I feel like we owe everyone an explanation of the name for our blog: heavy plum.
Since I took John's family name, and went into all the trouble going to court to change my name into an American one, John decided he would take on a Chinese name with my last name Li. Li, being the fourth most popular family name in China, means plums in Chinese. Usually Chinese characters have multiple meanings. I searched many dictionaries trying to find a cooler explanation for Li, but, no luck. Just plums. Oh well...
John hates it when the Chinese mispronounce his name. He has several criteria for a name: easy to pronounce, masculine, close pronunciation to his real name John. Zhong, which means heavy in Chinese, seems to fit all the above criteria. Therefore, he became Li Zhong in China:-)
We had fun imagining how to introduce himself. "Hey, I'm heavy. How are you?" "Ni hao, I'm heavy." My brother said he should be Li Gao, which means tall. My friends suggested Li Jun (handsome). I thought it should be Li Bai (white), only that Li Bai is the most famous poet from Tang dynasty. We were not sure whether John would live up to his name. Too much pressure. It's like naming your kid William Yeats, Edgar Allen Poe, or Shakespeare.
Anyway, that's the report. When you hear about some famous American guy named Li Zhong on Shanghai News someday, you'll be like "oh that's John! I knew him once!"
"He ain't Heavy, he's my brother"
ReplyDeleteWell done...Rong..Zhong. Rhymes, so I can remember that. Looks like you had a happy time. Even the
ReplyDeletePJ's. Guo nian hao! Deanna
Jason gets 3 points for the song reference. Handsome Plum would have been my vote. Can't go wrong with a name like that.
ReplyDeleteHey great to see that you guys have a blog. I put a link from mine to yours. It will be good to keep up to date on how things are going with you both.
ReplyDelete