Note on Spelling and Pronunciation

Chinese names drive all who are unfamiliar with them to despair. Yet it is impossible to write about China and its leaders without identifying the protagonists. This book employs the pinyin transcription, which was officially adopted by Beijing in 1979 and has the merit of being simpler and more accessible than the older Wade-Giles romanisation. Nevertheless, a few basic rules need to be observed.

The consonants C, Q and X are used to represent Chinese sounds which have no precise English equivalent. C is pronounced similarly to Ts [in Tsar]; Q like Ch; X like Sh [Hs in the Wade-Giles system]

Vowels are trickier. Terminal –a rhymes with car; –ai with buy. –an [as in tan, fan, etc.] rhymes with man, except after –i and y [lian, xian, yan, etc.], when it rhymes with men; and after w [wan], when it is sounded as in ‘want’. –ang rhymes with sang, except after –u and w [huang, wang, etc.], when it rhymes with song. –ao rhymes with cow.

Terminal –e [as in He Zizhen, Li De, Li Xuefeng, etc.] rhymes with her, except after –i and y [as in Ran Tie, Ye Jianying], when it rhymes with the American yeah. –ei rhymes with say. –en [as in Li Wenlin, Tianan men] rhymes with sun, except after ch and y [Chen, Yen] when it rhymes with men. –eng [as in Deng, Meng, etc.] rhymes with bung.

Terminal –i [as in li, qi, di, etc.] rhymes with see, except after c–, ch–, r–, s–, z– and zh– [ci, chi, ri, si, zi, zhi] when it rhymes with sir; –iu rhymes with stew.

Terminal –o [as in wo] and –uo [as in Luo] rhymes with war. –ong [dong, long] is similar to the –u in ‘full’. –ou rhymes with toe.

Terminal –u rhymes with moo; –ui with sway; –un [dun, lun] with soon.

In a very few cases, where the pinyin transliteration is so unfamiliar as to be unrecognisable for many readers, traditional forms have been retained. These are (with pinyin in parenthesis): Amoy [Xiamen]; Canton [Guangzhou]; Chiang Kai-shek [Jiang Jieshi]; Hong Kong [Xianggang]; Sun Yat-sen [Sun Zhongshan]; Soong Ching-ling [Song Qingling], her sister May-ling [Meiling] and brother, T. V. Soong [Song Ziwen]; Tibet [Xizang]; Whampoa [Huangpu]; Yangtse [Yangzi].