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Short background thread about the significance https://twitter.com/comparativist/status/1327224546089345024
China is somewhat peculiar in that there was no settled endonym (name you call yourselves) for what what we call China today for most of its history. You would call both the government and geographic topology of the land it ruled by the name of the dynasty in power at the time.
Oddly, though, everyone else seemed to have settled on some form of “Sina” almost two thousand years ago. The oldest mentions are in Sanskrit. The Persians called it Čīn, the earliest Greeks reference to the area is ‘Thin,’ which became Sina / Sīnae in Latin.
Even weirder: when the Chinese discover Buddhism, the Sanskrit name gets translated back into Chinese as 支那 / Zhina. Which, in Japanese, is pronounced Shina. By the Tang Dynasty, Chinese are found calling their land ‘Zhina’ b/c that’s what the Indians called it.
The long-held assumption was that Sin/Cin must be an archaic reference to the first (but very short-lived) dynasty that first unified China: the Qin, which would have been pronounced like ‘dzin’ in ancient Chinese. It does sound really similar, right?
Skip to 1708. Japan thinks all missionaries are military scouts, so the standard policy is beheading them when discovered. An Italian missionary spends about a year in Manila trying to catch a ship to Japan. He’s discovered almost instantly and interrogated by a Japanese scholar.
At which point they click and get along famously! Arai Hakuseki, the Japanese scholar, makes the wild suggestion not to behead Giovanni Battista Sidotti on the spot and try to learn about the outside world first.
They realize the Latin and Japanese word for China are the same.
They realize the Latin and Japanese word for China are the same.
At which point the Japanese decide they’re just going to call China “Shina” / 支那 from now on. No more of this ‘whatever dynasty ruled’ stuff, no more “Middle Kingdom” 中國 or “Beautiful Center” 中華, Great Qing or Southern Song.
It’s just Shina, everyone calls it that.
It’s just Shina, everyone calls it that.
So when the Tang Dynasty comes across Sanskrit चीन (Cina), they think “oh hey, that’s us!” and coin 支那 as a phonetic transliteration. Which a Japanese scholar decided to call China too and then met an Italian who called it Sinae.
So basically everyone who comes across thinks 支那 = Cin/Sinae = Shina = [probably Qin?] = same place that’s variously called the name of different dynasties, the Middle Kingdom, Zhonghua, ‘All Under Heaven’ Tianxia, ‘Spirit World’ Shenzhou, etc.
Enter the 20th century and nationalist like Sun Yat-sen eagerly embrace 支那 ‘Zhina’ because the people they’re trying to overthrow (the Qing) are also calling the whole place ‘Great Qing’* and they’re not even Chinese!
* it’s more complicated than that, not now though https://twitter.com/comparativist/status/1327235105023172608
* it’s more complicated than that, not now though https://twitter.com/comparativist/status/1327235105023172608
About 40 yrs later Japan starts gobbling up China, which they called 支那 / Shina. The early Republican govt insists on being called 中華民国 [Republic of Middle {untranslatable character for Chinese civ and culture}], not Shina.
Japan: “thx, but we’re gonna stick w/ Shina”
Japan: “thx, but we’re gonna stick w/ Shina”
At which point both KMT and CCP politicians decide ‘Shina’ is racist. And despite it’s very, very long history they have a point? It was being used in the same way ‘negr-‘ means ‘black,’ sure, but you’re not just saying ‘black’ are you? https://twitter.com/comparativist/status/1327237680682258436
The first people to be disqualified from HK’s LegCo were two young politicians who used the Cantonese version of ‘Shina’ during their oaths of office. It seems to be a word that no one is *really* offended by, but you’re within rights to be offended if used? Something like that.
[accidentally deleted tweet]
![[accidentally deleted tweet]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EmtPGSLVoAIZiCK.jpg "[accidentally deleted tweet]")
