Last year I wrote an offhand blog post about the phenomenon of non-Chinese political candidates in the BC provincial election inventing their own Chinese names. It was fun, and involved crowd-sourcing photos of election signs from around the Lower Mainland through friends on social media. And, well, it sort of blew up and got a lot more reads than most things I toss onto my blog.
I haven’t been able to give the same attention to the Vancouver municipal elections this year, unfortunately, because I’ve been away—in China, ironically. The municipal elections are also a bit harder to track; there are a lot of candidates, less systematic distribution of election signs, and many more candidates with authentic Chinese names.
I didn’t want to let the election go by, however, without at least commenting on the big names of the season. With that, here are your Vancouver mayoral candidates’ made up Chinese names—ranked.
(This list is not exhaustive. Get at me with updates or corrections @NikoMBell)
5. Kennedy Stewart (Vancouver, Independent) — 甘迺迪
Stewart’s Chinese name deserves a big old yawn. The name, Gannaidi, is the standard transliteration for the name “Kennedy,” the same used for the American political family. It doesn’t feel like a plausible Chinese name; it’s just a block of characters telling you how to pronounce a word. Nor are any of the characters particularly evocative; the surname 甘 has implications of “sweetness,” and 迪 speaks of “enlightenment.” A mayor for Lotus Land, perhaps.
4. Mike Hurley (Burnaby, Independent) — 侯迈豪
Hurley’s Chinese name is a solid, satisfying choice. That it ranks second last on this list attests to the general good quality of mayoral candidates’ Chinese names.
Because Chinese names position the surname first and the given name last, there are a number possibilities for an invented name. You can place your transliterated surname first, which is more proper from a Chinese standpoint (the “full reverse”), or you can place it last, which makes your surname seem like a given name but preserves the overall sound of your name between English and Chinese (the “half reverse”). You can also choose to only transliterate your given name (as with Kennedy and Sylvester.)
Hurley has opted for the Chinese order of names, putting the transliteration of his surname (Hou) first, and his given name (Maihao) second. The name is thoroughly Chinese; 侯 evokes lordship and nobility, and 迈豪, which means “marching grandly”, has pleasantly optimistic connotations.
3. Shauna Sylvester (Vancouver, Independent) — 襄娜
In many ways, Sylvester’s name is not as good as Hurley’s. The given name 娜 is boring, overused, and tells us nothing about a person except that she is a woman. The transliteration Xiangna also only reflects the given name, a choice I generally disfavour. There’s a missed opportunity to do something clever with the surname Sylvester (from the Latin for “forest”) and the common Chinese surname 林, which signifies a grove of trees.
And yet, Sylvester’s name has a few important things going for it. It’s short, and very memorable—襄 is a legitimate but unusual surname. This character (a complex pictorial representation of a farmer planting seeds) also has connotations of help or mutual aid, suggesting a general feeling of a “woman who lends a hand.” Sylvester’s name is upbeat and sticks in the brain, which as a political name is the real goal.
2. Hector Bremner (Yes Vancouver, Vancouver) — 贝廉立
It’s very common for Chinese speakers to pick fully English names for themselves to use in Anglophone circles, so much so that using a fully Chinese name in the public eye is almost a statement in itself (see Guo Hong, in Richmond.) It’s much less common, however, for Anglophones to pick a fully Chinese name; most rely on approximate transliterations, which are often linguistically limp and sad. I think that’s a shame, and that’s why I’m such a fan of names like Bremner’s that don’t compromise on their Chineseness.
Bremner’s Chinese surname 贝 (Bei) does correspond to his English surname, but his given name 廉立 (Lianli) departs entirely. The first character 廉 suggests honesty and incorruptibility, while 立 evokes upstandingness and confidence. In total the name is original, positive-sounding and thoroughly Chinese.
I recognise that from a strategic point of view there’s a problem with names like Bremner’s: it could be hard for voters to connect the English name and Chinese name intuitively, and the candidate could thereby lose out on name recognition. Nevertheless, I wish more politicians would follow Bremner’s lead and embrace fully Chinese names the same way most Chinese politicians embrace English ones.
1. Malcolm Brodie (Independent, Richmond) — 马保定
It’s not surprising that the incumbent mayor of Richmond would have a shiny Chinese name, but Brodie does not disappoint. He favours the “half reverse” method, placing his transliterated given name 马 (Ma, a very common name meaning “horse”) first in the place of a Chinese surname. Brodie’s Chinese given name 保定 (Baoding) manages to approximate the English name “Brodie” while also retaining authentic Chinese flavour, and suggesting the comforting meaning “guaranteed defender.”
Brodie’s first place finish, however, is really due to the extra points he earns from using his Chinese name proactively in advertising. Brodie’s Chinese language newspaper advertisements use a slogan drawn from the first half of a Chinese folk saying: “A long road tests the strength of a horse; a long time tests the quality of a person’s heart.” The saying refers both to Brodie’s Chinese surname (“Horse”), and to his supposed reliability as an incumbent.
Honorable Mentions
Jean Swanson (COPE, Vancouver) — 金玉鹅
I have neither the time nor inclination to hunt down all the invented Chinese names for city council candidates, but Swanson deserves a mention. Swanson’s Chinese surname 金 (Jin, meaning “gold”) is a legitimate Chinese surname and is pronounced exactly like her English given name (a benefit not all English speaker’s can take advantage of.) But it is the final two characters of the name that really set it apart: 玉鹅 (Yu’e) means “jade goose,” a beautifully Chinese name that references the waterfowl in Swanson’s English name. I’m a sucker for Chinese names that borrow a semantic component from the English, and this is a sparkling example.
Brandon Yan (OneCity, Vancouver) — 甄念本
City council candidate Brandon Yan does not belong on this list, of course, because his Chinese name is not invented. He does have the distinction, however, of being the only candidate on the Vancouver ballot whose name appears in both English and Chinese characters. I think more visibility and integration of Chinese language into Vancouver life, discourse and politics is great news. I applaud the effort.