LI SHIGONG

Country singer Johnny Cash was famous for his song Boy Named Sue that topped the charts back in the early 1970s. The song tells of a father who gave his son a girl's name to help harden him for life. This was the excuse of the father, according to the lyrics, who was a man knowing that he would be absent during his son's formative years. Sue, as we know, is the common nickname for Susan.

The other day, several of my students introduced themselves, first by sharing their Chinese names, and then adding their English names.

"Hello, my Chinese name is Liang Wang, and my English name is Eleven."

"My name is Zhong Suizhen. My English name is Air."

"In Chinese, my name is pronounced Zhang Shanwu, but I have chosen Ice to be my English name. I think that Ice is a cool name."

It took me some degree of self-control to keep from blurting out, "Are you kidding? Why on earth would you call yourself that?"

A long time has passed before it has finally dawned on me the reason why many Chinese have been misled by inappropriate use of names, especially the difference between regular given names and nickname. In the West, generally speaking, people choose nicknames like Tony used in my youth, the short for Anthony my formal given name. These nicknames seemed as simple as my neighbor Kenneth who used Ken for short, and Marjorie, who lived across the street whose nickname was Marj.

Yet, the phenomenon of students choosing strange names to identify with nature, numbers or some other esoteric element I have witnessed in south, as well as, north China. Many Chinese students ask foreigners to give them English names, and are delighted that some native English Westerners have given them an English "handle" for identification. Many accept English names based on reasons derived from the meanings of the names. Others simply are happy to choose English labels that are cute, easy to say, and easy to remember, like colors or pets.