Kirt in Queensland

what on earth is going on in this sentence? i might try to work this out for myself later, just thinking aloud for now…

"Hong Wei Xian, a/k/a "Harry Zan," 32, and Li Li, a/k/a "Lea Li," 33, both from the People's Republic of China (PRC)" from https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/2-chinese-nationals-charged-illegally-attempting-export-military-satellite-components

"a/k/a" is bizarre, but not very interesting, the names are more interesting.

I would guess that the first names listed are the standard transcriptions of their names in #Pinyin from Simplified Chinese?

But why is it different in their English names?

Harry and Lea make sense, the closest common English name … but Zan is weird?

#Taiwan uses a different system to Pinyin … but would the USA refer to them as being from the PRC? and if they were a Taiwanese spy working for the PRC to steel microchip making secrets, they'd be in Taiwan?

Maybe Hong Kong or Macau ?

Maybe judder easier to spell for Americans? but then a Pinyin X would be an S or Sh if you wrote it more phonetically?

Maybe a spy alias that's not even supposed to be the same name?

cc other mes @kirt @Kirt

#USA #PRC #HongKong #Macau #ChineseLanguages #ChineseNames #SimplifiedChinese #TraditionalChinese #Mandarin #Cantonese #HongWeiXian #XianHongWei #HarryZan #LiLi #LeaLi

Oct 19, 2023 at 9:09amWeb
Show threadnarya.deOct 19, 2023
@kirt AFAIK most people in China, who regularly deal with foreigners, pick an »English« name for themselves
Show threaddluphamOct 19, 2023
@kirt @kirt @Kirt My guess that Xian is pronounced something like "Zian" and Zan is close enough. Also I expect that his name (in China) is Xian Hong Wei. Literally Zian Hong Wei or Zan Harry or in the US Harry Zan.
Show threadKirt in QueenslandOct 19, 2023

@dlupham @kirt @Kirt

why the difference? where would the "Zan" spelling come from?

Show threaddluphamOct 20, 2023
@kirt @kirt @Kirt 2 possibilies, equally probable. First, many people for whom English is a second language simplify spelling (and pronunciation of their names. Second, the pronunciation of words in China can be quite different depending on local dialects. "Zan" may be a closer way of pronouncing Xian in this persons local dialect. In Cantonese (the local language of Hong Kong and the Pearl river delta) the word for forest is pronounced "Lam" while in Mandarin (the official language of China) it is pronounced "Lin"
Show threadKirtOct 20, 2023

@dlupham @kirt @Kirt

Dialects is an interesting possibility. I know the words are variable, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that this would happen with names (except for outside mainland China e.g. mainland Huang is the same character as Malaysian Wong, from memory)

Show threadBenAvelingOct 20, 2023
@kirt @kirt @dlupham @Kirt it’s inconsistent and weird. Eg Wong and Wang have the same character but may or may not originally have been the same surname, because the difference in pronunciation wasn’t necessarily introduced in translation, it might actually have existed in the original.
Show threaddluphamOct 21, 2023
@BenAveling @kirt @kirt @Kirt Think of it like english with the British pronunciation of schedule vs. the American pronunciation. There are many Chinese dialects (not counting Korean and Japanese whose writing is based on Chinese characters to a degree) and they somewhat agree the pronunciation of some characters and differ widely on others. Plus the spelling using the Latin character set is up to the individual and basically has no rules.