Jia

My name is QiJia in Chinese, and I have been frustrated with my name for a long while because it cannot be directly translated into English and it is so hard to pronounce. Nevertheless it occurred to me that I could probably use the last character "佳”(Jia) since it is the essence of my name. "Qijia" sounds a bit too clunky and hard to remember, but "Jia" is perfect! It means every good thing you can possibly think of, and it has a fine classical feel to it because it is ubiquitous in ancient Chinese writing of morality and happiness. There is a well-known quote from the classical Confucian text Daxue that outlines the three steps towards a good life: "Cultivate yourself, put your family in order, run the local government well, and bring peace to the entire country." And "Jia" stands for family here. What a cool name! I wish all the Chinese living abroad could use their own names and preserve the wonderful meaning and tradition behind them instead of adopting some random, clueless name like "Catherine" and "Jack".