Why doesn't China demand the world to start calling it "Zhongguo" instead of "China"? The word "China" is obsolete, imperialistic, and doesn't correspond to anything meaningful in Chinese after all.

为什么中国China不让其他国家称呼其为‘zhongguo’呢？China这个词带有过时的帝国主义味道，在中文中也没有实际意义。

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Dan-Wee Loh

A Choi, you said China demand the world to start calling it “Zhongguo”. I do notnsee any evidence of auch demand. Has China demand USA, UK, Russia, EU, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia to call China Zhongguo at the dilpomatic level ? Has China changed its name in UN to Zhongguo ?

你说中国让其他国家称自己为“zhongguo”。我没看到过任何证据。中国要求美国、英国、俄罗斯、欧盟、澳大利亚、新加坡、马来西亚在外交层面称中国为“zhongguo”了吗？中国在联合国更名为“zhongguo”了吗？

Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam

Oh Dear Lord why on earth?

China doesn't think like India

They don't change names randomly

Their Airports are still called “Beiing International” and “Shanghai International” Airports

Their roads are NUMBERED or NAMED as Wukang, Naning, Luoshan etc

哦，神啊，这究竟是为什么呢？

中国不像印度

他们不会随意改变名字

他们的机场都是起名为“北京国际机场”和“上海国际机场”

他们的道路要么是数字编号，要么会被命名为武康、南京、罗山等

Even their Sports Stadiums are mostly named after the locations like Hangzhou Station

Even the renaming of PEKING to BEIG

就连他们的体育场馆名中也大多会带有杭州这样的地点

他们甚至把PEKING更名为BEIG

It's how the Chinese do things

It's how they always have been doing

Even Singapore's Airport is called SINGAPORE CHANGI

Most of the roads are not named after anyone

这就是中国人的做事方式

他们一直都是这么做的

就连新加坡的机场也叫新加坡樟宜机场

大多数道路都不会用人名来命名

Things like Ayer Rajah (Not a name, a word), Pioneer Expressway, Jalan Bahar, Paya Lebar, Jurong are all old history

Same in HK

Names like Kai Tak, Kowloon, Aberdeen, Mong Kok etc are old history

They won't change the names from Aberdeen to some Chinese name Or from the Peak to some Chinese name

Ayer Rajah(不是名字，是一个词)，Pioneer Expressway, Jalan Bahar, Paya Lebar, Jurong这种才是老古董

香港也一样

启德、九龙、香港仔、旺角等地名都有很长的历史了

他们不会把香港的地名改成中文名字

If they name it Zhongguo, they may as well join the BJP and start talking about their greatness in the 6th Century BCE

Come on!!!!!!

This is China here

They like wng and finding real solutions

Not changing names

如果他们把国家改名为zhongguo，他们可能就会和印度人民党一样三句不离公元前6世纪的光辉历史了。

拜托! !

这里是中国

他们喜欢胜利，喜欢解决问题

而不是改名字。

Kevin Anderson

The Russian word for China is “Kitai" (Китай).

This name is derived from the name of the tribe in north-west HeiLongJiang Province which was the first non-Mongolian tribe east of the Mongols that the first Russian explorers and envoys found, after being sent on an expedition.

“Lying at opposite ends of Eurasia, the two countries had little contact before about 1640.[6]

Both had to deal with the steppe nomads, Russia from the south and China from the northwest. Russia became a northern neighbor of China when in 1582–1643 Russian adventurers made themselves masters of the Siberian forests.

在俄语中，中国是“Kitai”(Китай)。

这个名字起源于黑龙江省西北部一个部落的名字，是第一批俄罗斯探险家和使节在远征后发现的蒙古以东的第一个非蒙古部落。

这两个国家位于欧亚大陆的两端，在1640年之前几乎没有联系。两者都必须与草原游牧民族打交道，俄罗斯来自南方，中国来自西北。1582年至1643年，俄罗斯冒险家成为西伯利亚森林的主人，俄罗斯成为中国的北方邻国。

The Oirats transmitted some garbled and incorrect descriptions of China to the Russians in 1614, the name "Taibykankan" was used to refer to the Wanli Emperor by the Oirats.[7]”

“Early Russo-Chinese relations were difficult for three reasons: mutual ignorance, lack of a common language and the Chinese wish to treat the Russians as tributary barbarians, something that the Russians would not accept and did not fully understand. The language problem was solved when the Russians started sending Latin-speaking westerners who could speak to the Jesuit missionaries in Beiing.”

1614年，瓦拉特人向俄国人传递了一些对中国的误读和错误描述，瓦拉特人用“Taibykankan”这个名字来指代万历皇帝。

“早期的俄中关系之所以开局不顺，有三个原因：相互不了解，缺乏共同的语言，中国人把俄罗斯人视为朝贡的野蛮人，但俄罗斯人不愿接受也没有完全理解。”当俄国人开始派遣讲拉丁语的西方人与北京的耶稣会传教士交流时，语言问题得到了解决。”

Julian Danzer

guess what

plenty ocuntries have different names in different languages

and that is a tiny bit weird

like languages have different general words but specific place names COULD hypothetically just be taken form the local language

but thats not how history developed in a few exceptions and it doesn’T really matter enough to bother with

there’s also a big differnece between imperialism and a gloablly linked world

there might be a historic influence but in the modern world china itrself is hardly the victim of imperialism

but english is still the language everyone speaks and good luck changing that

许多国家在不同的语言中有不同的名称

这是有点奇怪

就好比语言有不同的通用词汇，但可以用当地语言来指代特定的地名

帝国主义和联系紧密的世界之间也有很大的不同

这可能有历史的影响，但在现代世界，中国本身并不是帝国主义的受害者

但英语仍然是通用语言，如果要更改这一事实，只能说祝你好运了

Joseph Wang

Because the people that run China have more important things to worry about. There is also the issue that different languages use completely different names for China.

The funny thing about China and the term Mandarin is that neither are Chinese words. They are Portuguese.

因为中国的领导人要操心更重要的事情。另外还有一个问题，在不同的语言中，对中国的称呼也完全不同。

关于中国和“普通话”这个词的有趣之处在于，它们都不是中文词汇，而是葡萄牙词汇。

Leo Wang

Related

Why does China call itself "中国" (i.e. "central/middle kingdom")? Other countries' names are translated to Chinese according to the pronunciation.

Germany is 德国, which means "moral country" by the characters;

America is 美国, which means "beautiful country" by the characters;

Britain is 英国, which means "outstanding country" by the characters;

Yes, other countries' names are done by pronunciations. No, we are not arrogant. If we are, why would we give your countries such wonderful and positive translations when there are so many negative characters with same pronunciation to choose from?

And most importantly, China is not translated into 中国, it's 中国 that is translated into China.

Chinese characters have a much longer history than English words.

为什么中国称自己为“中国”呢?（中央王国）？中国把其他国家的名字根据发音翻译成中文。

德国，意思是“道德之国”;

美国，意思是“美丽之国”;

英国，意思是“杰出之国”;

是的，其他国家的名字是由发音决定的。我们并不傲慢。如果我们真的傲慢，为什么要给你们国家起这么精彩和正面的中译名呢，中文中可是有许多具有相同发音但意思不好的同音字可以选呢。

最重要的是，不是China被翻译成中文的“中国”，而是中文的“中国”被翻译成了“China”。

汉字的历史可远比英语单词长多了。

Dylan Cameron(杜 東宸)

Related

What do the Chinese people call China?

中国人怎么称呼中国？

This answer was written by me, a Mainland Chinese teen. So I can only know what the Mainland Chinese call China. If you find some aspects of this answer unpleasant, I want to say No offence. Also, some of the usages below is unfamiliar even to old Chinese, because some of these usages only exst online.

这个答案是我自己写的，我是大陆青少年。所以我只知道中国大陆人怎么称呼中国。如果你觉得这个答案让你不快，我只能说我没有恶意。此外，下面的一些称呼因为是网络用词，上了年纪的中国人也会觉得陌生。

1.中华人民共和国（PRC）

2.中华民国( ROC, especially used in Taiwan province）

3.中国(Zhong Guo)

4.你国(Your country, it is a very aggressive word in China, especially when you are Chinese)

5.我国(My country)

6.天朝(The Celestial Empire, Chinese net citizens often use this word to laugh at themselves, referring to China. As you know, China used to be a very influential empire in ancient times. In the Qing dynasty, Chinese emperor called China the celestial empire for the reason that all of them believed China is the center of the world, while they were wrong. So nowdays, China is not the leader of the world, but net citizens still use it just for fun.）

7.祖国(Mother Country)

8.华夏(Hua ia)

9.那兔/我兔/兔子(The Rabbit)

1.中华人民共和国

2.中华民国(尤指台湾省)

3.中国

4.你国（你们国家，这在中国是一个很有攻击性的词，尤其是当你是中国人的时候)

5.我国（我的国家）

6.天朝（中国网民经常用这个词自嘲，指的就是中国。你应该也知道，中国在古代曾经是一个非常有影响力的帝国。清朝皇帝称中国为天朝，认为中国是世界的中心，但他们错了。所以现在，中国不是世界的领导者，但网民们为了好玩还会这么说)

7.祖国

8.华夏

9.那兔/我兔/兔子

那年那兔那些事 is a Chinese animation product. In this animation, rabbit represents China. Why does it choose rabbit as a token of China? Because the rabbit is consider as a kind of mild animal. If you don't bother it, it wouldn't bother you. This is China’s discipline.

If, however, some country gives offense to China, China have no choice but to fight it back for its pride like a mild rabbit!

10. /TC(The T represents a hammer and the G represents a sickle, so you know what I mean. As for TC, it is a contraction in Chinese 天朝——Tian Chao)

那年那兔那些事是一部中国动画片。在这个动画中，兔子代表着中国。为什么会选择兔子作为中国的象征？因为人们认为兔子一种性情温和的动物。如果你不打扰它，它也不会打扰你。

但如果某个国家冒犯了中国，中国别无选择，也一定会像一只温和的兔子一样为自己的自尊而反击！

10. 天国/天朝（T代表锤子，G代表镰刀，你能看懂我的意思吧。至于TC，是汉语中“天朝”的缩写）。

11.神州/赤县（Shen Zhou/ Chi ian）

Also, there are some rare usage of refering to China by Chinese(or Japanese? Sorry, I don't know. Because these rare usage are only used in the Internet. It’s hard to tell his or her nationality. BTW, if you are a non-Chinese speaker, it will be difficult to understand these words’ meanings)

12.支国/蜘国(Shina, it was and is used by some Japanese to insult Chinese. Now some Chinese(we call them 精日(spiritual Japanese)，who adore Japan insanely) use it to irritate other Chinese in the Internet)

此外，中国人(或日本人)在提到中国时也有一些不常见的说法。但很抱歉，我并不了解。因为这些说法只存在于互联网上，很难分辨发言者的国籍。顺便说一句，如果你不说中文，你会很难理解这些词的意思。

Feifei Wang

Related

Why do they call China the central nation (Zhongguo)?

The word ”中国", which indeed means "central nation", had various meanings through out Chinese history. For example, the word "中" (center) could be a variety of the word "忠" (loyalty). And the word "国" could mean country, state, city state, capital city...

为什么他们称中国为中央国家zhongguo？

“中国”这个词，确实是“中央国家”的意思，在中国历史上有各种各样的含义。例如，“中”可能是“忠”的变体，“国”这个词可以指国家、州、城市、首都……

So why do we call our country "中国" or "central nation"? the word "中国" first appeared on inscription on bronze vessel He zun, dated back to 11th century BCE during early Zhou dynasty. The word means "middle kingdom", or center kingdom. But we're not talking about the scale of entire Asia. We're talking about the area around Luoyang basin (circled in red). So considering the known land back then when the word first come out, we were sort of in the center of things.

那么为什么我们称我们的国家为“中央国家”呢？“中国”一词的文字最早出现在公元前11世纪周朝初期的青铜器“和尊”上。这个词的意思是“中央王国”，但这个中央不是整个亚洲的中央，而是指洛阳盆地周围的地区。当这个词第一次出现的时候，我们在某种程度上处于某片已知土地的中心。

But I think the idea of "central kingdom” has a lot more to do with the doctrine of mean than how we believed that China is geologically the center of the known world. Traditional Chinese philosophy considered center to be the best. Any kind of extreme is considered bad. The word 中 (center/middle) also signifies orthodox, legitimacy, balance and righteousness. The men in the center are those who carry authority given by the heaven. In other words, 中国 also means a country of righteousness and authority over lands and people on the "outer circle", originally named as 4 barbarians (四夷).

但我认为，“中央王国”的概念更多是和中庸主义有关，而不是地理范畴上的已知世界的中心。中国传统哲学认为中庸才是最好的，任何极端都不好。“中”这个词也意味着正统、合法、平衡和正义。居中之人就是接受上天赐权威的人。换句话说，“中国”也意味着一个正义和权威的国家，统治着“外围”的土地和人民，最初这些地区被称为“四夷”。

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