For candidates, Chinese names spell ballot edge
For political candidates, it helps to be bold, majestic, charitable and tall.
That’s the meaning of Scott Wiener’s name in Chinese — one the 6-foot, 7-inch San Francisco supervisor is relying on in his campaign for state Senate.
Tom Temprano, a candidate for City College Board, also went grand. His given name in Chinese, Panlong, means “hoping for the dragon.”
“Chinese believe their emperors are offspring of the dragon. So lots of people like to use the word ‘dragon’ in their names, because it hints leadership and the destined leader,” said Serenity Pang, who translated the names
of sitting and aspiring politicians for The Chronicle.
Every candidate for political office in San Francisco has to have a Chinese name on the ballot, under the federal Voting Rights Act, which requires ballots and other election information be translated when a significant percentage of voting-age citizens speak limited English. The process of picking that name can involve a mix of guile, art and transliteration as the candidates seek to exploit any possible advantage with the Chinese electorate. For good reason. There are approximately 144,000 Chinese speakers in San Francisco, or roughly 17 percent of the city’s population, according to 2014 census data analyzed by the San Francisco Planning Department. Of that population, 94,000, or 65 percent, speak and read limited English. Those with limited English skills are just as likely, if not more so, to know political candidates by their Chinese names as by their English ones. While a name obviously isn’t the only factor those voters rely on, it can be important.
Not all Chinese speakers are citizens and can vote, of course. Yet their sheer number influences city politics.
Wiener said that when he first ran for political office 12 years ago, he was advised to pick his own Chinese name instead of leaving it to the Department of Elections, which contracts with a company to provide straight transliterations for candidates who don’t provide their own.
“You want to have a good and thoughtful name,” said Wiener, or “Wei Shangao” (in Chinese the surname is written first).
Done well, transliteration can be a work of art. While Chinese characters may sound similar to those who don’t speak Chinese, they can in fact mean different things. And done poorly, transliteration can produce a meaningless jumble of words. Attempting to recreate in Chinese the name Emily, for example, can translate to either “artemisia, rice and stand” or “love, beauty and white jasmine.”
So far, the newcomers to the political scene appear to have selected Chinese names that echo their English names, albeit with some flair.
District Seven supervisorial candidate Ben Matranga’sgiven name in Chinese, Chengbin, translates to “honesty and refined” while his surname, Ma, means “horse.” Pang said it’s a good Chinese name because when spoken it sounds similar to his name and also because there is no hint that the name comes from a “Westerner.”
Marjan Philhour, a candidate for District One supervisor, only used her given name to create a Chinese name. Mai Zhen translates to “taking a big stride” and “treasure.”
And in District Nine, candidate Hillary Ronen went with a name, Lu Kaili, that sounds like a Chinese girl’s name with a Western hint, Pang said. “Kind of like ‘Siri.’ ”
As long as candidates in San Francisco have had to pick Chinese names, since the mid-1970s, they have tried to use the process to their advantage. Some went to extremes.
Perhaps the most infamous example is Michael Nava, who ran for San Francisco Superior Court judge in 2010. His chosen given name, Zhengping, translates to “correct and fair” — tailor-made for someone running for judge. And his surname, Li, made him recognizable to Chinese voters. (Nava still lost the election).
Attorney General Kamala Harris, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, also took major liberties with her Chinese name — He Jinli. Her given name, which sounds nothing like Kamala, translates to “intricate and beautiful,” and her surname means “celebrate.”
Some Chinese candidates, who don’t have the benefit of re-creating their name to gain a political advantage, become frustrated, said former supervisor and now state Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma, or Ma Shiyun. Her surname means “horse,” and her given name means “worldly cloud.”
“If you are running against someone and you’re Chinese, you have to use your name. My name sounds masculine. And someone picks out ‘beautiful golden child.’ It’s not really fair,” Ma said.
In 2009 and 2011, legislators in Sacramento passed bills requiring candidates to use phonetic transliterations of their names into a characterbased language. Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown vetoed them, saying local jurisdictions should set their own rules.
Of course, even the bestpicked names may not ultimately resonate.
The lasting image of Wiener, for example, may be of him as a giraffe.
The image began with Chinatown power broker Rose Pak, who has always introduced him as “the giraffe” during the Chinese New Year’s Parade. Wiener took the nickname one step further. His Chinese campaign posters feature a giraffe on them, and he sometimes brings a blow-up giraffe with him when he campaigns.
Wiener said he was also influenced by Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s decision to embrace the image of himself as “the bearded man” in last year’s race for District Three supervisor after informal polling in Chinatown showed that more people knew him by that moniker than his Chinese name. In the runup to the election, Peskin’s Chinese-language campaign posters asked people to vote for “the bearded man.”
That said, it’s probably best to play it safe and pick a good name. Just ask District Attorney George Gascón.
Back when he was police chief, he didn’t have to pick a Chinese name because he was appointed — instead of elected — to the position. So the Chinese media transliterated Gascón’s name to Jia Sikang. Unfortunately for Gascón, when spoken aloud, his given name sounded like “pooper” and his surname like “fake.”
In 2011, Gascón announced he was running for district attorney. Perhaps tired of being called pooper, Gascón said he was changing his Chinese name to He Gangqiang. The translation: celebrate, firm and strong.