

## Background on how Chinese names are pronounced in Japanese

Consider the man who was the chancellor of the state of Shu under Liu Shan
during the Three Kingdoms period. In Chinese, his name is written 诸葛亮. In
English, his name is typically written Zhuge Liang (pinyin), which is a
reasonably close approximation of how his name is pronounced in Mandarin.

Japanese, though, does something that may seem strange. The Japanese language
has its own unique ways of pronouncing Chinese characters, and so even though
this man's name is still written 诸葛亮 (same as in Chinese), it is pronounced
"Shokatsu Ryō" - nothing at all like how it's pronounced in Mandarin! The
reasons for this are complicated; basically, it has to do with how the
Japanese language borrowed Chinese pronunciations for Chinese characters (so-
called " _on_ readings") from Middle Chinese mostly before 1000 CE, and how
the Japanese and Chinese/Mandarin pronunciations have diverged in the ensuing
millennium-plus.

## The actual question

In some anime, the names of Chinese people are spoken. This sometimes happens
with historical figures, e.g. Gakuto in _Prison School_ and his obsession with
_Romance of the Three Kingdoms_. It also happens with the joint Chinese-
Japanese productions that've been springing up lately, where pretty much
everybody's name is Chinese - for example, _Hitori no Shita: The Outcast_ ,
_Bloodivores_ , and _Soul Buster_ from the past few cours.

The thing I find weird is that sometimes, Chinese names are localized using
the Japanese spellings. This makes no sense to me - nobody outside Japan has
any idea who "Shokatsu Ryō" is, whereas many people will have heard of "Zhuge
Liang".

Some examples:

  * Crunchyroll's subtitles for _Hitori no Shita_ (for example, the character "Baobao" is rendered in the subtitles as "Houhou")
  * Crunchyroll's subtitles for _Soul Buster_ (the Han dynasty is subtitled as the "Kan" dynasty!)
  * the manga _Reincarnation no Kaben_ , [apparently](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/34557/)
  * the Crunchyroll subtitles for _Cheating Craft_ also do this (the main character is called "Shokatsu Mumei" in Japanese, but would be called "Zhuge Mu Ming" in Chinese), but since the show technically takes place in the fictitious "mainland" rather than real-world China, I'd let this one slide

I know I've seen this happen elsewhere; I'll update this list if I remember
where I saw it happen.

Why would a subtitler or other localizer choose to render Chinese names into
English using the Japanese pronunciations? This approach seems wrong on its
face to me, so I'm hoping to hear from some involved party why this decision
might be made.


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Why are Chinese names in anime sometimes rendered in English using the Japanese pronunciations?


I can't yet cover all the reasons, but **at least on _Hitori no Shita_ and
_Cheating Craft_ , that's what they're using on their official sites**.

> ![Hitori no Shita - Characters
> \(English\)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/k1J7al.png)
>
> [_Hitori no Shita_ \- Characters
> (English)](http://en.hitorinoshita.com/character)
>
> ![Cheating Craft - Characters
> \(English\)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ALVljl.jpg)
>
> [_Cheating Craft_ \- Characters (English)](http://cheating-
> craft.com/character-en/)

Changing the names from the one stated on the official site may confuse
viewers when they notice the inconsistency, especially coming from official
licensees (e.g. Crunchyroll). This should also explain the retconned subs of
the first 2 episodes of _Hitori no Shita_ when they diverged from the official
given names. The viewer's experience could certainly be improved by adding
"translator's note" though.

I can't say for _Reincarnation no Kaben_ , because apparently [it hasn't been
licensed in English yet](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=110861).
In this case, fansub/scanlation is a different thing because they're free to
translate how they want to (add "lack of research" into the factor too).


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