Kanji query
Two very interesting responses to the letter of June 7 about pronouncing kanji.
Hugh Wilkinson of The Asiatic Society of Japan says he cannot give an authoritative answer to the question about the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese names, but can offer an educated guess.
"In the case of internationally famous places, the internationally known names have always been used; in the case of less famous places, such as Chungking and Tientsin, Japanese pronunciations were traditionally used, so Juukei and Tenshin. As to the 'k' in Peking, Nanking, Chungking, this comes from the old Chinese pronunciation, which was in use when these kanji were borrowed into Japanese, so you have Japanese 'kei' and 'kyoo.'