Is the name of your neighborhood “Advocate for foreigners and favor foreigners”? "Weird and difficult to understand"? "With a strong feudal flavor"? If this is the case, the name may need to be changed in the future.

Recently, Hainan, Shaanxi, Hebei, Guangdong and other places have carried out the work of cleaning up and rectifying irregular place names. Non-standard place names such as "Chong" will be normalized and standardized.

It stands to reason that this measure reflects cultural self-confidence, and some place names do have foreign self-respect and are weird and difficult to understand. They have been criticized by all walks of life for many years. However, during the implementation process in some places, due to the one-size-fits-all and Unclear standards and insufficient organization and implementation have led to some backlash in public opinion.

The foreign name is to cater to consumer psychology

Reform and opening up, the country is opening up, and we find that compared with the rest of the world, we are far behind. In the process of catching up, a large number of place names that worship foreigners and are mixed with foreign languages ??have appeared.

If you name this community "Italian Style", that commercial building will be called "Paris Sunshine"; if you name it "Manhattan City", I will call it "Champs Elysees". If a real estate development is not called "Seineside", it will not be sold, regardless of whether there is actually a river next to it. Selling ceramic tile furniture without calling it "Marco Polo" or "Leonardo Da Vinci" would feel classless, regardless of whether the names and experiences of these characters have anything to do with the product.

This kind of imitation of foreign names is a manifestation of cultural unconfidence, and the root cause is economic unconfidence.

There is indeed a big gap between the quality and application performance of domestic products and supporting services in the past ten or twenty years compared with the world's first-class standards. These cannot be caught up in a short time. Therefore, giving a foreign name often has a boosting effect on the choice psychology of some domestic consumers.

In addition to using foreign names, there are also some deliberately exaggerated place names, such as "Chinese International" and "Longyu Tianxia", and some unclear names, such as "Danxi Liuquan" and "Weilan". "Xiangdai" etc. may be to catch the eye and attract more attention, or it may be to use tiger skin as a banner to bluff one's own products. In the final analysis, these are still insufficient confidence.

From a historical perspective, the emergence of "big, foreign, strange, heavy" place names is the product of social development to a certain stage. It is absolutely possible and necessary to criticize it, but we must realize that within a certain period of time, some consumer groups buy into this "foreign style".

Changing place names should follow the trend

If giving foreign names to products and communities shows lack of confidence, then now that we have become the world’s second largest economy, changing Does a foreign name definitely make us more confident? This needs to be viewed dialectically.

To be fair, culturally, we are indeed becoming more and more confident. In recent years, there are fewer and fewer newly built residential communities and commercial projects with names that are based on foreign characteristics and are more based on national characteristics, historical heritage, and well-founded names.

For example, according to media statistics, "Qujiang" appears most frequently in the names of residential buildings in Xi'an, which is enough to show that the phenomenon of focusing on foreign things has been restrained.

If this trend continues, I believe that in the future, there will be fewer and fewer people who cling to the names of foreign places and celebrities and deliberately seek greatness and strangeness. Because consumer psychology is also changing, the overall demand for cultural standards has increased. The name that I thought was foreign in the past is no longer good now. In short, this is a market behavior. The upgrade on the demand side will naturally force the supply side to take the initiative to eliminate the false fire syndrome.

In this case, local government-led name changes should also follow the trend.

A few years ago, Luoma Lake in Jiangsu, which has a history of thousands of years, caused a "name change controversy". Some people changed the name of the lake to "Ma Lake". The reason is said to be because "Luoma" is a homonym for "Luoma Lake". ", violated a taboo. This was a sign of lack of confidence, and it was not changed later.

In addition, if a residential area in China is called "California Water County", it can indeed be said to worship foreign things, but it generally has no impact on the normal life of residents and the value of the house.

According to media reports, a resident who lives in a community with a foreign name said: "If you can solve the problem of children going to school nearby, don't say we won't call it 'Oriental Roman Garden', we will be happy to call it a certain county garden."

In other words, when some people's livelihood issues have not been better solved, changing the name in a big way is likely to give the society and the people the impression of a superficial project.

In addition, there is another question that has attracted widespread attention, that is, how much does it cost to change a name? Who will bear the responsibility? Are the standards for name changes reasonable?

Don’t recite the Good Sutra incorrectly

Changing the name does not mean changing the words on the door of the community, just replace it with a new one. There is a series of things behind this, including cost calculations. and burden issues.

The first thing that comes to mind is, does the name on the house book have to be changed? It may not cost much, but it takes up time. What about the name on the ID card? What about the name on the household registration book? The name of the community has changed, and the signboard of the commercial project has changed. How much cost, time and energy will it cost to update the city map, navigation, street signs, industrial and commercial registration information, etc.? These need to be clarified so that a good initiative will not cause unpleasant unpleasantness to the people.

In addition, there are inconsistencies and ambiguities in the standards in promoting name changes in various places. For example, a certain place mentioned in its principles and standards for identifying irregular place names that place names containing foreign names must be cleaned up and rectified, except for place names that reflect the friendship between Chinese and foreign people. In the example, "Lincoln Apartments", "Marco Polo Building", and "Columbus Square" all need to be changed, but "Bethune International Peace Hospital" does not need to be changed.

The question is, Lincoln and Columbus indeed have nothing to do with us, but wasn’t Marco Polo an envoy to spread Chinese culture overseas? Why doesn't he reflect the friendship between Chinese and foreign people?

There is also the problem of identifying place names with "strong feudal overtones". Since "Emperor", "Imperial Capital", "Yufu" and "Prince's Mansion" all have to be changed, what about Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing? manage?

There is no need to give more examples. This kind of principles and standards that are easy for people to find fault with can only mean that the good scriptures are recited incorrectly. If it is true, as someone said, "Department consultations, expert demonstrations, public hearings, etc. should be used to fully solicit opinions from all parties on the irregular place names to be cleaned up," I believe the effect will be very different.

Official response on how to change place names

How should irregular place names be cleaned up and rectified? Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, civil affairs and related departments in many places issued official responses.

Ministry of Civil Affairs: Certain local policy standards are not accurately grasped

On June 21, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced that in December 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Notice on Further Cleaning Up and Regulating Irregular Place Names" (Minfa (2018) No. 146) to make arrangements for the work of sorting out and rectifying irregular place names. At present, various localities are actively promoting the cleanup and rectification of irregular place names in accordance with the deployment of the six departments. However, there are also situations in some places where the policy standards are not accurately grasped and the organization and implementation are not secure enough.

The relevant person in charge of the Zoning and Place Names Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that cleaning up and rectifying irregular place names is an important measure to further standardize place name management, inherit and promote excellent place name culture. All localities must accurately grasp policies, organize and implement them in strict accordance with relevant laws and regulations, principles and standards, and prevent arbitrary expansion of the scope of cleanup and rectification. It is necessary to focus on cleaning up and rectifying irregular place names such as "big, foreign, strange, and heavy" in newly built urban residential areas and large buildings that have a bad social impact and have strong reactions from all parties. It is necessary to further standardize work procedures, fully conduct expert demonstrations, extensively solicit opinions from all parties, prudently propose a clean-up and rectification list, and advance implementation in strict accordance with procedures. It is necessary to strengthen publicity and create a good atmosphere for the work of cleaning up and rectifying irregular place names.

Hainan: The announcement is not the final result and will be demonstrated

On June 19, the Hainan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs held a media briefing and responded that "Vienna Hotel" is a registered trademark of the merchant. The content of this cleanup and rectification is place name identification, not trademarks.

"In other words, there is no problem for merchants to use this trademark, but they cannot write the geographical location on the map as Vienna. This is something that needs to be cleaned up and rectified." Shi Qingqing, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, said about how the place name will be changed. Question, in the next step, the Hainan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs will organize experts to conduct certification, issue a rectification plan, and carry out rectification under the guidance of relevant departments.

“The announcement we published on the website of the Provincial Department of Civil Affairs is not the final result, but a critical link in the evaluation and demonstration stage. In the previous stage, we have collected valuable opinions from all walks of life. The following The first step will be to organize experts to conduct demonstrations on the cleanup and rectification work based on full research and analysis of relevant opinions, so as to make the cleanup and rectification work more scientific and standardized," Shi Qingqing said.

Hebei: When changing a name, you must first ask the people whether they agree or not

“For example, in Hebei, when we encounter some ‘old place names’ that need to be changed, we will respect the people’s ideas more. "On June 20, the person in charge of the Place Name Standardization Office of the Hebei Provincial Department of Civil Affairs stated that if the Hebei Civil Affairs Department feels that a place name needs to be corrected, it will publicize it first. If the public's opposition is particularly loud, it will not forcibly change it. Regarding the change, "If you say you want to change it, you have to first ask the people whether they agree or agree, right?"

The person in charge also said that the "name change" is a big deal, and behind the scenes There is a considerable administrative cost, which will affect local resident ID cards, household registration, real estate registration, etc., so it should be promoted after detailed demonstration.

Nanning, Guangxi: There will be no "one-size-fits-all" forced name change

On June 20, relevant staff of the Nanning Civil Affairs Bureau of Guangxi introduced that the current rectification work on irregular place names is still In the planning stage. For place names that are suspected of being problematic, opinions from relevant stakeholders, such as residents of the community where they are located, will also be sought, and there will not be a "one size fits all" requirement to force a name change.

If the national "Regulations on the Management of Place Names" does not clearly require that the name must be changed, and if the local people do not agree with the name change or the name can be changed or not, try not to change it. It is strictly prohibited to expand the scope of cleanup and rectification at will, and to prevent the random change of old place names. .

Xi'an, Shaanxi: Remove some place names from the list

On June 20, the Civil Affairs Bureau of Xi'an, Shaanxi responded that it had removed 151 irregular place names reported by various districts and counties in the previous period. Checked one by one. Based on the relevant licenses registered by some enterprises and the legally registered names of the companies, some place names have been removed from the list, and the 151 irregular place names have been reduced to 98.

Xiamen, Fujian: Not all the place names on the list will be changed

“Not all the place names on the list will be changed.” Recently, the relevant person in charge of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Xiamen, Fujian said that the list The purpose of public announcement is to widely listen to the opinions of the masses.

According to reports, the cleanup and rectification of place names this time will be based on the premise that it will not affect the normal order of production and life in society. Those place names that the masses think do not need to be renamed will not necessarily be placed in the final rectification list. .

Guangdong Shenzhen: In principle, it does not involve changes to ID cards and other certificates

Guangdong Shenzhen Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Bureau issued an "explanation" on the evening of June 22 stating that the focus of this rectification Issues such as irregular use of place names and irregular road names for pre-sale properties do not, in principle, involve changes to real estate ownership certificates, household registers, ID cards and other relevant certificates. The "Explanation" also pointed out that place names that have been used for a long time and have high social and public recognition will not be included in the scope of regulation in principle.

(Original title: "How to deal with irregular place names")