the change is due to china's move to pinyan (english transliteration of chinese) in the late 70's...

since the english pretty much stomped over the pronunciation of chinese place and proper names, the change was noticable

a case in point
peking/peiping vs beijing (pronounced bay-zhing)

what you did in your youth was a side-effect of imperialism/colonialism and the arrogance of "the white man's burden"
imagine, classifying a civilization 2000 years older than one's own as "backward"

dumbass comes in all sizes/shapes/formats