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Wee Kek Koon

Someone had an issue with my name recently.
It was not a person more familiar with European or English names – “Oh great! Why can’t he make it easier for everyone and call himself Matthew or Mark?” – nor was it a Hongkonger, like that officer from the Immigration Department from years before who had actually asked me, “Why is your name so weird?”
That someone was a mainland Chinese university professor, who had to enter my name in an application for the funding of a project.
Unlike that Hong Kong immigration officer, she was very polite and respectful when she inquired, via email, about the correlation between my Chinese name “黃克群” and “Wee Kek Koon”, the name on my identity cards and passport and the name I have always used in my personal and professional life.

The naming convention for people of Chinese descent in Singapore and Malaysia is different from that in China.
Our names are romanised based on the pronunciation in our ancestral dialect. My ancestors originated from Tongan, in the Chinese province of Fujian, and “Wee Kek Koon” is an approximation of the pronunciation of “黄克群” in the southern Fujian tongue, also known as Hokkien.
It is similar in Hong Kong and Macau, but almost all personal names in the two cities are romanised based on Cantonese pronunciation.
What makes the romanisation of Chinese names unique in Singapore and Malaysia is the diverse range of Chinese languages spoken in both countries: Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese, Foochow, Henghua and others. This diversity is reflected in the assorted spellings of romanised Chinese names.
Take the common surname “陳”, for example. It is “Chen” in pinyin, and in Hong Kong it is romanised as “Chan”. In Singapore and Malaysia, the surname can be “Chan” if the bearer’s family identifies as Cantonese, but it can also be “Tan”, “Tang”, “Chin”, or the uber-cool “Sin”, depending on one’s ethno-linguistic provenance.

Obviously, the romanisation of their names was not an issue for the Chinese people for the greater part of their history. But with increased contact with the outside world in the modern era, especially from the 20th century onwards, there was an increasing need to render Chinese names, as well as the names of many other peoples in the world, in a form that was decipherable to people who did not speak or read their language.
It was the Latin, in particular the English, alphabet that prevailed during that period, not the Arabic, Brahmic, Cyrillic or any other scripts, and this is still the case today.
The passports of countries whose native languages are not written in Latin alphabets almost always feature an additional field where the bearer’s name is spelled with Latin letters, usually in a way that an English speaker would pronounce it.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese names were romanised using several systems that Europeans had devised, the most well-known of which is the Wade-Giles system that was finalised in 1892.
In the mid-20th century, the Chinese themselves created the Hanyu Pinyin system, which has remained the standard romanisation system for Mandarin Chinese up to the present day.

Many claim that the surfeit of letters such as Q, X and Z makes it difficult to read Chinese names rendered in pinyin, but they cannot be any harder than Czech, Irish or Polish names.
People in Hong Kong and Macau, and Singapore and Malaysia, continue to use non-pinyin means to romanise their Chinese names, which are mostly not pronounced in Mandarin. However, naming habits are changing in the latter two countries.
With fewer Chinese Singaporeans and Chinese Malaysians identifying with a particular linguistic group like Hokkien or Hakka, many are giving their children hybridised names.
My niece and nephew, for example, still bear the family name “Wee”, but their given names are romanised in pinyin or pinyin-like fashion.
If this goes on, names like mine will become extinct in a few generations.


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Chinese names in Singapore and Malaysia aren’t weird; they reflect cultural diversity

Pedestrians in the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore in 2018. Chinese names were once pronounced according to a person’s local dialect. This is dying out. Photo: AFP

An early 20th century street scene in Singapore. The unique romanisation of Chinese names there and in Malaysia reflects the diverse range of Chinese languages spoken in those countries. Photo: Getty Images

A late 19th century gathering in Bentong in what is now Malaysia. From the 20th century onwards, there was an increasing need to make Chinese names decipherable to people around the world. Photo: Getty Images

The Hanyu pinyin system is the standard romanisation system for Mandarin Chinese. Photo: Shutterstock

China celebrates 2,575 years since Confucius’ birth with cultural festival in Shandong

People dressed as ancient Chinese scholars attend the 2021 China International Confucius Culture Festival at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong province, China on September 28, 2021. The 2024 festival runs from September 28 to October 7. Photo: Getty Images

A view of the world’s largest Confucius statue, in Qufu, Shandong province. Photo: Weibo/CGTV

A Confucian temple in Qufu. Photo: Weibo/CGTV

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Mark Bradford is in Hong Kong for the opening of his new show “Exotica” at Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Sean Shim-Boyle

Installation view of Bradford’s solo exhibition “Exotica” at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong. Photo: Hauser & Wirth

Bradford works with Education Lab participants in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Ivan Chan 

Bradford (left) stands with David Jasper Wong (second left) and participants in Hauser & Wirth’s Education Lab in Hong Kong. Photo: Ivan Chan 

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A traditional junk sailing in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in 1984. Photo: SCMP

A woman rows her sampan in the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter in Hong Kong in 1984. The origin of “sampan” in English is probably Cantonese, although some scholars suggest the word has Old Malay roots. Photo: SCMP

A child on a small sampan in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter in 1979. Photo: SCMP

An 18th century Swedish sailor’s drawing of a junk in Canton, now Guangzhou. Photo: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A Chinese junk sails across the port of Huang Pu in Guangzhou in 1979. Photo: SCMP

A tourist taking pictures of the Chinese junk Aqua Luna II off the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. Built the traditional way in 2006, it is operated by a restaurant company. Photo: Jelly Tse

How did China avoid wars of religion? Foreign and native faiths found ways to coexist

Buddhist art in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, in Gansu province, China. Different religions and belief systems have co-existed more or less peacefully throughout Chinese history. Photo: Getty Images

Wat Pha Lat is an old temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that is tucked away in the heart of the jungle. Photo: Shutterstock

Worshippers burn joss sticks at the Lin Fa Kung temple in Tai Hang, Hong Kong. By and large, the Chinese people have been relatively tolerant of different religious beliefs. Photo: Jonathan Wong

When an ancient Chinese voyager tried durian, and the rise of Malaysia’s cultivars

Malaysia is renowned for its durian, a unique and strongly flavored fruit known as the “King of Fruits.” Durian is native to Southeast Asia and is highly prized for its rich, creamy, and sometimes pungent taste. PHOTO: Getty Images

Native to Southeast Asia, durian is highly prized for its rich, creamy and sometimes pungent taste and in loved in countries from Malaysia and Singapore to Thailand and China. Photo: Getty Images

A group of Malaysian boys eat a durian, circa 1950. Photo: Getty Images

A man sells durians at a fruit stall in Malaysia. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

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Culture

Family & Relationships

Chinese names were once pronounced according to a person’s local dialect. Thanks to standardisation and the pinyin system, this is changing


Chinese names were once pronounced according to a person’s local dialect. Thanks to standardisation and the pinyin system, this is changing.


Chinese culture

Singapore

Malaysia

Macau

Hong Kong

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Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Reflections

Reflections | Chinese names in Singapore and Malaysia aren’t weird; they reflect cultural diversity

Chinese names were once pronounced according to a person’s local dialect. Thanks to standardisation and the pinyin system, this is changing