Tangs for clearing that up
January 2021

When we lived in Hong Kong I was an avid reader of the main English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post. This was partly because I enjoyed reading about the strange goings-on in China at the time, where multistory buildings were constructed within days, before collapsing a few weeks later, or banks that were completely unknown to the government would suddenly go bust. At the time, China was a little like the Wild-West, and it was hard to find somewhere offering insight and analysis in English. The SCMP was my Rosetta Stone.
At the time I used to wonder about what looked like an editorial quirk. In every story involving someone with a Chinese name, the Chinese characters would appear alongside the English name. This seemed unnecessary, and I even wondered if the journalists were just showing off.
I would read about how Tang Mao Cheng (湯冒 成) had been caught stealing a jar of essence of clam, and wonder why they had added the characters in a newspaper meant for English speakers. What difference did it make?
When you have learnt just a little Chinese you discover this ‘quirk’ makes a very big difference indeed.
My name in Chinese is Ma Guang Ming. The characters are: 馬 光 明. The first character, Ma, means horse. It is my surname and suggests that I am independent, active and energetic. The second character, Guang, means bright, like a ray of light. The third, Ming, suggests clarity and wisdom. Together, they sound a bit like my name in English and this makes the translation even better. It is a good conversation ice-breaker when I hand out my business card.
So why include the characters and why should you write that you “were introduced to Ma Guang Ming (馬 光 明) at a conference”, and include the Chinese characters too?
The reason is that it’s also possible to use completely different characters, which would sound the same to an English speaker, but mean something else entirely. For example, the characters for my name could also be 蟆 廣 冥. In this case Ma means toad, Guang means numerous and Ming means stupid.
“A lot of stupid toads, nice to meet you!”
Ma could also mean weight or wipe. Guang could mean sparkling water or being uncouth. Ming could mean drunk or the cry of birds.

So Ma Guang Ming has lots of possible meanings, and each will lead a Chinese speaker to view me differently.
Almost all Chinese words can be pronounced in several ways, giving them different meanings. The Ma in my surname has a falling and then a rising tone – like asking a question, but uncertainly. The Ma meaning toad has a rising tone, like asking a question without being uncertain at all.
But that’s not always the case. When Ma is pronounced in the way that means horse, it could also mean morphine, agate or mammoth, though the written character is different in each case. So for someone to understand what’s said in Chinese it is sometimes necessary to put the word in context or even to write it down. Or both. Because exactly the same character that means horse, and that is pronounced in exactly the same way as means horse, also means Malaysia.
All this means that people sometimes need to be very careful about what they say and how they say it in Chinese. On a cold day, you might imagine going into a restaurant and ordering a bowl of soup, hoping that it will warm you up. But you shouldn’t be surprised if instead you receive a bowl of sugar. The word for soup – Tang – is exactly the same as the word for sugar. The first has a neutral or flat tone, while the second has rising, questioning tone.
This can also have unfortunate consequences. When Mitzi was studying in Beijing she went into a bank to fill out a form. She asked a teller if she could use her pen. The woman and all her colleagues fell about laughing. They kept repeating what Mitzi had said. “She wants to use my “Bi”, they laughed.
It was only when she got home and looked in the dictionary that she learnt why. She had asked to use the bank teller’s vagina.
Pingback: The murder in Taiwan that changed the world – Taiwan Tales