How I Got My Chinese Name
My Chinese friend, Shen Nan, gave it to me. Here's
how.
When you give up your own alphabet, you give up a
lot. You leave a lot behind. Like sound. When I look at
English letters, I hear them; but when I look at Chinese
characters, I don't. Only the silence that is in them for me.
William, Shen Nan says, my given name in English.
It sounds foreign in her mouth. Associating freely, she
decides on Wei Yang, and once again I am named.
Chinese is a tonal language, which is to say it speaks
itself musically. It sings. The Chinese only have four
hundred some different syllables to work with, but they
keep changing the tones of those syllables so that an
infinite variety of sounds--and meanings--is possible.
Basically, there are four tones. A favorite example in
Chinese language texts is ma: neutral in the first tone, or
no tone, voiced as ma and meaning "mother." In the
second tone, rising, ma means "hemp" or "rope." Ma,
falling and rising ambiguously in the third tone, means
"horse." "Scold" is what ma in the fourth tone, falling,
means; you have to be sure of yourself, or at least sound
sure of yourself, to say it and be taken seriously.
Wei Yang --Wei in the fourth tone, Yang in the
second--is no more a neutral or ambiguous name than
Shen Nan is a neutral or ambiguous woman. No first or
third tones for me. But it's not that simple; it never is in
Chinese. And Shen Nan is not here to unconfuse me.
I still have choices to make, she tells me, if I want to be
able to write my name as well as say it. And I do; she
promises to teach me how.
Every sound in Chinese can be represented by more
than one character and each character means something
quite different. So I have to choose which characters
I want to represent Wei and Yang; therein lies my
dilemma.
Wei, Shen Nan tells me, in the fourth tone, falling but
sure of itself, can mean "ancient" or "glorious" if I choose
one character; an army officer--high up, she says, but not
a general; a captain maybe--if I choose another character;
or "blue," the color not the mood, if I choose yet another.
Yang, in the second tone, rising, can also mean many
things and does, depending on which character I choose.
It can mean the "sun," if I want it to, or something
"foreign"... "exotic." Yang can mean a "sheep" too.
All I have to do to write myself in Chinese is choose
my characters. I like the plural sound of that choosing.
And it is enough for me to know that I can be, in
Chinese, "Ancient Sun" or "Blue Sheep" or "Captain
Exotic"... as my mood moves me. Thanks to Shen Nan.