AGLC4 Rule 16.1: Specific Rules for Chinese Language Materials

Chinese language materials are cited with a translation of each Chinese element in square brackets straight after it. Chinese text is reproduced exactly as the source gives it, whether simplified characters, traditional characters or pinyin, and characters are never converted into pinyin. Published translations of Chinese primary materials follow rule 26.1.2 together with this rule.

AGLC4 page 220

Formatting

  • Each Chinese element is followed by a space and its English translation in square brackets, roman.
  • Chinese characters are never italicised; wherever the ordinary rule would italicise an element, its Chinese characters are placed between guillemets « » in roman type instead.
  • Characters, simplified or traditional, are reproduced as printed in the source and are not transliterated.
  • When a Chinese word is quoted in running text, it keeps its characters inside single curly quotation marks.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 220
  1. 1
    «中华人民共和国循环经济促进法» [Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China] (People’s Republic of China) National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Order No 4, 29 August 2008, art 2.
  2. 2
    «中华人民共和国护照法» [Passport Law of the People’s Republic of China] (People’s Republic of China) National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Order No 50, 29 April 2006.

In the text

In the document, the word ‘interior’ (‘内地’) is used instead of ‘China’ to reflect the fact that Hong Kong and Macau are part of the People’s Republic of China. [Not: … the word ‘interior’ (‘neidi’) …] [Original: 内地]

Quoted from the Guide, page 220

Not

Quoted from the Guide, page 220
  • … the word ‘interior’ (‘neidi’) …
    characters in the source must not be replaced by italic pinyin.

Forms in the rule

Quoted from the Guide, page 220
  • In the document, the word ‘interior’ (‘内地’) is used instead of ‘China’ to reflect the fact that Hong Kong and Macau are part of the People’s Republic of China.

See also

Check your footnotes against these rules

Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.

AGLC4 citation checker AGLC4 citation generator

Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.