What is your Chinese name?

瞿 昕童 Qu Xintong

What does your name mean?

昕 (xin) means Dawn, 童 (tong) came from the name 窦靖童 (Dou Jingtong), who is the daughter of my mom’s favorite singer 王菲 (Wang Fei), it also have the literal meaning of child. Together, it probably means keeping your child’s heart.

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

I was named Kathy before.

Who gave you your English name?

My parents

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?

I don’t use English names anymore. I went to an international high school before, but it was still a Chinese speaking environment, only the foreign teachers called me Kathy occasionally, so it was fine. But right before I went to college, imagining that everyone would call me Kathy, I suddenly had a weird feeling. I felt this name was meaningless to me and I didn’t feel like I belonged to it. That’s the moment I decided to switch back to the pinyin of my real name.

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

There is no subjective malice, but it does make me feel uncomfortable sometimes. I’ve had Starbucks employees spell my name as “Sin” before, and one semester there were three Chinese people in my class whose names ended with “tong”, and the professor couldn’t pronounce it clearly, so every time he called on one of us we had to ask him who he was calling.

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

I can’t say that I like both names, but if it’s my real name, it has little to do with liking it or not, I can respond to it when people call me Xintong, and it feels more neutral to me.