Talk:Gary Locke
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If he's a third-generation Chinese-American, what is the significance of his Chinese name? Surely his name was Gary Locke from his birth. Luo was only the family name of his ancestors, who changed it to Locke long before his birth. And where does the Jiahui come from? Is this a standard translation of Gary, or was he given this name unofficially, while officially being registered as Gary? --Wik 00:56, Aug 18, 2003 (UTC)
- If he's a third generation "Chinese American", then why even bother to prefix his ethnicity with "Chinese"? Why not just call him an American? 66.63.126.171 20:42, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- Locke is the Cantonese pronunciation of the surname 駱 (see Luo (surname)), though it's usually romanized as Lok. His ancestry is from Guangdong, which is a Cantonese-speaking area. I believe his Chinese given name 家輝 was given to him by his parents. Although it's technically unofficial since U.S. official records don't keep track of Chinese names, this is the name that is always used by the Chinese press. Also, it's not unusual for Chinese-American parents to choose Chinese and Western names that sound alike for their children. --Umofomia 23:17, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- I'd like to see him described as "American" rather than "Chinese American", but it might be useful to put in a note about his ancestry. WMMartin 19:58, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)
- I think the current wording of the article is fine. The term "Chinese American" is only mentioned twice and in appropriate contexts. The first one refers to the fact that he's the first Chinese-American governor, which is a notable fact that people often cite and probably shouldn't be elided due to fear of political correctness. Similarly, many notable African Americans are referred to as "the first African-American so-and-so" even though they've been "Americans" for over 10 generations... why have a double standard? The second mention of the term refers to his ancestry, which I think is appropriate as well. --Umofomia 23:29, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Gary at a Mariners game (M's won 9-1 over the Indians) and he said that he is quite enjoying life out of office. He spent most of his time showing his boy Dylan the play of the game. We talked about the M's and the new gas tax a bit. All of the people around us kindly let him enjoy the game with his family but most did thank him for his good service to Washington State. All in all he was just another guy taking his family to the game.