chinese place names

[roomby]

If chinese words are written in chinese characters, why are western spellings of them so difficult to deciper, e.g. Deng Xioping - why not spell his surname Shaoping?

[sylvday]

Perhaps your finger slipped, but the usual spelling is "Xiaoping", with an a in it. Possibly X is used because the intended sound is not exactly the same as Sh, though it may be very similar. But remember that the transliteration is not intended just for English-speakers. Shaoping, for example, would be puzzling to Spanish-speakers, as none of their words has sh in it. .

[roomby]

thanks sylvday. I hadn't thought about speakers of other languages at all.

[mikewith]

Deng Xiaoping is the pinyin spelling of the name, being the accepted, standard (and Chinese state-approved) method of Romanizing the sounds of Chinese. It more accurately represents the actual sound of the correct pronunciation and has also made typing and computer input considerably easier. For more: http://qi-journal.com/action.lasso?-Token.SearchID
=Mandarin&-Response=culture.asp