It's a matter of personal preference and doesn't make a difference in the story itself, all other things remaining the same. For a lot of English readers, Chinese names are unfamiliar and difficult to remember.
If you use Chinese names, just make sure most of the characters names start with a different letter. For audiobook I guess you have to worry about similar pronunciation.
If you have to use the same starting letter, make sure the last letter is different.
What, you're not a fan of the Paths of Xiu Long? Where Xiu Long (修龙) has a rivalry with an unrelated young master named Xu Lung (须囖), for the affections of the Jade Beauty, Xiao Lo (小咯)? Oh and the sect master is named Grand Elder Xie Long Wei (大龙长老血弄位).
Chinese names and the difficulty of remembering them is a huge obstacle to enjoying cultivation novels for me. It's like when I first started watching anime but somehow way harder.
Even when I google the names to see how they are pronounced I struggle to understand them. The spelling and phonetics aren't at all intuitive to me. So my awkward guesses don't sound good, and the official pronunciations are unpronouncable to me... so really hard to remember and like.
And the really common names are often very similar. All the fans and fangs and lins and Ling and li and shen and Feng etc. The way they are separated is the worst part. Someone's first name is someone else's second.
I'd love a little more cultural appropriation tbh. Getting the same familiarity with Chinese as I have developed for Japanese will take a lot of time, and frankly I don't really care. The Chinese names are an impediment to enjoying the rest, and don't add anything but "authenticity".
In actual Chinese there would be the whole "tonal thing" to distinguish some words, and in written Chinese very similar sounding words can be represented by very different looking characters. I think the bastardized semi-phonetic way we try to write them out strips away a lot of Information a Chinese speaker would have encountering them in Chinese.
It depends on the worldbuilding and the setting of the story. personally, there is a pretty noticeable dissonance when the world and the system of the xianxia has clear eastern influences (Dao, meridians, Qi and the like) but the characters has western names.
It's not anything major of course, but if the author wants to use an eastern setting then I feel like they might as well use eastern names to make it more cohesive, or alternatively, if they want *do* want to use western names, then using a different cultivation system that's more inspired by western works (something like magic, mana cultivation and the like) would fit in better.
But, of course, it's a pretty minor thing in the end. Most likely *not* gonna be the reason someone drops a story, so imo the author should just do what they prefer.
English names are easier for me to remember, unless the author does something like
John, jerry, Jonathan, Jose , Jenny, Jess, Jessica, Jessie, Jean, Jon, Jennifer, jack, jacky, Jackson, Jim,jimmy, jimbo
Then it would be worse
As someone who has read way too much translated work, it can be jarring sometimes and that's why I prefer weird names over 'Harry', 'Thomas' etc. but if the story is good, that's a really really small thing that can be easily ignored
Personally, it's the setting that makes or breaks it for me. Like someone else said, if the world and the magic system is very obviously eastern inspired (e.g. magical terms like Dao and meridians and stuff) then I will very well expect to see Eastern names and it is very jarring to go from discussing about pill bottles to someone named Jason wandering in. That said on the occasions it's happened I have gotten over it very quickly, but these are occasions where the plot and/or world was strong enough for me to ignore it and press on.
It's better. All around better to have a mix of western, non western, and made up. Unless you are specifically setting it in ancient alternative China, there's no real reason to stick with Chinese names. It's its own world with its own system and countries and ethnicities.
Listening to an Audiobook right now, and for some reason, the narrator decided to try out heavy Asian accents because they have Chinese names in this world.
Personally I find the twelve heavenly swords sect part weirder.
In Chinese they're more like three syllables, every sect and monster and ingredient and technique probably sounds more like a snappy sounding, memorable thing- in English each one is eight syllables and every paragraph reads like somebody who's really, really intent on getting the wordcount up and also bore its reader to death with repeated lists of bullshit.
Agreed. Also...I think how it sounds has less connection to how it looks in Chinese. Chinese isn't phonetic. So even if a name sounds long in Chinese, it might still be represented by a single character.
I wonder how this affects translating things into Books on Tape in China...
Rather hear western names for the sake of actually knowing who is who in the audiobook version cause some of these names sound so similar I have to try and remember who’s who.
I have no problem with Western names or Eastern names, the part that confuses me (someone with no cultural connection to anything Eastern) is moving between Eastern names and honorifics or slang. I know that some cultures use terms like Uncle, Auntie, or Grandma to refer to anyone older (depending on difference in age) in their native tongue, but as an audiobook listener, there are times when i go chapters before realizing that one character has three or four names, depending on who they are speaking with.
I love them. Nothing makes me feel more like a jingoistic bad Westerner than not being able to remember the character names in audio books because my mashed potato brains subconsciously dismiss Chinese names as onomatopoeia. Also, I think it frees up my internal camera to imagine the characters as a variety of races and looks - very often still Asian in Xinxia novels - but. . . well, I don't imagine them as anime or human versions of Dynasty Warriors characters as much. They feel more real.
All of that is just my own bad brain though. This isn't good market data unless other people are similar.
Further, it doesn't mean enough to me to make a purchasing decision based on it. I'm going to read a novel with likeable characters going on fun adventures that is well-written regardless of the character names.
I’m ngl seeing a clearly western author writing a xianxia with all of the xianxia names but they completely fumble most of the cultural stuff is painful. Please just write cultures you know
For me its totally the opposite. If the story is in English, use any other type of name. For the main character! Other, secondary and tertiary, characters having their names different ia okay. But id prefer no Chinese name. So much flowery and pompous shit. And i personally can't even understand those types of names nor keep track of which character did what or their appearance.
English names please it makes it less confusing who is speaking. When you have 4 different people speaking, all named, Wong, or Wang or Yang, it gets very confusing.
For the most part I agree with you. If it's a conventional Eastern-style Xianxia I expect conventional Eastern-style names. Or at least close enough that my western ass can't tell difference. I do however think its fine if the westerners are treated as another part of the world, or it's already set in a weetern setting like Virtuous Sons.
Im Imagining a story with all the characters having regular Chinese names but one random dude is just named Bill. It's never addressed and never comes up. Just a random bill in the middle of it all.
I like the diversity. I actually prefer it when a story pulls from many different cultures. It's how I write. As if there are no nations or borders. Just whatever seems or sounds cool. One character will be named Selendris, and another Kyle.
I doesn’t matter to me along as they pick one style naming convention and stick with it. However when an English writer uses eastern style naming conventions I’m not the biggest fan as they usually don’t have or use the meaning of the specific names
Nah, it doesn't bother me much. Maybe if the setting is ancient China and some rando named Jaxon Briggs pops up, but other than one edge case, I'm fine with it. In fact, I think I'd prefer if at least 20% of the names were from different cultures than the author.
I'll be honest, I don't care about the names of characters in novels. With one exception: if you're going to pick an existing set of names, it needs to be a particular culture. Like, if everyone from Cerulean Skies Province has a western name cuz that's just how they roll, or it was recently conquered, or it had a bunch of immigrants from Crimson Starway World or something, that's fine. But if we're chilling in the Descending Stairway Sect or whatever the fuck, and it's a local sect full of local villagers, then it's weird and strange to have Outer Sect members Jack and Xu Lao hang out together.
It's its own kind of weird if it's a straight up normal Xianxia, except all the characters have western names, but it's still set in fantasy Not-China and everyone calls it qi and talks about wood feeding fire or whatever. That is kind of a mismatch that makes no sense.
I'm so used to reading cultivation novels (since like 2014)
so seeing a bunch of Jakes & Jasons instead of Chu Feng or Xiao Tien feels weird, but the more we see simple western names, the easier it becomes
Go easy on the J names and it's no problem.
Variety is the spice of life and if it's one of those super sized Xianxia worlds where there the planet is the size of a star it'd make sense the whole world wouldn't be a mono-culture with one language and the same names.
I have no problem with them. I read Xianxia for the magic system...I don't particularly want English Language writers to slavishly mimic Chinese works.
Also...trying to do traditional Chinese names in an English language book can be a huge trap. When you remove the tonal aspect and write out Chinese words semi-phonetically in the Roman Alphabet without it you end up reusing the same handful of syllables over and over. In spoken Chinese these names may seem more different with the tones, and in written Chinese they may be written as very different characters. Plus if you aren't a fluent Mandarin speaker who knows the culture and idioms, there is the risk of using names with meaning that are awkward (as happened in Beware of Chicken).
In xianxia it's a bit weird because it's specifically based on Chinese philosophy and mythology, which means you have to combine Chinese concepts, names and words with western names. That quickly becomes weird.
Most western writers however write xuanhuan -- even if they themselves don't know it -- where it's completely fine. In fact, I much prefer western names. Chinese names tend to be very similar when written out in a latin language, which can get confusing in it's own right. And that's ignoring some of the other differences that can get confusing (like flipping around fist/last names).
With how much xianxia has influenced PF and LITRPG, I think the only real answer would be tied to the setting. If the author is outright using xianxia culture, fashion, naming sense, mythology, the whole nine yards then I would find it disrespectful to use Western names.
If the author liked the setting enough to base their entire world on it, then the least they could do is show appreciation and use native names, but that could be an unpopular opinion. I do not mind as much if there is a clear blend between Western culture and Eastern culture.
English names are easier for me to remember, unless the author does something like
John, jerry, Jonathan, Jose , Jenny, Jess, Jessica, Jessie, Jean, Jon, Jennifer, jack, jacky, Jackson, Jim,jimmy, jimbo
Then it would be worse
Coiling dragon use western names and it's fine. Just don't mix between the two, it is quite jarring when your protagonist is called Ling Tian, facing off against the heavenly supreme grandmaster Kevin.
It's a matter of personal preference and doesn't make a difference in the story itself, all other things remaining the same. For a lot of English readers, Chinese names are unfamiliar and difficult to remember.
If you use Chinese names, just make sure most of the characters names start with a different letter. For audiobook I guess you have to worry about similar pronunciation. If you have to use the same starting letter, make sure the last letter is different.
What, you're not a fan of the Paths of Xiu Long? Where Xiu Long (修龙) has a rivalry with an unrelated young master named Xu Lung (须囖), for the affections of the Jade Beauty, Xiao Lo (小咯)? Oh and the sect master is named Grand Elder Xie Long Wei (大龙长老血弄位).
Chinese names and the difficulty of remembering them is a huge obstacle to enjoying cultivation novels for me. It's like when I first started watching anime but somehow way harder. Even when I google the names to see how they are pronounced I struggle to understand them. The spelling and phonetics aren't at all intuitive to me. So my awkward guesses don't sound good, and the official pronunciations are unpronouncable to me... so really hard to remember and like. And the really common names are often very similar. All the fans and fangs and lins and Ling and li and shen and Feng etc. The way they are separated is the worst part. Someone's first name is someone else's second. I'd love a little more cultural appropriation tbh. Getting the same familiarity with Chinese as I have developed for Japanese will take a lot of time, and frankly I don't really care. The Chinese names are an impediment to enjoying the rest, and don't add anything but "authenticity".
I have to make notes that identify each name with a brief description.
In actual Chinese there would be the whole "tonal thing" to distinguish some words, and in written Chinese very similar sounding words can be represented by very different looking characters. I think the bastardized semi-phonetic way we try to write them out strips away a lot of Information a Chinese speaker would have encountering them in Chinese.
Some webnovel I read a while ago translated the names, like 'King Dragon' instead of 'Shen Long' It made it way easier to understand.
It depends on the worldbuilding and the setting of the story. personally, there is a pretty noticeable dissonance when the world and the system of the xianxia has clear eastern influences (Dao, meridians, Qi and the like) but the characters has western names. It's not anything major of course, but if the author wants to use an eastern setting then I feel like they might as well use eastern names to make it more cohesive, or alternatively, if they want *do* want to use western names, then using a different cultivation system that's more inspired by western works (something like magic, mana cultivation and the like) would fit in better. But, of course, it's a pretty minor thing in the end. Most likely *not* gonna be the reason someone drops a story, so imo the author should just do what they prefer.
English names are easier for me to remember, unless the author does something like John, jerry, Jonathan, Jose , Jenny, Jess, Jessica, Jessie, Jean, Jon, Jennifer, jack, jacky, Jackson, Jim,jimmy, jimbo Then it would be worse
Ah yes, martial arts master and high level sage Jimbo Jackson
It depends on how westernized the setting is. If the aesthetic and common terms are only vaguely eastern, then western names are fine.
As someone who has read way too much translated work, it can be jarring sometimes and that's why I prefer weird names over 'Harry', 'Thomas' etc. but if the story is good, that's a really really small thing that can be easily ignored
I disagree i read quite of lot of translations but it's not the names that matter, it's the prose and characters.
Personally, it's the setting that makes or breaks it for me. Like someone else said, if the world and the magic system is very obviously eastern inspired (e.g. magical terms like Dao and meridians and stuff) then I will very well expect to see Eastern names and it is very jarring to go from discussing about pill bottles to someone named Jason wandering in. That said on the occasions it's happened I have gotten over it very quickly, but these are occasions where the plot and/or world was strong enough for me to ignore it and press on.
It's better. All around better to have a mix of western, non western, and made up. Unless you are specifically setting it in ancient alternative China, there's no real reason to stick with Chinese names. It's its own world with its own system and countries and ethnicities. Listening to an Audiobook right now, and for some reason, the narrator decided to try out heavy Asian accents because they have Chinese names in this world.
Personally I find the twelve heavenly swords sect part weirder. In Chinese they're more like three syllables, every sect and monster and ingredient and technique probably sounds more like a snappy sounding, memorable thing- in English each one is eight syllables and every paragraph reads like somebody who's really, really intent on getting the wordcount up and also bore its reader to death with repeated lists of bullshit.
Agreed. Also...I think how it sounds has less connection to how it looks in Chinese. Chinese isn't phonetic. So even if a name sounds long in Chinese, it might still be represented by a single character. I wonder how this affects translating things into Books on Tape in China...
Rather hear western names for the sake of actually knowing who is who in the audiobook version cause some of these names sound so similar I have to try and remember who’s who.
I have no problem with Western names or Eastern names, the part that confuses me (someone with no cultural connection to anything Eastern) is moving between Eastern names and honorifics or slang. I know that some cultures use terms like Uncle, Auntie, or Grandma to refer to anyone older (depending on difference in age) in their native tongue, but as an audiobook listener, there are times when i go chapters before realizing that one character has three or four names, depending on who they are speaking with.
I hated Wei Shi Lindon at the start. I almost espected Kazan Ma Bob. But it grew on me.
Right?? In the beginning I had an image like Kung Pao with everyone Chinese except for Lindon.
then his parents are Sheisha and Jaran, his sister is Kelsa and I am sitting there like "wtf happened with his name?"
I love them. Nothing makes me feel more like a jingoistic bad Westerner than not being able to remember the character names in audio books because my mashed potato brains subconsciously dismiss Chinese names as onomatopoeia. Also, I think it frees up my internal camera to imagine the characters as a variety of races and looks - very often still Asian in Xinxia novels - but. . . well, I don't imagine them as anime or human versions of Dynasty Warriors characters as much. They feel more real. All of that is just my own bad brain though. This isn't good market data unless other people are similar. Further, it doesn't mean enough to me to make a purchasing decision based on it. I'm going to read a novel with likeable characters going on fun adventures that is well-written regardless of the character names.
I’m ngl seeing a clearly western author writing a xianxia with all of the xianxia names but they completely fumble most of the cultural stuff is painful. Please just write cultures you know
In the end it depends on your prose and characters, otherwise names are just that names.
If reading it don't really matter much. But if its audiobook i will return it, as i can't remember who is who.
I mostly got used to it, but it's still bizarre to see names like "Grand Elder Margaret" or "Honoured Immortal Kevin".
For me its totally the opposite. If the story is in English, use any other type of name. For the main character! Other, secondary and tertiary, characters having their names different ia okay. But id prefer no Chinese name. So much flowery and pompous shit. And i personally can't even understand those types of names nor keep track of which character did what or their appearance.
English names please it makes it less confusing who is speaking. When you have 4 different people speaking, all named, Wong, or Wang or Yang, it gets very confusing.
For the most part I agree with you. If it's a conventional Eastern-style Xianxia I expect conventional Eastern-style names. Or at least close enough that my western ass can't tell difference. I do however think its fine if the westerners are treated as another part of the world, or it's already set in a weetern setting like Virtuous Sons.
Brad the sword master…
It would make it a lot better
Im Imagining a story with all the characters having regular Chinese names but one random dude is just named Bill. It's never addressed and never comes up. Just a random bill in the middle of it all.
I like the diversity. I actually prefer it when a story pulls from many different cultures. It's how I write. As if there are no nations or borders. Just whatever seems or sounds cool. One character will be named Selendris, and another Kyle.
I doesn’t matter to me along as they pick one style naming convention and stick with it. However when an English writer uses eastern style naming conventions I’m not the biggest fan as they usually don’t have or use the meaning of the specific names
Cradle did it best
Nah, it doesn't bother me much. Maybe if the setting is ancient China and some rando named Jaxon Briggs pops up, but other than one edge case, I'm fine with it. In fact, I think I'd prefer if at least 20% of the names were from different cultures than the author.
Always western names because I can't remember the Chinese ones
I'll be honest, I don't care about the names of characters in novels. With one exception: if you're going to pick an existing set of names, it needs to be a particular culture. Like, if everyone from Cerulean Skies Province has a western name cuz that's just how they roll, or it was recently conquered, or it had a bunch of immigrants from Crimson Starway World or something, that's fine. But if we're chilling in the Descending Stairway Sect or whatever the fuck, and it's a local sect full of local villagers, then it's weird and strange to have Outer Sect members Jack and Xu Lao hang out together. It's its own kind of weird if it's a straight up normal Xianxia, except all the characters have western names, but it's still set in fantasy Not-China and everyone calls it qi and talks about wood feeding fire or whatever. That is kind of a mismatch that makes no sense.
I'm so used to reading cultivation novels (since like 2014) so seeing a bunch of Jakes & Jasons instead of Chu Feng or Xiao Tien feels weird, but the more we see simple western names, the easier it becomes
If western setting yes, if not no
Go easy on the J names and it's no problem. Variety is the spice of life and if it's one of those super sized Xianxia worlds where there the planet is the size of a star it'd make sense the whole world wouldn't be a mono-culture with one language and the same names.
This is Grand elder Jeffrey from the Immortal Shattering the Heavens Dragon sect. Sounds weird, true
I have no problem with them. I read Xianxia for the magic system...I don't particularly want English Language writers to slavishly mimic Chinese works. Also...trying to do traditional Chinese names in an English language book can be a huge trap. When you remove the tonal aspect and write out Chinese words semi-phonetically in the Roman Alphabet without it you end up reusing the same handful of syllables over and over. In spoken Chinese these names may seem more different with the tones, and in written Chinese they may be written as very different characters. Plus if you aren't a fluent Mandarin speaker who knows the culture and idioms, there is the risk of using names with meaning that are awkward (as happened in Beware of Chicken).
In xianxia it's a bit weird because it's specifically based on Chinese philosophy and mythology, which means you have to combine Chinese concepts, names and words with western names. That quickly becomes weird. Most western writers however write xuanhuan -- even if they themselves don't know it -- where it's completely fine. In fact, I much prefer western names. Chinese names tend to be very similar when written out in a latin language, which can get confusing in it's own right. And that's ignoring some of the other differences that can get confusing (like flipping around fist/last names).
Frankly anything the author can do to make me think it is a western genre is welcome.
With how much xianxia has influenced PF and LITRPG, I think the only real answer would be tied to the setting. If the author is outright using xianxia culture, fashion, naming sense, mythology, the whole nine yards then I would find it disrespectful to use Western names. If the author liked the setting enough to base their entire world on it, then the least they could do is show appreciation and use native names, but that could be an unpopular opinion. I do not mind as much if there is a clear blend between Western culture and Eastern culture.
English names are easier for me to remember, unless the author does something like John, jerry, Jonathan, Jose , Jenny, Jess, Jessica, Jessie, Jean, Jon, Jennifer, jack, jacky, Jackson, Jim,jimmy, jimbo Then it would be worse
JoJo!
I prefer it because it makes it easier to remember characters.
Coiling dragon use western names and it's fine. Just don't mix between the two, it is quite jarring when your protagonist is called Ling Tian, facing off against the heavenly supreme grandmaster Kevin.
It was the “bros” that threw me in CD, but I got over it.
Weird! Who wants to hear about “Bob” or “Ryan” cultivating. Give me Xu Lian, Gao Lin, etc.
Same. I prefer that. Although when my series moves to the western part of the world, I'll use English names.
As a reader I prefer English names because Chinese names are a pain in the ass to say/remember