Peking or Beijing, why the change?

[BABY BUNDY]

When did Beijing start being called the capital of China?

Wasn't Peking the capital in the 50's & 60's and before?

I believe they are one and the same, but why the change?

Just wondering, Thanks.

[-=BigD=-]

They are the same place. Here an abridged Wiki entry:

Peking is the traditional English name. The term originated with French missionaries four hundred years ago and corresponds to an older pronunciation predating a subsequent sound change in Mandarin.

In China, the city has had many names. Between 1928 and 1949, it was known as Peiping, literally "Northern Peace". The name was changed � with the removal of the element meaning "capital" (jing or king) � to reflect the fact that, with the Kuomintang government having established its capital in Nanjing, Peking was no longer the capital of China, and that the warlord government based in Peking was not legitimate.

The Communist Party of China reverted the name to Beijing (literally means "Northern capital") in 1949 again in part to emphasize that Beijing had returned to its role as China's capital.

[Peter Pedant]

in short the cantonese for beijing is Peking
and the Mandarin is Beijing

The Brits used cantonese for a long time because they sort of landed at HOng Kong

They heard only Mandarins (imperial or would that be celestial ? ) servants, castrated - there were disadvantages of being a Mandarin -speaking the Beijing dialect and called it Mandarin. TheChinese call it Putong-gua (COmmon language).

The CHinese just sort of made a statement. A bit like Upper Volta 0r should that be Haute Volta ? being Burkina Fasso and then later Burkina Faso

A related question, I havent heard ansewred is who chooses the characters for Englsih Cities
Manchester is Man-che-si-ta, but thecharacters are now fixed. But who chose them ?

[BABY BUNDY]

Thanks BigD and Pete. I thought I was taught Peking was the capital when I was in school in the 50's and 60's. But if it became Beijing in 1949 I must of been sleeping in class. Again thanks guys.

[jno]

actually Baby I think the change went through, at least in the west, in the early 1980s. It was Peking to westerners before that, and still is to some.

[kempie]

This reminds me of a joke that existed before the break-up of the Soviet Union...

An official of the Communist Party is tasked to track the movement of the Soviet population from the time before the formation of the USSR to the present. As part of his research he calls in for interview an elderly man.

Official - "Where were you born?"
Man - "Saint Petersburg"

Official - "Where did you go to school?"
Man - "Petrograd"

Official - "Where did you work?"
Man - "Leningrad"

Official - "Where would you like to live?"
Man - "Saint Petersburg"


Of course, if the man survived beyond 1991 he would have received his wish!

[PaulYukochan]

Yes. It is one and the same. Insistance on it being Beijing not Peking was from the Chinese end. MOst people have obliged although critics would point out that it is not any country's buisness in instructing other language speakers how to transcribe and read their words.

No one has criticised the Chinese for referring to NEw York as Niu Yue, or London as Lundun, or Paris as Bali. Still, it is a bit simpler with one system only.

Interestingly Beijing University - one of the top two in China, still keeps Peking as its name when publishing in English!

Beijing is Pinyin - the system promulgated by the Communist Party in China as a kind of Lingua franca (for pinyin at least)