Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Chinese Romanization Change:

1992; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1300/j104v15n02_03

1544-4554

Joann S. Young,

Library Science and Information Systems

Abstract Recently the Library of Congress reconsidered switching the Chinese romanization system from Wade-Giles to Pinyin in cataloging Chinese language materials. This article reports a study on library users' familiarity with and preference for the two systems. Five groups of users on Chinese language materials including the "Mainland Chinese," "Taiwan Chinese," "Singapore Chinese," "Hong Koge Chinese." and "Americans fluent in Chinese" participated a series of matching tests and responded to a questionnaire. The tests were designed to measure and compare participants' performance in matching Pinyin and Wade-Giles romanized titles with corresponding Chinese titles. Results indicate the majority scored better in the Pinyin test and preferred Pinyin to Wide-Giles. Research findings support the Library of Congress proposal for a Pinyin switch.