My name

Hello! My name is Chong Ai Rene. But I usually go with the name Rene Chong because there are way too many Irene’s around me and I can’t stand people spelling my name as ‘irene’. I have nothing against ‘Irene’. It’s just that Irene is not me.

張愛玲（or 张爱玲 in simplified Chinese) is my Chinese name (obviously). Pronounced as ‘zhang ai ling’, I share the same name as one of the most celebrated contemporary fiction author. For years, people have always asked me, ‘are your parents big fan of Eileen zhang?’

Not at all. In fact, they have never read any of Zhang’s work! The reason I was given this Chinese name is because…

They foresee I have a future in writing!

Obviously, that’s a lie! I was given this Chinese name just because it sounded like Ai Rene.

Sometimes, I hoped that there are some meaning behind my name (besides sharing the same name with someone famous).

But overall, I am very satisfied with my name. When I went to Taiwan with my family for a trip 4 years ago, the tour guide brought us to some fortune telling place.

They were saying that if your Chinese name’s character has 3, 9 or 12 strokes, you will lead a good life ( or something similar to that).

They were looking into our names, trying to convince us to revise or change the character of our name.

When they found out that my name fits the criteria of the ‘lucky number’, hah! Their expression changed from ‘smile, she’s a potential customer’ to ‘blegh, don’t waste my time’.

This number of stroke theory is totally absurd but sometimes it’s nice to know that ‘something’ is looking after you.

So, would you tell me what’s your name?