What's In A Name?

Of course, it's all in the mind! And if, like me, you suffer from one that is slightly smutty, you tend to notice things that nice people wouldn't necessarily see at first glance. The object of my attention appeared in today's newspaper but before I get to it let me be serious for a minute.

There has been recent comment in Hong Kong, both in the press and on other blogs, about the inappropriate use of language in street names where words, once in common usage, have become derogatory in the more politically sensitive world of today. I am sympathetic to those who feel offended, and do not think we have to buy the argument from Government that making changes to street names would be too disruptive. But, again, there are always those who are prepared to be more extreme than is absolutely necessary in their demands for change. It is a fine balancing act to get it totally right, and you have to find pragmatic solutions that would satisfy the majority. History happened, and you can't change it (despite the attempts of some countries to have a go!). Obliterating names doesn't obliterate the past - and in fact is sometimes a salutary reminder of the things we, as human beings, got wrong.

This sort of issue falls into the same general category as apologising for the bad deeds of our forefathers who invaded, raped and pillaged anything they could get their hands on. There are many things I feel quite ashamed of in our history, and we do owe many apologies but how far back do we have to go before we are satisfied with those apologies. Should we choose a date in history and say "sorry, but anything that happened before 1745 we're not apologising for" ? Being sensible and grown up about history is the more appropriate course of action, to let us move on.

But I digress; back to names.

Jockey and Turf clubs around the world have a system of ensuring, as far as possible, that horse names remain pronouncable - and polite, for commentators and public alike. Some slip through the net, but are usually picked up pretty quickly. A case in point in Hong Kong was the horse that was allowed to run under its full name of Shinnecock Hills, rather than the preferred Shinnecock. But I now wonder whether the Hong Kong Government's Transport Department needs a similar monitor.

Vehicle registration marks in Hong Kong are in English, and the new scheme that lets you create your own has delivered some, shall we say, strange plates. (The car of similar make and colour to my own which bears the registration mark ELDON is, by the way, nothing to do with me. I am not a fan of the idea anyway). But the one that caught my eye today in the SCMP is the advertisement for the next round of auctions on 31 October, and specifically plate auction number 27 in the morning session. It is a perfectly respectable name in Chinese, but I am not so sure that English-speaking non-Chinese visitors to Hong Kong who don't know these things will be quite so understanding or approving. I also am concerned that it will become a source of irreverent and inappropriate comment in certain less savoury publications.

Imagine, for example, a quiet day out on the road with your granddaughter who is just learning to put letters together to form words. She sees the car of the successful bidder for Lot 27 and suddenly says "Look at that Fuk Hing car in front". Her Grandmother, for one, would have a fit!

Comments

[Spike]

Sai Kung has a street called Fuk Man Road. Chinese never seem to notice that this can seem odd - after all, it's pronounced more like "Fook" and they're looking at the Chinese character on the sign, not the English. Of course, once you point it out ....

[gillian]

How true indeed. We suffer from this in this part of the world as well. Even in different languages and worse still when you include the chinese dialects!! Boy!! how easy to get it wrong!!