My Dad Could Be John Lee But Was Denied By The Government

On a weird attempt to standardise name transcription spellings and a possible origin of the Chinese/English name “tradition”

You guys can all see/hear (remember Medium’s new features?) that my name is Anthony LI (I use capitals just to let you see how it is spelt).

According to traditions (and patriarchy), you will suppose my dad’s surname is also Li, so was my granddad’s.

Congrats, you are half correct. My dad’s surname is Li. It’s true. But my granddad’s surname is, in fact, LEE.

This has always been so weird in the family tree as some of the descendants from my granddad (i.e. my uncles, my aunt, my dad, and my cousins. Sorry for complicating things) bears the surname Lee, and Li for some, though having the same Chinese surname of 李 (meaning “plum”).

I told my colleagues during my working holiday in the UK about this weird surname thing in my family. They were like, “How?” “How can your dad prove that he is a son of his dad? Their surnames are different.”

Then I was like, “Maybe the Chinese surname helps?” Shrugs.

Well, but if you look into it, it gets even weirder.

My father is the smallest child in a family of seven. Among his siblings, only my third uncle (1956–2018) has the surname Li. The other siblings of my dad (my two eldest uncles and my aunt) surname Lee.

Once I asked my dad about birth certificates because in a phone call between my dad and one of my uncles I (over)heard that only my third uncle and my dad have an official birth certificate issued by then Hong Kong government.

He answered, “Because back then only those who were born in hospital could get a birth certificate. But before there was a law about it, a baby could be born anywhere else.” (Like a manger, I suppose?)

In my family, it is well known that you need to think twice before believing what my dad says. Because what he says is full of traps. I have a little doubt on these statements but I'm too lazy to investigate.

Backstory: He claims that he has an IQ score of 175 in an IQ test in primary school but he intentionally made answers wrong on a second try because he didn't want to be sent to the UK for his intelligence as he is Chinese. He regrets the decision of the youth self since 2019.

Backstory of the backstory: He had found a book of IQ tests and answers in the school library. He had accidentally prepared for the tests. He also claims that he caused the close-down of the school library because he asked his teacher about some secondary level maths question when he was P.4 because he honestly told the teacher he found that secondary school textbook in the school library.

My dad didn't study after P.6. It was just before the implementation of the 9-year mandatory education.

Therefore, it would be reasonable that only the two of them could get a birth certificate and this might be the reason their surname is different.

I FOUND THAT MY GRANDDAD’S SURNAME WAS “LI” ON MY DAD’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

Just how? Did the government officer even bothered to check how the surname was spelt? English was still the sole official language in Hong Kong back in 1959, when my dad was born. Did the government officer mistakenly thought that Chinese prevails since the family is Sinitic (ethnic Chinese, let’s not follow the game by who confuses nationality and ethnicity)? Or is it some government agenda to make all newborns having the same Chinese surname spell the same?

Dr. Shin Kataoka wrote in 2014 that the Hong Kong government standardised all the spellings in Hong Kong’s place names in around 1960. I suspect that they could do similar things for newborns’ names around that period too.

The government succeeded and failed at the same time. (See the footnote on Heng On Estate in Dr. Kataoka’s article) The transcriptions became more phonetic (though still not perfect as Cantonese, the lingua franca here, is tonal which the transcriptions can’t handle, and more).

李 is pronounced lei5, transcribed in Jyutping. But phonetics and phonology tell us that it was pronounced li5 in the past. In fact, the transcriptions still preserve the old pronunciation. All Mr. and Ms. 李 from Hong Kong that I know are either Lee or Li. There is no third option. It’d be fun if I see a LY or LEIGH or even LEA, to be honest.

I had a classmate surnames 利 (lei6) and spells LEI. It is more phonetic to the current pronunciation but I think it's rare.

Back to my uncle and my dad’s LI. They were born just a few years before 1960 when the government standardised the place name transcriptions. If they had to do it for people’s names, it would be either before or after that year. And reasonably it should take a few years for a starting generation, then all the local-born kids would have a standardised surname in two to three generations.

If what my dad said about birth certificates for hospital-born babies was true, it would be the best chance to start the standardisation of all names in Hong Kong.

IF THEY DON’T FORGET OR GIVE UP. My cousins born in 1970s and 1980s, some of my old classmates born in 1990s, and some of my old students born in 2000s are Lees.

Therefore, I’d rather believe that the change of my dad’s supposed surname was a failed attempt to standardise all the surnames or even given names in Hong Kong.

My dad got a christened name John when he was still a child who went to the church run by the Salvation Army with his mother. My dad recalled that my third uncle also had a christened name but he (John, my dad) forgot what his (my third uncle’s) is.

Obviously I can’t ask my third uncle now. See above for the reason.

Every time my dad gets to introduce himself using English he goes for John.

Even though there is just a few chances that my dad would speak English, basically just some words thrown (you know his education level). His pronunciation is on-point, even better than my mum (fun fact: Eva), whose education level is S.3.

Backstory: Dad's English teacher was a local New Territories villager (圍頭仔), which means "rich guy", who had studied in Oxford. And the teacher asked his students to mime his pronunciation. My dad says. So basically my dad throws single English words in an old kind of Received Pronunciation. I once heard that he has a perfect English accent on "look". I was shocked. Crazy.

Perhaps that is somehow the start of Hong Kong’s “tradition” of having a “Chinese name” and an “English (but mostly not official) name” at the same time among Hongkongers.

But my dad, John, chooses not to become a Christian. He says he doesn’t obey the Ten Commandments, he criticises the Bible after studying it, and he would definitely be damned to hell when he dies.

But he still keeps his christened name. Hmmmm, a bit weird.

Even I grew up in missionary schools I don't remember what the Ten Commandments are except those "no killing" and "no stealing" things.

I also remember saying that I would like to be baptised when I grow up but later in my teenage I believe it's more of a peer pressure than my own will. So I actually never do it. God know all, so He would forgive me for this?

My primary school is from the Pentecostal church. When I told my working holiday colleagues of this, they were shocked. I don't understand why. Could someone be wise enough to explain the reasons to me?

So my dad is John Lee but is not John Lee because the government tried to standardise Lee to become Li and the christened name John is never in his official documents.

“John Lee” was denied and he is forever Mr. Li.

Maybe it’s a blessing for my family because my dad would not be mistakenly sanctioned by other countries. Dad’s Chinese name never sounds like Pikachu, though.

Lastly I should clarify that shirley lee 🍛🍳 and I are not related although I could be surnamed Lee in an alternate universe.

Reference: