Name Calling

On our second day, we met up with two of my parents' students. Their English names were Charlie and Nicole. I could not pronounce their Chinese names. (I cannot pronounce very many things in Chinese.) So I was happy that they chose to respond to names I could pronounce.

They are college students currently studying abroad in America! I think my parents were conspiring to make us friends - which took all of about five seconds. Because they are awesome!

The ever-evolving, ever-elusive "plan" was for Charlie and Nicole to serve as tour guide and translator for us as we bumped around Sichuan Province. The "plan" more or less worked - not accordingly, but better than any of us imagined. It was a magical couple days. But before I get to the magic, a bit about names.

Our first stop was at the Panda Research and Breeding Center just outside of Chengdu. As you can guess, we saw pandas. And as you can also guess, they were cute. We saw everything from a 9 day old to a great grandmom. Other than the X-Rated video we watched, it was a swell time. Somewhere near this No Strinding sign (no idea what Strinding means...I think I might have to devote an entire blog entry to things lost in translation) Charlie and Nicole decided to give me a Chinese name: xiao xiong mao - which is what they call the Red Panda. I think it literally translates Little Red Bear or something like that. It's hard to understand these things. Anyway, I became Xiao Xiong Mao.

Throughout our stay, I introduced myself as such to the laughter of all. Not sure what the laughter meant, but we learned that this naming thing is universal. Many Chinese want an English name. It was quite fun and quite an honor when you think about it. And, tempting as it was to name someone something like LiverLips or Kumkwat or Bart Simpson, we, for the most part, gave names to be proud of. For instance, we named Charlie's dad "Chuck" to keep it in the family.

"Chu-kuh!" as Chuck said it. We told him it was the name of a king. We did not mention that Charles of England was beheaded. We did mention that Charlemagne was the Emperor of all of Europe. Chu-kuh liked that.

The same meal, we named his friend Leo. We explained that that was the word for lion, and lions are the kings of the jungle. Leo liked that as well. It was also easier to pronounce than Chu-kuh.

Above is Leo with his daughter Lucy (Lucy already had an English name)

My father eventually became known as Big Panda. Ta Xiong Mao. Or something like that. It's hard to understand these things.

One thing that was easy to understand was that naming is fun. It's cool that of all the jobs God could have given Adam, he gave him this one: Namer. Namer was the first job in the history of jobs! (Genesis 2:19) It makes you think God really wanted the best for him. It makes you wonder if God might really want the best for us, too. Like when he gives us a job - it's supposed to be meaningful and fun. I need to chew on that...

One more thing that was quite apparent to me: English name or not, over the last two years, my parents have gotten a lot more Chinese. Here's a picture: tell me what you think.