Re: USAGE: The name "Chiang Kai-shek"

John writes:

>Douglas Koller, Latin & French scripsit:
>
>>  Perhaps CKS had a
>>  warped sense of romanization humor (along the lines of "Hi, my name's
>>  Anvil Chung.").
>
>Who's that?  Googling drew a blank for once.  Or is this supposed
>to be a half-translation of CKS?  But if so, why "anvil"?  Anvils are
>made of iron, dammit.
It's no one. An inside joke that, I guess, was a little too inside.
And I was a little too liberal in the distinction between "romanize"
and "anglicize".

When Chinese women decide to take on an English name, it's either of
the Playboy bunny school: "Hi, my name's Bunny, Brandy, Candy,
Cherry, Lolly, Sissy, Chrissy, Ruby, etc....."; the Bewitched school:
"Hi, my name's Esmerelda, Cassandra, Samantha, Endora, Cleopatra,
Desdemona, etc..."; or the off-the-wall: "Hi, my name's Pallas,
Ironing Board, Chrysanthemum, Anaconda, etc.....".

Chinese guy anglo names are either monosyllabic football names: "Hi,
my name's Dirk, Buck, Ted, Craig, Greg, Mack, etc.....; or
off-the-wall: "Hi, my name's Anvil, Tether, Reach, Ballpeen,
etc......" (I kid you not, I had a student named "Big Gun").

And it doesn't get any better when expats decide to ascribe English
names to their Chinese students. There are a plethora of Hyrams,
Ephras, Marions, and Gertrudes floating around out there in the
Orient thanks to horribly uninspired ESL expat teachers.

And so, I'm sorry, it's hard to suppress a giggle when someone says,
"Hi, my name's Thesnelda Wu."

But in all fairness, in the "eh?" category is my Chinese name. "Kou"
is a Chinese surname that hasn't been used in eons. No one can read
it (which is why I like it), and my personal name "Daoguang" was a
Qing dynasty emperor, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if people
tee-hee-heed into their palms once I was out of earshot.

Chacun a son gout

Kou

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