(LETTERS DEP'T: this is not really a "letter to the editor" though by all means print it if you wish. I'm more interested in trying to get a reaction from your editors. Why on earth have a *policy* of using incorrect punctuation? I don't get it)
Re 吉安, the city in Jiangxi province, its pinyin spelling is Ji'an , NOT "Jian".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji'an. There is only one correct PINYIN spelling and it's "Ji'an".
Otherwise I might think it's 见，减，件，间 or 建, or a hundred other single characters pronounced "jian". And in fact I had to look it up to make sure it was two characters, so you are inconveniencing we readers.
Surely you are aware that the pronunciation of "Ji'an" and "Jian" are quite different.
What is it with the South China Morning Post — Asia's premier English language paper — that you stubbornly refuse to use the only correct spelling for such names in pinyin?? My favourite bugbear has been 西安, for which you continue to print the pinyin — *incorrectly* — as "Xian". (Shudder)
I note, by contrast, you are punctilious about spelling "Turkey" with its new preferred name "Türkiye" in which there's a diaeresis, which are rarely used in English, while an apostrophe is an everyday thing. So you respect the Turkish, but you disrespect the Chinese, all for the sake of an apostrophe… huh?
Peter Forsythe
Chief of the Apostrophe Police
Discovery Bay Branch
93080799 WhatsApp
Sent from my iPad
