Discussion When western authors attempt to write eastern fantasy-

Lmao, Great Emperor Steve

 

I'm fine with either but no mixing.
Eg: Tony Kurasaki or Shaun Peng or stuff like that sounds painful

 

I still have bias with it, I don't think I'll read any eastern fantasy that is written by a westerners... Unless they manage to trick me with reading it.

 

Just do not claim it to be originally a chinese novel and you just translating it(with author's permission) '
'

 

Not the best example. That is just the way Ren translates, not that i complain. It is basically Ji Ning and Lu Zhu.

And do not release google translated chinese version while at it.

 

Unless its historical, who gives a fuck? For all I care I'd prefer to have names that are memorable. If you get another Ming, Ren, Qian, Zun, Che etc... it just turns into a bloody mess very very quickly. Names like Aragorn or Legolas are just perfect. And these aren't even proper western names. Whatever suits the novel is what is right.

 

Lucy Liu
Jackie Chan
...

nope they sound ok, so long as the plot is good.

i think it’s worse when regardless of setting the names are specifically made weirdly. Like instead of writing Ronaldo the author writes Rosaldooo, just to make their MC’s name “special”.

also in CN the names sometimes mean something, like Long is a dragon- which means that 99% of the time the MC will inherit some dragon blood or ability in that novel.

but if you write Long in an English setting story- well Mr Distance instead of Mr Dragon it will be

 

You're not that far off from what some americans can think of


Its ironic considering that the Canon birthplace of the 40K emperor was in Mesopotamia (A place containg parts of syria,iraq,iran,and turkey)

 

I think they should be in sync with the setting. So, if it's eastern fantasy ( Xianxia, or those ancient china myths ) then the names should be in Chinese.

 

just imagine an Emperor named Bob

 

My concern is mainly the plot and if there are aspects that entertain me followed by consistency (I hate when authors get their own characters mixed up or fail to maintain their own power system properly).

Names aren't really a concern unless they are incredibly outrageous for comedy purposes and I won't lie any author who does that frequently is automatically blacklisted for me for poor choice in humor.

 

Lol that or any of the following just sound weird.
Peerless Martial Artist Bob
Immortal Daoist Jim
Great Celestial Master Sam

 

I don't really care, but what ticks me off is when people mix up the era of time bc it just makes it confusing,

 

Do you believe me if I write all the Characters -name- in EVERY novel that I read in my 'special' book, because its HARD to remember!!!

-ignoreme

 

There is actually one huge problem in translating Chinese names into English, it is that their names usually MEAN something, so the translator is sometimes left with a choice of either translating the name by meaning or phonically. And using pinying has a very bad side effect of not translating the meaning behind the name. For example, if a character has the name Wu Gui, you'd think, "Oh his name is Gui, family name of Wu" right? It means turtle. (Chinese parents tend to give names according to a characteristic they want the child to have, in this case a turtle's long life). So do you translate it conventionally, which is correct, Family Wu, Name Gui? Or call him Turtle which was the intention behind his name?

 

Longevity instead of turtle, in that case

 

So the intention isn't Turtle but long life right? Call him Amar

 

Cradle by Will Wight is pretty good tbh
Wei Shi Lindon Arelius is a good MC and everyone should read cradle

 

Well, I'm of the mindset that, if we're talking history, then you must go with the traditional names from that country, or tell us their actual names before giving them a nickname like Joe (Jounouchi) or Sue (Xiu, meaning it could be a boy named Sue, lol). It's hard for me to remember who's who, sure, but it'll really bug me if it's a character named Samuel or Jacob and they're 100% Chinese. However, if you're talking fantasy, I feel like some leeway should be allowed. If it's a cultivation setting in a country clearly meant to represent an Asian country, I still think western names are a bit too much, but you can use whatever might sound like a translated Native American name or attack name and it'll probably work out AND be memorable, like Wind Dancer, Little Bell, Rising Storm and the like. That last one feels a bit too chuunibyou, but I think you get what I mean. Really, though, if the story doesn't have too many foreign elements, it may be fine to just use western names. It really just depends on the story.

 

Imo the best is when translator leaves the name in pinying, but translates the meaning in the footnote.