the evolution of chinese names in singapore: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/community/whats-in-a-name-local-author-traces-the-evolution-of-singaporean-chinese-names
unlike *most* of my millennial peers, i have my passport chinese name NOT in mandarin / pinyin but in my dialect (teochew / chiu chow) name. i used to be ashamed of this (this was perceived to be deeply backward, in a time of mandarin hegemony and death to other chinese languages), but now i am very proud of it.
going mandarin only changes your entire identity.
instead of Tan, my family name would have just been Chen.
that does not feel like me (or anyone related to me) at all.
in a way, i like this link to my grandfather's life: back in swatow, china.
everywhere i go in the chinese diaspora, the way my chinese name is spelled in english indicates kinship and familial ties in places i have not expected it.
in paris, the vietnamese and cambodian chiu chow / teochew people immediately ID-ed me and took me out for food.
in phnom penh, shopkeepers gave me food and water on my first solo backpacking trip as a teenager and told me i could always come to them for assistance.
in san francisco, my neighbors, and all the restaurant and grocery store owners in the tenderloin give me food and watch out for me.
my identity as a migrant with strong ties to a place i have never been (swatow, china) is far stronger than my identity as a 'chinese singaporean person', whatever that means today. especially since my first memory of the chinese singaporean identity was of my mandarin language teacher who told me, as a 5 year old, that i was not a good chinese person because i spoke a dialect, not mandarin.
