I wholly agree with your comment. This changing of ethnic names to english ones is usually why I drop mangas that are licensed in english. It’s such a shame. Their Chinese names are so beautiful and gives me a feeling of sentiment when reading them I just cannot understand why they choose to change them. We can make the effort to remember character names. (〜￣△￣)〜
Sry meant to like
u may be right my friend....i am not chinese....so the names becomes hard to remember while reading the comic but when we get used to chinese names of a given comics and some one changes them into westernised names ....it becomes awkward too...it happened with me in 10 years where i loved u the most....i liked name like zishu but when it got changed to leuis etc ...it did not gave the same feel..........my point is that....changing chinese or korean names to english is not racism...its just for convinence of the readers...lol
i see what youre saying about globalisation: its easier to communicate when most of the world speaks English. from that facet i completely agree, and i have explored it in my own studies at school.
i live in a city with a lot of ethnicities, and ive had friends who have had english names alongside their native names because its a pain in the ass to teach others how to say their native name. ive had friends who were embarrassed by their native name. ive also had friends who refuse to have an English name because they like their native name and want to make sure that others can pronounce it as well as they can. my dad is a foreigner and he took on an English name for his work. i think that it depends on the individuals views on their name, culture, and the usefulness of "westernisation" to achieve "globalisation".
however, i dont agree with the erasure that comes with globalisation. the weight of your native name is gone simply because your english client doesnt want to learn how to pronounce it. theyre not interested in a few seconds of a different culture. why? because the western culture is superior?
i dont think that its hard. when i first started watching anime and reading manga, i was overwhelmed by names and even pronounced them wrong in my head. however, my interest in and respect for how Japanese language and culture is different to mine made me want to know.
as you can see this issue is personal to me on lots of different levels. i also think that you make some very good points. i do think that white names are a mix of globalisation and racism. i do not think that they were necessary for this manhua.
very good point made well by the scanlator. as both a reader and scanlator i agree. but not on ethan and charlie man....why? im laughing so hard at the whitification (it certainly isnt westernisation). im also disappointed at the idea that chinese people with chinese names dont exist as far as translating comics goes. that kind of erasure is systemic racism in that it openly shames a chinese person for using their given name instead of the "superior" white name. it suggests that chinese names put their owners at a disadvantage in the real world. this feeds into the same racism where corporate figures ignore candidates with "ethnic-sounding names" but will accept an ethan fu for diversity points.
how embarrassing.