professor Lin?

Who is this “linreigu” dude who writes things on my blog?  Well, it’s me.  It’s my Chinese name.  Every foreigner who settles in China is given a Chinese name.  All Chinese last names consist of one character.  The choices for “Ringmar” were “Lin” or “Ma.”  We picked the former.  “Lin,” or 林, means “small forest” and it’s a picture of two trees.  It’s one of the most common last names in China.  Yes, that’s right, the last name always comes first.

Finding an equivalent of “Erik” took a bit longer.  I was first given “Aiku,” 艾克, which is the standard way in which “Erik” is transliterated.  The problem with this name, my colleague pointed out, is that it sounds too much like the name of a foreigner.  He suggested 瑞谷, reigu, instead. 瑞 means “auspicious” and it features in 瑞典, which is the Chinese name for “Sweden.”  Neat, no? The second character, 谷, or gu, means “valley” and it goes well with 林, my new last name.  Sweden, after all, has a lot of forests and valleys.  Gu also has a philosophical connotation of scholarly withdrawal and contemplation.  Very befitting.

The proper romanization for 瑞谷 is actually “ruigu,” not “reigu.”  Still, I use “reigu” since the spelling is closer to “Erik.”  Romanization is such a mess here in Taiwan anyway.  This explains my email: linreigu@ringmar.net.

I still don’t automatically turn my head when someone calls out for “Professor Lin!” — but I’m working on it.