My Name

My Chinese name is 鐘藝進. The Mandarin pinyin is zhōng yì jìn. Breaking down each ideogram…

• 鐘 (zhōng) is the surname.
• 藝 (yì) combined with another ideogram (藝術) means “the arts”.
• 進 (jìn) is “to advance, to move forward”.

When I was younger, I would joke my name meant “to advance the arts” to feed my bottomless, insecure ego. But according to my father:

藝 (yì) in Chinese is not only Art it can be combined with other words to become a different meaning. We both thought out the name for you. Your Mom wanted her son had the same dream as her to become an artist but in reality, the path to become an artist and make a comfortable life is not easy. That’s why we came up with 進 which means improvement or thrive and develop to be a better person not only succeed in getting a better career but also to be a helpful and friendly person. To conclude 藝進 is improving. 藝 can also be 技藝 is technology or skills.

The spelling of yì jìn on my Canadian birth certificate is spelt Yuet Jinn. It’s a weird spelling but English was also my father’s third language. That said, Jinn with an extra “n” is just too good to not use as my literary pseudonym. It means I’m made of fire and can grant wishes. Also, the “zh” in zhōng sounds very close to the English “j” sound, so I get the benefit of alliteration in “Jinn Zhong”.

شبيك لبيك 🧞‍♂️