Page 177 - Diocesan Boys' School-MINI STEPS 2018

Marco Lee (5J)

Names

Lee Tai Fat had never been proud of his name. It sounded as if he
were a heavy boy but in reality, he was short and skinny. He had lost
count of the times he had been mistaken as a fat person all because of
his Chinese name. He had spoken to his parents about his name, they
disagreed, because his name could bring him good luck. Lee Tai Fat was annoyed.
When Lee Tai Fat was 11 years old, he discovered that he could adopt a Christian name.
Searching through websites, Tai Fat found the list of possible names endless.
Traditional names did not appeal to him; David, John, Thomas or Ted. Instead of these
names, he was interested in those names which were extremely lengthy. They were more
attractive to him. He did not mind names such as Emmanuel, Francois, Pierre or Nathaniel.
After thinking it over and over, Tai Fat decided upon Francois.
When school reopened, Tai Fat announced that he had a new identity. He wanted his
classmates to address him as Francois. Marco jeered at Francois, “Fancy!” The whole class burst
into laughter.
However, Francois went on asserting his new name. Whenever someone called him Tai Fat,
he would ignore them. In no time, everyone was well trained and addressed Tai Fat as Francois.
It had been more than a month into his new identity when Francois came across a news
report on TV. It was John Cena! Francois wished to be in line with the great sportsman. He
decided he needed another name makeover. He couldn’t help but wish to be Cena.
The following day, his classmates told him that this new name didn’t fit his image. Yet,
Cena insisted everyone addressed him as Cena. The teacher was a little upset because she had to
change the name list - again.
Everything would have been fine if Cena had stuck with Cena, but he decided to be someone
else again.
Reading the newspaper, Cena’s eyes fell upon a report about Trump, the new US President.
Trump symbolized power, wealth and control. Cena decided that Donald was a better name for
him.
Once again, he instructed everyone to only use Donald as his name. His classmates shook
their heads; his teachers and even the janitors shook their
heads.
During recess, Donald’s teacher asked him to see
her in the staff room. She asked him for the name he
wanted to be called by. If he couldn’t decide, his teacher
would have to just revert back to Tai Fat.
Tai Fat, Francois, Cena and Donald stood up tall.
He then declared that, from that day onwards, he would
be named King Kong.
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