Abstract
It is easy to understand why Taiwanese students play the part of the name assigned to them in English class, but why do so many of them continue to use this name long after their school years? A survey of young Taiwanese adults, with follow-up interviews, investigated how and why they acquire and use an English name. The results mirror previously reported tendencies and suggest some new insights into the motivation and functionality of this practice. The data show that self-identification with their Western name offers pragmatic social and cultural advantages, including international identity, escape from rigid cultural formalities impeding social advances, establishing friendliness without getting too close, as well as self-expression. As concerns the often discussed nature of English names, the results indicate that the selection of an English name is influenced by Chinese name selection practice, the tendency to make the name unique or somehow related to the Chinese name, and especially by its intended role. As in previous studies, we found some unusual names, but these were used mainly as a nickname in communication with peers.
Highlights
In recent years, it has been increasingly common to hear Asian people introduce themselves under their “English name”, only a fraction of them were born in a western country or into an international marriage
While the practice of acquiring and using an English name can be at least partially ascribed to the challenging pronunciation of Chinese names and specific Chinese naming practices (e.g., Jones 1997; Li 1997; Louie 1998; Liao 2000; Chen 2016; Guccini 2017, etc.), including the relative flexibility of having multiple names in traditional Chinese culture, it may vary in some local aspects, having arisen under different historical circumstances and pursuing various aims
Heffernan (2010, p. 33) noted that the English names of Hong Kong respondents in his survey tended to be chosen by a family member, but not so in Taiwan, the Mainland or Korea
Summary
It has been increasingly common to hear Asian people introduce themselves under their “English name”, only a fraction of them were born in a western country or into an international marriage. This trend of using English, or more precisely, foreign names, can be observed especially among ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong (e.g., Mathews 1996; Li 1997), Singapore (Tan 2001), Macau (Cheang 2008), Taiwan (Liao 2000; Chen 2015), and mainland China (Lee 2001; Edwards 2006; Henry 2012). Other research into the use of English names by Chinese learners of English from the Chinese mainland (Edwards 2006) has indicated that English names can be imposed by teachers of English (cf. Sercombe et al 2014), and that the widespread practice of adopting
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