Why "Sean"?
My first name "Xiaoyang" consists of two Chinese characters:
"Xiao"
for early Morning, and "Yang" for the Sun. (In Chinese 王晓阳.)
Unfortunately, native
American-speakers are notorious in pronouncing "X" followed by three
(3!) vowels, and many would thus "murder" all the senses of Morning
Sun from the name when they say it! Obviously, whenever that happens, I
want to
do something about it.
Actually, "Xiaoyang" in the Shanghai dialect (the city where
I grew
up)
sounds even nicer than the official mandarin pronunciation. When said
in
Shanghai dialect in a little bit fast way, "Xiaoyang" roughly sounds
like Sean (which is Irish for "John", and pronounced roughly as
"Shawn",
definitely NOT as "Scene"). And I like
this. Besides, it does not hurt to mention that a certain actor who
bears this
first name has had some marvelous movies that I like.
Now whenever somebody calls me "Sean", it reminds me of the
people
I know from my days in Shanghai, and by extention to all the people I
know from everywhere
who are dear to me. And then I should be happy. So please, either say
it in Chinese
(better yet, in Shanghai dialect!), or use "Sean" (to mimic that).
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