Great word.Historic times.The excitement is almost palpable from down under.I wish all Americans all the best on this historic occasion.

The breakdown of the word gave:

变...change

化....change

I've struck this before where a word is composed of 2 characters which seem to mean essentially the same thing and it makes me wonder if I'm missing some subtle differences in the use of the two components and if it strengthens the concept or makes it clearer by bringing them together.

Sebire- exactly. Today that kind of thing will not work, and will only cause people to loose respect for their own government.

As he's half-black half-white, the real change would be to call Barack Obama a mixed-race (or mixed blood) instead of a black. 混血儿 (mixed blood) or maybe 混族 but I never saw this last one.

From the latin Mixtus, the english only get "mix", "mixture" and "mestizo" (spanish word for European and native-american mixed blood) but is lacking a general word with a positive connotation like "métis" in french.

Hi kimiik, the "change" isn't about the color of his skin, it's about his ideas and the potential changes that he can bring to the US (and hopefully the rest of the world).

Also, Barack identifies himself as being black.  But again, it doesn't matter if he's black, white, yellow, or purple...who he is as a person and leader is what is important.  We will soon find out :)

I listened to Obama's speech yesterday. What a refreshing change indeed. Intelligence, and what appears to be genuine concern and a desire to do right as opposed to thinly veiled political or religious ambition. He has my attention.

Pretty unbelievable that China would censor parts of Obama's speech from their media.

The following is from the BBC:

China has censored parts of the new US president's inauguration speech that have appeared on a number of websites.

Live footage of the event on state television also cut away from Barack Obama when communism was mentioned.

China's leaders appear to have been upset by references to facing down communism and silencing dissent.

English-language versions of the speech have been allowed on the internet, but many of the Chinese translations have omitted sensitive sections.

Selective editing

China keeps a firm grip on the country's media outlets and censors their news reports as a matter of routine.

Like the rest of the world, it has been keenly following developments in the United States; President Obama's inauguration was front page news.

But the authorities seem not to want ordinary Chinese people to read the full, unexpurgated version of the president's speech.

In his inauguration address, President Obama said: "Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions."

That entire passage was retained for an English-language version of the speech that appeared on the website of state-run Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua did not mention the word "communism" in its Chinese version

But in the Chinese-language version, the word "communism" was taken out.

President Obama's comments addressed to world leaders who "blame their society's ills on the West" also fell foul of the censor's red pen.

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history," the president said.

Once again, Xinhua included the passage in full in its English version, but the sentence was taken out of the Chinese translation.

Similar changes were made to versions of the speech that appeared on other websites based in China.

And websites were not the only media organisations that struggled to report some of the comments made by President Obama.

China Central Television, the country's main broadcaster, aired the speech live with a simultaneous Chinese translation.

But when the translator got to the part where President Obama talked about facing down communism, her voice suddenly faded away.

The programme suddenly cut back to the studio, where an off-guard presenter had to quickly ask a guest a question.

Censoring sensitive news reports is nothing new in China, where officials go to great lengths to cut critical material.

These officials appear a little nervous about the arrival of a new US President, who might not be as friendly to China as President George W. Bush.

As an editorial in the state-run China Daily put it: "Given the popular American eagerness for a break from the Bush years, many wonder, or worry to be precise, whether the new president would ignore the hard-earned progress in bilateral ties."

_________

Here's a clip of the speech being "censored" on television:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7842076.stm

Calkins,

I don't want to defend this kind of chinese censorship here but the ideas we see behind the words "communism" and "fascism" could be different from the chinese interpretation of "共产主义" and "法西斯主义".

Very exciting times indeed!  And of course, change couldn't come at a better time.

Another word that I believe would apply for this kind of change is:

改变
gǎibiàn

I'd be interested to hear from some natives (or experts) which one would be more appropriate for Barack's "Change."

Actually, the best way would be to avoid the word "共产主义" and use another word. But which one ?

hmmm, I dont think Obama had China in mind when he said that. After all China is "communism with Chinese characteristics". Certainly censoring may send the wrong message in this, the information age. Kind of surprising to me but I can see how it would make them nervous.

I'm not sure how Obama could avoid the word "communist."  It is what it is.

I don't know if he was referring to China (pre-capitalist China maybe?), Russia, or just "communism" in general, but isn't the ruling political party of China communist?

今天我一直在关注有关奥巴马就职的新闻，虽然我不是美国人，但是这样历史性的一刻还是值得关注的。他的演说很棒，很精彩，听完之后我一整天都在重复奥巴马曾经说过的话：“Changes come to the America.”

改变！让我们拭目以待吧！

Calkins, In fact I didn't comment Obama's speech but the bad job of the chinese interpreter who should have known long before the speech what would be the right translation of some "polemical" words in the context of a chinese TV broadcast.

Who would stop a broadcast when the live-translation is not 100% accurate ?

It seems to be an insult to the intelligence of the average Chinese viewer to cut away in the middle of the speech like that.

'The cutaway seemed to misfire. While many Chinese may not have noticed, the more alert were soon commenting on internet chatrooms. One said: “Why did CCTV do this. Too timid.”

...On one major Chinese language portal, NetEase, a used posted their own translation of the cut sections in English and Chinese. Online comments were often angry. One writer in the eastern city of Qingdao said: “Why did domestic media produce a castrated version to fool people! Why can’t we see a real world now!”' - London Times

kimiik, that's a very valid point.  In that case, I believe education is the way to go, not censorship.  Censorship almost always gives the sense that someone is hiding something.