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ljwritesAs part of my quest for new authors to profile I'm reading a really excellent work of fanfic that I'm enjoying a lot. However, it contains one of my old peeves in fanfic, the use of Japanese names for Fire Nation characters. It's not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the story, but it is something I notice.
As far as I can see from the ATLA canon the only place where Japanese names are used with any regularity is Kiyoshi Island, with a cat named Miyuki in "The Blue Spirit" episode being the only inland example. All other Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation names, and indeed all Water Tribe and Air Nomad names that we have letters for are read in a recognizably Chinese way, though not exactly the same way as modern Mandarin (Beijing) Chinese. For instance, just taking the names from the Tales of Ba Sing Se episode:
Katara: 卡塔拉 reads Katala in modern Mandarin. You can hear the pronunciation here. The letter Ka (card) is probably phonetic; ta (tower) is again likely phonetic. La (pull) is the same letter as the Ocean Spirit's name.
Toph: 托夫 reads Tuofu. Means "entrust man/husband."
Iroh: 艾洛 reads Ailuo. 艾 can mean stop, beautiful, or old depending on the context, and Luo is a letter mostly only used in proper nouns (like 洛河, a river in China), though it can also mean "repetitive" as in 洛诵, "repeat or recite from memory."
Lu Ten: 路腾 (near as I can tell) reads Luteng, meaning "road gallop."
Aang: 安昂 reads Anang, meaning "calmly raise head." Edited to add: Alternately, An may be Aang's surname.
Sokka: 索卡 reads Suoka, meaning "search/explore card." The letter "ka" shared with Katara is probably phonetic, but the first part actually seems to fit his personality.
Zuko: 蘇科 reads Suke, meaning "rebirth species/science" or something like that. I like to think of it as the rebirth of reason.
Momo: 模模 reads Momo, meaning "role model." Probably phonetic, possibly referring to 桃 (momo) for peach in Japanese.
In contrast to the foregoing, the name Kiyoshi (京士, kyoshi) is a distinctly Japanese pronunciation wholly different from the Chinese or Korean pronunciation of the same letters, which would be Jingshi and Gyeongsa respectively. It's how you can tell that Kiyoshi has a language and culture of its own different from the mainland Earth Kingdom.
This linguistic difference also sets Kiyoshi Island apart from the Fire Nation. The Chinese-derived pronunciations Zuko and Lu Ten, for instance, would be Sosuka and Rotou respectively in Japanese. Roku does sound like the "six" in Japanese, but since we don't have the characters for his name the weight of the evidence says Fire Nation names are Chinese. Besides, I'd be sort of bummed if one of the most kickass Avatars of all time was named after a number.
This is why I get a pause when Japanese names are used for Fire Nation characters, because there's no canon basis for it and the naming seems to mix up different cultures without explanation. It feels especially odd when people within the same family have mixed names, such as Zuko's daughter having a Japanese name without any indication that the family is multicultural. For one thing, it seems to take away from the uniqueness of Kiyoshi Island, and for another the setup mixes up cultures and languages without examining the intriguing implications of actually mixed cultures/languages.
I'd like to emphasize that I'm not against multiple cultures and languages in fanfic; in fact what I'm saying is the opposite. The ATLA canon had lots of different peoples interacting, and that's where a lot of its fun came from. What I object to is cultural differences going unrecognized, as though the different Asian languages are interchangeable with each other. Multiculturalism is fascinating. A multicultural setup that's treated like a single culture is puzzling.
I'm probably being a big Asian Snob here, and as I said it's a small peeve that doesn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the stories. It's something I can't help but notice, though, and I thought I'd rant and get it off my chest.
As far as I can see from the ATLA canon the only place where Japanese names are used with any regularity is Kiyoshi Island, with a cat named Miyuki in "The Blue Spirit" episode being the only inland example. All other Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation names, and indeed all Water Tribe and Air Nomad names that we have letters for are read in a recognizably Chinese way, though not exactly the same way as modern Mandarin (Beijing) Chinese. For instance, just taking the names from the Tales of Ba Sing Se episode:
Katara: 卡塔拉 reads Katala in modern Mandarin. You can hear the pronunciation here. The letter Ka (card) is probably phonetic; ta (tower) is again likely phonetic. La (pull) is the same letter as the Ocean Spirit's name.
Toph: 托夫 reads Tuofu. Means "entrust man/husband."
Iroh: 艾洛 reads Ailuo. 艾 can mean stop, beautiful, or old depending on the context, and Luo is a letter mostly only used in proper nouns (like 洛河, a river in China), though it can also mean "repetitive" as in 洛诵, "repeat or recite from memory."
Lu Ten: 路腾 (near as I can tell) reads Luteng, meaning "road gallop."
Aang: 安昂 reads Anang, meaning "calmly raise head." Edited to add: Alternately, An may be Aang's surname.
Sokka: 索卡 reads Suoka, meaning "search/explore card." The letter "ka" shared with Katara is probably phonetic, but the first part actually seems to fit his personality.
Zuko: 蘇科 reads Suke, meaning "rebirth species/science" or something like that. I like to think of it as the rebirth of reason.
Momo: 模模 reads Momo, meaning "role model." Probably phonetic, possibly referring to 桃 (momo) for peach in Japanese.
In contrast to the foregoing, the name Kiyoshi (京士, kyoshi) is a distinctly Japanese pronunciation wholly different from the Chinese or Korean pronunciation of the same letters, which would be Jingshi and Gyeongsa respectively. It's how you can tell that Kiyoshi has a language and culture of its own different from the mainland Earth Kingdom.
This linguistic difference also sets Kiyoshi Island apart from the Fire Nation. The Chinese-derived pronunciations Zuko and Lu Ten, for instance, would be Sosuka and Rotou respectively in Japanese. Roku does sound like the "six" in Japanese, but since we don't have the characters for his name the weight of the evidence says Fire Nation names are Chinese. Besides, I'd be sort of bummed if one of the most kickass Avatars of all time was named after a number.
This is why I get a pause when Japanese names are used for Fire Nation characters, because there's no canon basis for it and the naming seems to mix up different cultures without explanation. It feels especially odd when people within the same family have mixed names, such as Zuko's daughter having a Japanese name without any indication that the family is multicultural. For one thing, it seems to take away from the uniqueness of Kiyoshi Island, and for another the setup mixes up cultures and languages without examining the intriguing implications of actually mixed cultures/languages.
I'd like to emphasize that I'm not against multiple cultures and languages in fanfic; in fact what I'm saying is the opposite. The ATLA canon had lots of different peoples interacting, and that's where a lot of its fun came from. What I object to is cultural differences going unrecognized, as though the different Asian languages are interchangeable with each other. Multiculturalism is fascinating. A multicultural setup that's treated like a single culture is puzzling.
I'm probably being a big Asian Snob here, and as I said it's a small peeve that doesn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the stories. It's something I can't help but notice, though, and I thought I'd rant and get it off my chest.
