It's pretty common in Vancouver to see politicians and real estate agents (or really, anyone with a reason to have their name and face on a sign in front of people's houses) use both a Chinese...
It's pretty common in Vancouver to see politicians and real estate agents (or really, anyone with a reason to have their name and face on a sign in front of people's houses) use both a Chinese name and an English name on their sign. Vancouver and some other cities in the "Greater Vancouver Regional District" have a very large foreign born Chinese-speaking population (I think pretty even between Mandarin and Cantonese nowadays) so I figure it's just politicians/etc. trying to appeal to and make themselves more accessible to people more comfortable in Chinese than English. Of course, it works the other way too: Sinophone politicians/etc. who are mostly working with Sinophone constituents/clients will still want to appeal to and be accessible to Anglophones as well, so they make sure to use an English name alongside their Chinese one.
I assumed it was something like that, but it's fascinating that the population is large enough for that to be a relevant cultural strategy. I wonder if other places have similar customs? (Rafael...
I assumed it was something like that, but it's fascinating that the population is large enough for that to be a relevant cultural strategy. I wonder if other places have similar customs? (Rafael Cruz and Robert O'Rourke entering politics as "Ted" and "Beto" kind of counts as an example.)
This article's about candidates in Vancouver, where (as of the 2016 census) over 20% of the population in the metropolitan area has Chinese origins. Some of the cities that make up the metro area...
The Chinatown district in DC has requirements that all signage for stores along the Main Street be in Chinese. Over the past decade or two the Chinese population has largely left that area for the...
The Chinatown district in DC has requirements that all signage for stores along the Main Street be in Chinese.
Over the past decade or two the Chinese population has largely left that area for the suburbs and the old Chinese businesses have been replaced by national chain stores though, so we get some very interesting interpretations. I walked through there with my Chinese friend and pointed out to her that the sign for Chipotle seemed to have a LOT of characters and asked what's up. Apparently rather than transliterating the name, the Chinese was just listing all the ingredients to describe a burrito.
So is this to appeal to the Chinese emigrant community or are they just doing it for kicks?
It's pretty common in Vancouver to see politicians and real estate agents (or really, anyone with a reason to have their name and face on a sign in front of people's houses) use both a Chinese name and an English name on their sign. Vancouver and some other cities in the "Greater Vancouver Regional District" have a very large foreign born Chinese-speaking population (I think pretty even between Mandarin and Cantonese nowadays) so I figure it's just politicians/etc. trying to appeal to and make themselves more accessible to people more comfortable in Chinese than English. Of course, it works the other way too: Sinophone politicians/etc. who are mostly working with Sinophone constituents/clients will still want to appeal to and be accessible to Anglophones as well, so they make sure to use an English name alongside their Chinese one.
I assumed it was something like that, but it's fascinating that the population is large enough for that to be a relevant cultural strategy. I wonder if other places have similar customs? (Rafael Cruz and Robert O'Rourke entering politics as "Ted" and "Beto" kind of counts as an example.)
This article's about candidates in Vancouver, where (as of the 2016 census) over 20% of the population in the metropolitan area has Chinese origins.
Some of the cities that make up the metro area are far more concentrated than that. In Richmond, 60% of the population are immigrants, and 53% are Chinese.
The Chinatown district in DC has requirements that all signage for stores along the Main Street be in Chinese.
Over the past decade or two the Chinese population has largely left that area for the suburbs and the old Chinese businesses have been replaced by national chain stores though, so we get some very interesting interpretations. I walked through there with my Chinese friend and pointed out to her that the sign for Chipotle seemed to have a LOT of characters and asked what's up. Apparently rather than transliterating the name, the Chinese was just listing all the ingredients to describe a burrito.