Ho Ching insults Singaporeans with western names

[kingrant]

That's why you cannot blame somebody with a name like Foyce if Jerky Jacks want to foyce, er, foist, themselves on them as if they are sex slaves..

Basically, Ho Ching is saying, if you have an English name, you are no better than PRC waiters and waitresses.... HAHA!

 

[i_am_belle]

Mar 21, 2010

No need for a 'uneqqee' name

Trend of using unique Westernised names reflects insecurity

<!-- by line -->By Lee Wei Ling

Over the last 50 years, the names people choose for their children, and the names some people give themselves, have changed dramatically.
When my father was born in 1923, his family consulted a friend knowledgeable in choosing names. He suggested 'Kuan Yew', which means 'brightness' in Hokkien.

My great-grandfather was awed by the British and added 'Harry' to my father's name. Because his name appeared as 'Harry Lee Kuan Yew' on his birth certificate, when he graduated from Cambridge University and later from Middle Temple, he could not persuade either institution to drop 'Harry' from his university degree or his certificate as Barrister-at-law.

ok folks, its official - harry IS on the birth cert ... now we have the option of either cursing 'LKY' or 'Harry' ...

In 1950, he managed to arrange for himself to be called to the Singapore Bar as just 'Lee Kuan Yew', sans 'Harry'. 'Lee Kuan Yew' thus became his public persona. To this day, only family members and a few very close friends call him 'Harry'.

bollocks, we here call him Harry all the time ...

My brothers and I have no ang moh name. My parents were not literate in Chinese when we were born, so my father approached a court interpreter he knew to give him some names to choose from.

strange family, arent they ? usually those families who are not literate in chinese (ie. ang mo pie) tend to give their kids western names ... for the Lees, its the other way around ... no wonder 'Blue Mansion' portrayed them as a weirdo family ... seems like they're trying to deny THEIR ROOTS (aka baba & british heritage) and carry China's backside ...

My name, 'Wei Ling', means 'the sound of tinkling jade'. My parents did not foresee that I would grow up to be a tomboy who would join the army cadets in secondary school, where my loud and resonant voice was deemed appropriate for a parade commander.

don't forget the assortment of exercise machines & treadmills this seow char bor has in her bedroom ...

'Wei Ling' is a very common name for Chinese girls. When I try to sign up for electronic journals on the Internet, and the system prompts me for a user name, I try all possible permutations of my name, including 'Li', 'Weiling' or 'Wei-Ling'. Alas, I invariably find they have all been taken by others. Exasperated, I would sometimes try 'Lee Hsien Yang', and the system would immediately accept it.

Throughout my years in school, from kindergarten to pre-university, all my friends had only Chinese, Malay or Indian names. When I was in medical school and during my early years of postgraduate training, the only Westernised names were the Christian names of those who were actually Christian.

By the late 1980s, however, non-Christian Chinese began to have Westernised names and often did not use their Chinese names at all. The trend was initially subtle and I had assumed that those with Westernised names were all Christians. It was only when I needed to write a cheque to a friend and I was told, 'don't include my Western name, just write 'Tan Chee Beng'' or whatever, did it dawn on me that the Western names were not official.

My brothers chose not to give their children any Western names. One nephew, when he was in school, asked his parents' permission to adopt a Western name. His mother Ho Ching told him: 'In China, only waiters and waitresses use Western names.' My father also explained how 'Harry' became part of his name and how he tried to remove it.


To date, none of my nephews or niece has a Western name.
I trained in Boston from 1981 to 1984, and in Toronto in 1992. I kept my Chinese name throughout and told those who had difficulty remembering my name just to call me 'Lee'.

aiya, u wanna call yourself 'jade lee' like jade seah, juz go ahead lah ! so old already still scared of what yr father thinks ...

To my close childhood friends and my family, I am just 'Ling'. I still think 'tinkling jade' hardly reflects my nature. To those who know me, 'Wei Ling' perhaps conjures up a very different image from that of tinkling jade.
I am glad that Malays and Indians rarely give or adopt Western names - unless they are Christians, in the case of the Indians. I guess there is still a strong anti-colonial instinct in me that leads me to abhor any attempt by people in former colonies to adopt the names of their past colonial masters.

this crazy PAP is always promoting asian culture over western ... actually neither is superior over the other ... chinese values are not necessarily superior to western ones ...

In the book The Narcissism Epidemic by Jean M. Twenge and
W. Keith Campbell, there is a chapter on 'Uniqueness'. They write: 'The biggest trend in baby names recently isn't a particular name; it's that fewer children receive common names.

'The Social Security Administration has compiled a database of the names given to every American child born since 1879. Half the boys born in 1946 received one of the top 23 names. Back then, naming a child was about belonging and fitting in instead of uniqueness and standing out...
'But over the last few decades, parents, tired of common names, wanted something unique for their children. At first it was a slow progression: As late as 1987, 3 per cent of boys were named Michael and 3 per cent of girls were named Jessica, with one out of five boys and one out of six girls receiving one of the 10 most popular names.

'Then, during the 1990s, unique names caught fire and fewer and fewer children received the most popular name for their sex, and only one out of 11 boys and one out of 12 girls went by a name in the top 10...
'Now it is considered better to stand out as an individual and be 'unique'. In fact, 223 babies born in the 1990s in California were named Unique, with some parents putting teeth into it with names like Uneek, Uneque or Uneqqee...

'Unique spellings are also trendy: Why name a child Michael or Kevin when they can be Mychal or Kevyn?'

The same trend can be observed in Singapore, especially among the Chinese. An example I came across recently here of a thoroughly made-up, 'uneqqee' name was 'Evetor'.

remember 'braydon' ... poor little boy ...

I asked a Malay friend whether there has been a similar trend among Malay names. She replied: 'Most Malay names have either Arabic or Sanskrit roots and some are drawn from Malay literature. When I was younger, many more Malays had simpler names. Now you find a whole generation growing up with multiple names, not just a simple Fatimah or plain Aminah. Instead, it will be Fatimah Nadia Trina, or Natasha Atiqa, et cetera.
'What you will notice about these new fashionable names is that they are a blend of Western and Islamic names,' my friend told me.

alot of malay kids these days have nice names that are a blend of malay & english - i know a sabrina, a natasha, a nadia, & a saleena ... all malay girls ... no more old fashion aminah or siti ...

I view this new trend of choosing Westernised unique names as another example of the narcissistic epidemic. I feel that if you need a name to distinguish yourself, you or your parents probably have a chip on your or their shoulder, combined with a cultural inferiority complex.

hehe, she's jealous of her brothers hsien yang & hsien loong & her sis-in-law ho ching ... cos she's juz plain old wei ling ... hehe ...

 

[kingrant]

Ya..I guess the very mention of Ho Ching should kill any erotic thoughts and banish all ardour.

can anybody discuss such issues without thinking of sex for once?

 

[i_am_belle]

Hey before you shout, aren't your name Sam Leong too? What's your problem?

maybe its cantonese ... Leong Sam ... the surname is 'Mo' ...

 

[numero uno]

[COLOR=_______]My brothers chose not to give their children any Western names.[/COLOR] One nephew, when he was in school, asked his parents' permission to adopt a Western name. His mother Ho Ching told him: 'In China, only waiters and waitresses use Western names.' My father also explained how 'Harry' became part of his name and how he tried to remove it.

Basically, Ho Ching is saying, if you have an English name, you are no better than PRC waiters and waitresses.... HAHA!

actually very true. even in HK and locally, if you see the name tags of waiters and waitress and restaurant managers, it usually some weird stupid english names. what uis hilarious is when you give the orders in english and they look at you stupidly and ask you to speak in cantonese or "putong hua". why don't these people bleach their skin also? same for GROs in mamasan clubs

 

[pallkia]

Totally agreed with these 2 ladies.

If you want to piss off a Chinese,call their Chinese names not Western names!

As a Chinese,I feel so ashamed of this trends,I am sure to be trendy or unique,we can think of other dialects or Chinese names.It is outright insecurity and lack of self-confident

 

[chao_ah_beng]

I agree with her 100%. "Foyce" Lim, "Wendy" Chong and "Jack" Neo should too.

The Chinese seem to be more ashamed of the names their parents gave them than any other ethnic group on the face of this earth. What a pathetic bunch they are.

I agree with you, Leongsam.

 

[besotted]

She is right, many young Singaporeans worship the West and give themselves silly Western names

 

[Sideswipe]

western or chinese names.

whatever that make you a happier human being...

 

[kojakbt]

western or chinese names.

whatever that make you a happier human being...

Agree!

But certainly, Ho Ching has no rights to condemn Singaporeans with western name as worthy of being just a PRC waiter or waitress !!!

She is a bloody elitist!

 

[Leongsam]

Hey before you shout, aren't your name Sam Leong too? What's your problem?

Sam Leong isn't my name you twit. It's my internet moniker. I chose it because I grew up near Sam Leong Road. The moniker in no way relates to my real life ethnicity or identity.

 

[kiwibird7]

Sam Leong isn't my name you twit. It's my internet moniker. I chose it because I grew up near Sam Leong Road. The moniker in no way relates to my real life ethnicity or identity.

LEONG SAM if pronounced in cantonese actually mean "KIND HEART"

 

[Papsmearer]

I agree with her 100%. "Foyce" Lim, "Wendy" Chong and "Jack" Neo should too.

The Chinese seem to be more ashamed of the names their parents gave them than any other ethnic group on the face of this earth. What a pathetic bunch they are.

No, you moron. if you're christian you take the name of a saint at baptism or later on in life. As most saints are westerners, u end up with a western name. Since there are several hundred thousand chinese christians in S'pore, running into someone with a western first name is quite common. Only non-christian moronic chinese will name themselves with first names like Bronco, Shaq or something like that. So, don't say that all Chinese are a pathetic bunch.

 

[Papsmearer]

[COLOR=_______]My brothers chose not to give their children any Western names.[/COLOR] One nephew, when he was in school, asked his parents' permission to adopt a Western name. His mother Ho Ching told him: 'In China, only waiters and waitresses use Western names.' My father also explained how 'Harry' became part of his name and how he tried to remove it.

Basically, Ho Ching is saying, if you have an English name, you are no better than PRC waiters and waitresses.... HAHA!

Yes, but doesn't Ho Ching have a western first name too? HO?

 

[Leongsam]

Yes, but doesn't Ho Ching have a western first name too? HO?

That's not a name it's a profession.

 

[Papsmearer]

That's not a name it's a profession.

Yes, its a profession too. Does that make Gay Loong her customer? Yes, it does. Does it make him the customer with the lowest standards in the world? Yes.

 

[Papsmearer]

This thread is so boring. When someone comes across a real person with one of the following names, please contact me.

Booby Wong
Titty Teo
Horny Lee
Assy Ang
Slutty Ho
Smelly Kan

Thanks Bros.

 

[Chau Ve Nist]

Mar 21, 2010

No need for a 'uneqqee' name

Trend of using unique Westernised names reflects insecurity

By Lee Wei Ling

I view this new trend of choosing Westernised unique names as another example of the narcissistic epidemic. I feel that if you need a name to distinguish yourself, you or your parents probably have a chip on your or their shoulder, combined with a cultural inferiority complex.

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

For someone supposedly intelligent, this is about as hollow and as stupid an assertion that the daughter of Little Emperor can make. It has nothing to do with having a "chip on your shoulders" or a "cultural inferiority complex".

Westernised Chinese and Chinese living in Westerised worlds like Singapore follow the not unusual trend of adopting Westernised names. It is no different from Chinese living in Indonesia (even post-Suharto) adopting ethnic Indonesian names, Chinese living in Philippines adopting ethnic Filipino names, Chinese in Thailand adopting ethnic Thai names, etc or Europeans growing up in different countries in Europe adopting the English, German, Swedish, Italian etc names used in the countries they grow up and live in.

Trying to distinguish yourself and trying to be a unique individual is also nothing new. It is no different from her father consulting a court interpreter to find a "unique" name for her or Chinese parents consulting geomancers to find unique Chinese names for their children.

If at all, she and her sister- in-law's attitude towards Westernised names is an indication of a lack of confidence in their own culture, their racism and their cultural chauvinism.

That she is unable to see her hypocrisy of voicing this issue in a foreign language, English, and not in her native Mandarin or a Chinese dialect even as she talks about "chip on shoulders" and "cultural inferiority" does not reflect very well on her and her supposed intelligence.

So much for her intelligence.

 

[StonebridgeLeaner]

'Wei Ling' is a very common name for Chinese girls. When I try to sign up for electronic journals on the Internet, and the system prompts me for a user name, I try all possible permutations of my name, including 'Li', 'Weiling' or 'Wei-Ling'. Alas, I invariably find they have all been taken by others. Exasperated, I would sometimes try 'Lee Hsien Yang', and the system would immediately accept it.

My brothers chose not to give their children any Western names. One nephew, when he was in school, asked his parents' permission to adopt a Western name. [COLOR="_______"]His mother Ho Ching told him: 'In China, only waiters and waitresses use Western names.' My father also explained how 'Harry' became part of his name and how he tried to remove it.[/COLOR]

In China, only commoners use names that are well, common. A typical rural area would have 30,000 people going by the name of 'Zhang Li' for example, which has prompted concerns from the central government as regards to national identification.

 

[yellow people]

In China, only commoners use names that are well, common. A typical rural area would have 30,000 people going by the name of 'Zhang Li' for example, which has prompted concerns from the central government as regards to national identification.

Hi you stupid ugly dog. Read what's on my signature.