My Name is Earl (When East & West Collides)

There's one popular song from Pet Shop Boys titled "Go West" which boasts the chorus like this:

(Go West) Life is peaceful there
(Go West) In the open air
(Go West) Where the skies are blue
(Go West) This is what we're gonna do

Well, I've seen the West. It's time to go back to the East.

Having been to UK's Madame Tussauds, I was a bit reluctant to spend some amount of money seeing the twins of Brat Pitt, David Beckham and Tom Cruise. Therefore, this time my primary target was to shoot with Asian theme in mind.

Nowadays, my car chit-chat session with the local driver revolves around our work. I grew bored of another demoralising talk about the situation we are in. So, I decided to divert the talking point to another topic. Seeing my assistant outside, I jested him, "Why you choose your English name as Edwin?" He paused a while recalling how he got his name.

"Those day, my English teacher asked whether I have an English name and I say no. She then told me in other to improve my English, it's better for me to have an English name so that she can call me easily. She's the one that proposed the name Edwin."

I shared my experience about an European friend of mine who used to ask me why some of my friends have English name while I don't have (well, he calls me by the name Au Yong). He added, "Is it shown in their passport that they have the name Johnny for example in front of their actual name of Lee Chun Keung?"

"Well, not all actually has the English printed on their identification. Some I knew really carry the names since they were born, while others just adopt the name", I replied.

He looked puzzled, "That's really funny. How can you have another name when you already had a name?"

To him, it's like David Beckham suddenly has another a name in Freddy David Beckham.

If you look carefully, most Asian Chinese love to have an extra English name for example:

Kelly Chan,

Louis Koo,

Leon Lai,

Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi,

Leslie Cheung,

Andy Lau,

Jacky Chan,

Aaron Kwok,

Joey Yung,

and Michelle Yeoh.

I'm pretty sure that most of them do not carry that English names on their identification cards. There are many reasons I came across having an English name. One of them is easier reference in European country. Secondly, is because of religion. And another is what I don't agree much....

An English name makes you look cool.

I've been to UK and interact with the people there. I go by the name Au Yong even though at first they try hard to twist their tongue by not pronouncing Ah Yeung. Eventually, they managed to call my name with fluent pronunciation. Sometimes, this misconception of Caucasian people can't pronounce a Chinese name is unfounded. Some of their names are even harder to pronounce than us. How do you pronounce these few names:

Ruud van Nistelrooy
Dirk Kuyt
Jan Vennegoor Hesselink
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer

You can come up with all the pronunciation but on how to pronounce it properly, you can ask Shebby Singh, our local football pundit. Since their name are so tongue-twisting than Pepsi Twist, do they adopt another name for easier reference. The answer is no.

The driver sitting beside me in the car joined in the fray and added, "It's cultural thing. You must embrace the culture of the country you are visiting. You enter a village you must follow the village's rule."

He recalled his UK experience where he was asked to fill up a form. If you are in Caucasian country and you are happened to be an Asian, you'll probably end up getting you name printed out as Thean Seng Au Yong or Yong Thean Seng Au. Your ancestor won't be happy to see how they change their descendant's surname into Thean or Yong. I'm sure most of you know, Caucasian goes by the surname at the back of their name for example David is the given name while Beckham is the family name.

Ironically, this only happens to Asian in Caucasian country. It won't happen the other way round. If you write Ruud van Nistelrooy, then we Asian will key in Ruud van Nistelrooy. We won't go bold changing the name Nistelrooy Ruud van. I came into an argument once when I was in UK. I was asked why I write the name Au Yong Thean Seng on the front cover of my report. I answered in a simple manner, "Well, it's my name."

I know what he wanted to tell me but I was stating my claim. This is my name and that is how it should be printed out. Eventually, I told him, "Fine, you have your own view, I have mine too. Since that's the case I will write my name with underline on my surname. How a about it?"

I then told the driver how my girlfriend's aunt used to teach her how not to have your surname being changed by the hotel receptionist as Mr. Y.T.S, Au. You just fill up your name and then put an underline on your surname, for example, "Au Yong Thean Seng".

Blending into one's country culture is one thing, but let me ask you one simple question. You don't need to answer me. When Caucasian enter an Asian country, will they adopt an Asian name?

See Toh David Beckham or
Mustapha David Beckham or
Balakrishan Subramaniam David Beckham?

Now this is what I call, "If you enter a village, you must follow the village's rule"

Sometimes, those ancient grandparent gave their newborn grandson the name. Of course, some of the names are nice while those who are unfortunate might end up with names like Tang See Hang or Lee Ah Kow. That's why some prefer you just call them by their English name. That how they see it, but the true meaning behind those Chinese characters are of different materials or species of what crop up in their grandparent's mind. If you know the real meaning behind it, you will be impressed with such a nice name. Take a look at the advertisement by Petronas about this Indian granny scolding the youngster that abandoned his real name and go for some hippy name instead.

Talk about weird name, you have celebrity's name Snoop Doggy Dogg. Everyone knows Snoopy is a dog. Not satisfy with his claim that Snoopy is dog enough, he added the adjective "doggy" into it to strengthen his claim. Funny right? Human to be called animal. That's is why Leo Ku can find the click in his song on why it's better to become a dog or cat than a human.

I have one Malay friend's brother who loved punk style music. Guess what they named their first born son?

Amy Ikon!!

Now that's when East & West collides.

And I happened to collide with Mr President, Barack Hussein Obama..... erm... Obama Hussein Barack..... arghhh .... whatever.... as long as not Osama, ok?

Location: Madame Tussauds Hong Kong

How to get there: Central MTR Station exit J2 & take tram ($33HKD - return) @ Peak Tram Terminus
Admission fees: $150 HKD