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I'm not a writer, and I only read Fantasy at the time so I've never encountered a Jewish Chinese character. What would be the right answer to this?
I mean realistically, it could be any combination of first and last names, depending on whatever the deal with the person's parents' heritage is (or whether they would even name their kid in a way that displays that).
But in fiction, you'd probably want a name that is memorable and quickly associates with the characters most important roles/traits. And thinking that a characters most important characteristic would be their race is kinda yikes
the area of Kaifeng in the Henan province of China is a Chinese-Jewish community dating back to 600 AD
Most common family names in that community are Ai, Shi, Gao, Gan, Jin, Li, Zhang or Zhao. Which has crossover with the most popular Chinese names, and the most popular names in the world (due to the population size of China).
In 1901 a group of this community met with Jewish leaders about the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising, one of the delegates was Li Jengsheng and his son Li Zongmei.
I am neither Asian nor Jewish so someone else will have to fill in if those names have any particular connotation.
That is so cool!! Thanks, it's exactly the kind of fun fact answer I needed :D
So do they have an Old Testament translated into Chinese? (Or Mandarin?) I would wonder if the characters names are translated into Chinese, since often Jewish names will come from that text.
I mean I really just did a bit of basic research to get this info, double checked some of the sources. There's a ton of articles out there.
Well, if they're Chinese, they would most likely have a Chinese name? Being Jewish doesn't automatically mean having a Jewish surname. It certainly would not involve a fusion of a Chinese surname and a European Jewish one.
If they're Jewish they tend to go pretty hard on the Jewish side though. It'd be more likely a Zhang first name Goldstein last name.
Matrilineal descent and all that.
I’m not a writer, and I only read Fantasy at the time so I’ve never encountered a Jewish Chinese character. What would be the right answer to this?
Anything except combining two last names a la 'Wongstein'.