Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A name too unusual for the Chinese government

I love this story. From the NYT this morning:

It seems that by far the most common Chinese surname is Ma, meaning 'horse', so Ms Ma cleverly added the symbol for Cheng or 'galloping steeds' (three horses, get it?) and uses the combination as her name. Alas, that ideogram can't get read by computer. So the government is bearing down on Ms Ma Cheng and won't give her a permanent ID card. She must apply for a temporary one every three months.

Perhaps we could do the same to the rappers who adopt such non-names as Fifty Cent? Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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