Chungcheng

Zhongzheng or Chungcheng (Chinese: 中正) is a common name for places, roads, schools or organizations in Chinese-speaking areas, though today predominantly in Taiwan. The majority of these places and things are named after Chiang Chung-cheng, the preferred given name of Chiang Kai-shek. As a result, when translating into English or other non-Chinese languages, it sometimes would be replaced by "Chiang Kai-shek" instead of simply by transliteration.

Hypothetical example of what a "Zhongzheng Road" (中正路) sign in Taiwan might have looked like between 2002 and 2009

The usual official romanization of this name is either "Zhongzheng" (using the hanyu pinyin system), or "Chungcheng" (using the older Wade-Giles system). The former spelling has been standard in Taiwan since 2009 and in mainland China since 1958. Between about 2002 and 2009 in Taiwan, the variant "Jhongjheng" (using the tongyong pinyin system) was also seen. Other variations, using informal transcriptions, sometimes omit either instance of the letter "g", or use "u" and "o" interchangeably. The two syllables ("Zhong" and "zheng") may be separated by a hyphen or space.

Origin

The majority of these places and institutions are named after Chiang Kai-shek. In imitation of the previous practice of naming important roads and institutions "Zhongshan", after one of the given names of Sun Yat-sen, a large campaign to rename roads and public institutions in honour of Chiang occurred in mainland China in the 1930s and 40s after Chiang came to power, and especially in 1945 after victory against Japan under a government led by Chiang. The campaign spread to Taiwan when it was recovered by the Republic of China government after the war. However, after the Republic of China lost control of mainland China to the Communist Party of China from the late 1940s, the vast majority of roads and institutions named "Zhongzheng" were renamed (whereas those named after Sun Yat-sen have remained largely unchanged). As a result, the vast majority of roads and institutions named "Zhongzheng" are now located in Taiwan.

In Chinese, zhongzheng simply means "upright", and there are some usages which predate Chiang Kai-shek, such as "zhongzheng" (中正), a term describing a government official of the nine-rank system in imperial China. In Japanese history, the same characters ("中正") are used in names such as the organisation "Chuuseikai" (中正会), which are also unrelated to Chiang.

Standard romanizations in Mandarin

Usage

Administrative divisions

Roads
  • Many cities in Taiwan have one or more major streets called "Zhongzheng Road" or "Zhongzheng Street".
  • Many cities in mainland China previously had one or more major streets called "Zhongzheng Road":

Schools

Parks
  • There are numerous Chungcheng Parks in Taiwan:
  • There were previously Chungcheng Parks in many cities in mainland China

Aviation
  • Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was formerly known as (officially) "Chiang Kai-shek International Airport" or (directly translated) "Chung-cheng International Airport".
  • Chung Cheng Aviation Museum is an aviation museum located at Taoyuan International Airport

Ships

Honours and awards
  • Order of Chiang Chung-Cheng is more directly translated as the "Chung-cheng Order"
  • The Chung-cheng Sword was awarded by Chiang Kai-shek to graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy and as a battle honour.

See also
  • Romanization of Chinese in the Republic of China
  • Chung Shan (disambiguation)
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