On Nomenclature
Recently I took a job as an intern with a company called the China Intel Organization. We mainly specialize in providing information and analysis on logistics and infrastructure within China, often for larger corporations or for trade publications and journals.
One of our recent tasks was compiling country profiles for various east and south Asian countries, focusing on their economy, transport infrastructure, and logistics markets. I was responsible for about six countries, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
For these entities, finding information wasn't particularly difficult (even if the Taiwanese government website is firewalled here on the mainland). What did trip me up a bit, though, was nomenclature. What's the proper name for each place?
Hong Kong is the easier of the two to distinguish, as its status is far clearer. For all intents and purposes, Hong Kong is a separate country from China. It has its own currency, customs operation, laws, and political structure. Beijing controls the territory's defense and foreign affairs and has significant sway in who actually governs. Otherwise, Hong Kong is independent, as anyone who goes there for Visa runs will attest.
Hong Kong is officially a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, along with Macao. In writing my profile, I used the acronym SAR, despite its unfortunate implication of the "SARS" respiratory illness that struck south China earlier this decade. I couldn't use "island", because much of Hong Kong sits on a peninsula. "Country", "Colony", or "Territory" all seemed inappropriate. "Region" also didn't fit, because the term "region" indicates a far larger geographical area, such as "Southeast Asia". So I was stuck with SAR.
Taiwan was even trickier. Its status, as we know, is a subject of great controversy in East Asia. Taiwan is a de facto independent state, but it is only recognized as such by a handful of mainly insignificant countries. For roughly thirty years, the Western world regarded Taiwan as the legitimate government of China. This changed in the late 1970s as countries such as the US sought rapproachment with the mainland. Now, Taiwan is sort of in limbo.
Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China. The ROC has existed in one shape or another for roughly 100 years, after it toppled the Qing Dynasty in 1911. From then until 1949, it was the official government of all of China, excluding Taiwan only because the island was under Japanese occupation until 1945. When the ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, he took the name with him. It has stuck.
Within the People's Republic of China, of course, the Republic of China is a meaningless designation. The mainland refers to Taiwan as "Taiwan Province", even though Beijing holds no power on the island.
In international competition, Taiwan and China (and Hong Kong) compete as separate entities. To overcome mainland objections, Taiwan is referred to as "Chinese Taipei". I recently read an economic report from the Asia Development Bank in which Taiwan was called "Taipei, China". This strikes me as odd; why identify a territory by its capital city?
I suspect that this bit of confusion will exist until the China/Taiwan situation is resolved, though this intern would be happy if someone came up with a name I could automatically reproduce in my reports.
Of course, odd country-names are not the exclusive provenance of China. Here are some others off the top of my head:
-The break-up of Yugoslavia has been a nightmare for mapmakers. What was once a unified state has become several different countries. First, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Macedonia split from Belgrade's control. The territory comprising Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina formed the rump state of Yugoslavia. Of these, Macedonia was the most controversial. Greece objected to the use of the name (identical to their northernmost province) and so the newly independent state became known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM for short.
Then, the rump state of Yugoslavia became known as Serbia & Montenegro. When the latter declared its independence, the situation appeared to simplify. Then, of course, Kosovo became an independent state as well, so now Belgrade's dominion has shrunk even further.
- I once read an article in The Economist about nomenclature difficulties with The Czech Republic. I believe the country even held a vote to determine a new name, but no acceptable alternatives emerged. One I like is Czechia, but as of yet it doesn't exist.
-Belgian Congo became Zaire but then changed again to The Democratic Republic of Congo, so as not to be confused with Congo-Brazzaville, formerly French Congo.
-For some reason when I was in high school, the Ivory Coast became Cote D'Ivoire, which is of course French for The Ivory Coast. Why did this happen? Also, East Timor became "Timor-Leste", which is just Portoguese for, wait for it, East Timor.
-Some of these are controversial. Burma changed its name to Myanmar after a military coup in 1988, but due to the odious nature of the Burmese regime some news agencies stubbornly refuse to recognize the new name.
-Bombay became Mumbai, who (I'm told) is apparently a Hindu goddess that represents the city. Bom is Portoguese for "good", while bay is English for, uh, "bay".
-China changed quite a bit of its place names when pinyin became the standard on the mainland. Thus, Peking is now Beijing, Chungking now Chongqing, and Nanking now "Nanjing". The old names still exist in certain ways; most people say "Peking duck" to describe the city's signature dish, and the "Nanking massacre" is heard more than "Nanjing massacre". "Chungking Mansions" is the name of a legendary guesthouse complex in Hong Kong.
If pinyin were used for place names in Hong Kong and Taiwan, then the former would be called Xianggang, while the latter's capital city would be Taibei.
-And finally, here's a little story. When I was a kid, our local football team (the San Francisco 49ers) were a dynasty, always good and regularly winning Super Bowls. Our quarterback was Joe Montana, generally regarded as one of the three or four best in football history. When the 49ers traded Montana to the Kansas City Chiefs toward the end of his career, the San Francisco Chronicle actually dug up some people who planned to move to Kansas City just to follow Joe. That's how popular he was.
Anyway, during the height of Montana-mania a small town in the state of Montana renamed itself "Joe". At around the same time, the Dallas Cowboys (our rival) had a great quarterback named Troy Aikman. A city in Texas, conversely, renamed itself "Troy", not realizing (apparently) that Troy, Texas doesn't have the same ring to it as Joe, Montana. Oh- those Texans.
Palin?
With the selection of unknown and untested Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain is officially taking the piss out of the whole process. In effect, he's saying: "she's obviously not ready to be president, but if she helps me pick off a few disgruntled Hillary supporters and evangelical dimwits then she'll have been worthwhile". The best take on this, as usual, comes from James Fallows. Will she possibly be prepared to handle the barrage of reporter questions about foreign policy and other national issues? Unless she's a remarkably quick study, I just...don't...see it.
Then again, vice presidential candidates rarely make or break a candidate. In 1988, George H. W. Bush chose the lightweight Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as his running mate and still won the election handily, despite Quayle's embarrassing performance in his lone debate with Democratic counterpart Lloyd Bentsen. The most salient facts about Palin's selection are that it excited the conservative base and generated an awful lot of buzz. Should Palin manage to slide through the rest of the campaign without undue difficulty, then the selection will prove to be mostly inconsequential. But that's a big if.
UPDATE:
As the Sarah Palin selection will soon become official at the Republican National Convention, the media has uncovered several uncomfortable details about her past, raising questions about how thoroughly John McCain vetted her. None of these controversies- her pregnant teenage daughter, her questionable firing of an Alaska state trooper, her flip-flopping on the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere", her husband's membership in a fringe party, etc. are tremendous scandals in and of themselves, but together they lend the impression that McCain simply didn't do his homework. And as this is the first important decision he's had to make as the nominee, it raises serious doubts about his judgment. Why didn't he, for instance, float Palin's name to the media and led these stories unfold before she was the nominee? I doubt McCain will be forced to withdraw her (thus effectively conceding the election) but all signs point to the Palin pick being an unforced error.
Then again...then again. The conservative base does seem to love her, and as we know the Republicans win when they adequately fire up their conservative wing. I've already read some scuttlebutt suggesting that Palin is an unfair victim of the liberal media, and should the majority of Republicans hold to that view, she may just rally yet.
All the same- a Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty nomination would have been far better for McCain's purposes than Palin. What was he thinking?