• Lycist@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Came to mention David Wong. Jasin Pargin took the David Wong character idea and wrote a book series with him as one of the main characters!!

      “John Dies at the End.” - Fantastic series!!

  • Python@programming.dev
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    5 months ago

    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

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      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.

      • jaybone@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          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.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      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’.