rob07 Posted June 18, 2011 at 11:44 PM Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 at 11:44 PM I just finished watching a TV series where the main character suggested 4 or 5 names for his son. One of these was Resist America (抗美). He understandably didn't like the Americans much, because he was a Communist soldier who had fought the American financed Kuomintang, whose American made weapons were much better than his. Further, this was shortly after the end of the Korean War and he thought that China and America would continue to be be strategic adversaries. I googled the name and there seem to be quite a few 抗美s out there. Probably a lot of them were born around the time of the Korean War as well, but is this a common name? I understand why the main character didn't like America, but it just seems a bit negative for a name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter2010 Posted June 19, 2011 at 03:27 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 03:27 AM Pretty rare now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiana Posted June 19, 2011 at 07:29 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 07:29 AM I googled the name and there seem to be quite a few 抗美s out there.I imagine ANY name with 美 in it would be popular Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted June 19, 2011 at 08:08 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 08:08 AM The only thing I can associate 抗美 with is 抗美援朝. It is a set phrase used in mainland China to refer what you call Korean war. And yes Chinese given names can sound negative sometimes, depending on how you look at it. But I do not think the parents who named their children 抗美 then would have considered that it is negative, if not positive... And a few results with Google can hardly mean that this name is common. Have a read of this and you may get an idea of what names are considered as "common" in China... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiana Posted June 19, 2011 at 09:19 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 09:19 AM I'm quite surprised to see from the link given by xiaocai that among China's top 50 popular names, many instances of 英 but none for 美. So is Britain more popular than America ? ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaocai Posted June 19, 2011 at 09:46 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 09:46 AM That was funny, hahaha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinchillus Posted June 19, 2011 at 11:04 AM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 11:04 AM The characters in the Chinese names of foreign countries, especially the European countries and the USA, are all positive and good ones, though there are many characters available that sound the same or similar. England is 英国. 英 is flower, hero, excellent, essence and god. Deutschland is 德国. 德 is virtue, kindness, heart and happy. So we can say these countries are name after the positive characters, rather than the Chinese people are name after these countries. 英 is used in both male and female's names while 美 is mostly used in female's names, so we can see more 英 than 美. If a man has 美 in his name, people would think it odd. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Posted June 19, 2011 at 01:58 PM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 01:58 PM As a beginner in Chinese I'ld translate 抗美 as 'resist beauty'. To me that means content prevails shallow decoration. Nothing wrong with that. Also nothing wrong with resisting America, but maybe not as a name:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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