Stories Behind Our Names

15th, September, 2023, Daily English Writing #14

Revised and Refined by ChatGPT

Names tell us a lot about a person. It’s often said that our names define our identity. While this may be partially true, personal identity is a complex tapestry woven not just from a name but also from factors such as education, culture, race, and family background. However, individuals with exotic names may find themselves confronted with stereotypes associated with their names. A story from BBC 6 Minute English offers intriguing insights into this matter.

名字能告訴我們許多關於一個人的事情。人們常說，我們的名字塑造了我們的身份認同。盡管這在某種程度上是真的，但身份認同是一個複雜的綜合體，不僅由名字構成，還包括教育、文化、種族和家庭背景等因素。然而，擁有異國名字的人可能會發現自己面臨與名字相關的刻板印象。BBC 6 Minute English 的一個故事提供了有趣的見解。

Sheela Banerjee, a writer born in Hayes, a town in West London, has parents who hail from the East Indian state of Bengal. Her name beautifully merges two distinct cultures, one Indian and the other English. ‘Sheela’ is a quintessentially English name, conjuring images of a typical British girl. Yet, upon seeing her in person, Sheela doesn’t quite fit everyone’s preconceived notion of an English girl.

Sheela Banerjee 是一位出生在倫敦西部小鎮海耶斯的作家，她的父母來自印度東部的孟加拉。她的名字美麗地融合了兩個不同的文化：印度與英國文化。Sheela 是一個典型的英國名字，讓人聯想到典型的英國女孩。然而，親眼見到 Sheela 後，人們會發現她不太符合每個人對英國女孩先入為主的印象。

Intrigued by the stories concealed within her name, Sheela delved into her Bengali parents’ journey from colonial India to England. After extensive research, a vivid narrative of mass migration started to take shape in her mind. This migration unfolded during the 1950s and 1960s when a substantial number of people moved from South Asia to the U.K. Sheela’s parents were part of this significant migration. After settling in London, her parents wanted their daughter to feel secure and at home, so they bestowed upon her the name ‘Sheela.’

受到名字背後所隱藏的故事的啟發，Sheela 深入研究了她的孟加拉父母從英屬印度移民到英國的歷程。經過廣泛的研究，一個有關移民潮的故事逐漸在她的腦海成形。這個移民潮發生在 1950 和 1960年代，當時有大量的人從南亞移居到英國。Sheela 的父母就是這次重大遷徙的一部分。在定居倫敦後，她的父母希望女兒在倫敦感到安全和溫馨，所以為她取了 Sheela 這個名字。

However, this is only half of the story. Names can unveil culture, caste, and even the historical legacy of colonialism and oppression. In Sheela’s case, her surname, Banerjee, reveals the other half of the narrative. ‘It’s an Indian name, but it’s not my true name,’ Sheela explained. ‘You hear names like Banerjee, Mukherjee, Chatterjee over here these days, but Banerjee is an anglicised version of my original surname.’ Her real last name should be ‘Bandyopadhyay,’ which is its authentic form. These surnames were anglicised due to the British rulers, who either struggled to pronounce them or were simply apathetic to the task. This connection with colonisation makes Sheela’s surname a bit of a conundrum.

然而，這只是故事的一半。名字可以揭示文化、種姓，甚至是殖民主義和壓迫的歷史。在 Sheela 的案例中，她的姓 Banerjee 揭示了故事的另一半。Sheela 解釋：「這是一個印度名字，但並不是我的真名。你現在可能在這裡聽到 Banerjee、Mukherjee、Chatterjee 這些名字，但 Banerjee 是我的原姓的英語化版本。」她的真正姓氏應該是 Bandyopadhyay，這是其真正的形式。這些姓氏之所以被英國統治者英語化，是因為他們要麼發音困難，要麼根本懶得發音。這種與殖民主義的聯繫使 Sheela 的姓氏變得有些複雜。

A parallel situation unfolds in Taiwan. Indigenous people in Taiwan have inhabited this island for centuries. However, each wave of invaders, whether European conquerors during the Age of Discovery or Asian occupiers from the Qing dynasty to the Japanese colonial period, compelled them to change their names. Some surnames underwent multiple transformations, shifting between Japanese, Chinese, and even other languages. The irony is hard to miss.

臺灣也發生了類似的情況。臺灣的原住民在這個小島上居住了數百年。然而，每一波入侵者，無論是大航海時代的歐洲征服者還是從清朝到日本殖民時期的亞洲侵略者，都迫使他們改變自己的名字。一些姓氏甚至經歷多次轉換，從日本姓氏轉變為中文姓氏，甚至是其他語言的姓。這種情況的諷刺很難忽視。

With a hint of cynicism, one might even look forward to the arrival of sinister extraterrestrials. Perhaps all of humanity will be coerced into altering their surnames, and we may soon encounter names like ‘☾♃♇⚷18°.’ Who can predict the future?

說得偏激一點，人們甚至可以期待邪惡外星人的到來。也許所有人類都將被迫改變他們的姓氏，我們可能很快就會遇到像「☾♃♇⚷18°」這樣的名字。誰知道呢？

Today’s progress

1. Daily writing: overall 7/10, B on a GPA scale
2. Touch-typing practice