Fei, Fei Liu, 刘斐, 斐斐，菲菲，LIU FEIFEI, FEIFEI LIU
While playing a "name-calling" game at the park with some acquaintances yesterday afternoon (each player assumes the name of the person sitting next to them, someone calls out a name and you have to both 1. remember that you cannot respond to your name when it's called and 2. you must call out another name, excluding the name you've assumed, the non-you, while calling out your actual name, since it is being assumed by someone else, is okay), I realized that hearing my Chinese name spoken out-loud is actually a very strange thing. There are forms in which my name comes in, and these manifestations vary (also in "correctness") from situation to situation, from person to person:
Family members
Verbally: "Fei fei"
Written:
-Mother's side "菲菲" (While these two characters still phonetically can be pronounced as "fei fei", the characters are wrong. I think this is because it was my father's side of the family that chose the characters for my written name, and this is a rare character that many cannot pronounce)
-Father's side "斐斐" (Correct)
Chinese friends
Verbally: "刘斐"
Written: "Fei" (Because they often won't know how to write my name in Chinese characters)
Foreigner friends
Verbally: "Fei"
Written "Fei"
Previous work-related acquaintances
Verbally: "Fei fei" (I dislike this because even though it is my official name, the only people who call me that are family members, and I feel like a comfort level is breached.)
Written: "菲菲 or 刘菲菲" (Incorrect writing)
Preferred American full name
Fei Liu
Official International documents
"LIU FEIFEI"
Official American documents
"FEIFEI LIU"
Family members
Verbally: "Fei fei"
Written:
-Mother's side "菲菲" (While these two characters still phonetically can be pronounced as "fei fei", the characters are wrong. I think this is because it was my father's side of the family that chose the characters for my written name, and this is a rare character that many cannot pronounce)
-Father's side "斐斐" (Correct)
Chinese friends
Verbally: "刘斐"
Written: "Fei" (Because they often won't know how to write my name in Chinese characters)
Foreigner friends
Verbally: "Fei"
Written "Fei"
Previous work-related acquaintances
Verbally: "Fei fei" (I dislike this because even though it is my official name, the only people who call me that are family members, and I feel like a comfort level is breached.)
Written: "菲菲 or 刘菲菲" (Incorrect writing)
Preferred American full name
Fei Liu
Official International documents
"LIU FEIFEI"
Official American documents
"FEIFEI LIU"