What is your Chinese name?

叶 蔓青 Ye Manqing

What does your name mean?

People always say it is a beautiful name, since it literally means plants growing and has a feeling of vitality (叶: leaves 蔓: vine/grow 青: green). And Qing is kind of like the generation character in my family, my brother and younger brother are both called Ye X Qing, it resembles a link between my family members.

What is your English name? (Please write in pinyin if you don’t have one)

Stella

Who gave you your English name?

Myself!

Is there a pronunciation/meaning connection between your English name and Chinese name?

No

Have you ever abandoned your English name? What was the reason?

My mother named me Maggie when I was very young, but I always felt that something just didn’t fit, so I gave myself the name Stella when I went to an English speaking middle school. It is a character’s name from my favorite anime of that time.

Does your name ever give you any funny, embarrassing, or uncomfortable experiences?

In middle school, I don’t know if it was the system or the teacher who entered my name, but for a year or two, it kept entering my first name as “Man” instead of “Manqing”, and the teacher would yell “Man!” during the roll call. (I am a girl by the way)

I also stayed in a public high school in LA, when I went by Stella Ye. One time we played kahoot in class and a white boy looked at the screen and gleefully read aloud “Stella—Yeah—!”

And in the early years, my grandparents didn’t really like the name Stella since the pronunciation of Stella was not so auspicious and harmonious with death in Chinese (Death死 = “Si”= Stella), but I didn’t care.

Do you prefer your Chinese name or your English name? Which name better represents your own identity?

I like both names, and I think both of them represent my identity but in different ways. My Chinese name represents my long-lasting connection with my culture, family and region, my English name is completely chosen by myself and for myself. I love the way my Chinese name is written in Chinese characters. However, when writing in Pinyin(letters), I always feel it loses some beauty and the ambiance that Chinese users could get at first glance, so I relatively prefer to leave it for communication with Chinese people.