<p><strong>李莫愁</strong> = 武侠小说角色(Wuxia novel character)</p>
<p>李莫愁出自《神雕侠侣》- by Jin Yong(金庸)，杨过的师伯，小龙女的师姐。<strong>为人凶狠毒辣</strong>，江湖人称<strong>赤练仙子</strong>，年轻的时候爱慕陆展元，不得之后性情大变。但良心未泯，曾抚养过郭襄，最后葬身于大火之中，临死也不忘旧爱。</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T03:19:20.767Z
"李莫愁"是一个反派叛徒, 不分是非, 无情无义, 滥杀无辜的人物; 也死于火海之中. 那不是一个坏预兆?
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T09:05:19.607Z
The story of that English writer was set in 1930s, when Louis Cha 查良鏞 was still kept in the mainland China and had no idea of writing a story that contained a heroine named so.
NanningYouth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T13:16:23.357Z
@WayneCheah That's the best I can come up with for a female bandit named Lee. :)
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T02:05:39.847Z
2024-08-20T02:05:39.847Z
r13
<p>English author Arthur Ransome wrote a series of books named Swallows and Amazons. These were set in the 1930s and were about a group of children having fun sailing dinghies in the English Lake Country, but one of the books has them going on a sailing adventure around the world. They are forced to abandon ship off the coast of Guangdong after an accident involving a pet monkey, a petrol tank and a lighted cigarette, and they fall into the clutches of a female pirate named Missee Lee. According to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missee_Lee" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> article, her character is partly based on Soong Ching-Ling.</p>
<p>I know a person who plans to name a junk-rigged vessel Missee Lee. This will be fine in English as it's an intriguing name with a Chinese flavour, and those in the know will recognize it, but if this is back-translated into 李小姐 then I feel it might be a bit 莫名其妙. It will be puzzling and confusing and might not make sense as a vessel name.</p>
<p>Is there an alternative Chinese title that a female pirate or bandit might have used, which could be paired with 李 and would suggest a bold and adventurous 女侠 type character or personality?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-19T18:21:33.937Z
The Genres of this book - Fiction; Children; Adventure; China; Fantasy... I don't know how could the author link the fictional character Missy Lee to Soong Ching-Ling (宋慶齡 - widow of the forefather of modern China, Sun Yat-sen, and a high-ranking political figure in Communist China). Other than that she was an influential Chinese female, I don't see any similarities between the two.
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T00:13:00.967Z
Apparently he met Soong Ching-Ling and she made an impression on him as a strong character, beyond that I don't think there is any connection.
河南宝宝
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T02:29:59.953Z
China had no historical tradition of personifying water borne vessels with human elements, masculine or feminine. Now China has adopted the US tradition of naming their naval vessels after places, but not after prominent national figures as in the US, (what if an aircraft carrier named Chairman Mao got sunk?) "Missee Lee" may sound cute, but "missee", as a transitive verb means, "to see wrongly / to take a wrong view of" In any case "missee", in the past was how the British colonialist made fun of the old Cantonese speakers' inability to pronouns "Miss", thus nurses were called "Missee"
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T02:57:08.820Z
@WayneCheah If it was just Miss Lee it would lose the character association. Maybe it's not such a great name after all then.
河南宝宝
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T03:56:58.937Z
These days, all that matters is how "cool" a thing is. This brings to mind Cassius Clay who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after conversion to Islam because Cassius Clay was a slave name. During the dark days of slavery, all slaves were named or renamed according to who their masters were. So, we still see many African-Americans having English / European surnames of the slave masters. So, nobody cares, or complains, if a boat is named "Missee Lee" Here's a joke. The Americans wanted General Moshe Dayan in its army. Israel says OK provided Israel gets General Motors in exchange.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T08:59:29.607Z
China did have warship named after celebrity, e.g., the 中山号 that was sunk by the Japanese air raid during WWII.
NanningYouth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-08-20T21:35:09.143Z
@WayneCheah an obscure historical vessel with hybrid junk-rig sails named after an obscure character in a children's book from the 1930s is never going to be "cool" in any case
河南宝宝
<names>
Missee Lee - how best to translate this as a vessel name?
# Missee Lee - how best to translate this as a vessel name?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-08-19)

English author Arthur Ransome wrote a series of books named Swallows and Amazons. These were set in the 1930s and were about a group of children having fun sailing dinghies in the English Lake Country, but one of the books has them going on a sailing adventure around the world. They are forced to abandon ship off the coast of Guangdong after an accident involving a pet monkey, a petrol tank and a lighted cigarette, and they fall into the clutches of a female pirate named Missee Lee. According to the [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missee_Lee) article, her character is partly based on Soong Ching-Ling.

I know a person who plans to name a junk-rigged vessel Missee Lee. This will be fine in English as it's an intriguing name with a Chinese flavour, and those in the know will recognize it, but if this is back-translated into 李小姐 then I feel it might be a bit 莫名其妙. It will be puzzling and confusing and might not make sense as a vessel name.

Is there an alternative Chinese title that a female pirate or bandit might have used, which could be paired with 李 and would suggest a bold and adventurous 女侠 type character or personality?

**Tags:** names

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The Genres of this book - Fiction; Children; Adventure; China; Fantasy... I don't know how could the author link the fictional character Missy Lee to Soong Ching-Ling (宋慶齡 - widow of the forefather of modern China, Sun Yat-sen, and a high-ranking political figure in Communist China). Other than that she was an influential Chinese female, I don't see any similarities between the two.  
> **username_0**: Apparently he met Soong Ching-Ling and she made an impression on him as a strong character, beyond that I don't think there is any connection.  
> **username_2**: China had no historical tradition of personifying water borne vessels with human elements, masculine or feminine. Now China has adopted the US tradition of naming their naval vessels after places, but not after prominent national figures as in the US, (what if an aircraft carrier named Chairman Mao got sunk?) "Missee Lee" may sound cute, but "missee", as a transitive verb means, "to see wrongly / to take a wrong view of" In any case "missee", in the past was how the British colonialist made fun of the old Cantonese speakers' inability to pronouns "Miss", thus nurses were called "Missee"  
> **username_0**: @username_2 If it was just Miss Lee it would lose the character association. Maybe it's not such a great name after all then.  
> **username_2**: These days, all that matters is how "cool" a thing is. This brings to mind Cassius Clay who changed his name to Muhammad Ali after conversion to Islam because Cassius Clay was a slave name. During the dark days of slavery, all slaves were named or renamed according to who their masters were. So, we still see many African-Americans having English / European surnames of the slave masters. So, nobody cares, or complains, if a boat is named "Missee Lee" Here's a joke. The Americans wanted General Moshe Dayan in its army. Israel says OK provided Israel gets General Motors in exchange.  
> **username_3**: China did have warship named after celebrity, e.g., the 中山号 that was sunk by the Japanese air raid during WWII.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 an obscure historical vessel with hybrid junk-rig sails named after an obscure character in a children's book from the 1930s is never going to be "cool" in any case  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-08-20. Score: 0

**李莫愁** = 武侠小说角色(Wuxia novel character)

李莫愁出自《神雕侠侣》- by Jin Yong(金庸)，杨过的师伯，小龙女的师姐。**为人凶狠毒辣**，江湖人称**赤练仙子**，年轻的时候爱慕陆展元，不得之后性情大变。但良心未泯，曾抚养过郭襄，最后葬身于大火之中，临死也不忘旧爱。

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: "李莫愁"是一个反派叛徒, 不分是非, 无情无义, 滥杀无辜的人物; 也死于火海之中. 那不是一个坏预兆?  
> **username_3**: The story of that English writer was set in 1930s, when Louis Cha 查良鏞 was still kept in the mainland China and had no idea of writing a story that contained a heroine named so.  
> **username_1**: @username_2 That's the best I can come up with for a female bandit named Lee. :)  

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