# Barack Obama



## HeiShan

According to this image: english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2008/11/5/200811561928608734_8.jpg

You need to add h t t p : / / as I haven't made enough posts yet to post links. 

The chinese have given him a name, The first character is Xiao, but I'm lost on the second one. Please help!

Xiao mao? Little donkey?


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## HeiShan

Upon closer inspection they might not be Chinese


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## liliange

If you're looking for his Chinese name it is : 欧巴马 （Obama).


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## HeiShan

Thank you. Do you know what name they've given him in the picture?


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## liliange

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2008/11/5/200811561928608734_8.jpg

I have no idea... I can't recognize the character...maybe someone else can help you...


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## HeiShan

Thank you so much for making the image a link.


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## BODYholic

HeiShan said:


> According to this image: english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2008/11/5/200811561928608734_8.jpg
> 
> You need to add h t t p : / / as I haven't made enough posts yet to post links.
> 
> The chinese have given him a name, The first character is Xiao, but I'm lost on the second one. Please help!
> 
> Xiao mao? Little donkey?



1. It's "Xiao Bin", a small city in Japan. Incidentally, its Japanese name is Obama.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama,_Fukui

2. And hence, it wasn't Chinese who coined the name .. "Xiao Bin"


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## HeiShan

Ah cheers! Thank you so much! That's amazing.


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## charlotte721

just input the pingyin“aobama” and you will get ‘奥巴马’website 百度


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## jeffyyko

奥巴马  will be more better


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## liliange

ok, thanks, i'll know now, I just did'nt look at the right website, indeed, sounds better


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## Aoyama

Obama （小浜）-see post #7- is the name of a Japanese city which is trying to "bank" on the election of its homonym :

_As a result of the decisive victory by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, the Mayor of Obama City announced to the Japanese press that he intends to commission a statue of Barack Obama to be put in front of the city hall "as a token of the great historical moment for the name Obama"._
_In addition, he has declared that November 4th will be an annual holiday in the city._

小浜 (Obama, Japanese reading of xiao bin -little sea shore-) should then not be confused with the Chinese rendering of the name of the president elect of the US 奥巴馬.


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## 0216monty

The words "米大統領誕生", as in the banner, are not even Chinese, although I do understand them well.


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## BODYholic

Obviously they are not. I mean those are Japanese people in Japanese town.

I am sure this would help shed some light to the Japanese Kanji ...
http://www.wordreference.com/jaen/米国


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## ash341986

jeffyyko said:


> 奥巴马 will be more better


 
Generally, 歐巴馬 is the how his name is translated in Taiwan, but some medias (like 爽報, one of the two free tabloids you get at MRT stations) also uses 奧巴馬. I've heard in Hong Kong they use 奧巴馬.


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## Anatoli

The simplified characters in mainland China for _Barack Obama_ are 巴拉克·奥巴马 (Bālākè Àobāmǎ). 

The traditional characters used in Hong Kong are 巴拉克·奧巴馬 (same as in China, only 2 characters are the traditional ones).


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## 0216monty

ash341986 said:


> Generally, 歐巴馬 is the how his name is translated in Taiwan, but some medias (like 爽報, one of the two free tabloids you get at MRT stations) also uses 奧巴馬. I've heard in Hong Kong they use 奧巴馬.



TW: 部落格(Mainland/HK: China 博客/blog),奇摩(Mainland/HK: 雅虎/yahoo) 软体
(Mainland/HK:软件) 网路(Mainland/HK:网络)

It doesn't surprise me that 歐巴馬 is used to refer to Obama in TW. The fact that TW uses a different approach to translating names in English is widely observed.


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## BODYholic

BODYholic said:


> 1. It's "Xiao Bin", a small city in Japan. Incidentally, its Japanese name is Obama.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama,_Fukui
> 
> 2. And hence, it wasn't Chinese who coined the name .. "Xiao Bin"



Hi all,
I am so sorry for the blunder. The word "浜" should be pronounced as "bang(1)" (read:帮). I only realized this after watching the news about the 2 newly born panda cubs in Japan. Both of their names have the word "浜".
http://aws-s.com/panda/hutago_baby__2008.html


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