Hong Jun?

September 8, 2007 7:02 PM

What does the phrase "Hong Jun" mean?

Guild of primarily chinese players on my wow server, just curious what the name means.

posted by furiousxgeorge to society & culture (8 comments total)

Well, it depends. Are they speaking mandarin? If so, in pinyin it probably means red army.
posted by B-squared at 7:23 PM on September 8, 2007

Right: 红军 hong2 jun1. Unquestionably the Red Army.
posted by strangeguitars at 7:37 PM on September 8, 2007

Neat, thanks guys. Is that what the Chinese Army was actually called or is that more a literal Hong means Red Jun means army type thing?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:55 PM on September 8, 2007

Technically, the Soviet Army was most well known as the Red Army. The Chinese Army is known as the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA).
posted by Atreides at 8:15 PM on September 8, 2007

And strangely, the Chinese navy is known as the "People's Liberation Army Navy".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:07 PM on September 8, 2007

Steven - then you can guess what the PLAAF is.
The precursor of the PLA was known as the Red Army for a period during the revolutionary war.
posted by Abiezer at 3:37 AM on September 9, 2007

I should say there's also a possibility they're a group of Chinese fans of Liverpool FC or some other football team - you see that usage of Red Army imported too (I'd guess a reference to the actual Red Army is more likely though.)
Of course, if it's just pinyin romanisation, there's a even slimmer possibility it's something else altogether - e.g. 虹君, the "rainbow gentlemen" perhaps (just being silly now).
posted by Abiezer at 4:23 AM on September 9, 2007

And strangely, the Chinese navy is known as the "People's Liberation Army Navy".

That's because the word "army" in English connotates a land-based force, whereas "军" simply means some sort of military or armed force. For example, the term 美军("meijun") means the American military in general, not just the US Army. It's simply a matter of translation - somebody back in the day thought "People's Liberation Army" sounded cooler than "People's Liberation Military." Of course, then you get all the awkward-sounding translations such as "People's Liberation Army Navy" and so on.
posted by pravit at 3:55 PM on September 9, 2007