Recently in Australia, there have been a few news reports of racist incidents. Although I could write in length about any of those reports, this post is going to be about a study by the Australian National University. In the study it was found that job applicants with Anglo Saxon sounding names were more likely to be selected for interviews compared to applicants who did not have Anglo Saxon sounding names. It was found that only 21% of "Asian" named applicants were called in for interviews. Also on
SBS news there was a report saying that job applicants with "Asian" sounding names have to send 68% more
applications than those with Anglo Saxon sounding names in order to secure an interview. I have put quotation marks around the word Asian because the study
distinguishes between Asian and East Indian sounding names -- East Indian sounding names are
statistically more likely to get called in for interviews than other "Asian" sounding names. I am going to put the seriousness of this study into perspective. Consider this statistic: applicants with Australian Aboriginal sounding names have to send 12% more
applications than those with Anglo Saxon sounding names. I can not vouch for the accuracy of the study, but even if the study were inaccurate by a few percentages, anything in the 60% range is a big number, don't you think?
But this is what really bothers me about the report: on
SBS it was "reported" that people with "Asian" or non-Anglo Saxon sounding names could increase their chances of employment by anglicising their names. I have put quotation marks around "reported" because when I heard the report, at the time it seemed more like a "suggestion" than an actual report of... facts, meaning it was suggested that Asians anglicise their names in order to find employment.
I call this bullshit.
I have never anglicised my name, will never anglicise my name, and think that doing so would perpetuate racism; and because this blog is about writing writing writing, I must remind the reader that female writers in the past have changed their names in order to seem more credible, and the anglicising of Asian names seems to be of the same nature. In the past, female writers changed their names because it allowed them to get the attention of publishers and to have their published work taken seriously by the public. Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne
Brontë were published under the names
Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
respectively. Even today, Joanne Rowling became J.K. Rowling when the initials J.K. were suggested to her by her publisher. If a writer named E.S.
Liew were to change her name to E.S. Lewis, this would be exactly the same as when Mary Ann Evans became George Eliot. Not to mention that E.S. Lewis looks like C.S. Lewis and Lewis is just an anagram of
Liew with an extra "S" - how confusing.
I do not have an anglicised name. I never have, never will. In the event that I do change my name is it because: 1) I might be using a pseudonym that is personally meaningful, for example, I might publish under an anagram of my original non-anglicised name or I might use my mother’s maiden name, my mother-in-law’s maiden name, the name of a deceased family pet… etc; 2) I might have married and hyphenated my name in order to ease some “old-fashioned” (re: sexist)
bureaucratic practices; 3) actually, my name is already written using the Roman alphabet and not in Chinese characters... and that in itself is a type of "
anglicisation"... and isn't that enough?
Eunice is my first name. It is not two Chinese syllables tacked together to produce an English phonetic variant of the Chinese name. Similarly, my middle name really starts with an "S" and is not and never was a Chinese name.
Eunice (pronounced "you-
ness" with the stress on the first syllable) is a Biblical name, from the New Testament. Eunice is the mother of Timothy. In Islam, Eunice is the prophet known as "
Yunus" or "The One With the Whale" (Jonah, in the Bible). The full story of the prophet Jonah is recounted in the
Qur'an in
Sura 37, verses 139-149.
The following text was lifted from
Wikipedia:
Like many important Biblical characters, Jonah is also important in Islam as a prophet who is faithful to God (Allah) and delivers His messages. He is known to Muslims by his Arabic name,
Yunus "Arabic: يونس", and also as (The One with the Whale "Arabic: ذو النون").The full story of Prophet Jonah is recounted in
Sura 37, verses 139-149:
- 37:139 So also was Jonah among those sent (by Us).
- 37:140 When he ran away (like a slave from captivity) to the ship (fully) laden,
- 37:141 He (agreed to) cast lots, and he was condemned:
- 37:142 Then the whale did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame.
- 37:143 Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified God,
- 37:144 He would certainly have remained inside the belly of the whale till the Day of Resurrection.
- 37:145 But We cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of sickness,
- 37:146 And We caused to grow, over him, a spreading plant of the gourd kind.
- 37:147 And We sent him (with the message) to a hundred thousand (men) or more.
- 37:148 And they believed; so We permitted them to enjoy (their life) for a while.
- 37:149 Now ask them their opinion: Is it that thy Lord has (only) daughters, and they have sons?
Jonah is also a name in the Jewish Bible.
The book of Jonah (
Yonah יונה) is one of the 12 minor prophets included in the Jewish Bible. According to tradition Jonah was the boy brought back to life by Elijah the prophet, and hence shares many of his
characteristics (
particularly his desire for 'strict judgment'). The book of Jonah is read every year, in its original Hebrew, on
Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement.
Thus ends the text lifted from
Wikipedia.
So yeah, I have a dude's name. But he was a prophet. It might also interest you to know that my surname is an ancient Chinese character that means "sword". I guess that means I'm a prophet wielding a sword. Also the previous line sounded like a lyric from an album by the love-child (if they could have one) of Meatloaf and Lou Reed. Why would anyone with a name like that want to change it?
.... Unless that line was a Gangsta Boo lyric. I don't know how I feel about Gangsta Boo....
