Page 7 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
P. 7
GFA – A Different Drumbeat 7
and later in the letter he wrote . . .
(read the full letter in Book 2 Backgound Notes)
Throughout the book I have followed David Bentley-Taylor’s lead and called him ‘GFA’. I
have had some difficulty in the spelling of Chinese words. As you would imagine, all the
correspondence and newspaper and journal articles of those days used the Wade-Giles
Romanization system of Chinese characters. Because GFA’s story mainly occurs in what
we might call “the Wade-Giles era”, I have not only used it in direct quotes, but also in the
narrative. To complicate things even further, many of the place names of the same era use
the Chinese Postal Map Romanization. (See box below). If the pinyin spelling has
happened to slide in unnoticed even after proofreading, I apologize.
Romanization of Mandarin Chinese
Wade–Giles is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by
Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was later given completed form with Herbert Giles's
Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892. Wade–Giles was a common system of transcription in the English-
speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books
about China published in western countries before 1979.
Chinese Postal Map Romanization was the system of romanization of Chinese place names which
came into use in the late Qing dynasty and was officially sanctioned by the Imperial Postal Joint-Session
Conference which was held in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. This system of romanization was retained
after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and since it was in use in the official postal atlas of the Republic
of China (ROC), it remained the most common way of rendering Chinese place names in the West (by
cartographers for example) for a large part of the twentieth century.
And finally I want to express my appreciation for the encouragement that I have received
from GFA’s grandchildren, Aileen, Mervyn and Derek, who still live in Saskatchewan,
Canada. Ruth Millar from Saskatchewan, who has also written GFA’s story, was good
enough to give me added encouragement by putting me in touch with this family. The
and later in the letter he wrote . . .
(read the full letter in Book 2 Backgound Notes)
Throughout the book I have followed David Bentley-Taylor’s lead and called him ‘GFA’. I
have had some difficulty in the spelling of Chinese words. As you would imagine, all the
correspondence and newspaper and journal articles of those days used the Wade-Giles
Romanization system of Chinese characters. Because GFA’s story mainly occurs in what
we might call “the Wade-Giles era”, I have not only used it in direct quotes, but also in the
narrative. To complicate things even further, many of the place names of the same era use
the Chinese Postal Map Romanization. (See box below). If the pinyin spelling has
happened to slide in unnoticed even after proofreading, I apologize.
Romanization of Mandarin Chinese
Wade–Giles is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by
Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was later given completed form with Herbert Giles's
Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892. Wade–Giles was a common system of transcription in the English-
speaking world for most of the 20th century, used in several standard reference books and in all books
about China published in western countries before 1979.
Chinese Postal Map Romanization was the system of romanization of Chinese place names which
came into use in the late Qing dynasty and was officially sanctioned by the Imperial Postal Joint-Session
Conference which was held in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. This system of romanization was retained
after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and since it was in use in the official postal atlas of the Republic
of China (ROC), it remained the most common way of rendering Chinese place names in the West (by
cartographers for example) for a large part of the twentieth century.
And finally I want to express my appreciation for the encouragement that I have received
from GFA’s grandchildren, Aileen, Mervyn and Derek, who still live in Saskatchewan,
Canada. Ruth Millar from Saskatchewan, who has also written GFA’s story, was good
enough to give me added encouragement by putting me in touch with this family. The
