PBS高端访谈:我们应该为自己的本名感到自豪

（单词翻译）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: a reflection on heritage and how, in the melting pot of America, a name can provide a concrete link to family traditions. Filmed before the Georgia shootings, writer Te-Ping Chen recently shared her Humble¹ Opinion that people need to embrace ethnic² names and not shy away from them.

TE-PING CHEN, Author, "Land of Big Numbers": As a child, I was given a boy's name. Ours was a family of three girls, but my parents wanted to honor my paternal³ grandfather. I was their last child, so I wound up with his name. For years, my name, Te-Ping, has made me feel incredibly conspicuous⁴. Growing up in California, I learned to hate introducing myself, because so few people could ever pronounce my name. Tee-ping, they'd say. Tuh-ping, they'd say. My cheeks would burn, and I'd feel stiffly uncomfortable, like a searching spotlight⁵ moving over a crowd had suddenly fixed⁶ on me. In Chinese, the name sounds gently affectionate and lilting to my ears. The Te means virtue⁷. Ping means peace. But, in English, the letters looked clumsy to me on a page, awkward and off-balance. At restaurants and in coffee shops, I grew used to giving out a fake name. It was easier than hearing someone stumble over mine. And yet my parents were proud of the name, proud of what it stood for. They were Americans, but they hadn't left their heritage behind. Our family tradition of names dates back centuries, to the Song dynasty, with every generation's name taking a different character from a poem Ming-Chong-Shu (ph), and, in my generation's case, Te. Why would they throw that away for a Jessica or a Molly, a name that had no meaning to them? I now understand. We name ourselves to honor our forbearers who carried us here, a beloved grandmother, a so-and-so III. We anchor ourselves that way. We acknowledge the soil we're made from. History is precious. It doesn't survive unless you choose to embrace it. For so many years, my name has felt like a flag that's stuck out bristling⁸ from any form or name tag. But that's OK. It's a name that's made me think hard about identity. In that way, it's helped make me who I am, even when it's uncomfortable. I recently had a son, and we gave him a Chinese name, too. His name means joy. It didn't occur to me to do it any other way. There's strength in saying that, yes, you're here, we're here. So what if the tongue stumbles? This is where we come from, and these are our names.

JUDY WOODRUFF: An important message for all of us to hear.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：现在：看看传统以及在美国的大熔炉中，一个名字可以怎样与家庭传统相关联。这条视频拍摄于佐治亚州枪击案之前，作家陈德平与大家分享了她的观点，即人们需要接受本名，而不是回避它们。

《人口大国》作者陈德平：小时候，我就被起了个男孩的名字。我们家有三个女儿，但我父母想纪念我的祖父。我是他们最小的孩子，所以我起了他的名字。多年来，我的名字“德平”让我觉得自己非常显眼。在加利福尼亚长大的我讨厌自我介绍，因为很少有人能说出我的名字。他们会说“泰平”，还有人会说“图平”。我的脸颊会发烫，我会感到僵硬的不适感，就像一个在人群中移动的聚光灯突然照在我身上。在中文里，这个名字听起来温柔亲切，轻快悦耳。“德”意味着美德，“平”意味着和平。但是在英文里，这些字母在我看来很笨拙，而且是失衡的。在餐馆和咖啡店，我渐渐习惯了用假名。这比听到别人叫错我的名字要好得多。但我的父母为这个名字感到骄傲，为它所代表的一切感到骄傲。他们是美国人，但他们没有抛弃他们的传统。我们家族的名字传统可以追溯到几百年前的宋朝，每一代人的名字都从某首诗中取一个字，我们这代人是“德”。为什么他们会选择这个名字，而放弃“杰西卡”或“莫莉”，一个对他们来说毫无意义的名字？我现在明白了。我们给自己起名，是为了纪念把我们带到这里的先辈：一位敬爱的祖母，什么三世。我们就这样把自己固定住，我们承认我们的根基。历史是宝贵的，除非你选择接受它，否则它不会存活下来。这么多年来，我的名字就像一面旗帜，竖立在任何形式或名牌上。但没关系，这个名字让我开始认真思考自己的身份。通过这种方式，它帮助我塑造了我自己，即使是在不舒服的时候。我最近有了个儿子，我们也给他起了个中文名字，他的名字意味着快乐。我没有想到要用别的方法做这件事。你在这里，我们在这里，说出这话是很有力量的。如果很绕口怎么办？我们来自这里，这就是我们的名字。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：这是一个很重要的信息，我们所有人都应该听听。