There's a joke going around in mainland China about the best way to transcribe the name of the country in Chinese characters. Each line is redolent of some social issue:...
the playboy reads it as qiènǎ 妾哪 = where is my mistress?
the lover reads it as qīnnǎ 亲哪 = where is my darling?
the poor person reads it as qiánnǎ 钱哪 = where is my money?...

THEN follow the thread of comments for a ding dong argument about the meaning of guanggun 光棍....

There was a link to this in The Economist's Johnson blog which focuses on language issues.