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China

Rocky, Pope And Shakira: Odd English Names For Western-Loving China

In modern China, some go to great lengths to look or sound like they hail from the West. One of the quickest, and quirkiest, ways to do this is to give yourself an English name.

Scott Kronick, president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, had some fun with this phenomenon in a piece for the The Beijinger, an English-language magazine in Beijing, describing the creative monikers his Chinese colleagues have chosen for themselves.

Here are our favorites:

*“We have a Phat Song, who is a bit overweight but as cool as anyone I have met in China.”

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*“The advertising creative team donned such names as Jesus Yeh and Devil Zhou...”

*“When looking deeper into the English names of my colleagues, I was particularly curious about our creative team, as this department is usually the wackiest in our company. I was delighted to find a Chocolate Huang, Popeye Li and Rocky Ren.”

[rebelmouse-image 27086964 alt="""" original_size="500x265" expand=1]

"If you want a tasty campaign, you can ask for Elvis Xu in our consulting team to serve you.."

“Ironically, our fastest-growing business is run by Pope Li, who has "Morning" Cao, Chairs Chen and even a Shakira Huang working in his office”.

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food / travel

When Racism Poisons Italy's Culinary Scene

This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.

Photo of Mareme Cisse cooking

Mareme Cisse in the kitchen of Ginger People&Food

Caterina Suffici

-Essay-

TURIN — Guess who's not coming to dinner. It seems like a scene from the American Deep South during the decades of segregation. But this happened in Italy, in this summer of 2023.

Two Italians, in their sixties, got up from the restaurant table and left (without saying goodbye, as the owner points out), when they declared that they didn't want to eat in a restaurant where the chef was what they called: an 'n-word.'

Racists, poor things. And ignorant, in the sense of not knowing basic facts. They don't realize that we are all made of mixtures, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. And that food, of course, are blends of different ingredients and recipes.

The restaurant is called Ginger People&Food, and these visitors from out of town probably didn't understand that either.

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