"Seoul" Chinese name change

[SunWuKong]

so recently the mayor of Seoul announced that the city's Chinese name is to change from 漢城 (Han Cheng) to 首爾 (Shou Er).

漢城 (Han Cheng) literally means "City of Han", Han being "Han Chinese". i think the name was coined during the Choson dynasty back in the 1400's.

首爾 （Shou Er) is pretty much just a transliteration of "Seoul". 首 (Shou) means capital, as in 首都 (Shou Du), and 爾 could mean "you". put together, the name doesn't really have any meanings.

what does everybody think of the name change?

[yoMAMA]

I think it's pretty stupid and pointless, not to mention a waste of money, consider that you have to print new maps, get new signs....etc.

Also..IMHO some people are getting too paranoid about China.....it's not gonna be this big scary power......it just want to make a quick buck and feed walmart.

:wink:

[SunWuKong]

I think it's pretty stupid and pointless, not to mention a waste of money, consider that you have to print new maps, get new signs....etc.

Also..IMHO some people are getting too paranoid about China.....it's not gonna be this big scary power......it just want to make a quick buck and feed walmart.

:wink:

well i can certainly understand the Korean point of view here, because the Chinese is basically calling their capital "City of the Chinese". i wouldn't like it if Japan called Beijing the "City of the Japanese".

[yoMAMA]

well i can certainly understand the Korean point of view here, because the Chinese is basically calling their capital "City of the Chinese". i wouldn't like it if Japan called Beijing the "City of the Japanese".

I thought "Han" refers to the Han river which runs by Seoul, therefore it's really the city by the Han river, 漢城。

[SunWuKong]

I thought "Han" refers to the Han river which runs by Seoul, therefore it's really the city by the Han river, 漢城。

not sure how the name came about. but hey, maybe they'd want to change the name of the river, too. :tongue:

[mrcfo]

I'd name it 首都 (shoudu) sounds reasonably similar to Seoul and means exactly the same thing as Seoul (capital).

I find it rather strange tho that after all these years, they'd change the Chinese name. Why not freggin at the start of independance?

If I was a Korean leader, I'd change all my cities to Hangul specific names.

[imturok]

If I were Korean I would insist on the original name and claim the Han civilization originated from Korea. (It might be true, there was a very old and highly civilized Kingdom close to the northern part of Korea which got wiped out by some catastrophic event.)

[deez nuts]

those koreans are straying further and further from their roots.

[mrcfo]

If I were Korean I would insist on the original name and claim the Han civilization originated from Korea. (It might be true, there was a very old and highly civilized Kingdom close to the northern part of Korea which got wiped out by some catastrophic event.)

I think DNA evidence will totally wipe this out. Despite similarities and all humans being 99.8% similar, DNA will show the differences between the current Hans and current Koreans. How is it then that there is a possible linkage of Hans original inhabitants of Korea?

For a small country like Korea to claim that would be bizarre but then again, it's not all that surprising for Koreans to make outrageous claims (e.g. Confucuious was Korean, the Koreans invented Chinese characters). All this would do for Koreans would be the lowering of their colours and respect.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

There has been sufficient DNA research saying that the vast majority of Korean males share paternal genes with the vast majority of Chinese. Yes, I know that Koreans and Chinese are genetically different. Yes, I know that Koreans and Japanese share more genetic similarities than with Chinese. Yes, I'm throwing all this out there. No I don't have the link, because i don't want to search for it. So certain self-righteous tight asses can save some time and forget about trying to put me in my place. Some of us sure are obsessed with DNA differences tho~

[SunWuKong]

Gumby, quit it with the passive-aggressive attacks.

[yoMAMA]

those koreans are straying further and further from their roots.

Time to take them over.

what do you say? :tongue:

Also...who wants to join my mercenary army in order to retake Korea for the motherland?

:wink: