Laotian Wat in Luang Prabang

A panoramic view of a wat (a Buddhist monastery or temple) in Luang Prabang, Laos. There are a lot of French and Buddhist influences here.

Blog News and Demystifying Culture

Hey guys, just a quick update regarding my blog and some more. I will not be able to post for a while as I have been having extremely unstable internet connection recently. It seems surprisingly quick for now so I’m using this opportunity to provide an update. My internet line will be undergoing maintenance until the 12 of July but hopefully it will be fixed before that.

In the mean time, here’s my two cents regarding names of different origins. The cultures I will be referring to are the Chinese and Western. Let’s take for example, an English name, John Smith. John is the first name and Smith is the last. Then let’s have a Chinese name, Xie Mei Li for example (I am just making this up as I go along lol). Officially, Xie is the last name (surname) and Mei Li will be the first. So if it is written in Western culture, it will be Mei Li Xie.

The interesting bit is, the person will most likely not respond if you call her Mei. You either have to call her Mei Li or Li. Why? In Chinese culture, Li is like John, the first name. Mei is a middle name. If you call the person Mei, it will be like calling Johnathan…Nat. Or Abraham, Ham.

Coming up next will either be a visual art (pencil and paper) or digital art. We will know..once my internet is no longer throwing tantrums.