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May202009

Summoning Clear-and-Bright-Plum! The Naming of an Ambassador

Filed under: Headline Shooter   Tagged: , ,

Jonathan Taylor writes:

Following the nomination of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (R) as U.S. ambassador to China, two posts on Evan Osnos's "Letter From China" blog have some great notes (with reader assists) on the conventions in China for rendering foreign ambassadors' names, by mere transliteration and/or a devised "Chinese name." (Chinese characters TK, apparently.) Osnos writes, "I've received questions about whether I have a Chinese name. Answer: Ou Yiwen, stamped on me by early Chinese teachers. Like a lot of foreigners' names in Chinese, it sounds a bit fancy—roughly akin to meeting a Chinese journalist in the U.S. who has taken the name Aloysius Sunbonnet or something."

Comments

Osnos also twitters that “@danbrody asks if the NYer is translated into Chinese online. Sporadically, but 读库 mag has recently arranged to do more. http://www.duku.cn/”

I like Aloysius Sunbonnet!

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