January 7th, 2010 by Dawn Becker

“Surname?” said the ominous clerk’s voice on the phone.

“Wong” I said.

“Mother’s maiden name?” said the voice.

“Wong” I said.

“No your mother’s last name before she got married” said the voice.

“Wong” I said.

And that would be the beginning of frustration on both our parts. The clerk’s impatience growing while I defended my intellect. Yes, my mother and father both have the same last name. They are both Wongs but they are not related. We are not hillbillies.

In Chinese, the characters that represent the surname Wong have two different looks and different definitions entirely.

The character above represents the Wong on my father’s side. It means “king”.

 This Wong is from my mother’s side and means “yellow”. In Chinese custom, yellow is a very positive colour representing gold and the sun and was often favoured by royalty. We are, afterall, all yellow fellows.

I’m sure you will believe me when I tell you that I hated my full name growing up: Dawn Wong. Relentless jokes about being the legendary Spanish lover, Don Juan, or dan huang which means egg yolk in Chinese. Or my favourite childhood jingle:

“Dawn, Dawn, leprechaun. Went to school with nothing on.”

Children are cruel.

So even after my divorce I kept my married name. People graciously gave me excuses like how nice it was for me to keep my married name so my boys would have comfort in having the same last name as mine. Who were they kidding? I kept my married name for completely selfish reasons. It has a better ring to it.