Asian People, Change Your Names!

I was reading the local Austin newspaper recently, and I read a story about a Texas lawmaker, Betty Brown, who is suggesting that Asian people change their names to make it "easier for Americans to deal with."

Here's a link to the article online:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6365320.html

Here is her actual quote:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?

“Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

The Asian community, naturally, is furious over these comments. But, in a way, it's kind of understandable. I can't tell you how many times my wife's Chinese name is mangled by the local populace. It's just easier to call her "Christy."

Most importantly, the Asians are being hypocrites, because they do the same damn thing to us foreigners when we live in their country. As soon as I got a job in Taiwan, I was required to choose a Chinese name, or else have one chosen for me. Until I got married, I was known by the Chinese government as "KEN-ISH-SHA." That was the name the government gave me. Then, once I got married, I changed my name to "CHEN DA FOO." I adopted my wife's last name of "Chen", and she helped me pick the first name.

Did I want to be known by these ridiculous names? Hell no, but I did it to make it "easier for Chinese people to deal with." Plain and simple.

What goes around, comes around
.

(Picture: Betty Brown, Texas lawmaker who doesn't want to try to pronounce "Chen" or "Wong" anymore)