Chinese stories

The Beijing News has an article about the most popular names in China. I guess the government has been crunching their numbers, and can provide nationwide statistics on any given name — they even have a number you can send a text message to, and it will immediately send you back the number of people in China with that same name! It costs 1 yuan per message, and you just have to send “SW [name]” to 1066-5110 (China Mobile users) or 9951 (China Unicom users). I checked out my Chinese name, which is 葛强 (Strong Ge, has no relation whatsoever to my English name), and was told there are 2,576 葛强s in China. I tried the name we want to give our baby boy, and it was 847 (higher on the cool factor), but my wife had us all beat with only 363 matches to her name.  This service is actually meant to help families avoid the problem of having the same name as someone else (not so good if someone of the same name is being sought after by the police).

Below is the list of the top ten names from the article, and Zhang Wei is the winner with almost 300,000 people. Some quick fact checking on the internet shows that with that many Zhang Weis you could fill up all of Toledo, Ohio, or even Iceland! I translated the given names, which are only clues you have to go on to determine whether it is a man’s or woman’s name, and they all are pretty clear cut in this list. Below each name is a random picture I took off of Baidu of someone of that same name.

1 张伟 (Great Zhang) 290607

2 王伟 (Great Wang) 281568

3 王芳 (Fragrant Wang) 268268

4 李伟 (Great Li) 260980

5 王秀英 (Elegant Talented Wang) 246737

6 李秀英 (Elegant Talented Li) 244637

7 李娜 (Graceful Li) 244223

8 张秀英 (Elegant Talented Zhang) 236266

9 刘伟 (Great Liu) 234352

10 张敏 (Nimble Zhang) 233708

Of all Beijingers who are not minorities, 杨春白雪 (poplar spring white snow) is the most common four-character name (I think a woman’s name?).

For more Chinese demographic fun, visit this interesting post at Ben Ross’s blog.

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怨歌行

新裂齐纨素，鲜洁如霜雪。
裁为合欢扇，团团似明月。
出入君怀袖，动摇微风发。
常恐秋节至，凉风夺炎热。
弃捐箧笥中，恩情中道绝。

Song of Resentment

From fine Qi silk newly hewn, fresh and pure as frosty snow.

I am cut as a loving fan, round like the shining moon.

Ever held in master’s sleeve, I breeze for him when moved.

I constantly fear fall’s arrival, when cool wind smothers the hot.

And of lying abandoned in a box, my wishes unfulfilled.

This poem is attributed to Ban Jieyu (班婕妤 c. 48-2 B.C.), a consort of Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty.

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Here is a translation of an interesting interview with the scholar Zizek that appeared in The Beijing News on June 15th:

Zizek: I have not idealized China

Slovenian star scholar Zizek visits China, and answers questions on China, mass culture, and movies

From June 6th to the 14th, Slovenian leftist star scholar Slavoj Zizek visited China for the first time, and gave four consecutive lectures to an international group of Lacanian scholars and students at Nanjing University that touched upon Lacanian thought, psychoanalysis, and Hollywood movies. On a cool Nanjing mountain favored by Zizek, this Western scholar discussed being a “rock and roll star of the intellectual world” for 75 minutes with this correspondent.

It is worth mentioning that apart from being a philosopher, Zizek is also a follower of film and drama. This September Zizek will begin filming the sequel to The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, which he worked on with film producer Sophie Fiennes (sister of Hollywood star Ralph Fiennes), called The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.

Zizek says this documentary will first show theoretical works selected by Sophie as suitable to appear on the screen, then have Zizek give improvisational explanations in front of the camera. Zizek also told us that the third part of the documentary will be The Pervert’s Guide to Opera, in which his plan is to go “from Mozart to Wagner.”

1. On China

The more one likes China the less one dares get close to it

The Beijing News: This is your first trip to China. You were invited before, but did not come. Why did you agree to come this time? In the past week have you seen or heard anything that exceeds what you had imagined?

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