In the English-speaking world, Pikachu is “Pikachu.”
In Hong Kong, things are more complex, especially after Nintendo renamed the franchise’s most famous Pocket Monster.
Upcoming titles Pokemon Sun and Moon will be released in traditional and simplified Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Until now, different regions have used different translations to reflect the varied linguistic and cultural differences.
However, this will change with Sun and Moon.
Now Nintendo wants to unify them: Pokemon in Greater China will be officially called 精靈寶可夢, or Jingling Baokemeng in Mandarin (Jingling means “spirit” or “elf,” and Baokemeng is a transliteration of Pokemon).
Earlier in Hong Kong, it was 寵物小精靈 Pet Little Elves (or Spirits), while in Taiwan, it was 神奇寶貝, Magic Babies.
As Quartz notes, the renaming is having the biggest impact in Hong Kong, where Cantonese, not Mandarin, has traditionally been the common language.
http://kotaku.com/hong-kong-pokemon-fans-protest-pikachus-name-change-1779471301
中国 台灣 香港
Pikachu was originally translated as 比卡超 (Bei-kaa-chyu) in Hong Kong. Now it is named 皮卡丘 (Pikaqiu). While the name 皮卡丘 in Mandarin sounds similar to the global name Pikachu (as it was always called in China and Taiwan), it reads as Pei-kaa-jau in Cantonese, which doesn’t sound the same at all.
According to Quartz, the issue’s root is that in Hong Kong, many feel that Cantonese is being threatened by the mainland Chinese government. Fewer schools are teaching young children Cantonese, and there’s concern that it could disappear.
This, along with a strong sentiment towards the traditional translation, is perhaps why Hong Kong Pokémon fans have been protesting the name changes on the Nintendo Hong Kong Facebook page.
“Pikachu is 比卡超,not 皮卡丘,I hereby vow I will never buy from Nintendo again, unless you finally understand what is Cantonese and the correct Chinese usage,” writes a Facebook user.
A small group of protesters even demonstrated in front of the Japanese Consulate in Central, carrying banners, singing the Cantonese theme song, and demanding that Nintendo change “Pei-kaa-jau” back to “Bei-kaa-chyu.”
May 31 3:00am Update: Several readers point out that the banners flown at the protest are for the political group Civic Passion.
Protesters also collected 6,000 signatures for a petition against the change and launched a Facebook community to express their displeasure with Nintendo’s decision. However, it seems Nintendo is keeping with the new translation.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond.
We had this dumbass thread yesterday and decided that the language of a Pokemon game does not in fact erase your entire identity. Rest easy, anon :)
>>26548915
PEOPLE CALL ME ELF MONSTER
>>26548915
WELCOME TO ELF'S WORLD
>Chinese anime fags sperg over the fact that a nationally released video game uses the names from the nationally released anime dub and not the names from some backwater local one
kekoslovakia
>I play pokemon in a language that's not Japanese or English
As was pointed out yesterday, this would've been the same as Mexicans protesting that the Spanish option in X/Y was based on the European Spanish games and not their local Mexican anime dub.
>>26549205
paste the thread
>>26548934
Almost feels like what would happen if Game Freak just decided to finally make the games finally portuguese, except instead of Portugal portuguese, they'd use Brazil portuguese instead and only that.
Portugal would be so mad, I'm not even joking.
But at least Brazil and Portugal aren't using a completely unofficial botched version of Pikachu's actual name, they just call him by that.
Guess that's what happens when you grow up with shit you weren't supposed to.
>>26549433
Literally why
You can use the archive yourself. Additionally, anybody who is not underage (read: worth talking to) was probably here yesterday and remembers for themselves.
>>26549227
>>26549245
call me later
>>26551572
hi later
>>26548915
>T W O versions of Chinese in the game
>WAAAAAAH MUH SPESHUL DIALECT ISN'T INCLUDED
These retards will be the inspiration for BLM to firebomb the Japanese Embassy until they surrender and make an ebonics version.
>chinks hate japs
>will buy and defend jap shit though
what the fuck?
WELCOME TO ELFS WORLD
>>26551814
CALL ME ELF MONSTER
