what on earth is going on in this sentence? i might try to work this out for myself later, just thinking aloud for now…

"Hong Wei Xian, a/k/a "Harry Zan," 32, and Li Li, a/k/a "Lea Li," 33, both from the People's Republic of China (PRC)" from https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/2-chinese-nationals-charged-illegally-attempting-export-military-satellite-components

"a/k/a" is bizarre, but not very interesting, the names are more interesting.

I would guess that the first names listed are the standard transcriptions of their names in #Pinyin from Simplified Chinese?

But why is it different in their English names?

Harry and Lea make sense, the closest common English name … but Zan is weird?

#Taiwan uses a different system to Pinyin … but would the USA refer to them as being from the PRC? and if they were a Taiwanese spy working for the PRC to steel microchip making secrets, they'd be in Taiwan?

Maybe Hong Kong or Macau ?

Maybe judder easier to spell for Americans? but then a Pinyin X would be an S or Sh if you wrote it more phonetically?

Maybe a spy alias that's not even supposed to be the same name?

cc other mes @kirt@mastodon.social @Kirt@lingo.lol

#USA #PRC #HongKong #Macau #ChineseLanguages #ChineseNames #SimplifiedChinese #TraditionalChinese #Mandarin #Cantonese #HongWeiXian #XianHongWei #HarryZan #LiLi #LeaLi