It turns out that everyone who moves to China must adopt a Chinese name. When the people facilitating our move informed my husband of this, he immediately called me, “You need a Chinese name. The moving company says they will select one for you, but I thought you would want to choose your own.” Of course he was right.
Through work, my husband had selected an auspicious Chinese name years ago. When we adopted our daughter, as local tradition dictates, we approached a feng shui naming expert (and friend) who helped us with this important task. We well understood the importance of this process in Chinese culture, where people believe a name can impact a person’s chance for success in life, and wanted to ensure we did the best to secure a happy future for our little daughter.
I immediately called my good friend, Souhon, “I need a Chinese name! Can you help?” While there were lots of people I could have asked, Souhon was the best person for the job. Born in Guangdong Province, she eventually immigrated to the U.S. and lived in New York for many years before moving to Hong Kong. She assured me that she would find the right moniker for me in China.
The next day, as she sipped a cup of tea and her daughter played with mine in the next room, Souhon handed me a piece of paper. Here’s what it said:
She pronouned it – my new name – “Kang Yi Bai.” Chinese names are genernally comprised of three characters and begin with the surname. She explained that she had chosen “Kang” because it was less common than other last names and roughly sounded like “Kain.” Equally importantl, she liked it for its historical significance.
Kang Youwei was a prominent scholar in China who lived from 1858 to 1927. During the Qing Dynasty, he emerged as a reformer and proponent of a constitutional monarchy. Jonathan Spence wrote in his preface to The Gate of Heavenly Peace, “Kang Youwei, trained in the canons of traditional Confucianism…became a spokesman for radical reform as the Qing dynasty drew to its close in the late nineteenth century.” In addition, the character for “Kang” means “healthy.”
My first name was to be comprised of two characters, Yi and Bai, which are traditionally used in the transliteration of “Elizabeth” into Chinese and mean “happy, cheerful and joyful,” and “white and purity” respectively. I tested my name on a couple of friends, including my daughter’s Mandarin teacher, and they all approved. And just like that, I became Kang Yi Bai.