Talk:Xian

Move requested
I have made a Move Request for this redirect to be moved back to Xian to preserve its history, after a complicated muddle. I have temporarily copied the content about the abbreviation to Draft:Xian (abbreviation) and have asked for it to be moved back to this title. We should then end up with everything in place, just a little more tidying up to do. Pam D  16:31, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
 * And the move has been made, and all is now well I believe. (This long-established redirect was over-written by a newby editor to create an article about the abbreviation, and after various reversions and edit conflicts we needed to get an admin involved to get the edit history of the redirect complete again. The article on the abbreviation is at Xian (abbreviation), with a copied (as above) to show its attribution. Pam  D  22:06, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Xian (Taoism)?
You have now twice retargetted this redirect to Xian (Taoism), and I have reverted. Your edit summary was Primary topic doesn't matter when the redirect makes no linguistic sense. Xian is one word (仙）. "Xi'an" is two words (西安) . These are not equivalent words. A proper redirect would be "Xi an" where there is a break. Let alone that in the page for Xi'an it doesn'teven link to the Xian article but an article on Cixi, using one component of her tie she is rarsly known for.

"Linguistic sense" is irrelevant here: it's a matter of helping readers find what they are looking for. At present the city Xi'an is the Primary Topic, ie the article believed to be the most likely to be looked for by a reader searching for Xian. Many anglophone readers do not use the correct form, but refer to the city as "Xian".

We would not redirect from Xian to a disambiguated title Xian (Taoism). If that article is the primary topic, it should be moved to Xian, and other changes made appropriately. If no article is a primary topic, then the disambiguation page Xian (disambiguation) should be moved to Xian. Neither of these moves would be uncontroversial, so each would require a formal "Request Move" process so that it could be properly discussed.

See WP:RM for how to request a page move. Please do not retarget this redirect again. Thanks. Pam D  16:04, 21 October 2023 (UTC)