Re: Bopomofo and pinyin

From: "John Cowan"
> > Much more important -
> > meaning wise- is the first name. This is carefully chosen to invoke
desired
> > for characteristics or map out "geomancy".
>
> Is the classical "family poem" system for choosing the first zi4 of the
> personal name still being used?
Yes, but not universally and I don't how extensive the practice is now.

There are TV shows in Taiwan where people call in to an expert to consult on
which characters to pick (a lot of it in Taiwanese, so I missed some of the
nuances). You want to get the radicals balanced just right with the elements
and sounds to be homophonous with beneficial meanings, and so on. It's a
complicated process I don't fully understand.

About five years back, there was a major fire at a restuarant in Taichung
(where I lived) with an astronomical death toll. Scandal erupted since fire
inspections around the city were often a wink-wink-nudge-nudge, here's a
little "red envelope" affair; fire exits were blocked with heavy crates;
windows were barred over; fire extinguishers pre-dated the Tang. As a
result, the mayor was forced to resign in disgrace. His name (in pinyin):
Lin Bo-rong.
"lin" means "forest" and is composed of two trees
"bo" means "cypress" and is the wood radical plus a phonetic.
"rong" means "banyan tree" and is also the wood radical and a phonetic.
The analysis: Lin was brought to ruin by fire because his name contained too
much wood -- four trees in one name.

Kou