Chinese Character Discrimination for Jews and Muslims?

Are the Chinese characters for Jews and Islam demeaning? An old article by the Taipei Times sent to me by a reader suggests that might be true. Published on Aug 23-2005 and titled “Chinese words for Jews and Islam are demeaning: group” the article has the following :

A peace group yesterday called on the public and the government to support a campaign to change what they call "discriminatory" Chinese translations for terms related to Islam and Jews.

"There are many Chinese characters for you tai (猶太), or Jew, but they pick the you with the `dog radical’ (犬)" said Chien Hsi-chieh, executive director of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan. "In Chinese, [the character] refers to an animal of the monkey species, and has the connotation of `parsimoniousness.’"

A better choice for the word, Chien said, would be you (尤), which is more neutral.

[…]

Zhou Xun (周迅), a history professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, said it is almost impossible to find a definition for the term Jew or Jewishness in Chinese.

"As a matter of fact, the animal radical of youtai indicates the imagined physical difference between the Chinese and the Jews, which is rooted in the tradition of picturing the alien groups living outside the pale of Chinese society as distant savages hovering on the edge of bestiality," she said.

[…]

"The petition was filed by the foundation [in Taiwan] rather than by Jewish people. According to the conclusion reached by the committee on Oct. 20, it was unnecessary for the government to take such an initiative. Besides, Taiwan has no official diplomatic ties with Israel," the statement said.

I guess I never really thought about it that way. I knew I had to be careful about choosing my Chinese translated name, but I guess it’s more than that and apparently, there’s also sensitivity to components and radicals in the Chinese characters chosen when translating. I find it extremely interesting that this came from a Taiwanese and wonder how a Chinese/Taiwanese would perceive the issue in this article. Would they see as an important issue or as some kind of a joke? Honestly, I can’t tell.

 
tags: Chinese Studies, chinese_words, demeaning, islam, jews, taipei_times