What's in a Chinese Name? II

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

A Woman Called ‘Hey’

Thirty-five years ago, a Bouyei ethnic minority member was trafficked across China to a faraway village where nobody spoke her language. This year, she miraculously found her way home.

Only this year, when Li Xinmei finally discovered her mother’s true identity did someone explain to her that the pillow knife is a custom of the Bouyei ethnicity, a minority group that lives mostly in Guizhou province, some 900 kilometers southwest from their village Zaosheng in central China’s Henan province. The knife, Li Xinmei learned, keeps nightmares at bay. And what her mother went through would disturb anyone’s sleep.

In a winter 35 years ago, Li Xinmei’s mother was abducted by human traffickers from the train station of Chongqing, a city neighboring Guizhou. She was taken to Zaosheng and sold to Li Xinmei’s aunt, who meant for her to become the wife of Li Xinmei’s father, Li Wei. He thought the short and dark-skinned woman was ugly. Her abductors had beaten her, and she was missing several teeth. Her ears were bleeding, which, Li Wei figured, explained why she had poor hearing. He didn’t want to marry her, but eventually gave in to his sister’s insistence. Li Xinmei’s mother had become one of the many women who have been trafficked across or into China to be forced into marriages.

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2869429493375892/

 

Quote

Named “Zhaodi,” or “Brother Requested,” by her paternal grandmother, a woman lived under a name she hated for almost her entire life. Although the custom is less common in China now, there are still many girls branded with similar epithets.