Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (geographic names)/Archive 8
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I just closed a dispute at DRN concerning the name of the nationality of Hsiao Bi-khim. One editor had changed it from Taiwan to Republic of China. Other editors had changed it back. It appears that we do not have a place-specific guideline in the East Asian guidelines that says to use Taiwan. So my question is: Should we have a guideline that says to use Taiwan rather than Republic of China? If so, a Request for Comments is in order. If this is the wrong talk page because this guideline only has to do with titles, please advise me where we should discuss. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:21, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- MOS:CHINA seems to take "Taiwanese" as a given under the Ethnicity section, although that is not exactly the same as "nationality" (and I note the field in question is "Citizenship" rather than nationality, which may again be subtly different). That said, this falls under existing broader guidelines (likely why it is taken as a given). Per WP:OTHERNAMES alternative names [to the article title] should be used in prose when specific context suggests it. For Taiwan, there were discussions around the period when the current conventions were put into place that this was mostly limited to specific state institutions (eg. Flag of the Republic of China) and national politics (eg. Politics of the Republic of China), but not to the place (Taiwan) or the people/demonym (Taiwanese people). The page on citizenship is at Taiwanese nationality law. There may be specific exceptions based on reasons of personal identity which would be worth taking into consideration on a case-by-case basis as they are for other citizenships, but that does not appear to be the case here. CMD (talk) 02:16, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- In my experience, MOS:CHINA is not the most fleshed-out page yet, useful as it is. To the best of my understanding, "Taiwanese" is not used to represent an ethnicity, especially when one is confronted with the numerous ethnic identities of the island. This is directly analogous to Han Chinese people in mainland China not being ethnically "Chinese"—Han Chinese people in Taiwan are not ethnically "Taiwanese", either. "Taiwanese" is a nationality—the reason that passage in under that section has to do with treatment of various social divisions in Taiwanese society.
- Moreover, "Taiwan" is absolutely the existing consensus per WP:COMMONNAME, as presented on every relevant article, with "Republic of China" being reserved for when contrasting with the PRC per-se, or when speaking about the period before the state's relocation to Taiwan in 1949. To change this existing consensus would be what requires an RfC, in my view. Remsense留 03:02, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I certainly agree with your point regarding MOS:CHINA as a whole, it has never felt that firm or that clearly supported by the community. Some parts do reflect wider discussions though, and one is the use of China and Taiwan as common names for both polities, which as you say is the existing consensus. CMD (talk) 04:11, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I have been paying some attention to both it and WP:NC-CHINA (which seemingly do not need to be different pages), but it's hard to unilaterally improve a policy page without potentially amplifying the chance of stepping on toes a hundred-fold. Remsense留 04:17, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I have read MOS:CHINA again, looking for where it states, as User:Remsense says, that there is a consensus that "Taiwan" is the common name. I didn't find a statement to that effect. I agree that it is the common name, and I agree that in Wikipedia we should use the common name, but I was asked in good faith by an editor where it says that, and I can't answer the question. I agree that there is an unstated consensus, but an unstated consensus is less than satisfactory because new good-faith editors may disagree. Can someone please show me where this consensus is documented, or do we have an undocumented consensus? If the latter, why, and how are new editors supposed to learn about it? Robert McClenon (talk) 08:25, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- Agreed whole-heartedly. I did not say that MOS:CHINA stated the consensus, and I should've made my gesturing to the idea of a working, unstated, but ultimately pretty solid consensus clear. I simply do not feel comfortable being the one to enshrine it in text or potentially "rock the boat", as it were—not so much because I don't think there is that consensus in the end, but because the due discussion may be long, messy, and ultimately dull (the last point being more selfish than the others) Remsense留 08:30, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- The Common name consensus was established through Talk:Taiwan/Archive 20#Final closing statement. The practice of continued use of Republic of China in various cases comes from later discussions and failed move requests after that. On the point of new editors and documentation, the default assumption should be that the article title is itself documentation, being for the majority of our articles an expression of WP:SILENT consensus. Changing the name elsewhere without strong WP:OTHERNAMES reasons is time-wasting and likely disruptive, desire for name changes should occur through an RM at the relevant page. CMD (talk) 11:52, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I have read MOS:CHINA again, looking for where it states, as User:Remsense says, that there is a consensus that "Taiwan" is the common name. I didn't find a statement to that effect. I agree that it is the common name, and I agree that in Wikipedia we should use the common name, but I was asked in good faith by an editor where it says that, and I can't answer the question. I agree that there is an unstated consensus, but an unstated consensus is less than satisfactory because new good-faith editors may disagree. Can someone please show me where this consensus is documented, or do we have an undocumented consensus? If the latter, why, and how are new editors supposed to learn about it? Robert McClenon (talk) 08:25, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I have been paying some attention to both it and WP:NC-CHINA (which seemingly do not need to be different pages), but it's hard to unilaterally improve a policy page without potentially amplifying the chance of stepping on toes a hundred-fold. Remsense留 04:17, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- I certainly agree with your point regarding MOS:CHINA as a whole, it has never felt that firm or that clearly supported by the community. Some parts do reflect wider discussions though, and one is the use of China and Taiwan as common names for both polities, which as you say is the existing consensus. CMD (talk) 04:11, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
How about deleting the 'nationality' parameter from the infobox. If not? then seeing as the main page is named Taiwan, perhaps we should use "Taiwan". GoodDay (talk) 14:19, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- Agree with the approach of using “Taiwan” as default. I think the field can be relevant for bios in the 1930-1950s era where Taiwanese politicians may have switched nationality from the Empire of Japan to the ROC, though I can’t think of an example right now. Butterdiplomat (talk) 15:50, 12 December 2023 (UTC)