3 Introducing oneself

Foreign names are translated into Chinese for two main reasons: so that they can be written in Chinese characters and because their original sounds can be difficult to pronounce for Chinese speakers. When translating a foreign name, there are a few common practices to follow. In no particular order:

• use characters that match the original meanings (rather than their sound)

  Jasmine → 茉莉 mò lì (which means ‘jasmine’)

• use characters that sound like the name when pronounced in its original language

  玛丽 居里 mǎ lì·jū lǐ, which sounds similar to ‘Mary Curie’

• use characters that have nice meanings, even though they don’t sound very much (or at all) like the original name.

  The first name of Chris Patten (the last British governor of Hong Kong) is 定康 ding kāng: 定 ding (‘stability’) and 康 kāng (‘prosperity’; ‘healthy’).

• use characters that partially translate the meaning (and/or have nice meanings) and partially keep the original sound.

  Jim King → 王京 wáng jīng: 京 jīng sounds like ‘Jim’ and 王 wáng is a common Chinese surname that also means ‘king’.

• Note that when Western family names are matched with common Chinese family names, they are used in the Chinese order; that is, the family name comes before the given name. If a match is not found, the normal practice is to keep the Western order. For example, David Brown is 大卫•布朗 dà wèi bù lăng, with a dot inserted between the given name and surname.