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Name order of Asian name?
- Thread starter Dennis E. Taylor
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It's not the "Le" that makes it super obvious that it's not Chinese.It's this:
^^ That's precisely it. There are four different circumflex accent marks in Mandarin and "ê" is not one of them.
Very true. On the other hand some of us totally glossed over the Le and focused on the xuan, which is most definitely Chinese. Which makes this a trick question! I demand an apology.
To add to the confusion (you're welcome) although not common, it is not out of the question for a Vietnamese national to have a Vietnamese surname and a Chinese given name. This is the case with many Ethnic Chinese who settled in Southern Vietnam to flee the Mao regime. And I know a few.
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Or for some immigrants to change their surnames to blend in with the native peoples. Speaking for myself, when my grandfather immigrated from China to Indonesia, he not only switched his surname from Chen to Tan, but added moar Indonesian-sounding syllables to it. So now we’re disguised as “Sutanto”. Only people who know Chinese would spot the Tan and know we’re Chinese.
(I know, we’re sneaky like that.) Similarly, I have a Chinese-Indo friend whose surname is Halim (added a “Ha” to the original name, which is Lim/Lin). Sorry for the derail! I don’t think all this is necessary for a side character whose ethnicity is never mentioned, though I maintain it’s always important for the author to have a firm grasp on his characters’s background, even if the reader is never privvy to it.
Or for some immigrants to change their surnames to blend in with the native peoples. Speaking for myself, when my grandfather immigrated from China to Indonesia, he not only switched his surname from Chen to Tan, but added moar Indonesian-sounding syllables to it. So now we’re disguised as “Sutanto”. Only people who know Chinese would spot the Tan and know we’re Chinese.
Sorry for the derail! I don’t think all this is necessary for a side character whose ethnicity is never mentioned, though I maintain it’s always important for the author to have a firm grasp on his characters’s background, even if the reader is never privvy to it.
That actually makes a lot of sense, and explains some things.
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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
And then there are glitches in transliteration or understanding going through immigration...and then the fixes.
From the other side of Asia, my Lebanese grandfather's last name should have been transliterated Sy-ar (meaning silversmith), but the immigration officer misheard it as Siak, which is what's on Dad's birth certificate. That was later changed to Sykes.
And BTW, I did wonder (but didn't say) if Le (with the diacritical mark I'm not sure where to find) Xuan was Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
And then there are glitches in transliteration or understanding going through immigration...and then the fixes.
From the other side of Asia, my Lebanese grandfather's last name should have been transliterated Sy-ar (meaning silversmith), but the immigration officer misheard it as Siak, which is what's on Dad's birth certificate. That was later changed to Sykes.
And BTW, I did wonder (but didn't say) if Le (with the diacritical mark I'm not sure where to find) Xuan was Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
Oh, and Halim looks Arabic to me.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
Oh, and Halim looks Arabic to me.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal