Beijing subway stations once used Chinese-English translations such as "Zhan", but it is reported that such translations have quietly changed back to the English "Station".
According to Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily, on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, the English translation of the subway station "Station" that has been used for 40 years suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by the pinyin translation "Zhan".
Not only the English translation of the station was modified, but even the English translations of the directions "East, West, South, North" were all changed to the pinyin translations "dong, xi, nan, bei". For example, the translation of Beijing South Railway Station was changed from the original "Beijing South Railway Station" to "Beijingnan Zhan".
According to reports, this change caused considerable controversy at the time. Some people believed that the original intention of the English sign of the station name was to facilitate foreign travelers, but Chinese-English was simply putting the cart before the horse.
Some netizens also wrote that the trend of Chinese-English seems to promote Pinyin to the world, but in fact it has split foreigners' understanding of Beijing's public transportation and brought a lot of confusion in actual use.
Guangming.com published a commentator article in December 2022, pointing out that the purpose of translation is to communicate, and considering the practicality of netizens' opinions, it is probably not a whining. This way of translation may fall into a situation: Chinese people don't need it, and foreigners don't understand it.
As China lifts restrictions on the COVID-19 epidemic and international tourists return, some Beijing citizens have found that the translation of subway stations is gradually abandoning pinyin translation and regaining English translation, and the translation of some station names has been changed from "Zhan" to "Station".
It is reported that since this summer, the Beijing Municipal Government has required stations to re-translate stations as "Station", such as Wangfujing Station, Beihai North Station, Dongdaqiao Station, etc. The translation has replaced "Zhan" with "Station".
This change is not limited to subway stations. On traffic signs in the streets and alleys of Beijing, the phenomenon of mixing Chinese pinyin and English translation is everywhere. For example, the translation of Fangcaodi West Street once appeared in two versions: "FANGCAODI XI JIE" and "FANGCAODI West St".