Can someone help me with the book I'm writing?

[Jemima]

It's not that far into the future (about 35-40 years). I think they will eat about the same thing as they do now... as far as I can determine from photos on the web, it seems like "normal" food when they are in camp, but some sort of packed dry food in separate bags when they are in the field. Looks disgusting really, lol.

[liuzhou]

In 35 -40 years it is highly unlikely that the 'military' will actually venture into battle. It will all be done by computers and drones or something we haven't imagined yet.

So need need for surival rations.

[Shelley]

Traditionally Chinese armies eat what they can find where they are. They often stayed in local peoples homes. Old Chinese doors are not the same as ours. They have a peg at the top and bottom so you can just lift them out, these were then placed on trestles and made in to make shift beds. They would normally be expected to pay for the food and bed.

 

Two types of hinges are used for the doors
in traditional Chinese houses: the pivot-and-socket
hinge (shu, 枢), and the pin-and-hook hinge (jiao,
绞). The pivots are usually the peg-like extensions
at both the top and the bottom of the door stile

They are lodged
respectively into the sockets of the door lintel
(menying, 门楹) at the top and the door anvil
(menzhen, 门砧) at the bottom

Mao came up with ten rules for soldiers of the Red Army . One was to replace doors used as beds, another was to pay for all things used.

There ten in all I think, I can't find a suitable link to them, sorry.

 

I am only telling this so that you can understand how a Chinese army might behave albeit with modern twists.

 

 

[Jemima]

Hi again!

My book is now finished and I'm planning the sequel.

 

I have another name question for you...

 

In my sequel there is an orphan boy who is called Aizi (哀子) -- meaning abandoned child/sorrowful child. He is adopted by a kind couple but since they don't understand what the name means they keep calling him that. Later, he decides to change the name to 爱子 -- Aizi but pronounced slightly different, meaning beloved child.

Is that realistic? or would he rather change the name to something completely different? Is the pronounciation of the both names too much alike for someone to want to be called Aizi at all?

[Jemima]

Oh, and in the sequel there will be a lot of Swedes too. Someone here was suggesting it before because they had never read a science fiction novel with Swedes in it -- maybe this will be the first one then, lol.

[Lu]

Later, he decides to change the name to 爱子 -- Aizi but pronounced slightly different, meaning beloved child.

The process itself (change name slightly to get a better name) is sound and not unheard of (I forgot where I read of a woman named 引弟 'attracts a little brother' or in other words, 'we sure hope the next child will be a boy' to 茵娣, which also reads Yindi but doesn't have such unpleasant meaning). However, the names you pick sound a bit Japanese. 爱子 is a common Japanese woman's name, and also the name of the current emperor's only daughter.

[Tiana]

If the name 爱子 is not written in character, I don't think there is any risk of associating it with the Japanese name. The Japanese name sounds very different and is used exclusively for girls.

[Jemima]

Thanks!

This person does not know of Japan because the story takes place on another planet. He is of Chinese decent however and speaks and writes Chinese.

 

[Jemima]

Me again... still writing the sequel.  
About the orphan boy Aizi (哀子) - does that pronounce a bit like AIDS, the disease? I'm having an idea that he will be teased in school for that, that the kids call him Aids instead of his name. But I'm not sure how Aids is pronounced in Chinese...

[Lu]

AIDS in Chinese is 艾滋病 àizībìng ('aizi disease'), while 哀子 is āizǐ, with different tones. So, somewhat similar.

[Jemima]

Thanks! So, it would not be too far off for kids in the school to call him that, if they didn't like him too much...?

[Lu]

I think it would be plausible, but I'm not a native speaker and daren't say for sure.

[Shelley]

Why not just avoid the whole issue and give him a different name?

[Jemima]

Hopefully someone native speaking can see this then.

 

But kids are very inventive when it comes to teasing and making bad names for people they dislike, so maybe it wouldn't have to be at all similar in pronounciation for it to catch on... 

 

Sort of like in English, where a girl named Isabelle can be nicknamed Lizard Bell or Stephanie get the name Step-on-me. Not at all alike, but when you want to tease someone, you find a way.

 

Edit: Or Marcus - Mucus... 

[Jemima]

Shelley: No the name is important, it means abandoned child (which he is) and because his mother abandoned him and because of his name, he will get teased in school.
Later in the book he will change his name to 爱子 (beloved child).

[Shelley]

Oh ok, does it matter if he gets tease because he was abandoned or because it sounds like aids?

[Jemima]

No not really, he will get teasted anyway because of his background, but I like the twist of them teasing him by name-calling too.