About 20 local Pokemon fans and gamers staged a protest outside the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong, with help from anti-communist political party Civic Passion, demanding that Pei-kaa-jau (Pikachu's new name in Cantonese) should be restored to Bei-kaa-chyu (the original Cantonese Pikachu) for their local market.

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With the upcoming “Pokemon Sun and Moon,” Nintendo will unify the names of more than 100 Pokemon characters across the Greater China region, in Simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese.

But Hong Kong fans are not happy with that. They feel that the changes disrespect their culture and languages. Hong Kong’s official language is Cantonese. Many of the new names for the Pokemon are Mandarin-style, in particular is the beloved mascot for the franchise, Pikachu. Some protesters were ready to boycott Nintendo if the company did not release a Cantonese translation for the games.

“Our main point is that the translation ignores Hong Kong's culture. There's no respect for it. We are aware of the reasons behind Nintendo's translation, presumably to make it easier for purposes such as publicity, but the move ignores a lot of players. We hope the Hong Kong market can be taken seriously and treated sincerely,” said a spokesman from a Facebook group known as Petition to keep Regional Chinese Translations of Pokemons.

To respond on the protest, Nintendo released a letter asking Hong Kong fans to simply ignore the Mandarin spelling and read it like they usually would. However, the Hong Kong community of Pokemon fans have set up a Facebook group to express their concerns and frustrations. More than 6,000 people signed a petition in March asking Nintendo to reverse its decision and respect their language.

“Pokemon Sun” and “Pokemon Moon” are expected to launch exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS on November 18.

TagsPokemon, Pikachu, Nintendo, Pokemon Sun, Pokemon Moon, Hong Kong