Talk:Mei Lan

The Translation for "Mei Lan"
While literally "Mei Lan" can be translated as "Beautiful Orchid", the intended meaning is "Atlanta Beauty", after the city of her birth.--User:Tesscass 18:17, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

has repeatedly edited this article to change it to "Beautiful Orchid". While it is one transliteration, it is not the only one. For example, the characters may also be interpreted as "American Orchid". (I'm sure a real Chinese language scholar would be able to point out all the legitimate translations.) This person also claims that the translation was intentionally misrepresented to the public for the name poll. But this was not proven. I've decided not to engage in an edit war and have left the article alone.--User:Tesscass 22:20, 12 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Why did this ever even make it into the article? The "intended meaning" doesn't matter at all. If "intended meaning" mattered, we could change any number of articles. The only things that matters are the literal and technical translations (though, admittedly, there are several), and neither "Mei" nor "Lan" ever translates into "Atlanta" - barring the sudden appearance of four letters. I have no doubt that the name was intentionally misrepresented, because only the basest of idiots would have "accidentally" translated it as such. I'm not sure how that would require any more proof than "the sun will rise from the east," given the massive 'error'. 68.165.8.90 (talk) 15:14, 11 July 2008 (UTC)


 * The intended meaning is in the article because during the poll, that's the meaning given for "Mei Lan", and it factored into why people voted for it. Whether it is the correct translation is a different issue.  --Tesscass (talk) 19:09, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm confused!
I was thrilled to see this article on Mei Lan! However, I'm confused. Mei Lan from the Atlanta Zoo is a female panda and this article references a male panda. Is this a different panda? Swlinscott (talk) 14:26, 2 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The Atlanta Zoo would disagree with you. Also note in this article "Originally identified by zoo staffers as female, Mei Lan was determined to be male by staff in China at the Chengdu Research Base of Panda Breeding". The confusion was in initial identification, based on which he was given a female name. This panda is also no longer at the Atlanta Zoo, but was returned to China in 2010. I'm guessing that the entire time he was in Atlanta, he was thought to be a she. Don Lammers (talk) 14:43, 2 June 2012 (UTC)
 * But I would be wrong. She was determined to be a he only 19 days after birth (see the links in the article).Don Lammers (talk) 15:04, 2 June 2012 (UTC)