You say "po-tay-toe"

I say "pa-tah-toe." You say "Chen Bao-Lian," I say "Chamberlain."

According to some official somewhere between the US and Weihai, I am Chen Bao-Lian. Shandong has readily accepted this Sino-American version of my name and perhaps even went so far as to tell my students this was my last name. Imagine everyone's surprise when I walked in the room the first day of class and it was at once obvious that I, in fact, am pretty much as far from being Chinese as is possible.

To make the situation even more comical, I was asked to pose for a photo about a month ago. Two days later, Neal, Roz, and I discovered that these photos had made their way onto a huge billboard welcoming the incoming freshmen and their parents!! There seems to be no rhyme or reason guiding the names--as you can see there is quite the mix of last names (Gann, Palmer), first names (Rachel), and invented names (me). Oh well, it is worth a laugh. I wonder where this posterboard has been stored . . . .