Fishbed
Posts: 1822
Joined: 11/21/2005 From: Beijing, China - Paris, France Status: offline
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quote:
I am an old man brought up to believe Peking was the capital of China. Even in my frail dotage, I have come to accept that perhaps its Beijing not Peking. But Peiping....please enough. I never had a bad grasp of geography but if this continues I won`t have a clue who I am or where I live. In all seriousness - this could open up a whole can of worms - Volgograd?, Stalingrad?, Tsaritsyn? etc. Can I ask that we give serious consideration before such name changes are considered? Well it shouldn't be a can of worms - actually, it is Peiking which is contrasting with everything else, not the opposite. Stalingrad is named Stalingrad on the map, because it was named Stalingrad back then, even though it is Volgograd today, right? And no-one would call it Tsaritsyn because there's no reason for it. Leningrad is named Leningrad on the map, because it was named Leningrad back then, even though it is St.Petersburg today, right? And no-one would call it Petrograd because there's no reason for it. But Peiking (Beijing) is named Peiking (Beijing) on the map, while this used to be its name before 1928, and after 1949, but not between 1928 and 1949, which is exactly the scope of this game, isn't it? And this is for a reason: Peiking (Beijing - which means "the northern capital") was renamed Peiping (Beiping - which means "the northern peace") in 1928 because Nanking (Nanjing -which means the "southern capital") became the KMT's official capital city. Peiking losing its official status, they decided it had to lose its name too, and that name didn't come back before the Communist take over in 1949, which reverted to Peiking (Beijing) as a capital city. Actually, my grand-father, who is a retired KMT general in Taiwan, still calls that place Peiping (Beiping)...! Technically, I guess Allied maps between 1941 and 1945 probably mentioned Peiping as the official given name of that place.
< Message edited by Fishbed -- 2/17/2008 9:15:59 PM >
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