In English: We-Fu Chang
In Chinese:
(last,
first)
Pronunciation:
in English (first, last); in Chinese(last,
first)
Date:
1971
Etymology:
My Chinese name was given by my Mom.
According to her, the Chinese character "FU",
,
has an ancient meaning
stands for man's moral virtue.
It's very hard to translate the ancient Chinese,
so I can't tell you what kind of virtue it is.
Loosely speaking, "FU" means gentleman.
If you can read
and understand Chinese,
you may want to check this
out.
The character "WE",
, means
to
keep, to sustain or to maintain something.
By giving this name to me, she wanted her son to be a honest and decent
man
all his life. I hope I have lived up to her expectation so far.
The English translation was given by my Dad
when I was a kid.
The translation, "We-Fu", is more like the
pronunciation in Taiwanese.
In Mandarin Chinese, the official translation
recommended by our government,
is "Wei-Fu". So, that's why this
version, "Wei-Fu", shows up sometimes.
Indeed, this spelling is much closer to how it
sounds like in Mandarin.
But, hay, a name is a name especially it was given
by your dad.
My close friends call me "Wolf" because it
sounds like my name if you mumble it.
I wouldn't mind you call me "wolf" in private
when we are well acquainted with each other.
I also have a few other nicknames but they
are reserved for my family and lover(s) :)