Little Lotus - Vol. 1 Ch. 2 - Little Lotus
- Thread starter MangaDex
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I'm not from Ho Chi Minh city so I may not know about some places mentioned in manga, but I may help with the clarification with Nguyễn Chi Liên is Nguyen Chi Sen as the community suggest.
We should start with how Vietnamese parents name their children. Every time a new life is born, the whole family will discuss how to name the child, a name is said to reflect the child's personality as well as the hope from predecessors for the child to live on with the personality reflected. In general, we use names as the Kinh ethnic group does (they occupy for around 80% of vietnam's population); most of them or Sino-Vietnamese words - our spoken language has 70% of those words as base). The reason Sino-Vietnamese are used because in VN Sino-Vietnamese words are considered more sacred, richer in meanings, signify respect. I could mention some common names and their meaning: Hùng (Gấu/Bear), Thảo (cỏ/Grass), Thu (Chinese origin/ autumn), Nghĩa (Chinese origin/ duty), Long (Rồng/dragon).
So Nguyễn Chi Liên (lotus) aka Nguyen Chi Sen is just a swap between Sino-Vietnamese and pure Vietnamese. This transition brought a fresh view on Vietnam's culture when a word has two ways to express itself. Lotus is our National Flower, it symbolizes purity, elegance; and Nguyen Chi Liên is not a simple character, her name implies she may inherit the Good of Vietnamese's Women in general. Being beautiful, graceful, pure but resilient and compassionate.
We should start with how Vietnamese parents name their children. Every time a new life is born, the whole family will discuss how to name the child, a name is said to reflect the child's personality as well as the hope from predecessors for the child to live on with the personality reflected. In general, we use names as the Kinh ethnic group does (they occupy for around 80% of vietnam's population); most of them or Sino-Vietnamese words - our spoken language has 70% of those words as base). The reason Sino-Vietnamese are used because in VN Sino-Vietnamese words are considered more sacred, richer in meanings, signify respect. I could mention some common names and their meaning: Hùng (Gấu/Bear), Thảo (cỏ/Grass), Thu (Chinese origin/ autumn), Nghĩa (Chinese origin/ duty), Long (Rồng/dragon).
So Nguyễn Chi Liên (lotus) aka Nguyen Chi Sen is just a swap between Sino-Vietnamese and pure Vietnamese. This transition brought a fresh view on Vietnam's culture when a word has two ways to express itself. Lotus is our National Flower, it symbolizes purity, elegance; and Nguyen Chi Liên is not a simple character, her name implies she may inherit the Good of Vietnamese's Women in general. Being beautiful, graceful, pure but resilient and compassionate.
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About how to interact with people in Vietnam. we use the expression "Xưng khiêm hô tôn" (literally call yourself with humble words, call others respectfully). so Mr. that Liên used is an English equivalent to Anh/Ông/Ngài/Bác/Chú/Cậu/.... (Big Brother, Mister, Sir, Uncle). Sorry for Bác/Chú/Cậu only has uncle as English words. We really differentiate the male from families. When a marriage happens, the 2 families become connected (hence we call it Thông gia). Now we come to some cases when our father or mother has brother/sisters in marriageable ages, and a child are expected to remember these things at heart:
1. If they are big brothers/sisters in either mom or dad's families, the spouses (both of them) are henced call as Bác/Bá
2. If mother has a little brother, he marries then the spouse is call Mợ, while the brother is called Cậu (Aunt and Uncle, with the Uncle on mother's side)
3. If mother has a little sister, she marries then the spouse is called Chú, the little sister is called Dì (Still Aunt and Uncle, with Aunt on mother's side)
4. If father has a little brother, he marries then the spouse is called Thím, while the brother is called Chú (still Aunt and Uncle, with Uncle from father's side)
5. If father has a little sister, she marries then the spouse is called Chú, the sister is mentioned as Cô (still Aunt and Uncle, with Aunt from father's side)
What mess up this thing further, is that this rule should be applied when our grandparents and great grandparents have children and grandchildren; so cousins from both mother's and father's side should be mentioned just like the above rules (Just swap little brother/sister with cousins)
In wartime periods (we experienced war till 1975), some families are forever separated, leaving orphans behind. Many families adopted orphan children under their wings and the brothers, sisters cared for each other. Later when the adopted child got his/her own family map, two 2 families still call each others obliged to rules, albeit with more freedom
1. If they are big brothers/sisters in either mom or dad's families, the spouses (both of them) are henced call as Bác/Bá
2. If mother has a little brother, he marries then the spouse is call Mợ, while the brother is called Cậu (Aunt and Uncle, with the Uncle on mother's side)
3. If mother has a little sister, she marries then the spouse is called Chú, the little sister is called Dì (Still Aunt and Uncle, with Aunt on mother's side)
4. If father has a little brother, he marries then the spouse is called Thím, while the brother is called Chú (still Aunt and Uncle, with Uncle from father's side)
5. If father has a little sister, she marries then the spouse is called Chú, the sister is mentioned as Cô (still Aunt and Uncle, with Aunt from father's side)
What mess up this thing further, is that this rule should be applied when our grandparents and great grandparents have children and grandchildren; so cousins from both mother's and father's side should be mentioned just like the above rules (Just swap little brother/sister with cousins)
In wartime periods (we experienced war till 1975), some families are forever separated, leaving orphans behind. Many families adopted orphan children under their wings and the brothers, sisters cared for each other. Later when the adopted child got his/her own family map, two 2 families still call each others obliged to rules, albeit with more freedom
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