Why do Chinese People use "Western" Names?
Being here, I — and I’m sure the rest of the Chinese community as well — always get asked the question, “So why is your name Michelle?” or “Why don’t you use your Chinese name?”... So why exactly is it common for Chinese people to have English names and what are the implications behind them? Chinese people started giving themselves English names after 1970s after the Reform and Opening Up policy, and it has created an additional identity for many. This is largely due to the inability of non-Chinese people to pronounce Chinese names, as some names start with ‘x’, or with ‘c’ which is pronounced as ‘tz’, or find it really hard to pronounce ‘sh’. In addition, if the incorrect tones are used to pronounce our names, the words would no longer have the same meaning. According to the Culture Trip Post: Chinese names that are perfectly beautiful in Chinese may have misleading meanings if the Mandarin Pinyin is directly used as the English name. A classic example is ‘ 诗婷 ’, a girl’s na...
