My Mandarin name is Wang Jun Qian and my English name is Elvin Wong.
So my Chinese name ‘Wang Jun Qian.’ Wang, the literal meaning is ‘King,’ Jun is
like ‘handsome’ and Qian is ‘humble.’
My Mandarin name is Yan Yueyin and my English name is Kathy Yan.
The first character ‘Yue’ means ‘blissfully or pleasingly’ and the second character
‘Yin’ means ‘to sing or to recite.’
My Mandarin name is Chen Xiafeng and my English name is Sally Chen.
Xiafeng is two characters, ‘Xia’ means ‘the rosy dawn.’ A very beautiful, red
colour sky and ‘Feng’ is ‘the red leaves of the maple tree.’
So basically my name is very beautiful, red, scenic views out of the hospital window when my mother
gave birth to me.
My Mandarin name is Situ Jia Hui and my English name is Casey Seto.
My last name, the character is ‘Hui’ that is a part of a word ‘Zhi Hui’ meaning
‘wisdom.’
So the last character of my name basically means wisdom so my mother hoped that I’d
grow up nice and wise which is why she named me that way.
So my Mandarin is Niancen Miao so in Mandarin it’d be Miao Niancen because it’s the
other way round and my English name is Will Miao.
The first character ‘Miao’ is my last name and obviously I inherited it from my
family and my middle name ‘Nian’ means ‘to think of’ or ‘to consider.’
So it’s kind of no matter how far I go I’ll be thinking of my family, I’ll be thinking
about where I belong and just having that always at the back of my mind.
The third character ‘Cen’ is a very unusual character.
It means ‘a small but really tall hill’ so that’s why I’m looking so lanky today.
It has to do with that I reckon.
My Mandarin name is Ji Wen-Yang and my English name is Wen-Yang, Wen-yang Ji.
But I go by Wen.
What the name essentially means is that I’ll be overflowing with knowledge and wisdom,
pretty much.
There’s so much wisdom and knowledge that it overflows.
My name is kind of hard to pronounce so it’s easier just to tell people just to call
me Casey, but it is a bit sad knowing that no-one knows my Chinese name and the meaning
behind it.
Even when my parents put in so much thought behind it.
I don’t really use my Mandarin name.
As I grew up going to school in New Zealand I kind of went with Elvin, my English name
and then that’s kind of how it stuck.
Here in New Zealand I do go by Will, because it’s easier.
Not many people actually know me by my Mandarin name, even my Chinese colleagues they call
me Sally they do not call me Xiafeng.
I go by Wen.
It’s a shortened version of Wen-yang the reason is, is actually just to make it easier
for everyone.
A lot of people seem to get my name wrong.
I just started a new job a month ago and the first thing my boss asked was, ‘why don’t
you go by your Mandarin name?
Because that’s what’s on the paper.’
So to that I gave him the real reason but also said ‘maybe it’s a thought experiment
for me to think about’ maybe I should go back to my Mandarin name since it’s something
from my grandmother and it does mean a lot to myself and my family.
When I first came to New Zealand there were times when the career advisors at my school
would say actually come up with an English name so that betters your chance of your CV
being reviewed.
There is definitely a sense of, they’re different, and they’re difficult to pronounce.
I feel that some people don’t give it enough of a go, how to pronounce it properly or learn
the meaning behind them because they might be embarrassed or afraid of either saying
it wrong or harming our feelings.
But I think that the attitude has progressed a lot and improved.
Obviously I’ve grown up here so I identify as Kiwi but everyone obviously sees the outside
which is Chinese.
In a larger sense I think the people around me have been treating me no different, I’ve
felt that’s quite nice but I’ve known friends and other people, especially my grandparents
who don’t know how to speak English and they find it quite hard being Chinese in New
Zealand.
If there’s a community around them who knows how to speak the same language that’s fine
but otherwise it can be a bit exclusive.
I love being Asian and living in New Zealand, of course when I was younger I feel like all
kids have these kind of doubts and I was like ‘oh I don’t wanna be Asian, I wanna be
this culture or this culture’ but I grew to love my own skin.
I guess it is a little bit strange you kind of have two sets of cultures to go by where
you’re taught in your family, your parents teach you a set of values and then you go
out and it’s a different set of values and you’re conflicted all the time.
I think in certain areas of society or certain sectors that we work in, Asians are definitely
less represented and the Asian voice isn’t as strong so it’s a work in progress for
me personally to make sure that the perception of Asians are becoming more universal and
people understand that Asians are not different just because of their ethnicity.