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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > August > 06 > Entry
Blog: In China with Roy the Boy
BEIJING — I had only been talking to Wu Kun a few minutes the other day when he said, “You can call me Roy.”
I was in a lunch room at the media village where I’m staying here in Beijing and one of the young women who works there introduced herself as “Angelina … like in Jolie.”
At the shop where I bought a phone card the other day, a girl was Britney. I guess like in Spears.
Lots of younger people take new Western names, Angelina said, and in J. Maarten Troost’s “Lost On Planet China,” he offered an explanation for the trend:
“People in China choose Western names because there are so few Chinese names … Everything is magnified by the sheer number of Chinese. Li, Wang and Zhang are the most common names.
“There are 88 million people in China named Zhang. There are more people called Chen in China than there are Canadians in Canada.”
Part of it also may be Chinese people making it easier for Westerners to say and remember their names.
And so how do they pick those new names?
Wu laughed: “My friends gave me a list of names to pick from and I liked Roy. It rhymes with boy. I’m Roy the Boy. And the Portland Trail Blazers have a great guard named Roy.”
He was talking about Brandon Roy.
I’m glad Roy follows the NBA and not auto racing.
There can be only one Dick Trickle.
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By James M. Gallagher, PMP
August 6, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this
Enjoying the perspectives from China, Tom. The sister of the owner at the North China restaurant, which we frequent in Centerville, American name is “Wendy”, as in Wendy’s hamburger chain. The owner is “George”, after George Bush the first. Easy to remember.☺ Jim Gallagher