What the characters call themselves and each other

[mecurtin]

I just put a link in the Resources post about a great post from foxghost about What characters call each other (and themselves) in Guardian [the novel], including the fact that Daqing basically uses the royal We, while Zhao Yunlan plays around with pronouns and names based on his mood.

I yearn for some of you native speakers to do the same for the drama. What pronouns do the characters use for themselves? And what do they call each other? Apparently in the novel ZYL uses an array of cringe-worthy endearments for Shen Wei; does he do anything at all similar in the drama?

Comments

[trobadora]

I thought it was about his father, too, but that doesn't work with the episode 8 scene. I think he's downplaying himself?

[lynndyre]

I took it as part of his being rudely informal, since he's telling a subordinate to call him something the man can't, with any degree of propriety, actually call him.

[trobadora]

Oh, interesting thought! Though that also only really works for ep1, not for ep8.

[lynndyre]

Yeah, 8 seems more like teasy-flirty-needling at Shen Wei, with the bonus of discommoding an intermediary XD

Professor, I have a call for you from your, uh, your "good friend" "little Zhao"??

(I love Da Qing's face when he says it)

[zeest]

Agree with the comment above, and just adding that I think the context is different in ep 1 and ep 8. In ep 1, he’s xiao-Zhao in the context of the police force because of his dad. The university doesn’t have that connection so in ep 8 when he’s introducing himself as xiao-Zhao, it’s in relation to Shen Wei. It’s not an entirely inappropriate nickname - if Shen Wei is the type to go around referring to people with diminutives he might call ZYL that but this is Shen Wei. The degree of familiarity/informality ZYL is implying raises eyebrows, to say the least.

(It occurred to me that Shen Wei probably uses xiao-Guo and lao-Chu - I don’t remember if he actually does - but everyone in the SID calls them that and he likely will use their full names if talking to a non-SID person. Plus, GCC and CSZ would likely use full names if they had to call up the university.)

Adding a disclaimer that everything here is my own thoughts and interpretation and not necessarily what’s Right. China is huge, regional differences are a thing, and an even larger thing when taking into account migrant communities and I’ve not watched enough cdramas to know how to interpret things like this for dramaland.

[trobadora]

The university doesn’t have that connection so in ep 8 when he’s introducing himself as xiao-Zhao, it’s in relation to Shen Wei. It’s not an entirely inappropriate nickname - if Shen Wei is the type to go around referring to people with diminutives he might call ZYL that but this is Shen Wei. The degree of familiarity/informality ZYL is implying raises eyebrows, to say the least.

Oooh, I like that. ♥