陳白菊 《 Nicknames 》 美國

        I  don’t  know  whose  idea  was  it to come up with a system of nicknames for us. Perhaps both of my parents collaborated on it.   My  oldest sister was called   Gái  Lớn (Older Girl).   My second sister  was   Gái  Nhỏ  (Younger Girl).   My  parents  quickly realized  they would soon run out of names if they kept up with the speed of their baby production.  It  was  like  a  light bulb lit up in their heads and brilliantly,   the  idea  of naming us with  sequential  numbering  system  was  conceived.   My  third  sister  was nicknamed Girl Four, then Girl Five, Girl Seven, Girl Nine, and Girl Ten (That’s me!). At this point,Dad must have thought he was not going to have a male heir and it would be proper to stop at ten   (a nice round number).  But  then  it  might  have  been  just a passing thought, because two years later, my youngest sister was born. What now? Not sure why they did not name her   Girl  Eleven,  but  instead,  I  became  Ten  Big Sister (Mười Chị)   and my sister was called Ten  Small  Sister (Mười Em). At the time, I felt embarrassed at these nicknames, but we still use them even today.

陳白菊 (Laura Tran)