雙語:中國明星的英文名都是怎麼取的?
對外國人來講,如雷貫耳的中國人的名字肯定不會少了他:Jackie Chan(成龍)。
Jackie Chan. [Photo provided to China Daily]
同樣地,再往前數,成龍的前輩Bruce Lee(李小龍)也是給中國武術賺足了臉面。
視線拉回來,馳騁在維密舞臺上的中國超模,Liu Wen(劉雯),He Sui(何穗)也漸漸累積起了自己的國際聲望。
觀察一下他們出現在外媒報道中的名字,會發現一點不一樣。
下面你就可以看到,打響國際名聲的中國明星們,用的是什麼名字。
超7成中國明星使用拼音名
2017年福布斯中國名人榜前50名中,使用拼音名的共有37位明星,使用英語名的共有13位,分別佔總數的74%和26%。
內地明星中近9成使用拼音名
榜單中共有38位內地明星,這38個人當中,使用拼音名的有34位,佔總數的89%左右。
另外4位使用英文名的分別是Angelababy(楊穎),Faye Wong(王菲),Chris Lee(李宇春)以及TFboys(王俊凱Karry Wang、易烊千璽Jackson Yee、王源Roy Wang)。
港澳臺及外籍明星共有12人,使用拼音名的有2人,佔總數的17%,分別是臺灣明星林志玲與演員舒淇。
舒淇
英文名中,有我們熟知的Jackie Chan(成龍)、Jay Chou(周杰倫)、Kris Wu(吳亦凡)等等。
取名背後的考量
明星們用在國際媒體上的名字,取名時會有怎樣的考量呢。
An obvious interpretation of naming practices claims that having a Western name makes it easier for a Chinese person to navigate cross-cultural interactions. While this assertion is true in part, it fails to explain why other globalizing countries do not partake as widely in such a phenomenon. Why do, say, the Japanese or Koreans not take English names? An alternative explanation views the enthusiasm for English names as a manifestation of a more general admiration for the West.
取英文名這個現象最顯而易見的解釋是可以讓中國人在跨文化交流中更如魚得水。但這個判斷並不完全正確,它沒有解釋爲什麼其他正在全球化進程中的國家沒有參與到這種現象裡來。比方說,爲什麼日本人和韓國人沒有大規模地取英文名?還有一種對這個問題的解釋是,對英文名的熱情顯示了對西方的崇拜。
Angelababy
However, in my opinion, what both of these interpretations ignore is China’s own rich naming tradition. After all, when Chinese people take English names, they do not give up their birth names; the new name becomes merely an additional moniker. In fact, the adoption of a series of names and nicknames is a long-held custom in the country.
但我覺得,上面這兩種解釋都忽略了一點,那就是中國自己的豐富的取名文化。畢竟中國人取英文名的時候,並沒有拋棄他們自己的名字,新的英文名只是作爲一個補充名存在。事實上,這種取幾個名字或者綽號的行爲一直存在於中國的傳統文化裡。
Until the mid-1900s in China, a person would normally inherit their father’s xing, or surname, at birth. Later, at 100 days old, the baby would be given a ming, a personal name chosen by the parents. At the beginning of adulthood — usually age 20 for men and age 15 for women — the individual would be granted an alternative personal name, or a zi. In the Confucian society of ancient China, it was common courtesy to address people using their zi.
20世紀中葉之前,中國人通常會在出生的時候先繼承父親的姓氏,然後百天的時候取一個名,由父母選定。在成年的時候——一般男性是20歲,女性是15歲——這個人就會再擁有一個名,或者字。在孔子那個時代,禮貌的做法是稱呼對方的字。
Apart from the three kinds of formal names, a self-chosen name known as a hao was also very popular. The zi of the famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bai was“Taibai,”but to this day many Chinese know him by two haos:“The Lay Buddhist of Qinglian (青蓮居士)”and“The Banished Immortal (謫仙人)”. The latter came from a tenet of folk wisdom, which dictated that those who had misbehaved in heaven were frequently exiled to the human realm and became people of great talent.
除了上面這三種正式的名字之外,人們還可以自己選定一個名字,叫做號,這種做法很受歡迎。唐朝著名詩人李白的字就是“太白”,但是如今很多中國人都知道他還有兩個號,一個叫“青蓮居士”,另一個叫“謫仙人”。後面這個號來源於一個民間故事,說的是,犯了天條的神仙會被貶謫到凡間,而且會擁有超凡的才華。
From the first half of the 20th century onward, as China began to modernize, the practice of taking zi and hao began to die out. Today, most Chinese have only xing and ming. Against this backdrop, the current trend toward taking English names can be viewed as a form of cultural resurgence — a continuation of ancient tradition with a modern twist.
從20世紀上半葉開始,中國開始現代化進程,人們給自己取字和號的做法開始慢慢消失。如今的大多數中國人只有姓和名。在這個大背景下,目前取英文名的做法可以看做是某種意義上的文化復興——一種古老取名文化的延續,不過是帶了一點現代的色彩。
More accurately, English names today play the same role as hao did in traditional China. Both are self-chosen and aim to reveal an aspect of the individual’s personality. In imperial China, the literati would commonly hold several hao at the same time, each intended to shine a light on a different side of their characters or reflect a valuable experience from their lives.
準確一點來講,如今的英文名就相當於從前的號。二者都是自己選擇的,而且都是爲了展示這個人的某一側面。在封建時代,中國的士大夫們通常會同時擁有很多個號。每一個號都是爲了凸顯他們個性中不同的側面,或者是爲了反映出生活中寶貴的經歷。
In the same way that one’s hao was bound by certain social conventions, so are English names subject to certain rules. In today’s China, English names may be commonly used among Chinese colleagues in the workplace but almost never in a familial context or among best friends.
號受到特定社會習俗的約束,同樣地,英文名也需要遵循特定規則。當今中國,英文名在職場的同事之間使用得很廣泛,但家人之間和親密朋友之間並不會稱呼對方英文名。
As a form of address, English names imply a certain amount of distance between speakers. In this way, these adopted monikers allow people to embody different social identities, in the same way that xing, ming, and hao denoted social boundaries in former times.
作爲稱呼的一種形式,英文名自帶一點點距離感。這樣一來,人們使用這些代號來體現自己的不同社會身份,這一點和過去的姓、名,以及號一樣,象徵着社會界限。
明星們的名字會受到各種因素的影響:市場宣推的需要、個人的文化認同等等。
但不可否認的一點是,從來就不是名字定義了你,而是,你定義了你的名字。
你有過英文名嗎?取名的時候是什麼想法呢?