Why “Bold Little Swallow”?
(This was also added as a new page on WordPress for future visitors to this blog who may wonder what’s behind the name “Bold Little Swallow”.)
Some people recently have asked me about the name of this blog — or rather, they have teased me over it (“Oh hey, it’s little sparrow — or is a little starling?”). So here’s the explanation of it:
In Chinese culture, the swallow is a well-liked and auspicious creature, often a symbol of springtime and, since they are often seen in pairs, they represent romantic love and couples. It is also associated with a popular type of kite popular in China, especially in Beijing, which actually was named Yanjing (literally: swallow capital) in older times. The kite, called “Beijing Swallow Kites”, “Sand Martin Kites” (after the name of a type of swallow), “Beijing Sand Kites” and etc, is colorful and has the shape of a swallow in flight. This was the inspiration behind one of the Fuwa (Olympic mascots) for the Beijing Olympics. (Purely by coincidence, I also have a keychain of this Fuwa, given to me by a Chinese scholar who has no idea about this internet alias of mine.)
Swallows seem representative of a sweet, gentle temperament and youthful optimism. Though still in my twenties, I find myself getting bitter and jaded about quite a few things, and I would like to make an effort to be more happy and joyful.
However, many people who are happy with a sort of youthful, childlike joy are often also meek and can be pushovers. As a friend of mine put it, I definitely have a bit of chutzpah in me, a quality that I really like in myself. The best translation I’ve found for chutzpah (and Jewish friends, do feel free to correct me) is audacity, a word that comes from the Latin word for “bold”. Not only is it good for self-preservation (preventing one from being a pushover), but I think people overall need to be more assertive and bold in whatever they do. There is too much injustice in this world, too many people who will take advantage of others, too many goals and dreams that are abandoned, too many fears and worries bogging people down. In order to make this world a better place, it takes a proper ratio of starry-eyed optimism (the spirit of a twitterpated springtime birds) and chutzpah or boldness.
Hence the name.
For those who know some Mandarin Chinese, this blog’s name also was chosen along with its Chinese translation: 大敢小燕. Not only is it four characters (and Chinese just loves four character phrases), but it also plays with the contrast of “大/big” and “小/small” within the phrase.
jtothemo said,
January 12, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I think it’s a perfect description! I love the name.
Little Swallow said,
January 13, 2009 at 11:55 am
Yay! I’m glad someone else likes it too and thinks it’s suitable.
Driftingfocus said,
January 15, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I think that’s a very well-chosen name. I know that you chose your Chinese name based on a few factors – out of curiousity (so don’t labor over it), what sort of name would you give me?
Little Swallow said,
January 16, 2009 at 6:55 pm
And of course I realized that I wrote the wrong character for my own blog’s name: it’s 大胆小燕. I typed the second character as 敢/gǎn (which in 勇敢/yònggǎn means brave) when it should be 胆 (which means gall, nerve, or in 大胆 means bold, audacious). Oops! I’ll fix it on the page soon, but I’ll leave it as my own silly mistake on this post.
Regarding Kelsey’s name: if I didn’t like you, I’d name you 可惜 (kěxī), which sounds like Kelsey but means “what a shame!” That was the first thing that came to my mind — because of the sound though, not because of you!
It looks like “Kelsey” actually means brave or bold, so I would incorporate the character 勇/yòng or 胆/dǎn in it, not only because I think it’s neat to carry over the meaning of one’s name, but also because I think it really suits you. Both of these are found primarily in boys’ names (this is not a feminine trait), but I think you could handle that. One of the scholars this semester, a sweet man, had a character in his name that’s normally in girls’ names, and a female Korean student I knew had a name with “research” or something intellectually-masculine in it, so I think this isn’t totally taboo, and since you’re an American anyway you could get away with it.
I’d have to think about the rest of it though. There’s the surname, which for an American can just be picked from a list of the most common surnames (there are only 300 or so total, and most of the population uses the top 50 or 100 or something). Then there’s the other character in your given name, which could be just about anything: it could be something more feminine to balance out the masculine “brave/bold” character (red, swallow, beautiful, a type of flower, jade, etc), or it could be 喜/xǐ which means “happy” and rhymes with your first name, or it could be some other characteristic.
Josiah said,
January 16, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Okay, okay. So I can’t remember “bald little sparrow” or whatever it is. Jeesh! But I forgive you for mocking me because you provided a suitable definition of chutzpah.
Driftingfocus said,
January 16, 2009 at 7:58 pm
The question though, Josiah, is…can she pronounce it correctly?
Thank you Rose for the suggestion/explanation of my name. I’m curious to see what you’ll come up with for the second character.
Little Swallow said,
January 16, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Can I pronounce it? After German and Chinese, which both have the “ch” and “tz” sounds in chutzpah, I’d better be able to!
And yes, eventually I hope to be better at coming up with Chinese names — the problem right now is that I only know so few Chinese names as examples! I hope that after teaching tons of students in China I’ll get more of a knack for it, certainly not to the level of Chinese speakers (even native speakers typically consult with a few friends or respected colleagues before settling on a name) but hopefully good enough to give my future students names!
Driftingfocus said,
January 16, 2009 at 8:09 pm
The thing about Yiddish is that “ch” doesn’t sound like “ch” at all. “chutzpah” ends up being pronounced somewhere closer to “hutspah” with a bit of a throat roll on the h.
Little Swallow said,
January 16, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Yes yes, I meant the “ch” in “chutzpah”, not the typical English “ch” sound. It’s the same in German (ch in Buch, it’s just not at the beginning of words as far as I remember). It’s the same with “h” in Chinese, which CAN happen at the beginning of words.
ADC said,
January 17, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Hello sis!
I have not been a faithful blog fan lately and just realized you switched sites. I have now bookmarked this one and am glad to have read such a fabulous entry first. I also meandered around a bit to see some fabulous Kate-photos!
The site looks great. Very “you.”
And I still can’t believe you’re going to China so soon!
Little Swallow said,
January 17, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I noticed you weren’t checking recently, but I decided not to guilt-trip you — after all, new house, new job, many things on your plate! And yes, it probably won’t sink in that I’m going to China until I get to Shanghai and I realize, wow, I’m in China. Crazy!