-16T18:53:38Z")
Well, the Chinese food delivery guys around here apparently like to be called “Fifteen min-nauts”. 😉 Is “yuhangyuan” pronounced (you-aing-you-an)? ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/28 "2003-10-16T21:08:00Z")
Dave Letterman says that they went into space looking for more doors to slip a menu under. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/29 "2003-10-19T08:59:57Z")
**Casey1505** , it’s three words yu hang yuan. can’t think of anything similar in english at the moment for yu… but the other two is roughly (hung-u-and) ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/30 "2003-10-19T14:04:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by shijinn \* > \*\ ***Casey1505** , it’s three words yu hang yuan. can’t think of anything similar in english at the moment for yu… but the other two is roughly (hung-u-and) \*\* Toa chie ---
**Author:** ![MasterChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@MasterChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MasterChief)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/31 "2003-10-19T14:08:31Z")
You forgot the french, they call their folks in space “spationaut” ---
**Author:** ![friggae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/45deac/32.png) [@friggae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friggae)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518/32 "2003-10-19T19:43:06Z")
What do you call a Cuban astronaut? A castronaut. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-call-the-chinese-astronauts/207518.md?page=1)