Dr. X's real name was a sequence of shushing noises, disembodied 
metallic buzzes, unearthly quasi-Germanic vowels, and half-swallowed R's, 
invariably mangled by Westerners. Possibly for political reasons, he preferred 
not to pick a fake Western name like many Asians, instead suggesting, in a 
vaguely patronizing way, that they should just be satisfied with calling him 
Dr. X—that letter being the first in the Pinyin spelling of his 
name.