Pokémon politics: Proposed Pikachu name-change sparks protests in Hong Kong 【Video】

In an effort to standardize the franchise’s marketing in the region, though, Nintendo has announced that in the future Pikachu will be Pei Ka Yau in both Hong Kong and the mainland.

The pronunciation of the same written characters differs between Chinese dialects, so until now Pikachu has had his name written differently in Mandarin-speaking mainland China and traditionally Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong.

Pikachu and Nintendo find themselves in the middle of a cultural controversy in Hong Kong.