conuly

I think there is a sensible point among the controversy over Betty Brown, that there is confusion between Chinese names and English names for the same person. At uni, we have a sizeable proportion of Chinese students in our year, and they sometimes go by Chinese names (eg in official group lists) and at other times English names (eg if they actually introduce themselves to English students). Generally, there's no relation between the two, either - I know a Sau Mon who goes by Simone in English, but she's very much the exception. This is further compounded by a strangely small pool of adopted English names; I've lost count of the numbers of Chinese Vincents and Esthers in our department, and yet I've never met a single English person called either.