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What is the racial coding of each of the nations in Tian Xia?
So far this is the impression I'm getting:
Tian-Dan - Vietnamese
Tian-La - Mongolian
Tian-Min - Japanese
Tian-Shu - Han Chinese
Tian-Sing - Indonesian
Is this correct?
One thing I do find frustrating with Tian-Shu naming conventions is that it flips between Mandarin and Cantonese. For example, since the majority of names comes from Mandarin, Chadao (tea ceremony) should be Jìng chá lǐyí (JingChaLiYi) in my opinion.
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Well, it's fantasy Asia, not "real China with orcs", so authors don't need to adhere towards 100% cultural accuracy in naming. Apart from 0.0002% of playerbase who actually know Chinese beyond "ni hao", that's never going to register as an issue for readers. Heck, the authors likely also aren't Mandarin/Cantonese speakers, so they just pillage the dictionaries for words as they see fit.
I've used to give Paizo some flak for liberal approach to Slavinc proper names, but I've since let that float.
Yeah, each of the areas of Tian is it's own culture that make take influence from various real world cultures, but aren't direct translations of them.
You forgot the Tian-Hwan (=Korean) & Tian-Dtang (?ambiguous, as they are the most 'fantastical' of the various Tian ethnicities; Dtang seems to be Indonesian, yet the general geography could imply a group from the 'Indochina' region, like 'Burmese' or Thai).
One thing I do find frustrating with Tian-Shu naming conventions is that it flips between Mandarin and Cantonese. For example, since the majority of names comes from Mandarin, Chadao (tea ceremony) should be Jìng chá lǐyí (JingChaLiYi) in my opinion.
One thing I want to address here, and my understanding may be imperfect as my mandarin Chinese isn't even what I would consider conversational (though my S.O. is Chinese) Chadao is the more correct term and a valid phrase in Mandarin for general tea ceremony. The JingChaLiyi you mention is the specific tea ceremony performed for weddings.
However, I don't know how the Pathfinder reference material describes the Chadao. If it is as a marriage ceremony then you would be correct.
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However, I don't know how the Pathfinder reference material describes the Chadao. If it is as a marriage ceremony then you would be correct.
You're right. It's might not be referencing a wedding ceremony. It's supposed to be the first tea ceremony for the emperor. I have just never heard dao. If it's less formal, probably hui as in 茶會?
Anyway, I know it really shouldn't matter, but the whole continent is literally just[Kingdoms/Land] Under Heaven in Mandarin. So, when you're setting a convention to just directly translate, it makes me look for consistency.
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You forgot the Tian-Hwan (=Korean) & Tian-Dtang (?ambiguous, as they are the most 'fantastical' of the various Tian ethnicities; Dtang seems to be Indonesian, yet the general geography could imply a group from the 'Indochina' region, like 'Burmese' or Thai).
That's because I'm just reading the Inner Sea World Guide, where they aren't mentioned yet. Still working my way to Dragon Empires Gazetteer and Primer
For the life of me, I can't remember that this book is called.
Golarion is also simply more ... Can't find the words ... Cosmopolite ? Is that a word in english ? Mixed ? More of a giant melting pot ?
It's a world older than our own, where people move around a lot more. Or in bigger groups, at least.
Plus a huge chunk of Tian-Xia has been "unified" under a succession of empires since forever, up until the fall of Lung-Wa a century ago or so.
Short of some specific exceptions, I would not rely too much on real-world analogues.
I mean, they rarely fit in Avistan, they probably won't in Tian-Xia either. They're usually distant inspirations at most.
Which is fine. It helps separate the obvious inspirations from the Golarion lore and its specificities. I for one prefer it that way, though I can imagine not everyone does.
However, I don't know how the Pathfinder reference material describes the Chadao. If it is as a marriage ceremony then you would be correct.You're right. It's might not be referencing a wedding ceremony. It's supposed to be the first tea ceremony for the emperor. I have just never heard dao. If it's less formal, probably hui as in 茶會?
Anyway, I know it really shouldn't matter, but the whole continent is literally just[Kingdoms/Land] Under Heaven in Mandarin. So, when you're setting a convention to just directly translate, it makes me look for consistency.
I'm taking the Dao in this to be 道, otherwise known as Tao, as in the Tao Te Ching. Which is to say that ChaDao would be "The Way of Tea".