A 28 hour solitary train journey where no one speaks your language is a perfect setting to eat your way through a long abandoned novel. Hiding horizontally on my top bunk with two beds below me and inches of space above me, was the only escape from noodle-slurping families and unrelenting stares. It could have been home-sickness kicking in, or just claustrophobia, but somewhere in limbo between sleep and awake, I mistook the muffled chit-chat of other passengers as Brummy talk. In my docile state I swore I was hearing stuff like, 'Pass us the McFlurry Bab.'
The monotonous journey was eased however on my encounter with Cindy, a teenage Chinese girl who took a shine to practising her English with me. Now I know Cindy isn't the first name that springs to mind when you picture a giggly Chinese 16 year old, nor was it to me. Assuming that her parents were going through a rebellious hippy phase when they had her, I quizzed her on her unconventional name. It turned out that Cindy wasn't her birth name, but the name she was dubbed with when she started to study English, 'so that foreigners can remember easily'. How considerate!
Cindy: 'Well do you like singing? Or mountains? Or the sea?'
Me: 'Ummmm, I like stars!'
Head tilted, dashing her pen this way and that to form intricate characters, she nodded and revealed my new name to be Li Xiang. And that was that.
I've since learnt that choosing a Western name is standard procedure for English students, and that their chosen names get even more eccentric, Cocoa, Summer, Sunny, Crystal, Misty, Patience and my favourite, Yo-Yo are not girls you would find luring you into the backstreets of Soho, but are regular English students of mine.
The conversation then inevitably turned to boys, English boys and Chinese boys, which ones I preferred; English girls and Chinese girls, and which ones I thought were more beautiful. A Western nose is apparently more desirable in Cindy's opinion, as she lifted her head to reveal a scar the size of a paper cut where she had paid - what would be peanuts to the Western pocket - for a nose tuck to reshape her pretty oriental face. Then the camera came out and we posed - peace sign prominent, so she could prove to all her classmates and tutor that she had practised her English on the train with a Western girl with a small nose.
The monotonous journey was eased however on my encounter with Cindy, a teenage Chinese girl who took a shine to practising her English with me. Now I know Cindy isn't the first name that springs to mind when you picture a giggly Chinese 16 year old, nor was it to me. Assuming that her parents were going through a rebellious hippy phase when they had her, I quizzed her on her unconventional name. It turned out that Cindy wasn't her birth name, but the name she was dubbed with when she started to study English, 'so that foreigners can remember easily'. How considerate!
Amused by this being a completely a new concept to me, Cindy asked if I had a Chinese name. Being from the other end of the world where the English language is the bees knees, it had never occurred to me that I might need one, but as I am travelling in their country, it seemed only fair that I play their game (a similar rule to that of always learning at least, how to say thank you in their native tongue). Nominating herself to formulate my new name, Cindy compiled a list of common Chinese surnames for me to chose from: Wang, Chang, Wu, Li, Liang...And so I was hired into the family of Li.
The second part of the equation to create my given name was slightly more complex:
Cindy: 'What do you like?'
Cindy: 'Well do you like singing? Or mountains? Or the sea?'
Me: 'Ummmm, I like stars!'
Head tilted, dashing her pen this way and that to form intricate characters, she nodded and revealed my new name to be Li Xiang. And that was that.
I've since learnt that choosing a Western name is standard procedure for English students, and that their chosen names get even more eccentric, Cocoa, Summer, Sunny, Crystal, Misty, Patience and my favourite, Yo-Yo are not girls you would find luring you into the backstreets of Soho, but are regular English students of mine.
The conversation then inevitably turned to boys, English boys and Chinese boys, which ones I preferred; English girls and Chinese girls, and which ones I thought were more beautiful. A Western nose is apparently more desirable in Cindy's opinion, as she lifted her head to reveal a scar the size of a paper cut where she had paid - what would be peanuts to the Western pocket - for a nose tuck to reshape her pretty oriental face. Then the camera came out and we posed - peace sign prominent, so she could prove to all her classmates and tutor that she had practised her English on the train with a Western girl with a small nose.
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