Chang Chong Chen - Blog Posts
This won't age well I am sure
I'm boggled. This isn't the same thing as in the letter, is it?
Thank you so much for the ask!! Good job on spotting the difference!
Posting the letter again for reference:
So you're right, on the rock it reads 張仲仁 (Cheung Chong Yan in standard cantonese romanisation), while on the envelope the name is 張仲文 (Cheung Chong Man). Hergé’s real life Chinese friend is 張充仁 (Cheung Chong Yan), so the romanisation would be the same as the name in your ask.
HOWEVER, those are just romanisations (which are less accurate but easier for foreigners to pronounce). Their actual pronunciations in cantonese (spoken in Hong Kong) / mandarin (spoken in mainland China including Shanghai) are different:
張充仁 = Tcheung Chong Yun* / Zhang Chongren
張仲文 = Tcheung Tchong Mun / Zhang Zhongwen
張仲仁 = Tcheung Tchong Yun / Zhang Zhongren
* 'Tch-' is similar to J sound; '-ong' is OW-ng; '-un' as in under
As you can see, there’s a bit of a mix and match. But I think it makes sense to change the first word in his given name into 仲 given that the story says Chang is from HK, because we seldom use 充 in our names (perhaps more common in mainland China, not 100% sure).
Another fun fact for you on the meanings of those given names~
充 = full of
仲 = still be (only in cantonese)
仁 = love for all beings/ benevolence
文 = cultured/ gentle
Both 仁 and 文 are commonly used here across different generations and genders. So I think both translations are pretty nice!!
Also, I just spotted that the stamps in the top right corner are of Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI:
Not so good at maintaining consistency but good attention to detail, I must say :)