| Chinese is a very difficult
language. To make it more difficult for the rest of the world, a few years back
the Chinese government officially adopted the Pinyin transliterations for
the English pronunciations of Chinese words. The problem is most of the world
had been using the Wade-Giles transliterations. People over 40 were taught
the capital of China was Peking. Now it’s spelled Beijing. Tai Chi used
to be Tai Chi – and now it’s officially Tai Ji. However, the only
correct way to write Tai Chi is to draw the Chinese characters.
Just like here in the United States there is the “proper English” way
to pronounce a word and the multitude of different ways a word is pronounced
in different parts of the country. If you wanted to write out how to
pronounce the word dog in the South you might write "dawg". It’s
not proper English – but a lot of people say “dawg”.
Keep in mind whichever way you write the word it means the same thing.
Most of the people new to Chinese martial arts use the newer Pinyin transliterations
and say Tai Ji and Ba Gua. The old crusty Chinese martial arts people
say Tai Chi and Pa Kua. Even the Chinese try to confuse you on this.
It’s very common to arrive in China and have your English speaking,
native Chinese guide say “Welcome to Beijing! Tonight we will take
you to a nice Peking Duck Dinner and then go to the Peking Opera.” If
you travel about China you will find the variation in pronunciation to
be much greater than here in the States. No matter how you pronounce
a Chinese word many people in China will tell you it’s wrong and
many people will tell you it’s right.
Don’t worry about which way you see Tai Chi spelled or pronounced – Tai
Chi is not in the writing – it’s in the doing.
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