British Museum. Image: Wikimedia Commons, licenses under CC BY-SA 2.0

A British engineering research student is concerned about the misspelling of Mandarin Chinese on exhibits in the British Museum.

In this documentary feature Miles Fan discusses the impact of misspelling a major world language in one of Britain’s foremost museums.

Miles Fan is a 24 year old British Chinese man, currently studying his PhD in Engineering at the University of Birmingham.

The issue is further discussed by Dr Nathan Hill and Dr Yan Jiang from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS).

Dr Nathan Hill is Head of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at SOAS.

Dr Jiang is a Lecturer in the Linguistics and Languages of China at SOAS.

The British Museum has been asked for comment.

The music used in this piece included a series of classical Chinese compositions:

•  ‘Ballad of Lan Huahua’, composed by anonymous, performed by Yu Hong Mei
• ‘Spring Festival Overture’, composed by Li Huanzhi, performed by China Central Chinese Orchestra
• Ballad of North Henan Province’, composed by Liu Wen-Jin, performed by Yu Hong Mei
• ‘The Butterfly Lovers’, composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, performed by Bei Bei He

This feature was researched and produced by Gabrielle Watts.