The Villages: everything we know so far

[The_Intruder]

I think exploring the world of Shenmue in the Mainland China would be more interesting and fun. I just love the mountains, forest, rivers and villages more than the city.

[Yokosuka]

I think exploring the world of Shenmue in the Mainland China would be more interesting and fun. I just love the mountains, forest, rivers and villages more than the city.

And I love even more the contrast with the Hong Kong megalopolis with just one episode. That's why the Guilin epilogue made an excellent game like Shenmue II a masterpiece after all.

[muhu]

I think exploring the world of Shenmue in the Mainland China would be more interesting and fun. I just love the mountains, forest, rivers and villages more than the city.

Good point, but I'll have to disagree here, mainly due to the mass effect of activity which revolves around the lurking of NPCs in distinct areas including shops, the big free roam enterprise as I would like to call it. The forests, mountains, they're certainly cool as shit but having one game around this would be a little painful, thats why we are geting Chobu, speculated as a city. This will provide us with a balnce in the game making the final product more widely appealing and less "boring" for a small minority.

[Axm]

Choubu might be partially based on Yangshuo, a riverside village that was popular with overseas tourists even in the 80s

[muhu]

Choubu might be partially based on Yangshuo, a riverside village that was popular with overseas tourists even in the 80s

My body is ready.

[johnvivant]

Choubu might be partially based on Yangshuo, a riverside village that was popular with overseas tourists even in the 80s

nice. its right next to the river, with similarly shaped mountains in background.
however there are no roofed wooden arches coming out of the water. does anyone know what they are and if they have a purpose?

[Hyo Razuki]

Looks like regular Paifang to me. They can be found everywhere in China, basically. Don't know if my guess is correct, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paifang

[johnvivant]

Looks like regular Paifang to me. They can be found everywhere in China, basically. Don't know if my guess is correct, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paifang

is it usual for it to be right out in the water like that?

i was just thinking - maybe some of the village is submerged under water, like an old historical part.

[Hadesillo]

Why is Choubu being read in Japanese?
All the names are read in chinese (Guilin, Baisha, Bailu...but not Choubu). 鳥舞 in chinese it's Niaowu.

[johnvivant]

Why is Choubu being read in Japanese?
All the names are read in chinese (Guilin, Baisha, Bailu...but not Choubu). 鳥舞 in chinese it's Niaowu.

lol they have their own definition of consistency.

there were some inconsistencies with characters names in the transition from 1 to 2, but it didn't really matter imo.

I prefer Choubu over Niaowu though.

i don't really care as long as they choose a name and stick with it (at least across any particular language version) -
it would be confusing now to start calling Choubu - Niaowu, or Niao Sun- Tjoujun.

[Hadesillo]

It is probably too late now, yes, but they should have gone with the Niaowu name from the start. Better consistency makes a better game, and I cannot make any sense of what reason they had to use japanese in that name.

[shenmue852]

It is probably too late now, yes, but they should have gone with the Niaowu name from the start. Better consistency makes a better game, and I cannot make any sense of what reason they had to use japanese in that name.

Japanese randomly use original foreign language words and names as well as jap transliterations as they please. it's a japanese game, so i just picture it as what japs would call it, which might have a different translation.

for example, America is Ah-May-Ree-Ka, which are all syllables that sound natural in Japanese. However, India is changed to Indo, one syllable fewer, because the "dia" part doesn't sound like anything in Japanese.

my guess for why Japs do this is because some stuff sounds more awkward (to them) when it's said in its Mandarin (or whatever original language) form. the sound of Niaowu would sound odd in Japanese speech since those sounds aren't usually used in that way, while Guilin/Kweilin ("Kweirin") Baisha, Bailu, Hong Kong, Wan Chai don't sound weird when they're said in Japanese.

mostly though, it's because Japan is an insular society despite its love of foreign cultures, so most Japanese wouldn't give a shit about the exact accuracy all that much unless they're doing an M.A in China studies, and they also don't give a shit what others would think about the level of consistency because they're going with what feels right for them.

one more thing, probably the biggest- Bailu and Baisha are real village names (there are more than one) in China. Choubu is made up. So they probably just made it up in Japanese, used kanji, and didn't bother translating it into Mandarin because they dgaf, and there isn't a town by that name in China anyway.

Oh and Shenmue has already done this with Chinese names- Zhu Yuan Da, the English translation of the character's name in Mandarin, is "Shu Gen Tetsu" or something like that in the Japanese voiceover. Why? because fuck consistency, it's whatever sounds more pleasing to them that gets priority. So this lack of consistency is actually consistent with the game you've been a fan of all these years.

[Yokosuka]

Why is Choubu being read in Japanese?
All the names are read in chinese (Guilin, Baisha, Bailu...but not Choubu). 鳥舞 in chinese it's Niaowu.

Apparently, Choubu is not a Japanese translation nor Chinese words but a typical Taiwanese name. Choubu could be actually a town in Taiwan or a Chinese province mixed with Taiwanese culture. It would imply somehow a logical Shenmue connection as the Qing dynasty has a strong history of annexations with Taiwan, following the classic melting pot theme after Hong Kong/British, Yokosuka/US Navy, etc.

[Zoltor]

Why is Choubu being read in Japanese?
All the names are read in chinese (Guilin, Baisha, Bailu...but not Choubu). 鳥舞 in chinese it's Niaowu.

Yea, I thought that name Choubu seemed weird/out of place, and that would explain things.

Well the way Shenhua is pronounced is either the Japanese pronunciation of such or them just saying it wrong.


Oddly enough they do say Xuiying correctly though. I'm actually shocked this name can even be created in Japanese, since a lot of Chinese words can't, and this is definitely one, you would expect not to beable to be translated into Japanese at all. What would the Japanese spelling of this be, translated as is, to English?

To Yokosuka: Oh, Choubu is Taiwanese?

[Gen]

In the japanese VO they don't say Bailu village. they say Hakason or something like that. Yu Suzuki also uses this name in interviews.