Is China still called "Zhongguo" ("middle kingdom") even though it's no longer a kingdom?
by 
Anti-Semantic - Quaerens Intellectum
ANSWERS: 1
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Yes, because 'guo' doesn't exactly mean kingdom. In the olden days, it was used to mean kingdom but nowadays its meaning has changed to country rather than kingdom... e.g. Mei-guo = America, lit. beautiful country De-guo = Germany, lit. ethical country, country of ethics Zhong-guo = China, lit. middle country, as it's the middle of the Asian continent Ying-guo = England or UK, lit. cherry blossom country, flower country, country of heroes [NOTE: Ying is a poetic term for cherry blossoms or flower petals, which are symbols of courage, bravery and heroicism.] The only exceptions for the "-guo" suffix for countries are Russia (Eluosi), Japan (Riben), Korea (Chaoxian), Spain (Xibanya), Malaysia (Malaixiya) and a few others.
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