How do you translate a Hong Kong clinic name written in Chinese on an immunization card?
TL;DRA client submitted a bilingual Hong Kong Department of Health immunization card for a US university medical clearance. The clinic name 柏立基母嬰健康院 is the Robert Black Maternal and Child Health Centre — named after Sir Robert Black, governor of Hong Kong 1958–1964. We used the official English form so the identity block matched the same centre's English mention on the card's reverse. The certified translation was delivered for the filing.
Case Specifications
- Document
- Immunization record
- Foreign Name
- 免疫注射記錄 (Immunization Record, Form DH 6)
- Country
- Hong Kong SAR
- Languages
- Chinese (Traditional) → English
- Submitted To
- US university medical clearance
What We Received
A client submitted a single bilingual Hong Kong Department of Health immunization card. The card is Form DH 6 (Rev. A 2000), issued at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2001. It was used through 2013 across one Maternal and Child Health Centre and two school health teams. The certified translation was needed for a major US university medical clearance.
Every printed label on the card carries a Chinese line and an English line. Vaccine names, dose numbers, and dates are typewritten in English. The patient's name and short remarks in the reverse table are handwritten in English. The clinic name on the identity block and the nurses' initials in the remarks column are printed Chinese stamps. The reverse of the card carries the [Immunization Record table](/documents/medical-records) with five columns — vaccine, dose, date, place, remarks.
The Maternal and Child Health Centre that handled the child's later vaccinations appeared in two places on the card. On the front identity block it was stamped in Chinese as 柏立基母嬰健康院. In the Place column of the [certified medical records translation](/documents/medical-records) on the reverse it was typewritten in English as 'Robert Black MCHC'.
Why This Required Special Handling
Hong Kong's public health facilities are routinely named after historical figures — most often British governors of the pre-1997 colonial period. The Chinese characters in those names are Cantonese phonetic transliterations of the figure's English name, not descriptive terms.
柏立基 (Cantonese 'Pak Laap Gei') is the standard Chinese rendering of Sir Robert Brown Black. He was the 23rd Governor of Hong Kong (1958–1964). A translator who phoneticizes 柏立基 without checking the historical reference can land on a confusable name. The most common mis-attribution is 'Bradbury', whose Chinese equivalent is the unrelated 白普理. Bradbury is a separate historical donor with its own network of Hong Kong facilities (Bradbury Hospice, Bradbury Foundation). The two names are pronounced and written nothing alike in Chinese. The English forms are similar enough that the substitution slips through casual review.
Imagine a reviewer at a US university medical clearance office. They compare the card's English column ('Robert Black MCHC') with a translation that says 'Bradbury MCHC'. The result is two different facility names on one record. That kind of inconsistency invites a follow-up question and, often, a request for a corrected translation. The standard [USCIS-style translator's note](/guides/translators-note-when-required) does not save the translator from this. The note explains decisions; it does not paper over a wrong English name.
How We Handled It
We cross-referenced 柏立基 against the Hong Kong Government's official register of facilities. The characters map to Sir Robert Brown Black, 23rd Governor of Hong Kong (1958–1964). The Robert Black Maternal and Child Health Centre is located in Wan Chai. It uses 柏立基母嬰健康院 as its Chinese name.
On the identity block we rendered the centre's name as 'Robert Black Maternal and Child Health Centre (柏立基母嬰健康院)'. English came first, with the Chinese characters retained in parentheses. A reviewer can verify the mapping at a glance. The same centre appears in the immunization table on the reverse. There the original card itself prints 'Robert Black MCHC' in English. Using the official English form on the identity block keeps both surfaces of the document consistent.
A Translator's Note on the certification page laid out the mapping explicitly. The same note documented the rest of the standard Hong Kong card conventions. Dates are written in DD/MM/YYYY (or DD-MM-YY) format following Hong Kong / United Kingdom convention and were preserved verbatim. 'QEH' is Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 'MCHC' is Maternal and Child Health Centre. 'AS 8–9' on the identity block is the 1-minute and 5-minute Apgar Score recorded at birth.
The patient's name and the parent/guardian's name were rendered per the [passport spellings supplied by the client](/translate/chinese-medical-records). The pre-printed hospital barcode label on the front of the card carries the parent's full Romanized name. It was preserved verbatim within a bracketed BARCODE LABEL marker, separately from the field value.
"MCH Centre 柏立基母嬰健康院 is the Robert Black Maternal and Child Health Centre, named after Sir Robert Brown Black, 23rd Governor of Hong Kong (1958–1964); this is also the centre listed as 'Robert Black MCHC' in the Place column of the immunization record on the reverse. Names have been rendered per the passport spellings supplied by the client; the pre-printed hospital barcode label on the front of the card has been preserved verbatim within a bracketed BARCODE LABEL marker. Dates in the source are recorded in DD/MM/YYYY (or DD-MM-YY) format following Hong Kong / United Kingdom convention and have been preserved verbatim. Abbreviations used in the original: QEH = Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Hong Kong); MCHC = Maternal and Child Health Centre; 'AS 8–9' = Apgar Score 8–9 (1-minute and 5-minute neonatal assessment)."
The Outcome
The certified translation was delivered to the client for the US university medical clearance filing. The identity block, the immunization table, and the Translator's Note all referred to the same facility — Robert Black Maternal and Child Health Centre. A reviewer cross-checking the English and Chinese surfaces of the card now sees one consistent name.
Bilingual Hong Kong Department of Health cards (DH 6 and its successors) are a recurring source document for [Chinese medical records translation](/translate/chinese-medical-records) in US university medical clearances and USCIS filings. The single decision that most often separates an accepted translation from one that comes back with follow-up questions is the facility name. Naming the facility from the official English register, rather than phoneticizing the characters, is the move.
What This Means for You
A Chinese clinic name on a Hong Kong document is not always a descriptive phrase. It can be a Cantonese transliteration of a historical figure's English name. Before rendering such a name in English, check whether the facility already has an official English form on the issuing authority's register. When the same document carries both the Chinese and the English version of a name, use the official English form. Every surface of the document should then agree.
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We translate bilingual Hong Kong Department of Health immunization cards, hospital records, and identity documents for US university medical clearances and USCIS filings.
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Sources & References
- Family Health Service — Maternal and Child Health Centres·Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR·Verified 2026-05-28
- Department of Health — Family Health Service·Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR·Verified 2026-05-28
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