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My Dad Could Be John Lee But Was Denied By The Government
On a weird attempt to standardise name transcription spellings and a possible origin of the Chinese/English name “tradition”
You guys can all see/hear (remember Medium’s new features?) that my name is Anthony LI (I use capitals just to let you see how it is spelt).
According to traditions (and patriarchy), you will suppose my dad’s surname is also Li, so was my granddad’s.
Congrats, you are half correct. My dad’s surname is Li. It’s true. But my granddad’s surname is, in fact, LEE.
This has always been so weird in the family tree as some of the descendants from my granddad (i.e. my uncles, my aunt, my dad, and my cousins. Sorry for complicating things) bears the surname Lee, and Li for some, though having the same Chinese surname of 李 (meaning “plum”).
I told my colleagues during my working holiday in the UK about this weird surname thing in my family. They were like, “How?” “How can your dad prove that he is a son of his dad? Their surnames are different.”
Then I was like, “Maybe the Chinese surname helps?” Shrugs.
Well, but if you look into it, it gets even weirder.
