Chinese idol names

[This is a guest post by Alex Baumans]

I recently became aware of the Chinese idol survival programme 'Youth with you', which has resulted in the formation of the group The 9. I got to wondering about the members' names. The group consists of XIN Liu, Esther Yu, Kiki Xu, Yan Yu, Shaking, Babymonster An, Xiaotang Zhao, Snow Kong and K Lu. Of these, only Zhao Xiaotang strikes me as an original Chinese name. As my Mandarin is non existent, I can only guess at the derivation of the other stage names.

The show has a strong K-pop idol vibe to it (to the extent of BlackPink's Lisa being one of the judges), so I wondered to what extent the mechanisms of stage names are the same as in Korea. There, it is mainly a question of the coolness factor and recognition (such as avoiding homonyms). However, as the popularity spreads around the world, easy international acceptance is an increasingly important factor.

As The9 is being aggressively marketed to an international public, I suspect this has influenced the choice in stage names. (Esther Yu, Shaking, Babymonster An and Snow Kong look to me as typical 'international' names that would be used in K-pop) Anyway, I thought this might amuse you as an example of code mixing. I include a video with their presentation.

Selected readings

• "Visual puns in K-pop" (1/10/19)
• "Visual puns in K-pop, part 2" (1/13/19)
• "The semiotics of an East Asian hand gesture" (12/26/19)
• "Korean refrigerator onomatopoeia" (11/10/18)
• "Let Me In 4" (6/24/15)
• "Multiscript sign in the Hong Kong subway" (12/10/16)
• "The chick(en) says ko-ko-de(k)" (11/18/14)