# What do Chinese people call China? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185 "2001-03-31T00:56:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/21 "2001-03-31T07:14:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Homer \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > > \*\*“Mei Guo” is just a phonetic approximation of “America.” In written Chinese, the radical for Mei(beautiful) is the same as the one used in “Mei Guo,” (IIRC, it’s been a long long time) but it doesn’t have the same meaning. > > > > \*\* > > How’s the intonation on that? Is it “Meh-ee-gwah”? > > –Tim \*\* It’s more like MAY-gwaw. ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/22 "2001-03-31T10:28:58Z")
In Mandarin, England is Ying guo. I am English is “Wo shi yingguoren” IIRC, Germany is Deguo and France is Faguo. That’s about all the Mandarin I know, apart from ‘hello’, ‘my name is’ and ‘have you had lunch?’ Also, because zhong means centre or middle, the revolutionary song ‘Zhong fang hong’ should really be translated as ‘the centre is red’, not ‘the east is red’ - although referring to China as the East makes more sense to Westerners. Bharat comes from ‘bharata varsha’ - the land of the legendary King Bharata. ---
**Author:** ![zydecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e480ec/32.png) [@zydecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zydecat)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/23 "2001-03-31T13:34:18Z")
Aw man, my first question and Cecil has already covered something similar. I didn’t realize that a single country had so many names. If Montenegro should break off from Yugoslavia, what should we call it? I’m betting that the Montenegrans (?) would probably have a different name. Why not use it? If a Spanish person introduced themselves as Juan, why would you call him anything different? If Montenegro introduces themselves to the world as…, again why would we call them something else? Maybe I just crossed over into Great Debates or something. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/24 "2001-03-31T13:59:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zarathustra \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Are there any unusual names for the US that other countries use? > > How 'bout The Great Satan? > > Which makes me a Great Satanian, I guess . . . \*\* I believe at the time of the 19th Century gold rushes, the Chinese called America “Gold Mountain”, and Australia was “New Gold Mountain”. Or maybe the other way around, I forgot. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/25 "2001-03-31T14:05:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*However, my travel guides are silent on the other two big Pacific Rim countries: Korea and Japan, refer to the U.S. \*\* In Japan it’s Amerika. ---
**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/26 "2001-03-31T15:39:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zydecat \* > \*\*…If Montenegro should break off from Yugoslavia, what should we call it? I’m betting that the Montenegrans (?) would probably have a different name… \*\* Montenegro is Latin (Italian?) for Black Mountain. In Serbo-Croat (spoken in Montenegro, more or less) the name of the republic is Crna Gora, which translates as… Black Mountain. Does this mean that Montenegro is known as Montnoir in France and Schwarzerberg in Germany? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/27 "2001-03-31T16:32:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheLoadedDog \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Zarathustra \* > > \*\* > > > > > [@](#): > > > > > > Are there any unusual names for the US that other countries use? > > > > How 'bout The Great Satan? > > > > Which makes me a Great Satanian, I guess . . . \*\* > > I believe at the time of the 19th Century gold rushes, the Chinese called America “Gold Mountain”, and Australia was “New Gold Mountain”. Or maybe the other way around, I forgot. 🙂 \*\* I thought “Gold Mountain” or “Old Gold Mountain” was always the name for San Francisco. Maybe in the popular mind, SF and the USA were interchangable. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/28 "2001-03-31T17:39:20Z")
Well, I feel downright mundane, but in plain ol’ Spanish, the US is called the Estados Unidos (or EU), which means, of course, United States. Those zany Latinos. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/29 "2001-03-31T18:17:43Z")
More Mandarin phonetics: Japan: Riben (jur-ben); the “ri” radical stands for the Sun, which makes sense. Canada: Jianada (geeya-nah-dah) Australia: can’t remember the pinyin right now, but it’s pronounced ow-da-li-ya. Can’t think of any more at the moment… that’s what a night of cheap beer and habanero-induced diarrhea will do to you. ---
**Author:** ![exchicagoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/0ea827/32.png) [@exchicagoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exchicagoan)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/30 "2001-04-01T06:54:30Z")
Montenegrans (?) would probably have a different name. Why not use it? If a Spanish person introduced themselves as Juan, why would you call him anything different? If Montenegro introduces themselves to the world as…, again why would we call them something else? Maybe I just crossed over into Great Debates or something. \*\* [/QUOTE] You did for me—the ELLIS ISLAND “name changing” thing. -----------HOW??-------- It’s 1890, my name is Salvatore Battaglia, I’m standing in front of a desk and the clerk can neither say nor spell my name. Nor can I write it. So, the clerk writes down SAM BROCOLLI.—NOW:----will someone please explain to me how, even tho I KNOW WHAT MY NAME IS, I walk out of there saying–“my name is Sam Brocolli now”. I certainly didn’t read what he wrote down and writing it down doesn’t make it so anyway. I’ve never understood how a name could be changed like THAT. Or is that really some kind of an immigration myth? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/31 "2001-04-01T06:59:56Z")
Re: Ellis Island: You have to remember that at that time, most immigrants who came to the US wanted to assimilate and “become American,” so many were willing to have their names mangled. ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/32 "2001-04-01T08:15:41Z")
Yeah, Zhongguo is actually pretty damn hard to pronounce. If you think it’s easy, you’re probably doing it wrong. The zh/ phoneme doesn’t exist in English except in a few words, like treasure. It’s never found at the start of English words, but is used _all the damn time_ in Chinese, a distinction it shares with the sound represented by c in pinyin, which actually sounds like the /ts/ from pets, and a few others. It’s things like that (and the tonal system) that make Chinese a difficult language for English speakers. Meiguo is the word for America and does mean beautiful country, although you wouldn’t phrase it that way because you’d confuse everyone. Yingguo means wise nation. I thought at first that it was strange that Chinese compliments other nations but calls itself ‘middle nation.’ Then I realized; zhong isn’t just middle… it’s CENTER. Like the Mediterranean Sea, the Chinese name for China declares it to be the center of the world. –John ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/33 "2001-04-01T09:42:58Z")
> [@](#): > > In that alphabet, **our letter S resembles C and our letter R resembles P.** That statement implies that Cyrillic /s/ is descended from our letter S. That is where your wording implied you were saying that Cyrillic derives from the Latin Alphabet (and yes, i know, you didnt mean it like that). A better wording would have been: “The letter for the sound of s in Cyrillic resembles the Latin C, and the letter for the sound of r resembles the Latin P”. And, just because i’m in a pedantic mood, Cyrillic is related to the Latin Script 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/34 "2001-04-01T14:45:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doobieous \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > In that alphabet, **our letter S resembles C and our letter R resembles P.** > > That statement implies that Cyrillic /s/ is descended from our letter S. That is where your wording implied you were saying that Cyrillic derives from the Latin Alphabet (and yes, i know, you didnt mean it like that). A better wording would have been: “The letter for the sound of s in Cyrillic resembles the Latin C, and the letter for the sound of r resembles the Latin P”. \*\* There has to be a phrase describing someone who more or less deliberately misinterprets a phrase precisely by virtue of the fact that he’s knowledgeable enough to know that what was written didn’t express the original (correct) idea with 100% exactitude. Oh yeah, it’s called “showing off”. Yawn. “Going off on a irrelevant tanget” also comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![LordDenning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LordDenning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordDenning)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/35 "2001-04-01T16:32:49Z")
We of the Empire of Japan usually the nation of you Yanks as “amerika”, as previously stated, but in the spirit of the thread, another name is “bei-koku”, which is commonly known but not frequently used. “bei” is written with the kanji meaning “rice”, and “koku” is written with the kanji meaning “country”. I think the rice reference alludes to affluence, and not any particular level of consumption or production of the food product. Plus, those of us who know better call our country “nihon”. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/36 "2001-04-01T17:54:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Azazel \* > \*\*Also, does anyone know where “Bharat” (Indians’ word for India) comes from or means? \*\* Not off hand, except that Bharat Mata and Bharati are Hindu goddesses (as is Bharani). ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/37 "2001-04-01T18:01:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yue Han \* > \*\*I thought at first that it was strange that Chinese compliments other nations but calls itself ‘middle nation.’ > > Then I realized; zhong isn’t just middle… it’s CENTER. Like the Mediterranean Sea, the Chinese name for China declares it to be the center of the world.\*\* A professor once explained “Middle Kingdom” to me as referring to in-between Heaven and Earth. I found that to be an interesting interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Yue\_Han](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eada6e/32.png) [@Yue\_Han](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yue_Han)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/38 "2001-04-01T19:16:28Z")
A correction on my post; (it was late, etc…) The sound in treasure and the /zh/ in zhong don’t exactly match up either… it’s really more halfway between a j and that sound. –John ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/39 "2001-04-01T19:19:08Z")
I got a letter from Iceland that called America “Bindarkini” That sounds like a small European country.🙂 Personally I think explorers are either patially deaf of monumentally egotistical. Vienna=Vien Cologne=Koln ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185/40 "2001-04-01T19:49:51Z")
[Archie Bunker] They don’t call it notin’. They don’t speak English. [/Archie Bunker] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-chinese-people-call-china/60185.md?page=3)