Variety in name not a bad thing

What's in a name? More specifically, what's in the spelling of a place name? Should the Chinese capital be spelt Beijing or Peking?

In a survey jointly conducted by China Youth Daily and Sina.com, a vast majority - 81 percent - opposed the old spelling, with only 10.7 percent supporting it and the rest not caring one way or the other. Opponents of "Peking" hold the view that Chinese proper names should be spelt with the standard pinyin. They further elaborate that pandering to the old spelling demonstrates a lack of cultural confidence and subservience to the Western mindset.

For me, this argument reflects the simplistic thinking of some people, especially the young, who habitually flaunt their political correctness. Cultural matters do not fall simply into right or wrong. As in the jianti versus fanti debate, which I discussed in this column last week, it is often a tradeoff between two equally flawed choices.