Proposal

My family and I were having dinner at the Island-Shangri-La to celebrate my dad's birthday. It was a bar and grill restaurant and a live band was there as accompaniment. When it was time for dessert, we noticed that one of the guests at a table was playing the flute along with the band. Hm... So we watched with curiosity. My dad's comment summed up the performance: At least he made sound~ After he finished, he went to his table (there were about 5 other friends at the table) and knelt down on one knee in front of a girl. Well, you've guessed it, he proposed to his significant other right then and there.

My family's reaction was as follow:

Mom: That's so not romantic with so many other people around.

Dad: I never liked this kind of proposal. It's so stupid. What if the girl rejects?

Sis: I've seen rejections at public places. It's awkward.

Gotta love my family. Thankgoodness our engagement was small and sweet.

How many names does one need?

Currently reading and summarizing a research on Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Ya, you know, that super famous guy that overthrown the Chinese monarchy and established the Republic of China. But, do you know how many names he had?! Finding research on him isn't difficult, the difficult part is determining which name I should use for what I'm writing. Let me show you what I've found:


Dr Sun was named Deming 德明 when he was born according to his genealogical position in his family tree, but when he was young he's called Dixiang 帝像 (traditionally, Chinese people have a birth name like 'cow' or 'dog' because it's easier to bring up an animal and hopefully they'll survive). Then he's named Sunwen 孫文 when he got older and once he reached adulthood he was called Zaizhi 載之. His name as a student was Rixin 日新, later became Yixian 逸仙. He also had various nicknames and pseudonyms and one of the famous ones was the name 中山樵 which later became 孫中山, a name commonly used in HK and Taiwan areas.


Ya, seriously, WTH?!