Keywords

Fu Laoshi

Language

Titles are very important in Taiwanese society. It is incredibly impolite to call someone by their given name, unless you are close friends or colleagues. Even then a nickname might be more common among friends and surname-plus-title among colleagues. Another option is to say the full name: surname + given name.

My Chinese name is Fu Ke-en (傅可恩). My efforts to get people to call me Ke-en generally fail. Generally, I end up getting called either Mr. Fu” (傅先生)or teacher Fu” (傅老師). The best I can do now that I am a college professor is to insist on the less formal teacher” as opposed to professor” (教授). So, that is how I normally introduce myself: teacher fu.”

Today, when a colleague introduced me to the owner of her favorite bubble tea stand, the owner asked me how she should address me. I replied, as usual, teacher Fu” (傅老師). To which she replied: Oh, Professor Fu. Too bad, you’ll never become a full professor!” The joke being that Professor Fu” sounds exactly like the term for associate professor” (副教授). That’s what you get for ordering bubble tea near a university!

Postscript: An interesting exception to the no given name” rule is among those with greater English proficiency. Such people will use adopted English names even among Chinese-speaking friends.

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