Why I have a problem with translating "字" as "courtesy name"

[cashew]

So, I've talked a bit about how ancient Chinese people used names before. Then I realized that wiki translated "字" as "courtesy name". At first, I was like "Yeah, that makes sense", but as I thought on it some more, I realized that "courtesy name" doesn't really capture a lot of things.

First, "字" is associated with adulthood. It's part of the crowning/capping ceremony. And the reason that the crowning ceremony is such a big deal was because adolescent mortality was so high. The ceremony fell out of favor around the 1930's, because with advancement in medicine, most adolescents were able to reach adulthood and thus the achievement became...well, no longer as much of an achievement. And with the decline of the ceremony, so declined the practice of giving adult-children "字".

Second, "字" is almost solely used by the aristocrats or intelligentsia (who were usually at the very least descendants of prior aristocrats). Before the 1960s, China's literacy rate was a paltry 10%, possibly even lower. The majority of the population simply didn't have the education to come up with multiple names for their kids. Hell, most people couldn't even write their name! Thus, having a "字" became an indication of your social status. The vast majority of the population never had a "字". But it wouldn't be right to say that they failed to observe courtesy.

Third, thinking of "字" as a form of courtesy leads to the misunderstanding that any name taken up in adulthood is somehow a continuation of the practice. I see this attitude on a lot of Chinese websites where netizens try to argue that the practice is continued when people of Chinese descent take up an Anglocized name in places like Singapore and Hong Kong. Uh...no. First, one of Singapore's official language is English, so no shit they're going to need to pick an English name. Second, Hong Kong was occupied by the British for 99 years where English was the official language, so the practice of picking English names was the result of colonization, not a continuation of traditional Chinese naming practice.

Fourth, the "courtesy" associated with using "字" is to enforce the rigid class system. As I've mentioned before, who is allowed to use what name is heavily tied to social hierarchy. Yes, it's about showing respect, but more importantly, it's about showing deference. You're not just being rude when you use someone's given name, you're upsetting the social hierarchy. And if that person is an official or an aristocrat, you can get your head chopped off. Literally. You will die if you use the wrong form of address. This type of practice goes a bit beyond mere "courtesy".

(An aside: In RotTK, Zhou Yu calls Zhuge Liang by his given name and immediately dies. This reflects the seriousness of the offense.)

It is because of the fourth point that most dialogue in Chinese uses a person's title rather than their name. To use names, any name, is actually quite rare and most often the name is used to refer to oneself rather than someone else. This is why even peers have to figure out their age gap and refer to each other by "elder brother" (兄), "elder sister"(姊), "younger brother"(弟), "younger sister"(妹), etc.

(Sidenote: just as Japanese has "先輩", Chinese use "学姐、学哥" when referring to students older than them or ahead of them in years. Unlike Japanese, once your out of school, there is no longer a catch-all for people older than you in the workplace and how you refer to people gets more complicated.)

(Sidenote of sidenote: 姐 and 姊 used to have the same pronunciation, but 姐 is a courtesy form referring to women regardless of age and 姊 is specifically referring to a woman slightly older than you, aka not old enough to be the previous generation. However, with simplification, 姊 fell out of favor and 姐 took over as the polite form of referring to women who are slightly older than you and 小姐 became the polite form of referring to women in general. For women who are much older, you have the lovely 阿姨、伯母、大娘、大妈 and many others. Good luck figuring out which one won't offend.)

Anyway, all of this to say that I feel 字 is better translated as "adult name" rather than "courtesy name".

Comments

[tanithryudo]

There's also 号, which I guess is a kind of...epithet? Nickname?

Anyway, I usually think of this stuff as cultural fluff that doesn't release translate over to any one English word. If you really want to get the point across in a story or paper, you probably need make a footnote about it and give a sentence or two of the cultural background.

BTW, I recently found out the 陈情令 character OST 《荒城渡》 was performed by 周深. Did you come across that when you watched it?

[cashew]

BTW, I recently found out the 陈情令 character OST 《荒城渡》 was performed by 周深. Did you come across that when you watched it?

Actually, I didn't pay too much attention. *shifty eyes* I'm not really surprised tho', given the type of show and the type of voice 周深 has...