Someone has Obama’s name wrong. No, there’s not another fake “real” birth certificate with Obama’s “real” name. Obama’s China visit has revealed a dispute over what to call him in Chinese. Although Washington Post reporter Keith B. Richburg doesn’t understand that’s an ideographic writing system doesn’t directly use an alphabet and therefore lacks spelling disputes, he paints an otherwise informative picture of this “diplomatic tussle.” The American government uses 歐巴馬. “歐” is a surname and used in the name for Europe (“歐洲”). According to Richburg, the Chicoms use “澳巴馬” to refer to Obama. The first character, used for Macau (“澳門”) and Australia (“澳洲”) can mean “profound and deep,” but it can have negative meanings as well:
What the translator did not mention, however, is that the “Ao” character has a lot of other less complimentary meaning — which may be why the Chinese government prefers to use it for Obama. “Ao” can also mean “difficult to understand,” “abstruse” and “obscure.”
Curiously, Asian Americans for Obama used yet another name for Obama, “奧巴馬.” “奧,” which sounds exactly the same as “澳,” loosely means “mysterious” and is used for “Austria” (“奧地利”) and “Olympics” (“奧運”). Asian Americans for Obama also used the American government-favored “歐巴馬” for some items, but “奧巴馬” appears more often in Asian Americans for Obama’s Chinese-language downloadable items.
When reached for comment, Ramey Ko, founder of Asian Americans for Obama, said:
We were sensitive to the political implications of translation but we focused more on the traditional versus simplified Chinese issue rather than the particular transliteration word choices. We received a lot of input from supporters and readers about the wording of translations and the simplified versus traditional issue, but we never had a single comment on which particular words were appropriate for transliteration. And as you can see from the ethnic media coverage we compiled, Chinese language journalists often disagreed on transliteration, especially early in the election cycle. Without a standard authority on transliteration, it’s pretty common to see different transliteration choices with the names of public figures generally, not just Obama.
Ko went on to provide specific examples of different transliterations such as for Kennedy, Bush, and Yale, and explained nonstandard transliterations were a point of contention between the Department of Justice and the City of Boston in providing Chinese-language ballots.
Obama’s name isn’t the only translingual dispute between the Chinese and American governments. The Chicoms continue to refer to the White House as “白宮” (“White Palace”) instead of “白屋” (“White House”).
And apparently the “Obama is a communist” meme has crossed the Pacific. “ObaMao,” Obama in a green jacket and cap not unlike that of Mao, is selling very well. Or it was until last week, when the Chinese government clamped down on sale of Obama images ahead of his visit. Curiously, Obama-as-Superman was not taken from shelves.
Oddly, Richburg included a quote from a U.S. Embassy spokesperson comparing the name disputes to that of Peking compared to Beijing. Peking/Beijing is a distinction without a difference; alternate romanization methods do not result in different meanings. 北京 remains 北京 no matter if it is Peking or Beijing. The meaning behind the characters used for Obama changes depending on if he is 歐巴馬 or 澳巴馬.
- Justin Gillenwater (紀捷陣)
