Chinese Words and their English Spelling

Unlike English, the Chinese language is represented in the form of pictographs - drawings and symbols which represent words and concepts. As a result there is some difficulty in translating the Chinese to English. In addition, there are several accepted systems or conventions of writing Chinese words in English. COIAA has decided not to be to formal about which convention is used in this website so you may see the words written several different ways. Also, in many cases the accent marks are left off of the spellings. Some examples of the two main conventions are given here.

One of the earlier conventions for writing Chinese in English format is the Wade-Giles system. In this system the words are written as T'ai Chi Ch'üan, Pa Kua Chang or Bāguà Quán, Hsing I Ch'üan and Ch'i Kung. This system has mostly been replaced by the pinyin system. For more on the Wade-Giles system please see this link.

The most current system in use is Pinyin. In this system the words are written as Taijiquán, Bāguàzhǎng, Xíngyìquán, and Qìgōng. For more on the Pinyin system please see this link.