Talk:Gold Mountain (toponym)

San Francisco, not Cali, BC, or anywhere else
Yes, I know that Old Gold Mountain did, at times, reference other places, however Wikipedia's leading sentences usually indicate both primary contemporary and historical usage. Labeling the phrase to mean North America's West Coast is very misleading, this is exclusively historical and uncommon. The only contemporary (and most common usage) is exclusively referring to San Francisco. No Chinese, especially Mainland or Taiwanese, would ever say "我要去舊金山" and think that means, Los Angeles or Vancouver. Especially because of the size, density and population of Chinese in Chinatown and the San Francisco Bay Area, basically the hub of Chinese in the West, it only makes sense. Yes, other places had nicknames as well, but they're not in official use today (for example 新金山 for Australia, however its not longer used or known because the population wasn't as big as San Francisco's). Old Gold Mountain for San Francisco is still used commonly at airports, official documents, dictionaries and common speech. Saying it means North America's West Coast is misleading. Perhaps it was occasionally used historically, however Wikipedia is ambiguous, it doesn't refer to currently used phrases in past-tense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:644:301:155D:51B4:8E44:966F:A5DF (talk) 16:54, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

And someone change that title with the subtext: "Chinese name for Western North America." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:644:301:155D:51B4:8E44:966F:A5DF (talk) 17:16, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Untitled
This article states that 舊金山 (Old Gold Mountain) is used to refer to all of California, but it actually specifically refers to San Francisco. I've never heard anyone call California 舊金山 except maybe in a historical sense. I don't have anything to cite, except if you go to the Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (aka Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport) website and look at the To or From cities, the fifth from the bottom is 舊金山 and the flights listed are for San Francisco. I guess before I edit I'd rather have a better citation than that. Nothingedifying 05:08, 1 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I've heard it used to refer to the USA -- but this is in historical texts, not by contemporary folks.... Aristophanes68 (talk) 02:34, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It's apparently still in use (in a non-historical sense) in/for British Columbia - according to innumerable articles on Chinese Canadian history in the Vancouver papers and other Canadian publicatoins; whether it's in the Canadian editions of the Chinese-language dailies I couldn't know, but it's definitely used today.Skookum1 (talk) 15:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

It does not refer to Vancouver or British Columbia. Maybe historically, but not in current usage, or in current documents nor hanzi-pinyin dictionaries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:644:301:155D:51B4:8E44:966F:A5DF (talk) 17:18, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Capitalization
Shouldn't "Mountain" in the title be lowercase? It is not a name for a place anymore but rather an expression. --Voidvector (talk) 05:35, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * It's always been in print with both words capitalized; it is not an expression, it is a name.Skookum1 (talk) 15:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Creeping "mandarinization" of NorthAm history
I know there's a Wikipedia guideline mandating the use of Mandarin forms of Chinese names, esp. in titles like that for Taishan. But Taishan - Toishan as I know it from Vancouver's history - is in China; Gold Mountain was not and in North American accounts of its usage it's always "Gumshan" or "Gum shan", which I gather is the Cantonese version; and it's a given that the bulk of gold rush-era Chinese were Cantonese-speaking (not sure about those from Taiwan, though....); Obviously it was me who put Gumshan and Gum shan in the lead, but I must say I was a bit stunned to see it was omitted. Was this ever a common term in Mandarin?. In any case, it's about the pioneer-era Chinese experience in North America and should reflect the language used by those pioneers; as noted "Gum shan" is how this term is most commonly rendered in English; I'm at a loss to understand why it was considered not important enough to include.....Skookum1 (talk) 15:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I also wonder if we need the various spellings and pronunciations, when the article that the name directs to has those already. I mention it because it seems to me that an increasing number of articles are phonology heavy at the top. --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 22:33, 7 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I totally agree on both points; colonial-era and Old West Chinese were all either from Taishan or else were Fujianese; Mandarinization is a form of cultural imperialism and the increasing use of Chiense characters in many NorthAm- related articles and the UNDUE given many things in Gweilo ( - an originally Cantonese term I've always known as "Gwailo") is increasingly questionable. The Mandarin bias is evident more and more in Canada; quite a few years ago a new-era Chinese person was lobbying for Mandarin to be an official language in BC, citing Chinese history in the province....Cantonese/Toishan history.Skookum1 (talk) 05:25, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
 * LOL that was my own comment I just agreed with, in addition to yours. Doh.Skookum1 (talk) 05:39, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Biography?
Why is this project listed in the Biography project?? Aristophanes68 (talk) 22:29, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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