What's in a Name?
Xiao Lin Mei is an intelligent beauty ready to take on the best of both worlds.Many people do not know this, but my legal name, Mei Xiao Lin (梅晓琳), is the Mandarin pronunciation, while Moy Hay Lum is the Hoisan wah. For the first time, here is the story of how my name represents the duality of my existence.Xiao (晓) translates to dawn and represents the time of my birth, but it also means to have knowledge and intelligence. My mother grew up as one of five children, and her highest education was middle school since she had worked in the rice fields to support her brothers in attending school financially. I hold the name dearly to my heart as it represents my family’s aspirations of generational wealth through education.Most people know Lin as the surname 林. Born in 1998, 林 is the forest representing the Earth year of the Tiger. Lin translates to gem. Specifically, the radical ⺩means jade, meaning I am 2x the beauty! There’s a Chinese idiom, 琳琅滿目 [Lum long mun muk], which is similar to the English idiom feast for the eyes.Immigrants are expected to change their names to assimilate after coming to America. I had often thought about changing my legal name, but I think back to my mother’s resilience as the single parent raising me. Changing my name is not only an erasure of my heritage but also my lived experience.竹升 translates directly to a bamboo pole which is common Cantonese slang for an overseas Chinese person who is seen as Westernized and unconnected to their roots. Although being raised in China until the age of 6, I hear it often from the elders in Chinatown and people living in China. The metaphor is that jook-sings are not part of either culture, as the water within the bamboo does not flow and connect to either end. However, I own this term as representing the strength, resilience, and duality of the Asian diaspora. After all, there is no faster growing nor stronger plant in the world than the bamboo.
大家好！I love Chicago Chinatown because the community is my home.
From being born in Toishan to moving to Utah at the age of 6, growing up was a challenge as I struggled with the cognitive dissonance between Chinese collective values and Western individualism. It was not until I started volunteering in Chicago Chinatown at the early age of 13 that I was able to understand my Chinese heritage better and grow into my own skin. This led me to advocate for the Chinatown Vision Plan, Ping Tom Field House, re-installation of the 31st Street bus, and registering hundreds of voters.
A decade later, thanks to the civic leadership I gained in Chinatown, I now work in philanthropy to close the racial wealth gap in the Chicagoland area and am currently working on a specific initiative to achieve an equitable economic recovery for Black and Latinx Chicagoans.
As an Asian American Studies graduate, I have learned that history will repeat itself unless we work together to rise together. Thus, I hope to use my platform as a Miss Chinese Chicago contestant as a bridge to a stronger community through building racial solidarity. Building racial solidarity encompasses my lifetime’s work to create change for the community I love. Only together will we be able to celebrate the sacrifices of our ancestors and build a successful future for the next generation.
The Chinatown gate says “天下為公”, meaning the world is one community. If you ever see me in person, I would love to hear your ideas on how we can work to build one resilient community together.