Of geishas and the names we call ourselves

Last week, I saw Memoirs of a Geisha.

Ordinarily, I'm wary whenever Hollywood does something Oriental - you know someone's going to screw up the English (typically the Japanese or Mandarin speech as well), there will be some stereotypical oriental (think Fu Manchu), the Westerner man-from-out-of-town is going to come in and save the day, age-old conventions get defied (damn Westerner's fault!), and pretty much all cultural subtleties are thrown out the window.

That's my rant at least, but I think things at Hollywood have improved. However, until Memoirs, the bigwigs there seem to always insist on a major white guy in the story, his chief role being that of the Devil's Advocate / Enlightener / Troubledour (and whatever else). I remember watching 'The Last Emperor' and Peter O'Toole teaching the monarch about the fine art of bicycle riding. More recently, I disliked seeing Tom Cruise in 'The Last Samurai' becoming swordsman extraordinaire in (oh I don't know...) 2 months?

In any case, I actually liked Memoirs. Nope, I didn't read the book - purists will probably be disappointed (and I like to be a purist, so its good I didn't read it). For once though, there was no chief white man, and the story was more about the trials and tribulations of one woman, and her quest for that one man. It's kind of like Oshin, but condensed and set in the world of the geishas. It is somewhat more glamorous as well - it seems geishas command a high price for their virginity (I've been told this was nonsense by a Japanese - having acted as the local, I've learnt not to trust one).

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Other than being a touching story, Memoirs also had another interesting characteristic - it used Chinese actresses to play Japanese geishas. That, of course, is somewhat obvious though there were 2 subtleties that I thought were noteworthy about the key actresses:

1. In the film, Zhang Ziyi played Sayuri, the protagonist who eventually usurped the resident baddie star geisha, Matsumoto, played by Gong Li. In the movie, Matsumoto was the (initially hot) star geisha whose star was dimming. Sayuri's sudden rise from humble servant girl to men-stunning geisha spelt her doom.

Reel life imitates real life doesn't it? Gong Li was the Chinese star of the 90s, due in large part to the many Zhang Yimou films she starred in; but her star has been fading. The Chinese star of the moment is Zhang Ziyi - she looks younger, she acts just as well, she's a bigger sex symbol and she strips more (well, no frontal nudity cos that will so ruin the image, but you do see lots of her skin). A cruel joke? Or perhaps just an uncanny casting choice?

2. Oh yes, the 3rd big Chinese star in the movie is Michelle Yeoh, and these 3 women combined just about sum up the issue that I really wanted to talk about: Chinese names.

"Michelle Yeoh" is the kind of name I would have given myself if I wanted an ang moh to actually pronounce my name properly, and be able to call me correctly phonetically. It is like that period when folks go into secondary school and it suddenly became cool to have an English name. Tan Tian Huat wanted to be known as Robert, and Goh Siew Hwee insisted on responding to Genevieve. Oh of course that didn't quite apply if your parents gave you a Christian name, but I think you get my drift.

So it is with the "Michelle Yeoh"s of the world - here, I have named myself something cool with my folks, and with which you can call me by. So call me by THAT.

"Zhang Ziyi" is your more typical hanyu pinyin name. Strangely though, she wants to be known as Ziyi Zhang these days. I can understand why - when you have had more than one foreigner mangled your surname (or last name) and given name (or first name) too often, you'll want to set the record straight once and for all. The "Zhang Ziyi"s of the world are the set like mine - it isn't cool to have any ang mohish name once everyone who knows you already know you. If auntie next door has always called you Ah Teck, it'll be really hard to correct her (No auntie, it is LORBIRD. R-O-B-E-R-T).

I sympathise with what she's (Miss Zhang) done with her name - culturally, the typical foreigner refuses to get off his cultural high horse to understand how the Chinese name themselves. We have to end up giving it to them in a palatable form, even if it was something as weird as "Ziyi Zhang". Is it that hard to see that the Chinese have always had their surnames come first?

Then we have the "Gong Li" names. That's where I am - I am a "Gong Li" name-type. I'm the kind of guy who did not manage to get a real cool English name (some idiot wanted to call me Valence in Sec 4 and thank God that didn't happen). Even more unfortunately, my parents thought it was cool to have a child with a "dan ming" (a 1-character given name, some examples from politics are: "Li Peng", "Lien Chan"). Thus, like Gong Li, I'm forever doomed to being called by my full name.

See, the typical ang moh can't understand that - in their universe, nobody gets called by their full name. It is just plain rude (it is plain rude too if you called Zhang Ziyi "Zhang Ziyi" all of the time too, incidentally). However, the problem with dan mings is just that: you have to call the person by their full name. I'm sure Gong Li doesn't want to be called 'Li' on the set - she's not likely to respond to that. It doesn't help even if she was to be known as "Li Gong" (just so that the typical ang moh knows which is the given name, and which is the surname).

Mangled names aside, I've had a tough time explaining my name. Some give up - they just call me by my surname (since its the first syllable, and many people are called by their surname too - I remember a certain 'bear' friend who is). Some others actually do try - the INSEAD professors have been the best - they just call me by the bold characters on my name tag (this green card that everyone puts in front of themselves for identification purposes - I'll try to put up a pic to illustrate when I can).

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Names - it seems they are a part of ourselves no one can take away. Yet, they are also a part of ourselves that are so easily mis-represented. I think we should be proud of what it is - after all, what else do you carry with you when all else leaves you? What's there to mark your grave when you finally depart this world? Your name is you - so live with it the best way you can.