I saw a strange Chinese name in the newspapers not too long ago - Gwo Burne. I thought Gwo Burne should be written Kok Boon, Kuo Boon or something like that but most probably the person who coins the name must have wanted it to look and sound British or Western. Burne definitely does looked like very westernized but the owner of the name, I have seen him in the newspaper, he does looked very oriental, too oriental in fact! Talking about names, once a while, you get to see one or two parents giving their children ridiculous names. A man in Malaysia, I have read gave his daughter three different names, an Indian name, Malay name and Chinese name to express his patriotism. People would think he is trying to start a trend but really that is not as bad as another man who named his children alpha, beta and gamma. This reminded me of some characters in Star Wars, C3-PO, R2-D2. Adopting a western name, which is a common practice, is therefore not such a bad thing especially if it is done in the right manner. After all, Chinese in the olden days have been known to give nicknames to their children like dog or pig, to prevent evil spirits from harassing their offspring or so I heard. I think there is a minor character in the Asian saga set in Hong Kong in the novel Noble House, a massive book of over 100o pages written by James Clavell called Venus Poon. I thought that name was ridiculously funny! Now, what do you think of these names?...
International Kung Fu star, Jet Li.... do you think of a jet zooming by?
Samo Hung, star of American TV series, Martial Law... do you think of a Sumo Wrestler?...
Dodo Cheng... Do you think of a bird?...
Bobo Chan, the starlet embroiled in an explicit Edison sex tape... Do you think of the Bobos in Paradise?... bobo being the term used by David Brooks to describe the 1990s'' descendants of theof the corporate upper class who they rarely oppose mainstream society, claim highly tolerant views of others, buy lots of expensive and exotic items, and believe American society to be meritocratic...?
And then of course , there is a fishy name, Fish Leong, a popular Taiwan-based Malaysian singer. Watch her perform!
International Kung Fu star, Jet Li.... do you think of a jet zooming by?
Samo Hung, star of American TV series, Martial Law... do you think of a Sumo Wrestler?...
Dodo Cheng... Do you think of a bird?...
Bobo Chan, the starlet embroiled in an explicit Edison sex tape... Do you think of the Bobos in Paradise?... bobo being the term used by David Brooks to describe the 1990s'' descendants of theof the corporate upper class who they rarely oppose mainstream society, claim highly tolerant views of others, buy lots of expensive and exotic items, and believe American society to be meritocratic...?
And then of course , there is a fishy name, Fish Leong, a popular Taiwan-based Malaysian singer. Watch her perform!
Comments
I have a maimed name in my italian passport. This name comes from my SU passport. That name invented not too much expert in foreign languages passport-officer... Now, as a result of illiterasy of a person I've never seen in my life, I have to take these name for the rest of my life...