ProleOnParole

At the time EVA was being established, "Evergreen" was already taken by another airline, so they went with the (quasi-)abbreviation. That it's written in all-caps can be a hint it's supposed to be pronounced letter-by-letter but then, of course, the problem is that many acronyms are also written in all capitals.

There was an attempt to distinguish acronyms by writing, for example, "Nato" instead of "NATO" but it doesn't seem to have gained much traction. I think BBC still write like this but even they don't do it consistently, and it's more of an idiosyncrasy, like the New Yorker magazine's spelling of "coöperation." If it were ever going to catch on, it would have already.

The issue here is more general. How do you pronounce, for example, "ICAO?" And how can you tell it's pronounced the way it is from the way it's written? It's quite usual that you already have to be familiar with the word (or brand name) to be sure you're pronouncing it right. If it works for Chevrolet and Givenchy, it shouldn't be an issue for EVA too.

Alternatively, often multiple pronunciations are in use, and don't seem to impact familiarity: how do you pronounce "GIF?" Is it with a hard "g," from "Graphics Interchange Format," or a soft one, like "in a jiffy?" Either way, everybody knows it's the format for cat pictures on the Internet. IKEA and Nike are an example of this, too. Just say it.

On the other hand, if EVA could get a hold of the now-defunct "Evergreen" airline brand, it wouldn't hurt either.

carrotjuice

But at least it's not ANA Air - "All Nippon Airways Air"...

ProleOnParole

All of this is not just slightly but completely off-topic in a thread about China Airlines but what is the source for your claim that "EVA" stands for "Evergreen Airways?"

Mama

moderator, please remove the last 5 off-topic posts.

ernestnywang

I don't know your age. Count me as an outlier - I'm 30 and I consider myself Chinese. I agree there's a majority POV, but I don't want it to sound like everyone thinks this way.

CI is the flag carrier and is still partially government-owned. Of course CI should do the job. Plus, it's not like BR has a particularly good relationship with the current DPP government anyway.

Calling Qing and KMT colonisers of Taiwan is controversial and certainly not the mainstream POV. While I agree the majority of young people in Taiwan (although not necessarily the majority of Taiwanese people across age) do not consider themselves Chinese, I believe only a minority of them would call Qing and KMT colonisers. It is also wrong to assume that all "Benshengren" trace their Chinese part of the DNA back to the immigrants from the 1600s. While estimates vary, a significant proportion of Benshengren trace their ancestry back to Mainland Chinese immigrants who moved to Taiwan in the late 1800s, a time period when both males and females could cross over the Strait.

ernestnywang

Yes, it does.

daniellam

ANA = All Nippon Airways (very few people refer to the airline using it's long form).

Instead of changing the airline's name, why not just re-paint all the planes with "CAL" instead of "China Airlines"? Also, a rebranding would be done such all stationary such as boarding passes, bag tags will have "CAL".

jysim

While I agree there is no benefit viewing Mainland China in a negative light and the need to peacefully co-exist together, I have to point out that the SARS pandemic was during DPP's presidency. In fact the KMT local government of Taipei City under Major Ma (who later went on to become President) and Public Health Director Chiu, had tried to cover up the outbreak of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital. I personally think the disaster response and management we have now is largely thanks to the DPP government.

That aside, I would like to add that while most young people in Taiwan identifies oneselves as Taiwanese in context of culture and geography, but still Chinese ethnically. The entire argument is essentially surrounding the "China" defined in cultural, geographical, or ethnical context.

username

To me, the 2 purposes for changing the name are:

1 - de-china
2 - increase Taiwan's visibiity

Changing it to CAL does not really do the latter. So, IF they do go through with all the costs and trouble, they should just name it Taiwan.

Yes, EVA is kind of meant to be Evergreen Airlines because of the name conflict. They were very clear that they were E-V-A Air. Unfortunately, a lot of their pilots, ground staff, announcements at TPE airport say Eva. I think the only people who consistently say E-V-A is the cabin staff.

The Taiwanese is funny. I think largely due to the 2-China confusion and Mainland China's interference in the international arena, they care very much about what the rest of the world thinks of them. Every time, whether it is earthquake or election, the TW news media always spend time on how they are covered by international media.

I personally think Taiwan should be more confident with itself than that. People still get Switzerland and Sweden confused so don't get so depressed when people get Taiwan and Thailand confused What better time to say "We are Taiwan, the Republic Original China" now

As far as renaming CI (and now people say they should remove the "Republic of China" from the passport, just leave Taiwan), it seems now it is a pi*ing game now. KMT now says "fine, if DPP wants to go through with it and take the responsibility".

TerryK

I propose Air Ami. It has nothing to do with China and promotes well known Taiwanese indigenous tribe.

username

Except even fewer people in the world would know it is from Taiwan.

Taiwan is behaving like a wannabe celebrity seeking publicity, unfortunately. It should really be a lot more confident with itself.

coolfish1103

The easiest way for China Airlines to resolve this is to:

1. Paint all current planes with Mandarin Airlines livery when a major check is needed (with a blossom next to it).
2. Buy all future planes under Mandarin Airlines and dry lease it to China Airlines, and operate as China Airlines.
3. Maintain the China Airlines' website but remove anything related to China on the website by referring itself as CAL other than explaining what CAL is.

Trust me people who buy China Airlines' ticket know China Airlines is based in TPE and all there needs to do is change the livery so we don't have media and/or news presenting a picture with China on there. China shouldn't have any problems either cause you are just changing a livery and that livery already existed under CAL and is in operation.

Davvidd

Very interesting topic. As someone who has extensive experience in bilateral agreements I see no reason why a name change would create any problems with any country.
The air services agreement with Taiwan and other countries are signed between two countries. In that bilateral agreement it will be stated that ex number of flights from those countries can fly to or beyond those two countries and could have 5th freedom rights as for example between Taiwan and Thailand as EVA flies from BKK to LHR.
It's not a particular airline that's approved but a designated airline. So if Taiwan says now it's Taiwan airlines or whatever airline is it has to be accepted. It's the number of airlines that's important and not the name.
Now I don't know what the situation is going to be with mainland China. I don't see any problems with them either.

It would be nice if China would accept Taiwan as a nation but I don't see it happening soon even if Taiwan gives up their claim to mainland China.
It doesn't help that Taiwan is not a member of ICAO but they once came to the general assembly of ICAO as guests of China but the next time they tried to come as guests of USA instead of China and of course China objected and they couldn't come. I think Taiwan also plays politics in Aviation too so why this happened.

Aerospatiale

From https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3920829

percysmith

Let sleeping dogs lie. If having to call yourself 中華 is the only price you have to pay for your freedom, I'd happily pay it.

In fact I'd take Chunghua Airlines over China Airlines any day.