Meet Iris
I would like to tell you about the discovery of my names,
¡§Chiang Chia-ling¡¨ and ¡§Iris¡¨, in
ancient Chinese and civilized western literacy. Chiang Chia-ling is the Chinese
name which my parents gave me when I came to this world and the name that I've
been using for the past twenty years or so.
¡§Chiang¡¨ is well-known among Taiwanese because
¡§Chiang¡¨ is Taiwan ex-president's (Chiang Jing-guo)
family name as well. Therefore, once I give my self-introduction, there are
always some questions for me, for instance, ¡§Is there any
relationship between you and the Chiang family?¡¨ Yet, the truth is
that I have nothing to do with the Chiangs, I just have the same family name as
they do.
¡§Chia¡¨ means fine, good, nice, and so forth in
the Chinese dictionary. I suppose my parents expected me to grow up to be a
fine lady.
The literal meaning in Chinese of ¡§Ling¡¨
signifies clever, nimble, and bright. Like every parent, ¡§ to be
intelligent¡¨ is a characteristic which my parents want me to have.
Besides, the pronunciation of my name sounds full of vigor.
Furthermore, Iris is my English name, which happens to be both an
English and a German name. It has more than one meaning in the English
dictionary, such as rainbow, a flower, an organ of an eye, and a goddess in the
poetry ¡§Iliad¡¨.
Two different names for one person, honestly, I like them both a lot.
One was given by my parents and the other was chosen by me. All in all, I am
Chiang Chia-ling and Iris as well; meanwhile, I am very satisfied and happy
with these two names.
What about you?
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Last updated: October 24, 2002
