Perhaps, you have been incorrectly pronouncing Shaun’s name all this time – “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings“
Releasing on Friday, Sept 3, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” features Simu Liu playing Shaun, who appears as an ordinary man working as a valet in San Francisco. Later, the movie reveals that he was training to be an assassin for a notorious Ten Rings army. His double role brings more surprises and excitement to the audience when the story reveals that Shaun is not his real name. Shang- Chi is.
Katy, whose original name is Awkwafina, innocently mispronounced his friend’s name, which is a common experience for Shaun, whose name was not as simple as “John” or “Emily”. To make her learn, Shaun teaches Katy a clever mnemonic device: “Its “Shaun” with an extra g , that’s it”
Asian Americans can relate to the confusion that arises with having two different names. The Asian name seems too “convenient” while the American one suits the English speakers.
In fact, according to the star, it took him a long time to get used to his original name, “Liu” as he says, “I would’ve given anything to change my name to something a little bit more Anglicized,”. He further added, I gave my parents a lot of crap and asked, ‘Why didn’t you just name me ‘Steve’ or ‘Tommy?'”
Michelle Yeoh is familiar with the cost of sacrificing one’s name. She is playing “Ying Nan” – Shaun’s aunt, in the movie. She revealed that how she got under immense social pressure to change her Chinese name as she says, “I only adopted the name Michelle when I got into the film industry because my producer said at the time, ‘No one is going to be able to say your name,'”
Initially, it sounded ridiculous to Michelle Yeoh, and she said, “What do you mean they can’t say it? It’s Yeoh as in Yo, that’s easy, right? Choo as in ‘choo choo train’ and Kheng as in ‘king.’ Why can’t you put those three words together?”
However, unfortunately, she had to change her name, and today she is popular with the name she chose for herself to get into the industry.
