Gaomi Photo: VCG

Newly adopted regulations on place name management in East China's Shandong Province have drawn public attention by placing clear legal safeguards around traditional place names. 

The regulations, which will take effect on July 1, stipulate that no organization or individual may independently decide to assign or change a geographical name without approval. Local civil affairs authorities are required to strengthen the identification, documentation, and preservation of historical place names within their jurisdictions. During administrative boundary adjustments, urban renewal projects, rural development, and other related processes, historical place names must not be altered arbitrarily.

By safeguarding the cultural heritage embedded in place names through the rule of law, Shandong is not only preserving the roots of collective memory, but also injecting lasting momentum into the high-quality development of traditional culture, Bu ­Xiting, an associate researcher with the School of Cultural Industries Management at the Communication University of China, told the Global Times on Monday. 

Traditional place names are living cultural fossils inscribed upon the land. This legislation not only represents an important improvement to the legal framework for cultural heritage protection, but also establishes a model for promoting the high-quality development of traditional culture in the new era. Its experience offers valuable and replicable lessons for place-name heritage protection and related legislation nationwide, Bu noted. 

Shandong is one of the major cradles of traditional Chinese culture, boasting a long history and a rich cultural heritage. In 2006, provincial authorities conducted a survey of county-level administrative units and found that 74 counties in Shandong had histories spanning more than 1,000 years, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Among them, 15 ancient counties have retained their original names for over a millennium despite dynastic changes and repeated shifts in territorial boundaries, such as Gaomi, Juye and Shouguang.

While it may seem at first glance to be a matter of place-name administration, the issue is fundamentally tied to broader questions of urban renewal, cultural heritage protection, grassroots governance, and the effective functioning of public services, Zhou Jiang, a standing council member of the Regional Science Association of China, told the Global Times on Monday. 

Traditional place names often preserve a city's geographical features, industrial heritage, historical events, folk customs, and the everyday lives of its residents. When a place name disappears, it often means that a piece of the city's collective memory is severed, Zhou noted. 

According to statistics from the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jinan, capital city of Shandong, the city had around 600 historical place names in and around 1979. Over time, more than 200 of them have quietly disappeared. Although some were later restored, the majority have been lost amid the process of urbanization, the China News Weekly reported. 

Long-established names have been discarded in favor of fashionable branding, commercial marketing, or trendy internet-inspired labels. While such changes may appear modern or attractive in the short term, they often come at the cost of historical depth. 

As traditional names disappear, cities risk losing the stories, traditions, and emotional connections embedded within them. What fades is not merely a name on a map, but a shared sense of belonging and cultural inheritance, Zhou said. 

Protecting traditional place names is also crucial for preserving regional cultural diversity and preventing cities from becoming increasingly homogeneous. In the course of rapid urbanization, some localities have replaced distinctive, locally rooted names with standardized and interchangeable labels designed to project a modern image. As a result, many urban districts across the country now bear strikingly similar names.

In this regard, Shandong's move provides a valuable model. By safeguarding traditional place names from casual alteration, it recognizes that cultural heritage can be preserved not only through monuments and museums, but also through the words people use every day to describe the places they call home.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn