My name is Sammy – a tragic truth story

When I came to Canada last century, I was given a new life, I was given a second chance, so I picked the most manly name I could imagine, James, after the famous MI6 agent of UK.

For those of you who knows my Chinese name, you know that it is gender-confused, one of the most traumatizing event happened when I was little and was taken to one of the biggest hospital in the city. There I was in the waiting area with my mom, some nurse announced, “楊永欣小妹妹,請到三號病房”. I thought, maybe, my name was just a little girly.

Fast forward a few years, when I was in one of those English tutoring centre in Taipei. The first class, the instructor asked us if we had English names, of course, being 10 and in Taiwan, I didn’t have an English name. The instructor then picked our names from the back of her English-Chinese Dictionary. My brother became John… and I became Sammy. I didn’t know that a few years later, there was a famous HK pop singer named Sammie… I never had a chance…

When I came to Canada, I became James, I didn’t know Justin, Jalen, Jamal… but I knew everyone knew that James is a guy.

Then, I went to high school, of course, back then, everyone writes his/her own note as follows:

To whom it may concern,

Please excuse James Yang for being absent on January 18, 2007, he had to see his family doctor.

Sincerely,

Thinking that the ESL teacher would never understand my Chinese handwriting, I signed with my own Chinese name. My classmate from HK saw the note and asked “who is that, your sister?” I told him it was my Chinese name, he burst into laughter, because in Cantonese, 欣is used in a female name, never in a guy’s name. Then I made the mistake of telling him that my original English name was actually Sammy, he laughed so hard, there was tears in his eyes.

So, I have lived a double life, I was Sammy, but now I am James. Please just call me James.

Btw, if you want to know, my Chinese name 永欣 means “forever blossoming”, poor bastard, I never had a chance…