All the King's Women

NOTE ON THE ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE WORDS

i3 o C v NOTE ONTHE ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE WORDS B ecause of the nature of the characters and the narratives I feel that a rigorously consisten t syste m o f romanization woul d not only be unnecessary bu t inappropriate . M y aim is to suggest , rather than to attempt to accurately represent , the Chinese language. In th e Cantones e worl d o f th e protagonists , I hav e use d suggestiv e approximations o f the rac y Cantones e dialec t i n th e romanizatio n o f terms like tienfong, literall y 'replacement in a room' for a woman who marries a widower, or expressions lik e tien sang tien yeung fo r 'wha t the heavens caus e to be born, the heavens will bring up'. Where th e transliterated for m i s relativel y familia r o r alread y establishe d a s a phonetic translatio n i n Englis h I hav e use d it . Henc e guanxi i s a pinyin renderin g base d o n th e Putonghu a pronunciation , an d gweilo and wok ar e base d o n Cantones e pronunciations . I hav e attempte d consistency i n on e area : al l plac e name s i n Mainlan d Chin a ar e rendered i n pinyin fo r eas e o f referenc e o n a contemporar y ma p o f China. Hon g Kon g plac e names , fo r example , Shek Tong Tsui, ar e romanized accordin g to a Cantonese pronunciation . ...