As a Greek, in response to the current controversy about Matt Damon being cast as Odysseus, I'd just like to share that one of the moments that changed my brain chemistry as a kid was reading a novelized version of the Odyssey and coming across the following description of Odysseus when Circe sees him for the first time and thinks he's hot: "his hair curled like a clematis and his eyes were very brown".
So may I present my own casting choice for Odysseus:
dead serious normalize having an average boring ass life where you have enough to meet your needs we do not need to be remarkable we just need to be alive
i think we should be ridiculing them more for this. you don't get to try and go all "queer website" when your staff likes to go on nuking sprees targeting the trans fem users
I’m so tired of the “why do people hate aspecs, they aren’t doing anything?” argument. I know that it is an attempt to support us, but it fails so spectacularly to understand aromanticism, asexuality, and any other aspec identity that it’s actively frustrating.
We are doing something. We’re rejecting allonormative ideals and that’s a massive thing to do. We’re actively fighting not just to help other aspecs, but to help everyone, because amatonormativity (and allonormativity as a whole) hurt everyone. Single people who want to find a partner but can’t also deserve to be able to exist.
There are so many issues with the expectation of marriage, including:
A single income isn't enough to get by anymore
Having a spouse is almost necessary under the current medical system
Society shames and pressures people who are single to get into relationships constantly
Rejecting allonormativity means fighting against these things that hurt everyone.
So, no, aces and aros and other aspecs aren't "doing nothing." We're doing quite a lot.
Hey, everyone 💛 I thought it might be useful to share something about Chinese naming conventions that I wasn't aware of before becoming a 🐢 for those who don't know!
In Chinese, single-character given names are usually not used on their own because it could sound unnatural.
Wang Yibo's "王一博" given name is Yibo "一博" (two characters).
Xiao Zhan's "肖战" given name is Zhan "战" (one character).
Usually, people call Xiao Zhan by his full name or use alternative ones like ZhanZhan, A-Zhan, Zhan-ge, and so on. (Or his last name with honorifics, like Xiao-laoshi.)
[ tl;dr ] Following Chinese naming conventions, it could sound unnatural to call Xiao Zhan (肖战) just "Zhan" because his given name consists of a single character (战), while Wang Yibo (王一博) may be called just "Yibo" since his given name contains two characters (一博).
So, when writing a story or any kind of text where you wish to sound closer to native speakers, you can call Xiao Zhan by his full name or any of his (many) nicknames ❤️.
Sorry if I made any mistakes in my explanation, as I’m not a Chinese speaker! If you notice anything incorrect, please feel free to correct me or add more information. ☺️
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The meaning of some acronyms, out of curiosity:
XZ - Xiao Zhan
WYB - Wang Yibo
XZS - Xiao Zhan Studio (usually referring to the Weibo page of his agency)
YBO - Yibo Official (usually referring to the Weibo page of his agency)
LWJ - Lan Wangji, his courtesy name (Lan Zhan is his given name)
WWX - Wei Wuxian, his courtesy name (Wei Ying is his given name)
I personally don't use WY for Wang Yibo because it could be confused with Wei Ying, and I also don't use YB because it could be confused with Yu Bin (the actor who plays Wen Ning).
(A very interest post with a detailed explanation about given names and courtesy names)
I heard a Chinese girl explain that a single syllable doesn't register to them as a name, it just sounds like a noun. In this case 战 means war or battle (ironic... he's obviously a lover, not a fighter) so you would be saying "Hi war" 😅
*inhales* You've awoken the linguist. Allow me to expand on this...
(Scroll down to the minions gif if you just want the name examples.)
So:
Chinese hates single syllables.
This is a basic rule; obviously there are exceptions. But rule of thumb: single syllable = lonely.
So chair isn't 椅, it's 椅子 (yǐzi). 子 is a common way to make 2 syllables out of a noun if there isn't a second character with the same meaning that you can use.
Usually, though, you have 2 morphemes with same/related meanings that you put together, like 眼睛 (yǎnjīng). 眼 means eye, as well as like the center of things (usually things with a hole in the middle), while 睛 means like your actual eyeball.
---continued---
Verbs are either made the same way, or you put objects and qualifiers on them. 洗, to wash, basically always has an object attached, unlike in English where you could say something like "she washed...and dressed."
The reason for this has to do with Chinese morphology.
The (Simplified) Linguistics
The unique thing about Chinese is that there's a meaning to every single syllable that we use.
Think about Chinese writing. Every single Chinese character has a one-syllable sound and a broad, basic meaning. So 名 is read míng, and means name (broadly including your name, your reputation, noun names for objects, etc).
明 is also read míng and means bright.
There is a character / broad meaning like this for every single phonemic syllable in Chinese. (In fact there's usually more than 1. More on that in a sec.)
In many languages, like English or Spanish, there are syllables that are used all the time but which don't have any meaning on their own, like "ca" (kæ) used in "cavern."
"Ca" doesn't mean anything in English.
So Chinese is pretty efficient. Except...
With ~1,200 unique syllables in Chinese, that would be only 1,200 things to say. And in fact it's more confusing, because most syllables have multiple meanings/characters.
The sound "míng" (ming2) could mean name (名), bright (明), animals crying (鸣), an inscription (铭), closing your eyes (瞑), underworld/dark* (冥)...
*Yes, míng can mean either bright or dark depending on context. I picked this example on purpose. Also míng is a frequent sound in people's names! Often 明.
So we start connecting things together to clarify. Now you get words like
有名, have + name = famous
名字, name + written character = your name
名作, name + doing = a famous work
and
明天, bright + day = tomorrow
明白, bright + white = understand
说明, speak + bright = explain
Not every two-syllable combination is a word, of course, but that's fine because there are millions of possible combinations, and that's just looking at 2 syllables. There are lots of longer words too, like 单音节 which, hilariously, means monosyllabic.
Moving on: names
So now you get why we don't like a syllable hanging out on its own. We don't know which meaning it's trying to evoke, or which complex, nuanced version of the meaning.
It's not as important for people's names, but it sounds weird. That single syllable hanging out on its own...is it a grammatical particle like 但 or 过 or 了? What is it doing? What is happening???
So it's simple: names get the same treatment as words: add things on.
Expanding on OP's examples:
use their full name (Xiao Zhan),
double it (Zhanzhan),
add 阿 (A'Zhan),
add 儿 (Zhan-er),
use 老 (Lao-Zhan),
or if they're younger than you and you really want to highlight that use 小 (Xiao-Zhan) (this is 3rd tone "xiǎo-Zhàn" instead of his name "Xiào Zhàn"),
add a familiar/kinship term like 姐/哥 (Zhan-ge) (he's not old enough to be 肖叔叔 to any fans yet!),
or add a professional term like 老板/老师/先生, usually with the surname (Xiao-laoshi, Xiao-xiansheng).
Among friends, sometimes you add 子 to sound like a pretentious asshole 😂 Though I've heard in the north it's okay to do normally. Don't quote me on that. (My Chinese name has 子 as the second character, which is also very common. That's not pretention, that's just my name.)
Most of you know this already: using the surname and calling him Xiao Zhan does not sound awkward the way it would in English to call your friend "Janet Garcia" all the time.
...as to the philosophical questions of what you should call someone...
When referring to a Chinese person in English, the rules are...?
A lot of Chinese immigrants to English-speaking countries will use just their given name, since that sounds normal in English, like calling someone "Liz" or "Sam."
I have two friends who, when speaking English, just go by Fang and Shou.
Books tend to do this with character names, too (though not all!). They just call the character Bing or Li, without the surname attached, because calling the whole name every time might look weird to English readers. When in Rome, do like the Romans do (入乡随俗).
So if you have Chinese friends and you're speaking English together? Follow their lead. You can always add an "Ā-" at the beginning of their name just in case you aren't sure.
Obviously we can't ask Xiao Zhan how he'd like to be referred. We're talking ABOUT him, not to him.
I know some people default to "Sean" since that's the English name for him when he entered the industry. However:
It's going out of style to pick an English name for yourself, since English-speakers are smart enough to handle saying a Chinese name and don't need coddling. You'll notice Yb doesn't have one, and most younger artists don't. It petered out amid the 90s generation. Chinese people can finally use their real names.
I don't know who picked Sean, whether he did or his company was like "you need this to give to foreigners, here's one that sounds vaguely like your name." It's highly possible that at uni, he was told to pick one. Regardless... ⤵️
Is this a name he got because he wanted it; a name he feels some attachment to, likes/wants to be called? We don't know. But we never see it used, even when he's abroad. That makes me lean toward the "he prefers his actual name" side.
So most fans stick to his Chinese name.
Now, since we're talking about him in English, we could argue for using English conventions and calling him "Zhan."
However:
We're talking about a Chinese person within their Chinese context.
We're talking to other fandom people, who presumably hear enough Chinese that hearing his full name "Xiao Zhan" every time does not sound awkward to them. If you're watching BTS or award shows, you're going to hear it over and over. You know that's how he's called.
I don't expect English speakers to learn all the Chinese words that make different terms of address. But it's easy and correct to just use Chinese people's full names. I would argue it's simple politeness for English speakers to get used to it. Sort of like respecting a worship hall enough to take your hat off even when you don't follow their religion.
TLDR: do it like OP said. If nothing else sticks, call him Xiao Zhan. If it sounds weird to you rn, you'll get over it with time. 💛
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Sorry OP, I didn't mean to make a whole-ass post about Chinese names. This happens to be a thing I have Thoughts about.
plot 150 words
bed-sharing 200 words
smut 800 words
projecting my fears, insecurities, and anxieties onto a fictional character 9,356 words
fluff 150 words
someone who is good at fan fiction please help me budget my WIP, my family is dying
kianamaiart
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