Money Machine

A Note from the Author

This story involves several Chinese customs and systems that may not be familiar to Western readers. These involve names, Chinese currency, and the organization of the Chinese government. Here, I outline some important facts to help readers best understand the details of the story.

People in China present their names in the proper Chinese order: family name first, followed by their given name. For example, Mao, Zhou, and Chiang are surnames of, respectively, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai (China's former prime minister), and Chiang Kai‐shek (former leader of China's Nationalist government). East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam all present their names in this order. To my knowledge, Hungary is the only European country that uses this approach for names.

When I first arrived in the United States as a student in the 1980s, I wrote my name the Chinese way, family name first followed by the given name: Shan Weijian. Soon afterward, I learned that Americans put their given name first, followed by the family name; so they call the given name “first name” and the family name “last name.” Needless to say, it was confusing to people that my first name is actually my last name. Americans usually greet each other by their given, or first, names. So, my new friends called me Shan. I was totally fine with it, because my given name, Weijian, is harder to pronounce or remember. Now English‐speaking people around me call me Shan, and I always sign my letters ...