Announcements

‘In China, My Name Is…’ Book Contest: Win A Copy!

by on Thursday, December 10, 2009 119 comments

MYNAMEIS-ben

The English names that some Chinese people choose are very strange. Many foreigners say I have a strange name too. This is just another interesting side of China and Chinese people that Valerie Blanco and Ellen Feberwee have written about in their new 176-page book titled “In China, My name is…“. Below is a guest post by Valerie and Ellen introducing the connection between name and identity for Chinese people, how some Chinese people chose their names, and why they wrote a book about it. — Fauna

MYNAMEIS-appleThe English names of Chinese people in China. You have them in all sorts, from the common to the extraordinary. Candy, Jessie Potter, Apple, Cindy, Mint, Shining, Jack and Morning…just to name a few we came across. We lived in Shanghai for a couple of years and became curious about the background of these names. Why are Chinese adopting English names and how do they choose them? Our curiosity resulted in the book “In China, My name is…”.

More than thirty years ago, it was unimaginable in China to express your identity let stand have an English name. Everybody had the same identity; wearing the same MAO suit was one way to show that. The opening up policy has already had a great impact on society and culture, and our book “In China, My name is…” shows just that. We asked a simple question: “Do you have an English name?” But behind this question lay many answers and insights ranging from China’s past to its future. This fascinated us, so we decided to hit the streets to see whether our analysis was right. We did our research in Shanghai. We spoke with Chinese from different provinces and “social layers”; poor street workers, visitors off the Millionaire fair, religious monks, students and so on. Shanghai is a melting pot, attracting people from all over China. This gave us the chance to provide a broad perspective on this subject.

MYNAMEIS-jessie potterWhat were our main insights? Chinese adopt an English name for: easier communication, showing off social status and to secure the personal destiny. Because of the fast developments in the country, more and more Chinese have contact with foreigners. Here is where cultural differences really play a role. As Chinese is very difficult to pronounce for foreigners, a word in Chinese can have a different meaning when it is pronounced incorrectly. “Horse” becomes “marijuana” or “to ask something” becomes “kissing” for example. Maybe hilarious for foreigners but for locals this can be embarrassing.

Name giving is really important in China; it has a connection with your destiny according to the Chinese. Your destiny has to have a positive outcome, right? So it better be pronounced correctly! During our research we often spoke to a Bill or Billy wanting to become as famous and successful as Bill Clinton or Bill Gates. We also saw that Chinese choose an English name to show off their status. To have an English name shows you probably went to university, have contact with foreigners or work at a prestigious foreign company. For some people, the English name was just a way to communicate in an easier way so the meaning of the name had no high importance, as long as it sounds good and is easy to remember. For others, the meaning of the name was as important as their Chinese counterpart, making the way they choose it and its meaning more significant, fitting character and often future ambitions.

INCHINA-frontpage

Interested to see how these young generations in the big developing cities are expressing their identities? We’ve included seven of the over 200 Chinese people featured in our book, with their explanations of their English names: Anita, Apple, Ben, Charlie, Jessie Potter, Joy, and Merry. To see more, look for our book online, in a local bookstore, or visit our website, chinese-identity.com, for more information.

Want to win a free copy of our book? We’re giving away three copies!

We want to hear your experiences with names in China! So with the help of Fauna and chinaSMACK, we’re having a small contest where you can win one of three free copies of our book. Just leave a comment below answering one of the following questions:

  • Are you Chinese and have an English name? What is your English name? Why did you choose it and how?
  • Are you a foreigner and have a Chinese name? What is your Chinese name? How did you come up with your Chinese name?
  • Or, have you seen or heard of any other interesting English names for Chinese people in China and how they chose them?

Let us know and tell us your story. We will pick the best 3 stories and ship you a free copy of our book, “In China, my name is…”

Notes:

  1. You may submit multiple entries. Each entry must be of a different story.
  2. Contest submissions must be posted by the end of Sunday 2009 December 20.
  3. The three stories chosen by Valerie and Ellen to win a free copy of “In China, My Name Is…” will be announced on Monday 2009 December 21 Tuesday 2009 December 22.
  4. You must input your real email address in your contest submission. It will not be published but it is needed to contact you if you are a winner to arrange shipping the book to you. Shipping of the contest prize books will be handled by Valerie and Ellen, and their publisher Mark Batty Publisher. All unclaimed books will be fed to an alpaca.

No story to share? Won’t win? Just want to buy the book?

Purchase the “In China, My name is…” directly in many local bookstores (ex. Garden Books in Shanghai and Beijing), online via Amazon, or through our book’s official website.

“In China, My name is…” is a 176-page hardcover book that includes over 200 Chinese people and their English names along with full-color high-quality photos.

ValerieEllen

Ask Valerie and Ellen A Question!

Since we (that’s us above) will be reading everyone’s stories and choosing winners, we’ll also be here to answer any questions you may have about our book, ourselves, and our experiences in China and with Chinese people. Just tell us what you think or want to know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to respond!

2009 December 14 UPDATE: Valerie and Ellen answer some questions on CNNGo. — Fauna

Share This Article

119 Comments

  • Some HTML can be used to format your comment.
  • Add a picture to your comments with Gravatar.
  • Our Comment Policy.
1 2
  1. David
    Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    My wife’s name is Shuang. Back in China she chose the English name “Shirley”. But only old women have that name in the West now, so soon after coming to the US (we now live in Australia) she dropped it. Most people don’t have too much trouble with pronouncing it roughly as “Shwang”. This English name thing is a bit odd. Few of the Chinese born people I know here or knew in the US use English names. OTOH of our grad students in the US was called Xueqi. The administrative staff just called her “that other Chinese grad student” even after I told them how to roughly pronounce the name…

    Reply
  2. David
    Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 2:11 pm

    Sorry for the duplicate – my obvious choice is DaWei which is how “David” is transliterated in Chinese bibles. But I tend to go by the name of Xiong Xiansheng among my wife’s relatives and friends :) (yes, Mr Bear).

    Reply
  3. Ryan
    Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    By far, no contest the best two English names I have heard were Pastrami and Lancelot.

    Pastrami greeted me with a 3 kuai bottle of Yanjing and said “My name is Pastrami. Like the meat. I named myself Pastrami because I think it will get the girls.”

    And it worked.

    Lancelot was a hardworking coworker who chose the name because he thought it would turn him to royalty. I don’t know where you are Sir Lanelot, but may your reign be supreme.

    I currently study Mandarin quite intensely and plan on moving back to China. How would even begin to pick a Chinese name?

    Reply
  4. Promo
    Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    My Chinese name is 朴素(SImple)。。。I know it’s not so popular but it was randomly chosen by my Chinese Teacher ,a few years past. I asked her to give me a simple Chinese name, so i guess she thought i meant, a name that means “Simple”. That was how i got this name…and it really got known among my friends in China.

    Reply
  5. buzaihu
    Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    This kid who was working with my language program, one of the funniest and energetic chinese kids i’ve ever met, decided to name himself after a real bad ass dude. Somebody of pure, ass kicking stature. Of course, he chose Schwarzenegger. Come on, who wouldn’t?

    The only problem was that he couldn’t quite pronounce “schwarzenegger”, so it always came out a little jumbled. When I was introduced to him, he said to me “Hello! My name is shortu nigger”. After trying to tell him a few times that it’s probably not the best name to use, I realized that he was actually trying to say the gubernator’s name, and laughed for about five minutes straight for feeling like a racist.

    Eventually, he got bored of schwarzenegger and went for michael scofield because, like Sara on this post, he loves Prison Break. rad.

    Reply
  6. 湖爍䰾蹈
    Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 5:35 am

    I am an American student who has studied Chinese for several years and had the chance to go to China for two months last summer. When I first started studying the language, my teacher (rather lazily) told the class that those among us who wanted Chinese names to visit a particular website that provides a random name based on your English name. I wrote down a list of the names it presented and the teacher chose this one: 蘇兆明 (Su Zhaoming). It doesn’t seem to be the common last name and I don’t think I’ve ever met another student of Chinese that has chosen that last name. It is however connected with two idols of refinement: the city of Suzhou and the poet Su Dongpo. I really haven’t gotten much feedback on the name other than one time I was complimented on it, so I guess it isn’t too bad of a choice.

    Reply
  7. a guy
    Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 11:07 am

    Here are some examples from over the years:
    Had a student named “Sunshine” who was constantly mopy, frowning, and all around just plain miserable. I always wanted to tell her to change her name to “Overcast”.

    Recently a co-worker had two students sitting next to each other, one of which had the English name Adam, so she named the other Apple.

    I had a student who wanted to change his name to Killer. He seemed really excited about it, and when I nixed it, he immediately said “Ok, Ryan”. Two pretty extremely different choices there.

    Destiny changing – one student named himself LeBron, believing it would help him become a better basketball player. One girl came to our school with the name Cinderella, thinking it would help her achieve a fairy-tale ending to her life.

    Other names I’ve encountered: Bubble (a boy), Jingle, Eleven, Lincoln, Yo-Yo, Pinky Ella (I never did find out the story behind this one), Even (matched her temperment).

    Reply
  8. maxiewawa
    Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 6:11 pm

    I knew a guy called “Warming”. It sounded like his Chinese name.

    Another guy I knew was called “Earth”. He had a friend called “Skye” (it’s not an uncommon English name) but he thought that “Earth” was more manly.

    Reply
  9. CnInDC
    Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:23 am

    The Hong Kong band “Beyond” was (and maybe still is) called 比昂得 by Shanghai Radio stations. I didn’t see anything funny until one day a classmate from northern China murmured B养的 while listening to the radio.

    Reply
  10. ashley
    Monday, December 14, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    I met a Chinese guy called himself Goblin.
    On a slightly different tack, many years ago , when I lived in London, I knew an ethnic Chinese guy who worked for a very unpleasant woman who was a super size bitch. She imported stuff from China. Having used agents for many years, she decided to cut out the middle man and import directly, herself.
    She asked my buddy to give her a Chinese name to put on her name card. So her first trip to China, she was giving out name cards which said her name was – Big Fat Whore.
    My buddy lost his job when she got back home, but it was worth it.

    Reply
  11. Valerie & Ellen
    Monday, December 14, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    Hello there,

    Hope you all had a good weekend! On this side of the world everything is well. And again, thanks for all the great stories being posted.

    Just before the weekend we mentioned we have Chinese names as well:

    Ellen Feberwee: sometimes I used my Chinese name Fan Ai Lun. My Chinese teacher in The Netherlands made it up for me. Fan stand for my last name. Ai stands for love and lun for human relationship. Ailun is a bit similar to my Dutch name. I didn’t use it often because Chinese were able to pronounce my Dutch name.

    Valerie Blanco: my Chinese name is Bai Lily and means white lily. Bai stands for my last name Blanco, which means white, just like my last name. Lily is a typical Chinese name but this is also my nickname since I was young. So I actually created this name by myself. However, I checked it with some Chinese friends to make sure it has no strange meaning. I never had an experience like one of the readers “Ashley” mentioned so I guess the name is good ☺.

    Keep the stories coming!

    Cheers,
    Ellen and Valerie

    Reply
  12. hudongqing
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 6:30 am

    I’m an Australian (anglo) and my first Chinese name was given to me when I arrived in China: 马得明. 马 is actually pronounced the same as my family name in English, which is an anglicisation of the way its said in Irish, and I quite like the meaning of the given name I got, because I used to study ethics and morality. All the teachers and old people loved this name and always said, “好名字” but all the people my age would laugh and tell me it was too old fashioned. So I made a new one:
    胡冬清.

    This name I chose myself. My mother’s maiden name is a homonym for the english word for 东清树 and I’m kind of an environmentalist, so I like being named after a tree. But I preferred the meaning of 冬清, which is short for 冬天清晨 – it gives the impression of a sharp winter’s morning, with mist hovering around the base of trees in the forest. But I couldn’t keep the same family name, because 马冬清 sounds like the Chinese for “going shopping” or “buying things”, which I really don’t like the sound of. So I used my ex-girlfriends name, 胡. This was perfect because it adds to the meaning of my name both a lake, so now the scene is like the 山水 artwork, and also the sound of someone playing 二胡, which is my favorite sound.

    Reply
  13. UnclePu
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 10:01 am

    A few of the more unusual names I came across: Freedom, Marx, Hitler, Fairly, Platina (she meant Platinum), Hymen (I doubt she kept that name after learning the meaning).

    Reply
  14. monkay
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 11:44 am

    I was at a party with some Chinese friends…some French students came in and introduced themselves. One girl had the unfortunate name of Sabine and the drunk Chinese guy shaking her hand, startled, said 设么。。。傻B?

    Reply
  15. Joel
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 11:56 am

    * Are you a foreigner and have a Chinese name? What is your Chinese name? How did you come up with your Chinese name?

    When I first came to China I was afraid of picking a stupid-sounding or foreigner-sounding Chinese name. But I couldn’t speak Chinese so how was I supposed to know which Chinese names were good and which were bad? And my Chinese friends always had conflicting opinions about potential names. In our neighbourhood, the bike repairman and our retired neighbours always hung out on the corner. I would sit and chat and drink with them sometimes. They got tired of waiting for me to get a name, so one day they just told me: “Your name is 大江！” And they told the whole neighbourhood so they all call me that. Now I use “大江” as a 小名。

    Or, have you seen or heard of any other interesting English names for Chinese people in China and how they chose them?
    Plenty! Here’s my list from this semester teaching English: http://chinahopelive.net/2009/11/03/whats-in-a-chinglish-name-ill-tell-you
    Unfortunately, “King” and “Yoyo” didn’t make the list.

    Reply
  16. Miguel
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    I’m a westerner that studied Chinese for a few years and I have two Chinese names. My first Chinese name, 包汉理, was given to me by my Chinese teachers at Indiana University and it was derived from the consonants in my family name. It really has no meaning and as I started traveling around China and telling people my name, they would look at me strangely. Finally, when I was in Turpan I met two Chinese girls from Singapore who gave me the name 麦翰林. 麦 sounds like my English given name “Mike” and 翰林 refers to the 翰林院, which was an academy that produced scholars who advised the emperor. Everyone seems to like this name much better and I have stuck with it.

    Reply
  17. Miguel
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    I went to a travel agency in Nanjing where the entire staff had cigarette brand names for their English names. I forget if I bought my plane ticket from Winston or Marlboro. I dealt with both of them.

    Reply
  18. Chinochano
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I am Spanish, my real name is Antonio, but my Chinese name is An Dong (安东). In the beginning of my stay in China (now it’s been 8 years since then) the Chinese gave me the name An Dong Ni Ao (安东尼奥), wich is the most common practice in Chinese for this Spanish and Italian name. However, I didn’t like it because I considered too long for a Chinese name, so I proposed my Chinese friends to link the two last syllables, making it “An Dong Niao”. They laughed at me saying that “niao” can mean “pee” or “bird” in Chinese, and none of this two words is good for a human name. So I decided to make it even shorter… Finally, I love my name 安东 because not only sounds very Chinese (even some real Chinese people have this name) but also has an interesting meaning for me: 安 means “quiet”, and I am very (sometimes extremely) quiet person, and 东 means “east”, the place in the world where I am now. Perfect suitable name.

    Reply
  19. Kage Musha
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 5:50 pm

    It’s not a bloody Mao suit, it’s a Zhongshan suit. The Chinese all call it Zhongshan zhuang.
    Bloody Western copy & paste + ignorance.

    Reply
  20. Chinochano
    Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    I forgot to say, I also like my name because Chinese people remember it very easily, and in the other hand is very easy to pronounce even for people with nule capacity for speak other languages (as us the Spanish).

    Reply
  21. HC
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 4:00 am

    It makes sense for some people to choose names that their clients can easily remember and not forget if they do sales, for example. I will never forget the name on a business card that was given to me years ago during my visit to China. The name is Pubic and his last name is Har –> Pubic Har

    Reply
  22. Ellen
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 4:35 am

    My name is also Ellen! Before going to China, I gave a lot of thought to what to choose as my name there. What an opportunity — finally, I could pick a name that reflected something about me! I remember considering ‘Ai lin,’ meaning love forest, but my friends back home convinced me it was too risqué. I never settle on anything, and just naturally turned into the purely phonetic ‘Ai lun’ (艾伦) when I got there, figuring I would change my name to something perfect once I knew more characters. Indeed I did choose a name after a few months — I really wanted to be ‘Lei Yu lian’ (雷雨莲) – for ‘thunder rain lotus’, maintaining some resemblance to my real name (my last name begins with L), the strength and power of thunder, the peaceful and steady importance of rain, and the tasty fragrance of lotus. I started introducing myself this way, but it didn’t work!! Everyone still called me Ailun. Numerous people complained that my name had way too much water in it. One friend who couldn’t get used to the change said ‘once an ailun, always an ailun.’ Funny thing about names is that they stick. 艾伦 forever!

    Reply
    • Albert Liu
      Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 8:52 am

      My name is Albert. My dad, who is a physicist, came over to the USA from China in the 1960′s. My friends say, “He must have named you after Albert Einstein. Pity you got such a clunky 19th century German name.” I usually reply, “True, but given that the only other options were Niels (Bohr), or Maximilian (Planck), I think I did OK!”

      Reply
  23. Mr. Wallen
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 8:56 am

    Since my company does business with Chinese electronics manufacturers, I get tons of email solicitations from these factories’ sales departments. I have been doing business with and traveling to Asia since the early 1980s, and have taught conversational English to a number of young Chinese people who had just entered the business world.

    Some of the oddest names I’ve come across, though, have been recently: A guy named Cheney, another one named Trump, one guy named Romeo, another guy named Cupid. A girl named River (do you know how hard it is for most Chinese to say “River”?), another girl named Magdalene, and one girl named Louisiana.

    Reply
  24. Mike
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 10:29 am

    When I was studying in Nanning, Guangxi, in 1994 many students had different English names. Radium, Blue, and Rambo were some of the ones that I remembered. My Chinese name is 史道德 because it sounds like my American name. I chose it for the meaning of my given names.

    Also, another reason for different sounding names for Chinese into English is simply that in Chinese it is normal to be called XiaoYan (little butterfly), or Mei or Li (beauty). So why not in Engish? I like the idea. I worked on my Chinese name for many hours before I was happy with the sound and the meaning.

    Reply
  25. Kyle
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 10:56 am

    I had a fellow American teaching English in the late ’90s that gave porn star names to all of his students, names like Dirk, Amber, Ebony, Celeste…

    I came across two different Wiwians

    Reply
  26. George
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 11:54 am

    I am an American married to a Chinese. My English name, George, is one for which there is a Chinese equivalent, Qiao Zhi.
    My wife’s Chinese name is Li Li Xin, so Lily was an obvious choice.

    Reply
  27. Josh
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    I’m an American and I married an ABC woman. She has a Chinese name, but goes by the English name her parents gave her which is Wendy. Her father is not so keen on me since I’m white and the fact that she took my last name irks him even more. So when I started studying Chinese as my minor in school, I needed a Chinese name. My wife said that it’s not good to name yourself, so I had her pick something for me. I’m majoring in accounting and I’m dependable, so she settled on 恒正. As friendly gesture to her father, I elected to take his surname of 林. I don’t think he received it as I intended, but hey, I tried. I like how 林恒正 flows off the tongue and it’s a breeze to write so I’m happy to have it.

    Reply
  28. EC
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Three funny stories:

    1) There was a Chinese guy who worked in the Starbucks in my building. His name was xPand. He was very sweet, and, well, on the tubby side. Never figured out whether the name was humorous, ironic, or coincidental.

    2) Had a client whose name was Wings. Apparently, he was originally Wing, but his colleagues made fun of him for having an “imbalanced” name, so he added the S for symmetry.

    3) Chinese IT guy named Micro2000. He wanted a name that sounded techie, but was afraid of using Microsoft2000 after a colleague said he’d get sued for trademark infringement.

    Reply
  29. Valerie & Ellen
    Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Hello everyone,

    Again, many thanks for all the reactions. In these days you have been sharing all kinds of stories about foreign and Chinese names. We would like to share a few stories of our favorite names in the book. Before starting we also want to mention that what we found interesting during our research was the fact that behind a simple question, “Do you have an English name?” (or foreign/non-Chinese name) lay more answers and insights than you would imagine, ranging from China’s past to its future. We let you think about that for now….please feel free to share your insights on this.

    What made some names interesting for us was not only the name in itself, but also what it meant and the connection with the person; the whole concept basically. We both studied “Concepts & Brands” so that’s why we focus on Branding and identity development quite much. Some names were simple but had a great story behind it. “Ben” for example is a simple name. Ben in the Western world has biblical roots. This “Ben” however took de name from the Chinese word “ben” which means “stupid”. He told us he thinks he’s not so smart.

    Another person which name we liked was Rubberpixy. This person sees himself as beings as flexible as a rubberband. A rubberband is normal and laid back but when you pull it, it can be tensed. When you let it go it shoots in all directions. Pixy comes from pixle, which is related to computer design programs. He chose to use this new identity that totally fits his character and work. He is working as a graphic designer in Shanghai. It is a very unique name and this person really thought about his reasons for taking on this name.

    That’s it for now, cath up soon again.

    Kind regards,
    Ellen and Valerie

    Reply
  30. bleah
    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 4:35 am

    I came in touch with a Vietnamese person with a name that sounded similar to Robert (which was his English name) but must have sounded kind of funny for Chinese people. I wonder what it sounded like.

    Reply
  31. Bettydong
    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 10:10 am

    I am a Chinese and study English as my major in university. In my first English class, the teacher asked everyone’s English name and he would call our English names from then on. Of the 27 students, only three were boys. One boy stood up and announced:’ Hello, everyone, my name is Whale.’ What?! Everyone was surprised. ‘W-H-A-L-E, whale.’ He repeated. Looking at him, I found him slim, the least thing I can associate is such giant animal as a whale. Having seen our confusion, he continued to explain ‘My Chinese name is XIAO JING YU 效靖宇，and it is pronounced similar to 小鲸鱼(meaning little whale in Chinese), so I chose this name!’ No one could stop laughing at that moment.

    Reply
  32. Marc
    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    Hehe, Chinese people can be just as cruel in giving foreigners Chinese names. Before I could speak Chinese, a friend gave me a name that similar to my last name: 来福康 (“Come Fourtune and Health”)… They thought it was funny to give what sounded like a peasant’s name. So cruelty goes both ways :p

    Reply
  33. Tully
    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Just stumbled across this website. Looks Cool!

    Anyway!I’ve encountered names varying from the funny, crazy and unique to the serious, obvious and even boring.
    I’ve had students with names such as Hitler, Stalin, Caesar, Kissinger and Churchill as well as Edison and Einstein which could have had a story behind them,
    but knowing the students involved, I think that they were probably chosen for a laugh.
    I’ve also had students with names such as Commander, Freedom, Sunlight, Victory, Magic, Outsider, Dream and Destiny that are meaningful.
    Then on to the thought provoking ones such as, Black Car (his father apparently had a black car), Pig Killer (I didn’t ask)

    I actually have a very funny but unfortunate/fortunate story that you may or may not believe.
    My sister and her soon to be husband came to see me in China last year,
    While here we got talking about Chinese names and how Philip wanted to get his Chinese Characters tattooed on his arm.
    So I decided to give them names while they were here.
    Anyway my sisters boyfriends name is Philip White. But everyone knows him as Philly.
    So I proceeded to find Chinese with similar pronunciation/transliterate to Philly or Philip and just translated White to bai(百).
    Anyway a long story short his name ended up as baifeili(白菲利). Unknown to us this turned out to be an extremely unfortunate translation,
    Although we had chosen different characters the sound was the same as the baifeili (白费力)(white laborious),
    a well known term meaning, pointlessness/in vain or similar to the expression to bang your head against a brick wall,
    So, down to the tattoo shop the guys were very amused, but we passed off the laughing as us being Waiguoren.
    But luckily the tattoo guy eventually figured that we mustn’t have known what baifeili meant and so wouldn’t do it.
    We went away confused by the whole event until in school the next day I told the story to one of the girls in the office.
    She explained what it meant to me, but not after telling the whole office and them proceeding to roll around in laughter.
    I’ve since found out that there actually happens to be jokes in a Chinese text book about foreign names translated into Chinese.
    Most of the stories are about Japanese names translated into Chinese but one joke includes Baifeili.
    Anyway needless to say Philly didn’t get the tattoo and we came out of it unharmed despite leaving most of my face in the tattoo shop and the remainder in the school office.

    Reply
  34. leone zhang
    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    i just skimmed it over,there are so many interesting artical that really catched my eyes,although some of its,which it mapped out the unshunned phenomenons of china,it also as a banner for warming us to avoid its.

    by the way,my chinese name is zhang long english name is leone zhang,the austere reason here for choose “leone”,coz of it resembles in the pronunciation and transliterate with “long”

    Reply
  35. Bettydong
    Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 12:25 am

    Hey Ellen & Valerie

    I was very surprised when my surpervisor sent this webpage to me because currently I am doing my dissertation on this topic! I have found very interesting stories from your page and thank you! I would like to know if I could discuss with you more on this and exchange our views, as you are from Europe, and I from China, there might be some differences and similarities in interpreting perspectives. Leave me a message via Email if comvenient for you.

    Reply
  36. David Stern
    Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 6:50 am

    Any problems with this name as a translation of my English/German name: 星大炜 (Stern = Star in German).

    Reply
  37. Alex Hofford
    Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Hi once bought a Yakult from a girl named Yakult in a 7/11 in Causeway Bay, Hong KOng.

    Reply
  38. jay7
    Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    that is some funny sh*t actually… though who cares how you name urself? just make sure you enjoy when people calling you.

    Reply
  39. Ray
    Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    I’m Chinese and have a English name, Ray. Why Ray? It’s simply because that’s the perfect sounding match with my Chinese name “锐-Rui” which means “sharp” and “vigour”. Another reason is I am kind of a guy with a sense of humor. And almost everyone I met likes me, so I think I can be the Chinese version “Raymond”. Then I nailed it.

    I guess my story is one of the most orinary so the free copy looks like none of my business. To gain some chance, I am adding my wife’s story here.

    My wise is a Chinese,too. Her fisrt name is “莉亚－Liya”. When she came to UTSA to visit me, three years ago, we thought it’s better to have an English name for her to live in the states and communicate with local people. We picked “Leia”. Again, probably you have noticed that, the prononciation is 99% the same. And, you’ve got to keep this between us, Princess Leia ( Star Wars) is adorable, isn’t she?

    Reply
  40. Fauna
    Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Winners

    The winners of the contest chosen by Valerie and Ellen are:

    GuoBao

    EC

    Promo

    Congratulations! Winners will receive an email from me and Valerie and Ellen with instructions on providing your shipping address to receive your free prize copy of “In China, My name is…”

    Thank you everyone for your support and participation! :)

    Reply
  41. FOARP
    Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    I am English you fool.

    Reply
  42. FOARP
    Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    Apologies for flying off the handle

    Reply
  43. FOARP
    Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    The problem comes when you work in an office in which you are the only English-speaking person, and people in your office are told to choose English names to make it “convenient for foreigners” despite the fact that you speak Chinese and nobody has to speak to any foreigner except yourself. It is common for companies, especially foreign-owned companies, to insist on this kind of nonsense.

    Reply
  44. john
    Friday, December 11, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    My friend (Chinese) worked at a foreign owned company in Beijing, and when she was introducing me to her coworkers (also Chinese), she used their English names. IIRC they all called each other by English names in that office, and I’m not sure there were ANY foreigners working there full time.

    Bizarre.

    Reply
  45. Capn
    Friday, December 11, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    This foreigner name business is fun for them, it’s like playing dress-ups to be someone you wish you were.

    Chinese people will do anything to convince themselves they’re not peasants anymore.

    Reply
  46. little Alex
    Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 2:50 am

    Well, I grew up in Hong Kong and most of the people I’ve met will introduce themselves using their English names, even in a completely Chinese company.

    You’re right that colonialism might have played a part in that, but it’s also the idea that it affords you some distance between your professional life and your private life, since the only people who know your Chinese name — your real name — would be your family and friends.

    Reply
1 2
Personals @ chinaSMACK - Meet people, make friends, find lovers? Don't be so serious!»