As the Chinese living overseas, I think I've been asked this question most. Hello everyone, welcome back to my channel, the Chinese Ginger. Today instead of sharing with you guys Chinese cooking recipes, I'm going to do a little bit of a cultural talk so that you guys can know a little bit more about Chinese culture and society. My name is Peter, probably by hearing the name, you already have the question coming up. Why your name is Peter? You're Chinese. Why do Chinese people and some Asian people have two names? One, Western name and one name in Chinese or Korean or Vietnamese. Well, this is actually the most common question I've been asked living overseas by non-Chinese people. So I thought it might be interesting to do a video about this topic. Well, let's start from myself. I have two names, one English name, which is Peter, as I just told you, and my official Chinese name is Yufei, Yufei means universe and Fei means fly, and my surname is Jiang, which literally in Chinese means Ginger. That's the reason why this channel is called the Chinese Ginger, although I'm not red-hat. As Ginger is the meaning of my surname and one fundamental ingredient in Chinese cooking, that's why I've decided to call my channel the Chinese Ginger. If we want to know the reason behind this tradition or costum, I think we need to go back to the 19th century. That's when the first wave of Chinese immigration to the United States started. At that time, in order to adapt to the society, a lot of the Chinese immigrants, the first groups of Chinese immigrants, decided to give their children both an English name and a Chinese name. Probably you're going to ask why they need to give their children an English name. Well, because it's just easier for non-Chinese people to remember. For example, let's do a test. I just told you my Chinese name, and do you still remember what my Chinese name is? See, it's much more difficult to remember our Chinese names for non-Chinese speakers. That's the reason why the Chinese immigrants in the United States started to have both English name and Chinese name. There are a lot of famous Chinese American people. For example, Lucy Liu, whose Chinese name is Liu Yulin, and Vera Wang, whose Chinese name is one way way, and also Bruce Lee or Jimmy Chu, all of them, they have their English name, and probably they're more famous with their English name. But as Chinese people, we always know that they also have a Chinese name. Now, let's talk about when Chinese people living in China started to have this costume or tradition of having an English name and a Chinese name. Well, I think we need to go back to the late 70s, were early 80s. That's when China started to open store. That's what we say in China. That China started to open store and started to communicate more with the international world. And also, at that time, China started its economic reforming, which has a huge impact on today's Chinese economy. So, of course, at that time, people living in China started to have more access to the outside world. They started to listen to the music, the English music. They started to watch English movies from Hollywood. They started to get in touch with a fashion as well. And also, people started to realize that it was really important to learn English because that's the only way that you can communicate with people from all over the world. Actually, by the way, the second language in 60s or before 60s for my grandparents in China was Russian and say 1970s were 80s, they started to change into English. And at that time, when more and more people started to learn English, people started to pick up their own English name. For example, from their favorite singers, were from their favorite actors, were actresses, it was just like that. I think from a generation, a lot of us, we were given our English name by our English teachers. High school or primary school. My English name Peter was given by my primary school teacher, English teacher, when I was eight or seven years old. So, I've been called Peter sings then for almost 20 years. Although it's not an official name, I feel already attached to it as part of myself. And as young people who have good command of English from post 70s and 80s start to be parents, they tend to give their own children their English names while they give their children Chinese names. And nowadays, more and more people simply use their Chinese names, even with non-Chinese speakers. Personally, I think it is a very good trending because our names in Chinese are actually culture and we should be proud of our own culture and we should reserve our own cultural identity wall. So, I think that is a quite positive thing. And also, we have to mention other countries in Asia. For example, countries like Singapore or Malaysia, they all used to be British colonies. So, in these countries, they have great influence from Western countries. But what takes Singapore as one example, in Singapore, 90% of the population, they're ethnically Chinese. However, as it was a British colony and English is one of the official languages in Singapore. So, people always tend to have both an English name and also a Chinese name. The situation is similar in Malaysia. As Malaysia is a multi-part of different cultures. There are Malay people, there are Chinese people, there are Indian people. Although, I think English is not one official language there. All people speak English variable. So, people always tend to, especially Chinese people, they tend to have their English name, I suppose, their Chinese name. Okay, guys, that's all for today's video. I hope my video has helped you understand a little bit more about Chinese and Asian culture. If you want more cultural talk videos like this or if you want more Chinese cooking recipes, please give me a like and follow my channel. Okay, guys, thank you so much for watching my video. If you have any questions, if you have any suggestions, please comment below and let me know. Thank you so much again and see you next time.