Perhaps as the first and so far the only U.S. president in history who has roots in Hawai’i and Asia, Barack Obama is more sensitive to how the Chinese-language media and government officials in Chinese-speaking areas write his name in Chinese. 

According to the Xinhua 新华社 news report dated Nov. 19, 2009, the Obama administration objected how “Obama” was written in Chinese characters by the officials of the People’s Republic of China.  The White House officials preferred that the Chinese government use 欧巴马 (ou ba ma), while the PRC officials (and by extension, state-controlled media such as Xinhua and People’s Daily 人民日报) has written 奥巴马 (ao ba ma). 

The Chinese government officials, while admitting that “Aobama” sounds less closer to the original pronunciation, the use of the letter Ou 欧 presents several problems.  First, the letter Ou also means Europe, which makes it less appropriate for a name of an American president.  Second, the name Oubama 欧巴马 sounds and looks too much like Oubasang 欧巴桑 (derived from Japanese word for “aunt”, it has become a Chinese slang in recent years to mean an old unsophisticated woman), which could inadvertently cause the association of Obama with the imagery of an Oubasang.  

On the related note, the Chinese word for the White House is Baigong 白宫, which literally means “white palace”.  The Obama administration also objected to this, saying that there is no palace in the United States, and told the Chinese officials to call the White House “Baiwu” 白屋.