01/07/07 - What’s In A Name?

I hope you are well and are enjoying England’s summer showers. Sadly, the storms have also arrived here in Beijing and yesterday a mini-cyclone managed to convert my enclosed balcony into a paddling pool. The confusing thing is that whenever it rains, the Chinese always comment on the good weather because Beijing is usually so dry and at least the rain means they won’t “turn black”!

My New Chinese Name

After months of intensive talks with Chinese friends, waitresses in restaurants and the masseuses who I visit for my regular £2, hour-long, full body massages, I finally have a Chinese name. I have had enough of people not being able to pronounce or spell my English name, as well as the strange looks I get whenever I write my name in these peculiar Western characters.

My new name is Zhuāng Ní (or 庄尼 for those of you whose computers can read Chinese characters).

In China, names always carry special meanings so Chinese parents put a lot of thought into naming their children. Often the names mean “brave” or “strong” or “wise”. One of the most common Chinese names, Wang, which for some reason becomes Wong when written in English, means “King”.

My new name suggests that I am a highly spiritual individual who is a deep thinker. The given name, Ní (尼) literally means “Buddhist nun”, which initially I thought was a little strange, however, it turns out this was also the “courtesy name” of Confucius.

Zhuāngzǐ (庄子)

The family name, Zhuāng (庄) also suggests I spend a lot of time in meditation because Zhuāngzǐ (庄子) was a very famous Chinese philosopher who lived in China in the 4th century BC and was one of the founders of Daoism. One of his main philosophies was the idea of “doing through not doing” – a theory I often put to the test during my university years.

Zhuāngzǐ wrote various stories in which he tried to explain his thoughts on the concepts of reality. One of the most famous passages is the “butterfly dream”, which goes as follows:

“Once upon a time Zhuāngzǐ dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuāngzǐ. Suddenly he woke up but he didn’t know if he was Zhuāngzǐ who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuāngzǐ.”

I hope that’s cleared up any life questions you have been mulling over.

Obviously, the other reason my good Chinese friend, Sisi, suggested this name is that Zhuāng Ní sounds similar to Johnny (“zh” is pronounced “j”). However, I’d like to think the meaning behind the name is also quite fitting.

The Big Match – Poland vs. China (+ Me)

In other news, last weekend I played on our university football team in a match against a group of Polish journalists. On Friday night there was a cocktail party at the Polish Embassy for the 30 touring sports journalists, which was another good opportunity to consume food and drink financed by another country’s tax payers. Unfortunately, the whole weekend was conducted in either Polish or Chinese, so the events were all a little confusing.

We lost the game 4-1, having squandered a 1-0 half-time lead. In spite of this, it was good fun and the school issued the whole team with matching shirts, shorts, shin pads, socks, and even Nike football boots, so at least we looked the part.

A New Contract

Also, as some of you may have already gathered, I have signed a new contract with the university so I am now going to be in Beijing until at least January, which unfortunately means I am going to miss Christmas! I decided that there is little point in returning to England and attempting to find a job in which I may earn £20,000 a year, when I have a job here in which I earn £4,000 a year. Hmm.

Earlier this week I completed 15 hours of mind numbingly boring oral exams and I have just finished marking one hundred written exams, all titled, “Can Money Buy You Happiness?” No, apparently.

From a soggy and yet annoyingly hot Beijing,

All the best.

See also Lao Beijing Blog