Parents’ perspectives on adopting English names in Taiwan

Huang, Chiu-Yen; Ke, I-Chung

doi:10.1080/01434632.2016.1144760

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…family members or characters from books), Chinese names are selected for their meaning. Names in European languages are traditionally selected from, and sometimes legally restricted to, a relatively small bank of accepted names, words often with no other usage, while the choice of given names in Chinese is much freer (Huang and Ke, 2016;Li, 1997;Tan, 2001). Though machine-reading technology has somewhat restricted the choice of Chinese names in recent years (see IaRB-C, 2005 andLaFraniere, 2009), in principle any of the tens of thousands of Chinese characters can be used to form a given name.…”

Section: Names Within Chinese Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…English names have been taken by some Chinese speakers for many decades. Used regularly in diasporic communities based in the UK, US and elsewhere (Heffernan, 2010), they have also been common in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore among people interacting with non-Chinese speakers (Bacon-Shone and Bolton, 1998;Huang and Ke, 2016;Tan, 2001). Now, with the numbers of Chinese people studying English at home and going abroad to study in English both increasing, the use of English names by Chinese speakers has become strongly associated with classroom-based interaction.…”

Section: The Use Of English Names By Chinese Speakersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Call me Fei: Chinese-speaking students’ decision whether or not to use English names in classroom interaction

Cotterill

2019

Language, Culture and Curriculum

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Unlike other groups of international students, Chinese speakers' use of English names while studying in English is an established norm. Relatively little discussion of the practice has taken place within recent literature, and less attention still has been paid to the minority of Chinese-speaking students who do not adopt English names. The choice of name used during classroom interaction is, though, both significant and meaningful, symbolising the social and cultural membership a person would like to evoke and impacting on student-teacher relationships. This article reports on a survey into the use of English names by Chinese speakers, which was completed by 330 Chinesespeaking students at UK universities-255 of whom had adopted English names, 75 of whom had not. Survey responses reveal why and how decisions to/not to adopt English names are made. Interview data is then presented from discussions with eight Chinese-speaking students based in the UK who do not use English names. They explain why and describe their experiences of being a minority among Chinese-speakers studying in English.

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Section: Names Within Chinese Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Use Of English Names By Chinese Speakersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Call me Fei: Chinese-speaking students’ decision whether or not to use English names in classroom interaction

Cotterill

2019

Language, Culture and Curriculum

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“…Current research on English naming practice in the Greater China region mostly focuses on its pedagogical, cultural, and language learning implications (Chien, 2012; Huang & Ke, 2016); very few studies have examined the critical aspect of adopting an English name. Thus, the current study aims at investigating netizens’ attitudes towards the English name Angelababy via an online ethnographic perspective.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework Of Nationalism and Authenticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the English practice of naming reflects one's identity management because it projects a desired image or personal characteristics to the public (Cheang, 2008). In Taiwan, young English language learners have been observed starting to use English names, which serve as an instrument for language and cultural learning (Huang & Ke, 2016). Parents in Taiwan also believe that having an English name will facilitate one's language learning and intercultural communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The discursive construction of English naming practice in Mainland China: A nationalism and authenticity perspective

Wang¹,

Yao²

2017

English Today

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Recently, a regional newspaper agency in Mainland China reported on the Chinese celebrity Angelababy by using her English name (Net Ease Entertainment, 2016). A reader complained about this, suggesting that Angelababy's Chinese name needs to be in the report as well. The reader's comment and the name Angelababy went viral on many online news outlets, and comments were posted about the problems associated with such an English name from a large number of Chinese netizens.

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“…In the onomastic literature, the study of first name-changing or self-renaming is sparse, and mainly investigated from a Western perspective. For instance, the phenomenon has been interrogated as a component of immigrants’ identity (Bursell, 2012; Khosravi, 2012; Sajjad, 2018; Souto-Manning, 2007), as a source of youth subculture (Coulmont, 2014; Falk, 1976; Lujan-Garcia, 2015), as a form of sociocultural identity (Burt, 2009; De Klerk & Lagonikos, 2004; Emmelhainz, 2013; Huang & Ke, 2016; Khatib, 1995) as a part of slavery experience (Miller, 1996; Mphande, 2006), during political transition (Ngubane & Thabethe, 2013; Sabet & Zhang, 2018) and as a tool for transgender identity (VanderSchans, 2015). Little or no attention has been paid to this practice in the West African context where first name-changing among young people is also a way to negotiate belonging in terms of articulating religious, urban and cosmopolitan identities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Names, Naming and the Code of Cultural Denial in a Contemporary Nigerian Society: An Afrocentric Perspective

Mensah

Inyabri

Nyong³

2020

Journal of Black Studies

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This article explores the rejection of indigenous African (first) names and the preference for European and westernized names by some Nigerian youth, especially those living in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, South-eastern Nigeria. The article investigates the personal, cultural and social motivations for foreign names adoption and the subjective interpretations of both rejected and adopted first names. The study is rooted in the Afrocentric paradigm which is grounded in the historical and cultural reality of the African experience to express its core principles of cultural assertion, self-pride and Africa-centered identity. Data for the study was sourced through participant observations, semi-structured interviews and metalinguistic conversations with participants who have been involved in name-changing practices in the last 5 years. The study discovers that young people adopt foreign (first) names to challenge their stereotyped ethnic identities and to contest existing traditional norms about naming. This phenomenon tends to be propelled by additional social, personal and religious factors including, style, personal taste, creativity, religious conversion and the flow of other social capital. This often results in a dramatic drift in African traditional naming practices which tends to erase or subjugate African naming protocol and identities.

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Parents’ perspectives on adopting English names in Taiwan

Cited by 21 publications

References 20 publications

Call me Fei: Chinese-speaking students’ decision whether or not to use English names in classroom interaction

Call me Fei: Chinese-speaking students’ decision whether or not to use English names in classroom interaction

The discursive construction of English naming practice in Mainland China: A nationalism and authenticity perspective

Names, Naming and the Code of Cultural Denial in a Contemporary Nigerian Society: An Afrocentric Perspective

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