In the beautifully put-together coffee table book, In China, My Name is…, Valerie Blanco and Ellen Feberwee ask over 200 Chinese people how they chose their English names. TALK spoke to the authors about how they came to Shanghai, their inspiration for the book and what they learned from the project. 

How did you end up in Shanghai?

We ended up in Shanghai in different ways. Valerie came to Shanghai because her husband became an expatriate. There she finished her studies and began working for a local lifestyle brand. Ellen arrived in Shanghai after her graduation.

We know each other from our studies. We literally met on day one and that day we began working together.

What made you so interested in the idea of name-giving in China?

"We figured this subject was so simple but had an impact on society. This fascinated us, so we decided to hit the streets to see whether our analysis was right." When we met in Shanghai again we often talked about the things we saw, read or heard; what kind of people are the Chinese? What do they like? How do they live? We somehow wanted to capture this information so we came up with the idea to walk around the different parts of the city, take photographs and talk to people.

Going back and forth with some ideas we came to this subject; name giving in China. Name giving is very important in China so we also talked about it with Chinese friends. We figured this subject was so simple but had an impact on society. This fascinated us, so we decided to hit the streets to see whether our analysis was right.

How did you go about your research and how long did it take?

This book was created in Shanghai and it took us a few months to do it. Being the financial centre of China and the pillar of economic growth, Shanghai is a melting pot, attracting people from all over China. This gave us the chance to provide a broad perspective on this subject. We spoke with Chinese from different provinces and ‘social layers’: poor street workers, visitors to the millionaire fair, religious monks, students and so on.

In In China, My Name Is… we tried to give readers the locals’ story instead of a foreigner’s point of view. Looking at the developments from the perspective of the Chinese people gives a deeper meaning because the Chinese culture has complexities that are difficult for a foreigner to capture and understand. 

How did you find people to interview?

In our most basic Chinese we asked a simple question “Do you have an English name?” Because we could speak some Chinese it was easier to communicate and people responded well to that.

It seemed a lot of people were curious to talk to two foreign girls. One day at Renmin Park for example we were literally surrounded by 30 Chinese because we were interviewing one person. By asking that one simple question we met a lot of great people and had really cool experiences.