For example, many learners of Japanese consider English loan words inferior to Sino Japanese words, even though in modern Japanese, they are equally Japanese.

[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=%E6%96%B0%E9%87%91%E5%B1%B1

See also: "New Forest", England, 1079.

It also happened just a few years (very much less than a decade) after the California Gold Rush, and there were other gold rushes after that, so I'm not sure why it's "new" either.

Chinese translators really like to translate names and locations which impart some meaning but still sound kinda similar to actual word. Bai-lao-hui sounds kinda like Broadway to a Chinese person. Also, presumably NYC's Broadway is an avenue of a hundred old people because affluent (older) people go to watch musicals more.

However, in the communities where these politicians are campaigning, there’s a really sizable number of Chinese voters, and I think the thinking is that a more native Chinese name will be more memorable for people. Foreign names are often less memorable than native ones, and if someone doesn’t define their Chinese name at all, multiple transliterations can arise which affects searchability. After all, as a politician, your name is a big part of your brand.

If you accept that premise, then spending time to choose an appropriate name is an important step - after all, semantics do matter to some extent for native names in any language. Perhaps not to the extent shown in this article, but (for example) you would not want to accidentally choose a name that misgenders you or (worse) offends your voters.

Yes, this is especially strange given that the Chinese script evolution was mainly phonetically driven. Most characters cames from writing a word with a same sounding word then disambiguate it by adding a determinative (radical). Even in the PRC simplification scheme, one of the key method was to replace an existing character by one that is read the same (which overload the meaning of a single character).

> Sure it’s nice to have a Chinese name that sounds familiar, but would you expect your (say) Indian immigrant colleague to adapt an English-sounding name when moving to Canada? Yeah, we don’t mind you using your native name either.

In the Indian case probably not, but in my (European) country people are often glad that Chinese people have a local name, even if they find it funny. Chinese phonology can be quite hard for foreigners, and the pinyin system with consonants that are not transparent (h, j, q, x, zh, ch) and hide some vowel letters doesn't help at all when names are written down. I noticed for instance that I'm the only foreigner calling my Taiwanese girlfriend by her Chinese name or a derivative, while other people don't even ask her given name past the English one she chose for herself.

I remember watching a comedian doing a bit about this phenomenon of people adopting names from other cultures, where there were two Caucasian ladies at an ashram, both called Lakshmi, and an Indian lady by the name of Pam. I wish I could find a video of this.

There might be specific conventions which compel them to print the full name (if it's a very formal thing?) but they'd do it once maybe, then revert to 希拉里.