i Chinese Students’ English Name Practices and Their Identities Pan WANG Department of Integrated Studies in Education Faculty of Education McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada A Thesis submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Copyright © Pan WANG, May 2009 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-61662-8 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-61662-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ii Abstract This qualitative study explores the relationship between Chinese students‘ practice of adopting and/or using an English name and their identities. I am concerned with why Chinese students agreed or refused to adopt an English name at the inception, how their attitudes towards their English name(s) have changed over time, what criteria they used when choosing their English names, and what the relationship is between their English name(s) and their identities. I understand participants‘ practice of adopting an English name as the result of the habits of adopting ming and zi in the Chinese naming culture. Participants‘ English name practice is also in accordance with the collectivist culture that is dominant in China. Participants use an English name in the effort to avoid being a problem for the group in which they are involved because they view the content of self as social categories. Examining the social and political contexts, the social influence from Hong Kong and Taiwan and the carrying out the Reform-and-Open-up policy in mainland China are also important factors that have contributed to the popularity of adopting and/or using English names among Chinese people. From the second language learning perspective, participants‘ English name(s) sometimes may be their investment in imagined communities. Participants‘ criteria for choosing an English name are similar to some common criteria for choosing a Chinese name. Participants‘ narratives reveal that there is a direct and close relationship between participants‘ English names and their identities. They associated their English name with their actualities and realities, such as their life goals and their ideal personality qualities. iii Résumé Cette étude qualitative explore la relation entre la coutume des étudiants chinois d‘adopter ou d‘employer un nom anglais et leurs identités culturelles. L‘objet de l‘étude concerne surtout pourquoi les étudiants acceptent ou refusent l‘adoption d‘un nom anglais, quels sont les critères qui influencent leurs choix, comment leurs attitudes à l‘égard de leurs noms anglais ont changées à travers le temps et comment qualifier la relation entre leurs noms chinois et leurs identités propres. Je comprends la pratique des participants d‘adopter un nom anglais comme étant la réflexion de la coutume de faire l‘usage de ming et zi dans la culture de la nomenclature chinoise. Cette tradition est aussi en accord avec la culture collectiviste qui est dominante en Chine. Les participants font l‘usage d‘un nom anglais afin d‘éviter d‘être un problème pour le groupe dans lequel ils sont, parce qu‘ils ont une perception d‘eux-mêmes comme étant étroitement lié à des catégories sociales. En examinant de plus près le contexte sociopolitique chinois, on s‘aperçoit que le Hong Kong, le Taiwan et les réformes chinoises concernant l‘Ouverture sur l‘Occident ont beaucoup contribué à la popularité d‘adopter ou d‘utiliser un nom anglais dans la Chine continentale. Du point de vue des étudiants de langues étrangères, leurs noms anglais sont parfois un investissement dans des communautés imaginées. Les critères pour choisir un nom anglais sont semblables à leurs critères pour choisir un nom chinois. Les témoignages des participants révèlent qu‘il y a un lien étroit et direct entre leurs noms anglais et leurs identités. Ils associent leurs noms anglais à leurs réalités personnelles et à leurs rêves, tel que leurs objectifs de vie et leurs traits de personnalités idéaux. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those associated with my thesis. A special thank you goes to my supervisor, Dr. Mary Maguire, for her guidance, patience, encouragement, and expertise in the field. I would also like to thank her for all of her invaluable advice and support. I am also greatly indebted to my participants. Due to reasons of confidentiality, I cannot mention their names, but they are the actual writers of this thesis. Thanks to their sincere participation and the stories and comments they shared in the interviews, I was able to conduct this inquiry and succeed in accomplishing this study. I would like to thank my friend Yasuko Senoo for her on-going encouragement and for her wonderful ideas that contributed greatly to my research. I thank Kimiko Hinenoya who generously shared her research questionnaire and interview questions with me while I designed my own. I am also grateful to my teachers, classmates, and friends: Dr. Lise Winer, Lisa Trimble, Julie d‘Eon, Laurence Petitclerc, Yanping Dong, Zheng Jiao, and Ruihua Gao for their knowledge, experience and aid throughout the entire process and for all the good times we shared together. Another thank you must also go to Dr. Carolyn Turner. Thanks to her kindness and encouragement, I decided to pursue my studies in the graduate program of McGill University. A very special thank you goes to my family, especially my husband Jin, for all their patience, encouragement, and support throughout my entire university career. It is their incredible trust and love that has enabled me to come this far. v Table of Contents ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ii RESUME.......................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................. v CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE SCENE.................................................................... 1 Personal contexts: subjective link with the issue................................................................. 1 Regional contexts: ―passport name‖ and ―daily communication name‖ ........................... 5 English name and English class .......................................................................................... 8 Geographical contexts ....................................................................................................... 10 Taiyuan, Shanxi........................................................................................................ 10 Montreal, Quebec .................................................................................................... 14 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................... 21 Definitions: identity and name.......................................................................................... 21 Identity..................................................................................................................... 21 Social identity, individual identity, cultural identity, and ethnic identity................ 23 Understandings of identity in Chinese and Western knowledge systems................ 26 Name........................................................................................................................ 29 English names and Chinese names.........................................................................