Wade-Giles Romanization

Overview

Wade-Giles romanization (威妥玛式拼音法, Wade-Giles romanization) was a system for transcribing Mandarin Chinese using the Latin alphabet. Developed by British diplomat Sir Thomas Francis Wade and later modified by Herbert Giles, it served as the standard romanization system for Chinese names, places, and terms in the English-speaking world for much of the 20th century. Though largely replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in official contexts, Wade-Giles continues to appear in certain proper nouns, academic literature, and historical references.

History

The origins of romanization systems for Chinese can be traced to the early 17th century, beginning with Matteo Ricci's "Xizi Qiji" (1605) and later Nicolas Trigault's "Xiru Ermu Zi" (1626). These early works laid the foundation for using Latin letters to represent Chinese sounds.

Sir Thomas Francis Wade (1818-1895), a British diplomat who served in China for 43 years, created the Wade System. Before his diplomatic career, Wade worked at the Shanghai Customs House where he was responsible for training British personnel in Chinese language. In 1859, he published "Xunjin Lu" (A Progressive Course Designed to Assist the Student of Colloquial Chinese), followed by his major work "Yü-yen Tzu-erh Chi" (Language Primer) in 1867. This comprehensive work included a textbook for learning Chinese, recordings of Beijing vernacular speech from over a century ago, and pioneering research in Chinese grammar.

Wade spent eight years developing his orthography, revising it multiple times before completion. His system aimed to reduce the number of phonetic symbols while maintaining consistency and approximating English pronunciation, following principles of economy and uniformity.

Later, Herbert Giles (H. A. Giles) made slight modifications to Wade's system in his "Chinese-English Dictionary" (1912), resulting in what became known as the Wade-Giles system. This combined system was widely adopted in postal services, library cataloging of Chinese collections, and for transliterating Chinese names and places in diplomatic contexts.

At the "Imperial Postal Conference" held in Shanghai in 1906, efforts were made to standardize the romanization of Chinese place names. The conference largely based its decisions on the romanization system found in Giles' "Chinese-English Dictionary" (first published in Shanghai in 1892), which was essentially the Wade-Giles system. To accommodate telegraphic needs, the conference decided against using diacritical marks (such as aspiration marks). This system became known as the "Postal Spelling System" and remained the most commonly used system for romanizing Chinese place names in Western countries throughout the first half of the 20th century, even after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.

Key Information

Cultural Significance

Despite never achieving official status in China, Wade-Giles had profound cultural significance internationally. It facilitated the romanization of countless Chinese names, places, and terms that entered the English language. Many of these romanized forms have become standardized in English usage, such as:

• Kungfu (功夫)
• Taichi (太极)
• I Ching (易经)
• Chingming Festival (清明节)
• Kungpao Chicken (宫保鸡丁)

Wade-Giles also influenced how Westerners perceived Chinese language and culture through its romanized representations. The system's use in academic literature ensured that generations of sinologists became familiar with its conventions.

Modern Status

The development of the "Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an" (汉语拼音方案, Chinese Phonetic System) by the "Wen Gai Hui" (文改会, Language Reform Committee) in 1956 marked the beginning of the end for Wade-Giles as the primary romanization system. On February 11, 1958, the First National People's Congress officially approved the Hanyu Pinyin system, and Chinese place names began to be written using Pinyin.

Hanyu Pinyin gained increasing international recognition:
- In 1977, the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names adopted Hanyu Pinyin as the standard for romanizing Chinese place names.
- In 1979, the United Nations Secretariat decided to use Hanyu Pinyin for the romanization of Chinese names in all Roman alphabetic languages.
- In 1982, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted Hanyu Pinyin as the international standard for Chinese romanization.

Despite this official adoption of Pinyin, Wade-Giles has not completely disappeared. Several prestigious universities retain their Wade-Giles romanized names:
- Peking University (北京大学)
- Tsinghua University (清华大学)
- Soochow University (苏州大学)

Some renowned international brands also continue to use Wade-Giles for their names to maintain historical continuity, such as:
- Chunghwa (中华)
- Changyu (张裕)

In Western academia, particularly in fields like sinology and history, Wade-Giles remains in use for historical consistency. The romanizations of many historical figures still follow the Wade-Giles system, such as Mao Tse-tung (毛泽东) rather than Mao Zedong.

References

1. Wade, T. F. (1859). Xunjin Lu: A Progressive Course Designed to Assist the Student of Colloquial Chinese. Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press.

2. Giles, H. A. (1912). A Chinese-English Dictionary. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh.

3. Chen, P. (2013). Chinese Romanization: Pronunciation and Orthography. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

4. Norman, J. (1988). Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

5. Yip, P. (2006). The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey. London: Routledge.