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Chinese Younger Youth Party (Taiwan)

中華青少黨 - Chung-hua Ching-shao-tang

Last modified: 2014-05-29 by zoltán horváth
Keywords: chinese youth party | taiwan |
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[Chinese Younger Youth flag]
image by Tomislav Todorović, 19 April 2014


See also

Introduction

Along with the old Chinese Youth Party, which was founded in 1923, there is also a new party founded in 1989, whose name in English is the same, but the name in Chinese is different - U+4E2D U+83EF U+9752 U+5C11 U+9EE8 (Pinyin: Zhonghua Qingshao Dang) [1, 2]. This party seems to be a breakaway group of the old party [3].
Tomislav Todorović, 19 April 2014

This party's name is "中華青少黨" in Chinese characters (Pinyin: Zhonghua Qingshao Dang). "青少" (Pinyin: Qingshao) means "teenager", but not "youth." So I believe that the translation name in English Wiki is incorrect. Furthermore, there is not any official translation from the Taiwanese Authorities or the party. I suggest to revise its English name as "Chinese Teenager Party" to match its Chinese name.
Akira Oyo, 20 April 2014

For the English translation, I have relied on the Wikipedia page which was one of my sources, as well as the Google translations of the source texts in Chinese, which also gave "youth" for "qingshao". Maybe it is time to give the Google a feedback, suggesting them to use different translation? However, I am not sure if the name revision is really necessary - there are many terms in any of the languages which are treated as synonyms while translating to another  language, resulting with the use of a same term as the translation. Until we find out how the party wants its name to be translated, maybe we should leave it as it is now.
On the other hand, maybe "Zhonghua Qingshao Dang" should be replaced with "Zhonghua Qingshaodang", to match the spellings like "Zhongguo Guomindang" and "Zhongguo Gongchandang".
Tomislav Todorović, 20 April 2014

It's really improper to use the same translation for two existing groups (eg. party, company, etc.) in the same country, especially when their names are different in their official language.
I am a Chinese (or a Taiwanese), so let me simply explain the difference between "青年" (qingnian) and "青少(年)" (qingshao or qingshaonian). "青少(年)" are younger than "青年". Moreover, since the party adopts a distinctive name from the other party, we cannot mix them up in English.
If you feel Chinese Teenager Party weird, Chinese Younger Youth Party is another possible choice.
When it comes to romanization in Taiwan, people are used to Wade-Giles rather than Pinyin. That is, if we try to romanize the party's Chinese name, it's better to spell as "Chung-hua Ching-shao-tang" instead of "Zhonghua Qingshaodang."
Akira Oyo, 20 April 2014

Chinese Teenager Party is improper, considering that most of teenagers in any country, Taiwan/ROC certainly being no exception, are under age for the right to vote and attempts to have them involved in the political activities are therefore probably illegal. Regarding that, Chinese Younger Youth Party (or maybe just Chinese Younger Party?) is definitely a better choice.
Maybe keep both spellings, Wade-Giles for the Chinese speakers who still use it, and Pinyin for the speakers of other languages (seems to me that the use of Pinyin has prevailed in non-Chinese languages by now)? The same for all other Taiwanese parties as well.  But isn't the Wade-Giles spelling "Chung-hua Ch'ing-shao-tang"? AFAIK, the apostrophe is essential part of it.
Tomislav Todorović, 22 April 2014

Frankly, you are right. But Taiwanese people are used to omitting the apostrophe, and it seems to become an exclusive variant of Wade-Giles in Taiwan. In this case, I think it better to keep the apostrophe.
Akira Oyo, 22 April 2014

Like I said, use of both spellings seem reasonable here. And of course, the use of Chinese script (Traditional variant here, I presume?), as the only true Chinese way of writing. But wouldn't it lead to possible confusion? Or the difference between the aspirated and unaspirated sounds is less pronounced in local dialects?
Certainly, since it is the correct spelling, while the use of local unofficial variants would make it unnecessarily ambiguous.
The most important of all, though, is that whatever is eventually agreed, be applied to all FOTW pages for Taiwan, or in this case, Taiwanese political flags pages.
Tomislav Todorović, 23 April 2014

Of course, in Traditional Chinese is the only true Chinese way of writing the party's name. The most important reason for disuse Pinyin in romanizing is to avoid confusion or misleading. Especially as the name starts in "Chinese," if it's spelt in Pinyin, it's very likely to make people misunderstand that it's one of the parties in the PRC.
People omit the apostrophe only for the convenience in writing, because most of them don't realize the difference between with and without the apostrophe.
Akira Oyo, 23 April 2014


Flag

Its flag has the ratio 3:5, with a red, or rather orange-red field, with the 1912-1929 national flag of China in the canton, as shown in few of its images currently available on the Web [3, 4], especially a photo of a party ID card [3], which clearly shows two shades of red, one of them more inclining towards the orange more than the other, not only in the flag image, but the whole card surface as well.
Tomislav Todorović, 19 April 2014


Sources:
[1] List of political parties in Taiwan/ROC at Wikipedia (in English):
[2] List of political parties in Taiwan/ROC at Wikipedia (in Chinese):
[3] TVBS website - report about the Chinese Youth Party, with the photo of party ID card (Photo)
[4] PChome website - Chinese Youth Party home page. (Image)