Yuting Fan 

ESL INTG 100 

August 28, 2020 

 

Invisible Love 

I have a name which is called Yuting Fan that makes me proud. Most people have their fathers’ last name and only a few special people with their mothers’ last name, so my last name Fan follows my father’s. My given name Yuting was given to me by my father. Yu玉  ting婷  is two separate characters in Chinese. Yu玉  means jade or emerald, pure, hard, shiny and nice. Ting婷  means kind and beautiful. My parents want me to be a nice and beautiful person, so my father gave me the name. 

I am my parents’ first child. My father was very excited when he knew my mother was pregnant. He started to think about that what were good names for girls or boys every day until I was born. They couldn’t know their kid’s gender because it is illegal in China.China implemented family planning policy that protected by the law. For example, people who lived in a city or were government workers could only have one child. On the other hand, people who lived in the countryside could have up to two children. They could lose their job or face high fines if they violated the law. However, many Chinese people, especially the elderly had a serious ideology of preference for sons and they would try their best to give birth to a boy, so there was a law in China that doctors cannot tell their patients the gender of fetus in order to prevent abortion. My father thought Yuting is very special and a few people had this name at that time, so he chose this name for me. In addition, they said Yuting sounds nice. 

I had an early nickname called pully girl( 狗女) when I was a little girl. Because I was born two months earlier, I was very weak and often sick. My family’s financial situation was poor, and my parents worried that I would die. They wanted me to have a healthy body and grow up like a dog because dogs are easy to raise. Exactly, I was born in the Chinese year of the dog. Therefore, they gave me the nickname. 

I love my name even when I came to the United States. Many Chinese people use an English name when they are living in the United States, but I decided to keep using my Chinese name. My name contains the deep love of my parents for me, and I feel so lucky and happy to have it.