Romanisation Systems of Chinese Characters

In some point of our lives, we see Chinese characters spelled out in Roman letters, and it can be downright confusing when you thought ‘Lee’ in director Ang Lee (李安) was the spelling for ‘李’, but then you see ‘Li’, as in actor Jet Li (李連杰).

Now, just how many variations of Chinese character romanisation are there? Countless, perhaps. But in this post, I am going to briefly introduce some of the most used systems in Taiwan and other Chinese speaking countries.

Before 2008, most Taiwanese use Wade–Giles (威妥瑪拼音) for their names. It is more or less a transliteration of the Bopomofo system in Mandarin Chinese. For example, my name, is spelled ‘Hsin-Ju’ in Wade–Giles. Since I have my passport (and hence my romanised name) before 2008, I decided to continue using this system, even though it may seem a little weird to have letter combinations such as ‘hs’. Most people who are younger than I am do not use this system anymore.

Some other past spelling systems in Taiwan are Tongyong Pinyin (通用拼音) and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (國語第二式拼音). My name would be ‘Sin-Ru’ and ‘Shin-Ru’, respectively. Note that not everyone would experience drastic name change under different spelling systems. It just happens that mine is different in each and every one of them.

In Taiwan, some people use ‘Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn (臺灣閩南語羅馬字拼音方案)’, or simply TL, which is a system that spells Taiwanese. Hakkas use another spelling system named ‘Thòi-vàn Hak-kâ-ngî Phîn(Piâng)-yîm Fông-on (臺灣客家語拼音方案)’. There are many variations within this system due to the slight variation of spoken Hakka in Taiwan.

However, the most widely used system in the world is bound to be Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音). This is the official romanisation system of China and post-2008 Taiwan. My name would become ‘Xin-Ru’. Most people with Chinese names will have their names in this spelling.

There are also many Cantonese systems that I will not go into details. We can see these spellings in the last names of actors Andy Lau (劉德華), Tony Leung (梁朝偉), and more.

All of the systems mentioned (maybe not Cantonese) are accepted in Taiwan (i.e. you can use them on your passport), and if you are a Taiwanese looking to spell your name in Roman letters, choose any one you feel comfortable about.

If you are interested in checking out the systems, here are a few official sites for them:
1. Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan (including Wade–Giles, Tonyong Pinyin, Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, and Hanyu Pinyin)
2. Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn
3. Thòi-vàn Hak-kâ-ngî Phîn(Piâng)-yîm Fông-on