[KS] Re: Korea-mania in China

[Cheng Sea Ling]

>From: Mark Peterson <Mark_Peterson at byu.edu>
>Reply-To: korean-studies at iic.edu
>To: korean-studies at iic.edu
>Subject: Re: Korea-mania in China
>Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 17:38:22 -0700
>
> >  Though I also read a gossip magazine that
> >complains about Korean movie stars who don't have Chinese names but want 
to
> >enter the Chinese market...
> >
> >
> >Sealing Cheng
>

>I guess my question is, are you talking about han'gul names? or
>non-Chinese Sino-Korean names?  Or is it the given names, not the
>surnames?
>
>I hope this question is of general interest.
>
>with best regards,
>Mark Peterson


I recall that the gossip magazine I read was listing out some Korean movie 
stars whose movies have made an impression on the HK audience, some had 
their names printed in Chinese, others were in English. I didn't check what 
names they were and if they were hangul without equivalents in Chinese 
characters. My assumption is that these actors/actresses have given names 
in hangul that could only be printed in the Chinese press with English 
transliteration.  

While I haven't seen any complaint about Jennifer Lopez or Robbie Williams 
not having a Chinese name, these 'western names' are somehow considered 
transliterable (?) and sometimes do get transliterated into Chinese if they 
are not written in English. And to my limited knowledge, all Japanese stars 
have their names written in CHinese and are referred to more with their 
Chinese names. Therefore, my guess is that given that Korea is considered 
part of the East Asian cultural sphere, the reporter and probably many of 
the readers expected Korean pop stars to have easily recognisable Chinese 
names. They are also, somehow, not ready to 'transliterate' the English 
transliteration of these Korean names. 

I hope i am making sense here. 

Sealing