Member-only story
Name Games, and Other Confusions
The Ling story
My surname has sometimes proved a mixed blessing. There are a lot of Lings in the world, largely because of the way the European alphabet has adapted the Chinese characters 令. This is only the first step in a maze of confusion since Mandarin is a tonal language and hence what may be translated as ‘Ling’ can mean many things. It can mean ‘other’ or ‘separate,’ which on one level would make it a reasonable name for a decidedly Occidental human with fading ginger hair (see profile picture). It can also mean an honorific title derived from its older use as a term for a government position; this might translate my name as ‘Peter Lord.’ Given my lingering affection for Dorothy L. Sayers’s creation, Lord Peter Wimsey, I could live with this, too, although it’s really the whimsy that appeals.
In any case, as many Chinese students, (who attended the University of Nottingham, and knocked on my door, expecting to find a familiar face,) can attest, in matters Oriental, I am, most certainly, not the real Ling.
I am also, by some margin, not even the most famous Peter Ling in Anglophone circles. Contenders for that title would include the writer Peter George Derek Ling, best known for his work on TV dramas, but who also wrote novels, cartoon strips, and even a song (Why Not Now?) for Sixties crooner, Matt Monroe. Both individually and…
