Wikipedia talk:WikiProject China/Archive/January 2008

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[edit] List of all prefecture-level divisions?

I was doing some reading about political divisions of the PRC, and was wondering, is there a list available of all prefecture-level divisions? All province-level divisions are listed on Political divisions of China, but I haven't found one with the prefecture-level divisions yet, and think one might be useful. Granted, a list of all would be rather long and arguably cumbersome, but it could be done similarly to List of counties of the United States, which is divided up by state (i.e., this one would be divided by province-level entity). Indeed, a lot of the legwork would already be done in this case, since we already have articles listing all prefecture-level divisions (along with county-level divisions) for each province. All we'd really need would be a short article, like the US-related one I've linked to, that provides a link to all the [[List of administrative divisions of NAME]], thus providing a centralised point from which one can find them all. Would this be a good way to go about it? Heimstern Läufer (talk) 06:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

There's already a list of prefecture-level cities for each province and autonomous region. For example: List of administrative divisions of Anhui and List of administrative divisions of Guangxi. They are all linked from Political divisions of China. But there might be value in a list that only links to lists of prefecture-level divisions. Hong Qi Gong (Talk - Contribs) 15:25, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
I see now that all the prefecture-level-by-province articles are listed at Political divisions of China; I had missed that before. OK, here's where I am now: I think List of prefecture-level divisions of China should go somewhere: either as an list itself, or as a redirect. Does this make sense? If so, I see at least three possibilities:
1. A completely new list, listing only the prefecture-level divisions. Cons: It duplicates material found on the articles. Pros: It provides all info on prefecture-level divisions only in one place.
2. A short article similar to List of counties of the United States, which just provides links to the [[List of administrative divisions of NAME]] lists. Pros: less duplication of information. Cons: doesn't provide a place if you only want to find prefecture-level info without county-level info.
3. A redirect to the section of Political divisions of China that provides the links to the [[List of administrative divisions of NAME]] articles. I don't like this solution as much because I don't think it's user-friendly; as someone looking for the prefecture-level divisions of China gets plopped down in the middle of an article in a section titled "provinces".
Any thoughts on this? Heimstern Läufer (talk) 16:26, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
I've gone ahead and started work on a complete list. Heimstern Läufer (talk) 06:24, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Category:Chinese chess players

This category name is highly confusing, since Chinese chess is the common English name for a different board game, and one would naturally expect it to be filled with players of Chinese chess. Any suggestions on renaming it? 70.51.9.174 (talk) 07:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Well spotted, this needs to renamed. I suggest "Chess Players from China", "Chinese players of Western Chess" or similar. Poeloq (talk) 00:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2008_January_5#Category:Chinese_chess_players for discussion. 70.55.87.75 (talk) 05:19, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mongolian barbecue is Taiwanese, correct?

I looked at the Wikipedia article for Mongolian barbecue and it says it is Taiwanese.

I found some sources which apparently verify this, but I want to make sure. Are there any sources in Chinese that describe Mongolian barbecue as Taiwanese? WhisperToMe (talk) 21:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

According to this there are two types of Mongolian barbecue - the true and the Western definition. Would be interesting to follow this up. Poeloq (talk) 01:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
I think the "Western" Mongolian barbecue is the one found in Taiwan. There are articles about actual barbecues from Mongolia. That is covered at Regional_variations_of_barbecue#Mongolian. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:30, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
But both varieties are found in China. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 02:49, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
The issue is where they come from, though. The authentic variety may be found in "China" - but perhaps the only indigenous area within "China" is Inner Mongolia, correct? WhisperToMe (talk) 02:52, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
I had a look on the Mongolian barbecue page. The sources saying that it's from Taiwan would ideally need to be backed up by a cite from someone familiar with Mongolian culture. Statements about so-and-so originating from here or there often tend to reflect a narrow cultural view. Anyway, Mongolian barbecue here looks nothing like that picture - I think we get the more "authentic" Mongol kind. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 03:19, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
Look at the cite Poelok posted. The person refers to actual Mongolian barbecue as "whole animals roasted on fire" WhisperToMe (talk) 16:06, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
I know, but I wonder how in tune with Mongolian culture is Erik Reinert given he is writing about globalisation - the possibility in my mind is that Reinert heard about the "true" Mongolian barbecue from a Mongolian friend (I don't see academic citations about these claims), but the "mock Mongolian barbecue" could be found in other parts of Mongolia. Mongolia, afterall, is a fairly big country with a multitude of clans. Of course, I agree that in all likelihood the stirfry-looking "barbecue" is not Mongolian at all. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 21:35, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
Authentic Mongolian barbecue looks like this. Although using the animal's skin instead of the milk jug is even more traditional. Yaan (talk) 10:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese Wikitravel launched

Apologies for the somewhat offtopic posting, but I can't think of a better place to find people fluent in English, Chinese and Mediawiki. So:

Wikitravel (disclaimer: not a Wikimedia project) has just launched its Chinese version, and I'd really appreciate it if somebody could take a look around and confirm that it's working the way it should. It's been in the works for ages, but finding a "go-between" to liaise between Chinese speakers and the admins has been a real headache. AFAIK, the interface looks broadly OK and the zh-cn/tw/sg/hk switching is working, but my Chinese is rudimentary and there may well be other problems that I'm unaware of. Jpatokal (talk) 08:41, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cultural heritage list

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage of the People's Republic of China has a list of 2,351 cultural heritage relics. This list would be similar to a list of national historical sites and so forth in other countries, and should probably have an article here. You can read something about it in the People's Daily (English version); most sources are in Chinese. The list is on the Chinese WP at zh:全国重点文物保护单位; I'd like to bring it here but I'm not sure what it's called in English (the article doesn't name the list). Has anyone seen a reference to it in English? Rigadoun (talk) 18:59, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chia Thye Poh in Mandarin?

What is Chia Thye Poh in Mandarin? WhisperToMe (talk) 11:31, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nanjing, Four Great Inventions of ancient China

Someone keeps adding irrelevant information about the Nanking Massacre into the Nanjing article, and he's jumping from one IP to another to do it. The same person is also removing sourced passages from the Four Great Inventions of ancient China article and adding his own patriotic analysis. Please keep watch on those articles and others that he might be editing, thank you. _dk (talk) 11:27, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

irrelevant? are you a history ignorant? most people know about holocaust, how many of them know about nanjing massacre? it happened in nanjing in 1937! So adding that information in that article is very relevant! And four inventions in ancient china has nothing to do with foreigner, just because he may have mentioned it, it has nothing to do with him, he wasn't even born when those things were invented —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.3.193.108 (talk) 22:19, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, at least 1.3 billion people know about the Nanking massacre. The massacre is very important to Nanjing, yes. But the information you added, like "Films and books about the Nanking massacre", is not important to Nanjing. And you're missing the point about the 4 great inventions of China, it's true that Needham wasn't even born when the four inventions were invented. But until Needham's Science and Civilisation in China series no one in China collected these four inventions and advertised them as the "Four Great Inventions of ancient China". The inventions, of course, did exist way before Needham, but the term "Four Great Inventions of ancient China" didn't. I hope you understand what I'm saying and stop labelling other people's reversions as vandalism. _dk (talk) 06:07, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pinyin showing up in strange, Asian-style Latin font

Why is the pinyin now showing up so strangely, and can it be fixed? See Wu Man for an example. Badagnani (talk) 19:38, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

The problem seems to have resolved itself. Badagnani (talk) 20:18, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Archive

It seems about time to archive this page - I'm not sure how you guys normally handle that. Poeloq (talk) 07:26, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Done. Aquarius • talk 20:59, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese hercules

Are there any Herculean-type people with superhuman strength mentioned in Chinese history? I know each culture has their own superman. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 21:09, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Pan Gu, Kua Fu and more. I guess we could open a new task group on expanding the articles of these mythical creatures! Aquarius • talk 08:06, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
... and did anyone notice the Chinese space program template on the Kua Fu article? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 23:02, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
I've removed it - should have been done a long time ago. John Smith's (talk) 11:44, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Jiedushi

I've suggested some guidelines for jiedushi nomenclature at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Chinese). Please provide input if you can. Thanks. --Nlu (talk) 22:49, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Maps

Does anybody know how the China maps were created? To be honest, I find them rather ugly. In my opinion, they could do with being updated to .svg, as they are very "pixely" in the current versions. Sorry to the original creator, it's just my personal opinion. Poeloq (talk) 05:53, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Which maps? Some are quite good, such as those made by User:Croquant. See Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Badagnani (talk) 06:35, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Ive been reconstructing the dynasty maps I made on top of the DEMIS maps like this one which I think is of higher quality of my original creation. Just informing everyone that i will be upgrading the maps with more details and quality. Pojanji (talk) 07:40, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mongolian script - .svg images or unicode?

Hi, we over at the Mongolia Work Group thought it might be a good idea to replace most of the Mongol script in WP with .svg images of the script (or actually, I thought, one other contributer gave some indication of approval, noone objected). The reason is that as of now, there seems to be little support for Mongolian script on non-Vista computers, and so the script ends up badly distorted on many systems, or is not displayed at all. Since this would affect some places in the PRC, it would be nice to know beforehand if anybody thinks this is a bad idea, and why. Regards, Yaan (talk) 10:47, 30 January 2008 (UTC)