My Name is . . .

Notice I have a different profile name. Aside from maintaining my anonymity in cyber space, I want to choose a nickname that somehow remotely relates to my identity --- of course, it requires some explanation here. Growing up in my family, I have never been given a sweet nickname by my parents or grandparents. They are not romantic people. My parents call me Xia Xi all the way through. This name in Chinese sounds shamefully masculine. In history, a military leader who happens to be a sociopath has the exact name. He succumbed to drowning after none of his subordinates wanted to rescue him. Somehow, the only nickname I had was given by a bully in elementary school. I was referred to as a “pig” due to my chubbiness in Asian folk’s distorted standard. Back then, everyone’s nickname was associated with some kind of animal. Fat kids are pigs, skinny ones are monkeys, near-sighted are frogs, people who cheat by elongating their neck and peaking at their neighbor’s exam paper are giraffes. Ungraciously, Pig Xi was my name all the way from grade 1 to grade 6.  I used to be mad as hell when my classmates made fun of me. Now I am in a different country and culture, I feel like pigs are not that inferior, in a sense that this animal is not the meanest metaphor you could use to offend someone (surprisingly, people use “bitch” more). Furthermore, there are those little dwarf pigs that people adore as pet; in a TV commercial, a woman would use a container of bacon to propose to her boyfriend; Miss Piggy from the Muppets totally redeems me, and that’s why I use this name on my profile.