Guess who wants Asians to change their names?
Earlier this month, left-wing groups mau-mau-ed Texas GOP state rep. Betty Brown into apologizing for musing out loud about the bureaucratic difficulties associated with transliterated Asian-American names. Remember? Well, now comes news that another government shares Rep. Brown’s concerns and which — unlike Rep. Brown, who merely suggested that Texans of Asian descent consider changing their transliterated names to match legal documents — is demanding citizens to change their names to make it easier to track. It’s the government of…China.
Via the NYTimes (hat tip – reader Kyle S):
“Ma,” a Chinese character for horse, is the 13th most common family name in China, shared by nearly 17 million people. That can cause no end of confusion when Mas get together, especially if those Mas also share the same given name, as many Chinese do.
Ma Cheng’s book-loving grandfather came up with an elegant solution to this common problem. Twenty-six years ago, when his granddaughter was born, he combed through his library of Chinese dictionaries and lighted upon a character pronounced “cheng.” Cheng, which means galloping steeds, looks just like the character for horse, except that it is condensed and written three times in a row.
The character is so rare that once people see it, Miss Ma said, they tend to remember both her and her name. That is one reason she likes it so much.
That is also why the government wants her to change it.
For Ma Cheng and millions of others, Chinese parents’ desire to give their children a spark of individuality is colliding head-on with the Chinese bureaucracy’s desire for order. Seeking to modernize its vast database on China’s 1.3 billion citizens, the government’s Public Security Bureau has been replacing the handwritten identity card that every Chinese must carry with a computer-readable one, complete with color photos and embedded microchips. The new cards are harder to forge and can be scanned at places like airports where security is a priority.
The bureau’s computers, however, are programmed to read only 32,252 of the roughly 55,000 Chinese characters, according to a 2006 government report. The result is that Miss Ma and at least some of the 60 million other Chinese with obscure characters in their names cannot get new cards — unless they change their names to something more common.
RAAAAAACIST!
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32k – that’s so 16-bit of them! Backwards commies.
What’s the English translation for Malkin?
Well, “Ma” means “horse” but “lkin”? Acidic? Couldn’t be. I’m just not good at this.
It just dawned on me that they can all just change their names to Li? Please somebody, anybody tell me they get the pun…
@#1 St_James – technically, that would be 15-bit of them (2^15 = 32,768).
We are next…
Ummm…She may have taken her husbands name…So, critiquing Malkin could be a dead-end.
Sorry, maybe, I’m slow…
Aloha – Sorry, I don’t get it.
Me either. Li Cheng??? Isn’t that an artist?
PP – Acidic Horse?
But if you are storing the number 1 as well (2^0) you’ll need sixteen bits.
My Chinese nickname used to be Bao 屁股
Clue: Bao is Vietnamese. The rest is Chinese. You had to be there.
Change your name for the Hive Mind, Malkin!
Change it!
All things must transmutate for Hive Mind.
Yes, folks, Malkin is Michelle’s married name (not maiden name).
And Malkin is not an Asian name.
Ok, it’s lame but Li – 黎I think – means Dawn in Chinese…
Sorry, puns in any language…
…bringing up the rear.
Translation is idiot simple PP, perhaps that’s why it went past you. It translates to PATRIOT PAYING ATTENTION!
You need to take into account a 16-bit barrel shift register
An expression I heard growing up when one was confronting a difficult problem was “that’s harder than Chinese arithmatic.”
I guess I’ve been educated now. It seems the Chinese alphabet is harder.
lib’s high bit is always set (signed). They’re always negative.
Touche. I defer…
I believe Chinese arithmetic is based on the same decimal system as ours. An abacus is actually a very simple device to use as a calculator.
LOL, there is no alphabet in Chinese.
Correction: LOL, there are no alphabets in Chinese languages/dialects.
What’s the English translation for Malkin?
Kick liberals rear ends, intellectually speaking of course.
Malkin is Michelle’s married name. Her husband Jesse is of Russian Jewish extraction. Michelle’s maiden name is Maglalang, which is Filipino. Have fun with that.
How typical of the Chi Coms.
The government has decided your name is unacceptable, so you have to change it. Not unlike your car’s personalized license plate that might offend someone so you can’t have it.
Oh, wait, that’s not just the Chi Coms. That’s also…oh, dear.
***
A software engineer co-worker of mine spent a year in Japan supporting Patriot testing there.
***
One of the Japanese engineers showed him an old mechanical Kanjii (?) character typewriter in a museum. It had over 5000 keys and was as large as a dining room table. Not very many were ever made.
***
The modern computer controlled printer was a Godsend to Japan–now everyone could have a typewriter / word processor at low cost.
***
John Bibb
***
I spent some time in Asia, and tried to learn a little of the Mandarin Chinese language. It was tough. I admire the Chinese who speak English well. I’m sure it was tough on them also. English can be confusing with all the exceptions.
I do love your ability to make the absurd make sense! LOL
My thought was that it means Beautiful Lady.
My wife taught me to say “Hello,” “Thank You,” “I Love You,” and “I’m Sorry.” That’s all any husband needs to know. My wife still has trouble with past, present, and future tense, since Chinese doesn’t have that (I do this yesterday, I do this now, I do this tomorrow), with male and female pronouns, and with slang.
Back to the thread, somehow, I think the looney, leftwing liberals will sping this to somehow suggest that the Chi Coms have the most noble of intentions here. They want different names for people so they can take better care of them.
I thought it was balls!
All the more reason to give kudos to those organizations who not only translate (complete and unauthorized by the government) bibles into different Chinese languages, but also smuggle them into China.
So when are they going to get on the Hispanics case? Obviously they have never tried to run a license or ID check on a Hector Gonzales.
Bollards!
MM insight of the day: a Republican is not as bad as Communist China. Let’s count our blessings.
Acting Freddie Mac CFO commits suicide
Uh Oh!!!! All of the rest of the F.O.O. better watch out. ITS STARTED!!
Like Vince Foster said as he left the office “Strange, the president said he wants to meet for a picnic”
This guy probably said “Strange, the president said he wants to meet for an early breakfast.”
at the rate so-called leaders of one particular more special ethnic group are talking about their power and how they will become so numerous etc. I should probably change my name too just in case. that way i will ensure that i have more rights than others!
Forget to take your meds?
HAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
lgm is to insight as Obama is to citizen
On April 22nd, 2009 at 9:31 am, lgm said:
LGM, I didn’t know you believed in blessings.
Type on, Hive Mind. Type on.
Ladd,
I have not forgotten to write back and review Flatland. Interesting. Watching it a third time.
/Sorry, off topic
Why do you think that 6 of 11?
Well LEE is also an American Name….as in Robert E Lee, common Southern surname maybe that is going to cause them some trouble when the DHS can’t decide which American Citizens to track how would they prioritize? SNARK. I wonder how many LEES are serving or have ever served in the American Military maybe DHS better get on that Memo LOL!
Just wondering: Are you this negative in your personal life? You seem never to contribute anything positive.
Remember – always frowning adds wrinkles – as it takes more energy and facial muscle to frown than smile!
DBNinKY
My daughter blogged about it, she believes trolling comes from low self esteem.
the main issue that my wife (who is from Taiwan) and I had with Rep. Brown’s comments was the fact that she seems to believe that changing one’s name on official government documents is a very simple, easy process that can be accomplished without any headaches. My wife tried to change her last name after we got married (she was currently a legal immigrant on an H1-B visa) and spent 2-3 weeks going back and forth between the Florida DMV and the Taiwanese Consulate. The Consulate refused to change the passport without some sort of US govt issued ID with the new name and the DMV refused to change the name on the Driver’s License without offical immigration documents (i.e. passport) showing the new last name. Thus, she was in a catch-22 with each agency demanding documentation from the other before issuing the change. Finally, after several weeks including calls to the New York City Taiwanese Consulate, they finally relented and agreed to issue the change to her passport, which then allowed her to get a new driver’s license. So, I do believe Rep. Brown is wrong when she seems to believe that changing one’s name on official government and immigration documents is a simple and easy task.
the u.s. must simply go to an identification technique of fingerprints instead of ss cards number and drivers licenses, and now even passports. i can buy fake ones of any of those things by googling fake i.d.’s. you want to know who is legal in the u.s. just fingerprint them. you want to know who is wanted in the u.s., ditto. voting, ditto. driving,ditto. to all those civil libertarian’s, over 1/3 of your insurance costs are due to fraud. most child kidnappings are by noncustodial parents who then live underground with fake i.d.s. drug dealers would have to find new ways of getting cash out of the u.s. if instead of an i.d. being required to send a money order south, the people had to actually give a fingerprint every time they sent those, or cashed a check, or used a credit card, or got their food stamps, or applied for a job.
This is just a new twist on an old communist theme. In the Soviet Union you had to pick the name of your child from a state-approved list of names.
Just another example of life in the “worker’s paradise” now brought to us by leftist idiots trying to destroy freedom in this nation.
Tre, “Ni how ma?” I didn’t marry a Chinese…Indonesian. Forget that language too. My wife struggles with English, and has a hard time communicating, but is learning. “sha-sha”.
My wife is from Taiwan, and here’s one more that husbands need to know:
呆子 (“daizi” – pronounced “died zuh”). You’ll find out soon enough what it means.
^_^
When I taught in South Korea, I had a name exercise where we would discuss the meaning of names. In western cultures, you might say John means “gift of God”. However, due the Chinese influence on early Korean culture, the meaning of your name depended on what Chinese characters made up your name, not hangeul (the Korean alphabet). It is possible, therefore, that two girls named Yoo-Jeong could have different name meanings. Something to think about.
Having a standard spelling for identification purposes is common sense and if common sense is racist, so be it. I can’t spell my name with a silent Q if I feel like it one day.
Just some thoughts.