The Chinese term "布坎南" is a phonetic transcription formed through the common practice of translating foreign names into Chinese using characters that approximate the original sound rather than meaning. Specifically, it transcribes the surname "Buchanan" (as in the economist James M. Buchanan), where "布" (bù) mimics "Bu-", "坎" (kǎn) mimics "-ca-", and "南" (nán) mimics "-nan". Each character is selected primarily for its phonetic value, resulting in a combination that is meaningless when interpreted literally ("cloth", "mound", "south") but functions solely as a recognizable sound-based label for the foreign entity within the Chinese linguistic system.