what year did Peking become Beijing? Was that 1948? I dont know for sure but I seem to remember 1948 as being a key date in Chinese history. Very vague memory so I'm probably wrong.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- J.C. O'Connell mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://jcoconnell.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message----- From: frank theriault [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 9:37 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re:OT - Chinese Ducks-was: Happy Holidays to All Hi, Alan, Well, you didn't answer my question about Peking Duck, but that's okay. <vbg> I didn't know that Peking was Cantonese, though. I thought it was an English bastardization of Beijing, since I did once see Peking referred to as the city's "colonial" name. Thanks for setting me straight. I also didn't know that Mandarin is spoken in Taiwan. I knew that Mandarin is spoken in Beijing and much of China, and that Cantonese is from around Hong Kong. Believe it or not, two of my children took Chinese (Mandarin) classes for a couple of years. They were actually "heritage language classes", I think intended more for children of Chinese descent to learn (or re-learn) their mother tongue. But, they were done by the school board, and as such were free and open to anyone - in fact the more students of any ethnicity, the better chance the classes had of surviving funding cuts. I just love taking my kids with me to Chinatown here in Toronto, and getting them to say "thank you" for me in restaurants and the like. We always get extra fortune cookies that way! cheers, frank "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer >From: "Alan Chan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re:OT - Chinese Ducks-was: Happy Holidays to All >Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 22:07:35 -0800 > >Believe it or not, Peking & Beijing are the same in Chinese writing >(although the Chinese Communists made a mess and invented the Simplified >Chinese writing, and distorted the usage of many Chinese words along the >way), just different pronunciation. Peking is Cantonese, Beijing is >Mandarin. Just in case you might not know, Taiwanese speak Mandarin and use >Traditional Chinese writing. The mainland China use Mandarin but simplified >Chinese writing, while HK people speak Cantonese and use traditional >Chinese writing. So it is possible that 2 Chinese spoken people might not >be able to communicate depends on where they came from. Great huh!! > >Yours regards, >Alan Chan >http://www.pbase.com/wlachan > >>I've always wondered, >> >>Now that we no longer call the capital of The People's Republic of China >>by it's colonial name of Peking, and now call it "Beijing", must we do the >>same for the duck? >> >>Is it now Beijing Duck? >> >>Just curious. > >_________________________________________________________________ >Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. >http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.ms n.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca > _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn .com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca
