what's in a name?
F has been telling me about her dilemma in using English names or Chinese ones in the States. She finds that amongst the Asians, it is us Taiwanese who tend to drop our native names by choosing Anglicized names, whereas people from Japan, China or Korea keep theirs. I used to find canto soaps somewhat bizarre for the actors address each other, 'Andy', 'Tracy' or 'Sammy' etc. when they are authentic Chinks. So is it suggesting that we are losing our identity, swallowed up in the swamp of westernisation? Yet I realised that I have no qualms in using 'R' here. 'HN' contains no meaning compared to 浩寧, for Chinese characters are like pictures that only represent something when they are written in Chinese, hence I prefer to use 'R'. On another hand, noticing that 'R' does not appear in any of my cards and documents, methinks I can travel incognito.