Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Another aspect of Chinese working life I admire:
Choosing a 'western name' The ability to re-christen yourself for the purpose of doing business with westerners. I would dearly love to decide one day that from now on I was now to be known by such a name as : 'Wilson', 'King', 'Mac' or 'Yankee'*. Of course I am able to (and expected to) pick a Chinese name for myself, probably someone will pick one for to complete some administrative task. I just hope it's pronounceable and that the meaning behind the characters is something other than 'Big White Number One' (as the characters of a colleague’s name were interpreted as).
* This probably leads back to my wish for a temporary American style name such as 'Randy' or 'Trent'. I'd already given myself a Starbucks name of 'Chuck' while I was in the US (I gave up using 'Geraint' in such situations after I noticed they'd written 'Jean' on the paper coffee cup), but it never took off outside the world of fast food and beverages.
Choosing a 'western name' The ability to re-christen yourself for the purpose of doing business with westerners. I would dearly love to decide one day that from now on I was now to be known by such a name as : 'Wilson', 'King', 'Mac' or 'Yankee'*. Of course I am able to (and expected to) pick a Chinese name for myself, probably someone will pick one for to complete some administrative task. I just hope it's pronounceable and that the meaning behind the characters is something other than 'Big White Number One' (as the characters of a colleague’s name were interpreted as).
* This probably leads back to my wish for a temporary American style name such as 'Randy' or 'Trent'. I'd already given myself a Starbucks name of 'Chuck' while I was in the US (I gave up using 'Geraint' in such situations after I noticed they'd written 'Jean' on the paper coffee cup), but it never took off outside the world of fast food and beverages.
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