The signboards are being prepared before events in October when Arrowtown celebrates 150 years since the discovery of gold in Otago.
Chinese historian Les Wong, of Dunedin, was concerned the signboards might not contain Cantonese, the language of Otago's Chinese gold miners. He understood the signboards were to be in English, Mandarin and modern Chinese (Pinying) and expressed to the Otago Daily Times Cantonese dissatisfaction at their language being "contaminated" with Mandarin.
"We're quite hot on this and our elders are very annoyed about this trying to 'Mandarinise' our history."
Alerted by the ODT to Mr Wong's concerns, Doc spoke to him and he said afterwards a compromise had been reached.
"Doc will no longer try to convert the Cantonese names to Mandarin. They will leave them in English."
Mr Wong's main concern was that by changing the names - even though they had been anglicised - all remaining connection with their Cantonese origins would be lost.
Mr Wong accepted that aside from the names, the information on the panels would be in Mandarin, "hopefully using the traditional Chinese characters".
