| WilliamW, thanks for your indication. It forced me to have a study on Japanese media. I found that Kanji is still the primary form. There are very rare cases of katakana only version for Chinese names(I never found so far). Some are mixed as you indicated. However, most media and offical sites use Kanjin only version. For example:
Embbasy of Japan in China http://www.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/jp/2nd%20tier/05jckankei/j-c040611j.htm Mainchi-MSN http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/kokusai/asia/taiwan/news/20040803ddm007030066000c.html NiKKEI http://www.nikkei.co.jp/china/taiwan/20040525c575p014_25.html Asahi http://www.asahi.com/international/jinmin/TKY200408040272.html 胡錦濤 http://www.asahi.com/international/jinmin/TKY200408070216.html 王在希,陳水扁 Asahi is the site using katakana most frequently. I also found that katakana is used only once in one article(if the name appear for the second time, it is Kanji only). I guess that it is used to help pronunce in case the reader can not speak it out in Kanji pronunciation (as you know, more and more younger Japanese are unable to read Kanji). If I remember correctly, there was no such a katakana form for Chinese names on Japanese publications 20 years ago. |
Why I Don't Have an English Name