Chinese joke about homonymous meaning of English name "Alexander"

When a Chinese person gives himself the English name "Alexander," other Chinese laugh.

"Alexander" is read "Yalishanda" in Chinese, which is homonymous with another phrase that means under the pressure of a large mountain.

"I really do feel pressure now because I have to take care of my parents and child while I work," Li Xiao told a Guangzhou newspaper recently.

Other people call themselves "Yalishanda" when they are under pressure to buy a house or find a spouse.

There is an "Yalishanda" entry on hudong.com, which tracks the hot topics on the Chinese Internet. Some 132,758 netizens have viewed the entry.

It was selected as one of the top ten topics of the month, according to a hudong.com report Wednesday.

The other hot topics were:

- The Hu-Obama meeting held during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States. Hu reached an important consensus with U.S. President Barack Obama.

- China's J-20 stealth fighter jet, which took its first test flight earlier this month.

- Forced housing demolition, which was ended in cities without due process and fair compensation, with the State Council publishing a regulation on expropriation and compensation for houses on state-owned land last week.

- China's tobacco control work, which was criticized for failing to honor World Health Organization (WHO) commitments.

- Spring Festival, which may see a record 2.85 billion passenger trips taken as Chinese return home for family reunions.

Source: Xinhua