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David Lau Dai-Wei ? David Lau David ?

PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:37 pm
by heinz Germany
Since nearly everyone should know who makes Name edits
The chinese Name Da Wei = David
So many actors have a David & Da-Wei too (twice David)

so: It should be David Chiang or Chiang Da-Wei (work with aliases)

But not David Chiang Da-Wei = David Chiang David

same with David Chan Dai-Wai / (陳大å

PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:00 pm
by Brian Thibodeau
I see what you're saying here, but I've never had a problem with writing "David Chiang Da-Wei" (as an example) in, say, a cast list for a review, as I do most Chinese names, largely because it satisfies both schools of thought upon that ever-important first glance, even if one or the other tends to be the most common pronunciation. I see where "David" would be a logical English name for him to adopt (or his parents to give him), but since hundreds, if not thousands, of performers and crew are in the database as English Name+Family Name+Given Chinese Name, I don't understand why these fellows would warrant a change just because their Chinese given name isn't really a Chinese name, so to speak.

I guess I don't understand the need for an "either/or" scenario being proposed here, especially since it's unlikely anyone would ever add "David Chiang David" as an alias to his DB entry, or apply some erzatz translation to arrive at that in order to include him in written works outside this site. Many people in the DB have English first names that sound uncannily like their Chinese given names (whether the latter is "authentic" or not, or has a direct translation in English), yet we still list them using the English Name+Family Name+Given Chinese Name, unless common onscreen usage dicates otherwise.

If the plan IS to choose one or the other, I guess I'd side with David Chiang as the main name for his DB listing, but only because that's the way I've seen it spelled out the most times, in English anyways. :)

PostPosted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:16 am
by calros
Our rules say David Chiang Da-Wei and Lily Li Li-Li and this must not be touched.

Sometimes the name is translated as Tai-Wai because appears in this way in the English credits.