ROAD AND STREET NAMES IN CHINESE

Mr Lim Guan Hoo asked the Minister for Finance whether he will take steps to improve the rendering in Chinese of the names of certain roads and streets as shown on the street name-boards.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (Mr S. Ramaswamy) (for the Minister for Finance): Mr Speaker, Sir, as a general rule, it is desirable to avoid translations into various languages as both literal and phonetic translations are often misleading.

The practice since 1961 has been to give names in Roman characters to avoid complications in finding houses or premises. There are instances where, through usage, the name of a street in Chinese is quite unrelated to the version in English. It would, therefore, be desirable to allow the community to use such names as become familiar through practice rather than to provide for literal and phonetic translations.

If the hon. Member has any specific suggestions as to the rendering in Chinese of particular roads, these would be considered.

Mr Tang See Chim (Choa Chu Kang): May I ask whether the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance is aware that the literal translation of "Raffles Place" is Raffles being abusive or impolite, and also whether he is taking steps to have that remedied?

Mr Ramaswamy: I do not know the Chinese Language, Sir.

Mr Tang See Chim: A further supplementary question, Sir.

Now that I have informed the Parliamentary Secretary that the literal translation of "Raffles Place" does mean Raffles being impolite or being abusive - "Lai fu si Buli", "Buli" meaning "impolite" - will he now consider taking steps to remedy the situation?

Mr Ramaswamy: We will look into it.