There are only nine countries that are too important to Chinese (or have a very long original name) so that when translating its country name into Mandarin, we go by its abbreviation and only use "One unique character + Kuo (meaning country in Mandarin)" to illustrate this country. These countries are either extremely powerful in the world or have a close relationship with Chinese culture. Can you name them all?
國(Kuo) means country/nation in Mandarin, we could omit this character too in some occasion (for some country)
"Pinyin" is related to its original country name (in its native language) but "Literal Translation" does not (it's only for fun!)
If you understand Chinese, this quiz would be very easy for you!
For "E Kuo", we could also go by "E Luo Si". For "Liao Kuo", Mainland Chinese people might call it "Lao Wo". For “Han Kuo”, this is a much more complicated case and you will know why once you see the answer....