What’s In A Name?

1. Think about your own name. Did you ever have trouble spelling it as a kid? Does your name bear any resemblance to something unfortunate that haunted you through school (and possibly beyond)? Does your name have any stereotypes associated with it?

2. Names seem so straight-forward. It was probably the first thing you leant how to say and spell, it’s possibly one of the words you will hear and say most often in your lifetime — beaten only by hello and goodbye; or in my case: fuck.

3. Consider my name. By birth in Hong Kong, my name is Kung Chun Hin:

0802_name.jpg

4. When I was seven, my family moved to Australia. I remember a conversation I had with my family, talking about what English names my sister and I should take on. I first wanted “Peter”, but Mum thought that “Peter” was a name for triad punks (nevermind that my Dad’s name is the Dutch version of “Peter”). Anyway, such was my level of English (zero) and imagination (sizable, but not in English) that my next choice was “John”, and so it stuck, and I named myself “John Chun Hin Kung”.

5. Over the course of time and several run-ins with, err, less worldly Government officials, I took to hyphenate my middle names; apparently when confronted with “John Chun Hin Kung”, some people couldn’t figure out which was my middle name and which was my surname. So my name became “John Chun-Hin Kung”, which is what appears on my passport.

6. Just before I came to Japan, I stopped by Hong Kong to visit family, and to get my Hong Kong permanent ID card, which gives me the Right of Abode in Hong Kong. The officials there were very helpful; they understood that some Western officials were, err, unhelpful and easily confused. So the name on my ID card was “Kung, John Chun-hin”.

7. When I got to Japan, Japanese officals were far more strict about how names were recorded, and my name became “Kung John Chun-Hin” (note the lack of comma after my surname). This was fine, it’s close enough to my passport and how I’m known in Australia. The trouble only came to bear when I was getting married.

8. According to government officials here, “John Chun Hin Kung”, “John Chun-Hin Kung”, “Kung, John Chun-hin” and “Kung John Chun-Hin” were all different people. Order and punctuation were very important, any deviatiation could cause terrible confusion. And if you have ever dealt with Japanese beauracracy, you’d know what I mean. If not, imagine you have no legs, and you were placed at the end of a long gravel driveway and told to crawl to the house. It gets old pretty quick.

9. And it gets better — it’s generally custom for the wife to change her surname to match mine, but since Japanese uses Chinese characters, does she use my romanised surname, or the original Chinese? I would prefer Chinese, but then that doesn’t match any of our documents so far, so that would cause that “terrible confusion”. Luckily for us, the changing of her name is a custom, not a requirement.

10. Add to this a new dilemma — it has become popular for the Chinese to keep the order of their names, and add their English name to the front, so in my case that would be “John Kung Chun Hin”. I really like this, it keeps the original order while conforming to Western standards. And officials now are more aware of non-Western names, and it’s a lot easier now than it has ever been. But because of a choice made in necessity when I was a teenager, I’m stuck with the name that was shaped by others. And one’s name is, in the end, all that one has; everything else can be lost or stolen or given away, but a name stays true. I just wish I could have the name that best represents me.

From Hong Kong to Tokyo

1. At time of writing it is Thursday 30th of March, 9:16pm Japan time, and I am on board the Shinkasen (the bullet train) from Fukuoka to Hiroshima. It is about half way through the journey, and I expect to be at Hiroshima Central Station at 9:50pm.

2. So much to write about! This has been the first time I’ve had a bit of time that wasn’t taken up by work. My classroom training finished earlier today, and we were shipped off to our respective schools this afternoon. I was on a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka with a fellow new teacher, and from there I am now travelling by Shinkasen to Hiroshima, where I will be staying at a hotel until my apartment is ready. But more on that later.

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Hong Kong, Days 2, 3 and 4

1. My second day in was the first chance I had to explore Hong Kong by myself — and it would’ve been great if it wasn’t raining. But I went out anyway, braving the weather for a chance to wander around by myself.

2. My first stop was the Hong Kong Art Museum, hoping the rain would stop later in the day. I checked out the Hong Kong Arts Biennial which had some awesome works on display. My favourites: a sculpture called Karma, a glazed stonework piece where an M16 and ammo and grenades are ripped apart revealing blood and guts, and the gore was etched with faces in agony; and a 3D collage made of photos cut up and pasted together to highlight the detail in the photo, sort of like an exploded diagram of life. Great stuff.

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Hong Kong Pics, Part 3

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(Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

1. Yet more pics of Hong Kong:

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Hong Kong Pics, Part 2

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(Part 1 here, Part 3 here)

1. A few more pics of Hong Kong:

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Hong Kong Pics, Part 1

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(Part 2 here, Part 3 here)

1. A few pics of Hong Kong:

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Hong Kong, Day 1

1. On the last installment I was flying over North Sulawesi, I’m currently tying this in the living room of my Aunt’s apartment in Hong Kong.

2. The rest of the flight was fairly non-eventful, landed safely in Hong Kong. I wish I could have recorded the view from the belly camera of the plane as we landed, the approach lights for the runway looked like a disco dancefloor Saturday Night Fever style, it was Way CoolTM.

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Big ‘Ole Jet Airliner

1. As I’m writing this it is Wednesday the 22nd, 9:25 Sydney time, I’m currently over the Banda Sea in Indonesia, and I’m roughly 3299km away from Hong Kong. Looking at another 3hrs or so of flight time.

2. I was rather nervous at the prospect of leaving for such a long time. I always was, but when reality struck on the eve of my departure the Dam of Self Denial couldn’t hold the tide, and so I copped it for most of the morning. The Replacement Flatmate (a lovely Brasilian Dentist that I wish I had more time to get to know) told me when he was leaving Brasil he felt like he was just about to go bungee jumping — you know it’ll be great, but the whole thing is so scary right now. I guess everyone gets the jitters.

3. Farewell was hard. It’s hard to leave family, so many friends, and so many comforts behind. Harder still to leave your partner of nine years. But regret hurts more, and poisons relationships, so with an injection of spine I leapt off the cliff.

4. And so begins my tale.

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Update 15/03/06

1. Well, only 7 days to go before I leave for Hong Kong, and I’m feeling the pressure now. Right now, the sadness of leaving so many people behind has overtaken the excitement of leaving. I’m a bit bummed, to be honest. The now-obviously monumental task of packing is also weighing on me — hard to know where to start with the packing. And then there’s my dog, well, my parent’s really; I’m gonna miss him a lot. Anyhoo, the packing continues….

Update: 28/2/06

1. With only 22 days before I leave, things are starting to fall into place with loud and meaningful “clicks”. My flight has been booked and paid for (thanks Kate!), lists about what to pack are being compiled, arrangements for storage made, money exchanged, items needed bought…

2. …only thing missing really is that bloody computer.

3. So, final details. I’ll be flying Cathay Pacific, leaving on March 22nd for Hong Kong:

Leg 1

4. …staying in Hong Kong to visit family for a few days, then flying to Tokyo on March 27th:

Leg 2

5. …training in Tokyo for 3 days, and I should be in Hiroshima around April Fools. Hmmm.

6. (Those pictures are from the flight tracker widget that came with OS X. Input your flight details and it finds the flight info on the internet and gives you a map — how cool is that?)