xu shang-chi's left nip

“You are ready, Shang-Chi.”

bonus: me

As such, I feel that it is important to get the most important names in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” right.

Our main guy Shaun.

His name is 徐尚氣, romanized as Xu Shang-qi. (Where Xu pronounced a little like “she” but less open, and qi is pronounced as chi.)

徐 is a word that is used for Shang-qi’s surname. It means “slowly, quietly, calmly, composed, dignified”.

尚 is the middle word in Shaun’s three-character Chinese name. It means “still, yet; even; fairly, rather”. Please don’t call him Shang. Shang is not a full name. Call him Shang-qi, or Shang-Chi, if you must. If you can pronounce Dostoevsky or even Benedict Cumberbatch, there’s no way you can butcher Shang-qi.

氣 is the last word in Shaun’s three-character Chinese name. It has a number of definitions: “gas; smell; air; weather; to make/get angry; to annoy; vital energy; breath; spirit; moral force; tone; atmosphere; manner; type; steam; vapor; spirit; situation; electricity”.

Those of you who have seen the film can probably combine some of these definitions to form a better picture of who Shang-qi is as a person and who he chooses to become as a result of the circumstances that surrounded him.

Shaun’s dad.

His name is 徐文武, romanized as Xu Wenwu.

徐 is his surname. See Shang-qi’s name bio above.

文 is the middle word in Xu Wenwu’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined mostly as “literature, culture, writing”. Sometimes even “formal, refined, gentle”.

武 is the last word in Xu Wenwu’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “military; martial, warlike”. Even “autocratic, powerful, soldier, successor, dance”.

For those who have watched the film, you can see why this is relevant.

Shaun’s sister.

Her name is 徐夏靈, romanized as Xu Xialing. (Xia can be pronounced “shia”, like, y’know, Shia LeBeouf.)

徐 is her surname. Check Wenwu’s and Shaun’s name bios above.

夏 is the middle word in Xialing’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “summer”, and also, “great, grand, big”. It is an archaic term for China. It is also the name of the Xia Dynasty, circa 2000BC.

靈 is the last word in Xialing’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “quick; alert; efficacious; effective; to come true”, sometimes even “departed soul, spiritual world/power, spiritual”. It can also be defined as “agile, clever, intelligent”.

If you’ve seen the film, these are pretty good descriptors for Xialing. You’ll know what I mean.

Shaun’s mother.

Her name was 映麗, romanized as Ying Li. (She was the guardian of Ta Lo.)

(I don’t actually know if Ying is her surname, but usually in marriage, the woman ‘inherits’ her husband’s surname, and as such, if her surname is not Ying, she would be known as Xu Ying Li. In which case the definition of Xu as a surname would still apply to her. But let’s just assume that Ying is her surname, the one she inherited at birth, as that is most likely the case, and stick with that.)

映 is the first word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “project; reflect light; to shine; to show; mirror”.

麗 is the second word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “beautiful; magnificent; elegant”.

If you’ve watched the movie, these descriptors are certainly applicable to Ying Li.

Shaun’s maternal aunt.

Her name is 映南, romanized as Ying Nan. (She is Ying Li’s only surviving younger sister, and assumed Ta Lo’s guardianship duties in her sibling’s absence.)

映 is the first word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. See Ying Li’s name bio above.

南 is the second word in Ying Li’s two-character Chinese name. It is defined as “south; southern part; southward”. Perhaps it could mean that her assumed role was passed south, downward, to her by her older sister Ying Li.

Shaun’s best friend.

Her name is 陳瑞雯, romanized as Chen Ruiwen. Her English name is Katy.

陳 is the first word in Katy’s three-character Chinese name. It is defined as “to lay out, to exhibit, to display, to narrate, to state, to explain, to tell”. Which is hilarious, because she kind of takes on a pseudo-narrator role in the movie (“A guy with a freaking machete for an arm just chopped our bus in half!”). The surname Chen is also a very, very common surname.

瑞 is the second word in Katy’s three-character Chinese name. It’s original definition is “token made of jade”, which is really, really interesting since that is the film’s MacGuffin, the very thing two of which Wenwu was after. It is also defined as “lucky; auspicious; propitious”.

first psa: apparently some ppl need to hear this but for the love of god if chinese characters don’t introduce themselves with a single-character name, DO NOT SHORTEN THEIR NAME TO ONE CHARACTER ALONE. we never do that because chinese is a homophonous language!!

and also our names are made of characters that function as morphemes (words,, kinda) in their own right!! if i speak in chinese and call my sister by one character of her name only i could simply be using that character as a morpheme instead of addressing her. she wouldn’t know i was addressing her.

(some chinese ppl do shorten our names to one character when in the west or when not speaking chinese, yes. for example, my name is ruiqian, but i introduce myself as rui (pronounced ‘rey’ btw. it’s chinese, not japanese) because rui is less easy for non-chinese speakers to fuck up than ruiqian (the 'q’ sound is notoriously hard) and so it’s just easier and less painful all around to introduce myself as rui.)

so pls, do not shorten ying li’s name to li or shangqi’s name to shang. that’s not how it works. don’t do it. i lose ten years of my life every time this is done.

and yes, it’s ying li and ying nan. i know some places have their names as jiang li and jiang nan (??) but the 'ying’ character of their names only has one pronunciation. and also honestly why would you name your kid jiang nan when a whole place called jiangnan exists.

[edit: i initially said that ying li and ying nan are given names but apparently the subtitles my cinema had were wrong lol. the ying character is the same on the wiki, and since ying nan didn’t give any other family name when introducing herself in chinese, i will assume this is their family name]

finally, a primer on how chinese names should be written (since these characters are from the mainland. other countries have different conventions):

Xu Shangqi ✔️

Xu ShangQi ❌

Xu Shang-Qi ❌

Xu Shang Qi ❌

i’ve written his name as shangqi here instead of shang-chi for two reasons:

shang-chi is the only name in wades-giles romanisation. not even his family name (xu) is in wades-giles, otherwise it would be written as hsu shang-chi (i’m pretty sure. honestly i stay far, far away from the madness of wades-giles because i don’t want to break down crying every time i use it)

i’m quite sure shangqi is the only character marvel took from the comics? since the other names are written in pinyin (aka the SUPERIOR option to wades-giles)

ALSO ALSO ALSO!! i’ve seen this a lot in c-media fandom but in chinese culture, we do not address our elders by name alone. yes, that includes our older siblings. unless you want xialing to be incredibly rude to shangqi, in which case, go ahead, she can definitely call him shangqi as a sign of her anger. otherwise, she should be calling him 哥 ge / older brother.

some other addresses that might be relevant:

爸 ba / dad | 父亲 fuqin / father

妈 ma / mum | 母亲 muqin / mother

妹 mei / younger sister

these three (single-character) addresses (+ 哥 ge / older brother) can be doubled to form 爸爸 baba, 妈妈 mama, 哥哥 gege, 妹妹 meimei for the same meaning, but 爸爸/妈妈哥哥 baba/mama/gege is generally more childish. except, and this is important, 哥哥 gege can also be used flirtatiously, or to 撒娇 sajiao / act cute (it’s a little bit like aegyo). so just be aware of how you use it

some more addresses:

老师 laoshi / teacher: but really it can just be a respectful term to call someone older you respect

小姨 xiaoyi / youngest maternal aunt: what yingnan calls herself when introducing herself to shangqi and xialing

婆婆 popo / grandmother: also a respectful term for an elderly lady

外婆 waipo / maternal grandmother: iirc this is what shangqi calls katy’s grandma?

阿姨 ayi / aunt: also a respectful term for an older woman, or for an adult family friend. shangqi would call katy’s mum [surname]-ayi, since he’s katy’s best friend

chinese women generally don’t change their names after marriage. our family is incredibly important to us (hence we place our family name before our given name, to signify that our family and ancestors come before the self) and so giving up your family name is generally only done in drastic circumstances (you need to change your name to flee from smth, etc)

however, let’s say that shangqi for some reason never finds out what katy’s mum’s family name is. he would just call her chen-ayi then, since chen is katy’s family name

now, let’s say the ten rings organisation is a martial sect (because it sure looks like one to me!!). here are some more addresses you can use:

师父 shifu / teacher-father: god this is hard to translate, but basically it stems from the phrase 一日为师，终身为父 / one day of being their teacher makes you their father for life. wenwu’s disciples would call him this

师母 shimu / teacher-mother: same logic. this is what xialing’s disciples would call her

师哥 shige | 师兄 shixiong / elder martial brother: this is what wenwu’s disciples would call shangqi

the difference is that shixiong can be used for any male disciple in the same generation who started training earlier than you, while shige can only be used for your shifu’s son, or a male disciple trained by your shifu

the same generation basically means: anyone trained by your shifu or his martial siblings. it’s not relevant for wenwu, but it would be if shangqi decides to return to the ten rings organisation and take on disciples of his own

师姐 shijie / elder martial sister: for disciples who came into wenwu’s sect after xialing started her training (and also before she takes control of the ten rings organisation)

师妹 shimei / younger martial sister: for disciples who came into wenwu’s sect before xialing started her training (likewise, also before she takes control of the ten rings organisation)

even though wenwu didn’t train xialing, she’s still his daughter, hence his disciples would refer to her as shijie/shimei

宗主 zongzhu / sect/clan leader | 掌门 zhangmen / sect leader: this is what disciples would call wenwu when he’s the head, and xialing when she takes over after

师伯 shibo / elder martial uncle: this is what xialing’s disciples would call shangqi