Clarification: Beatrice Xu's Chinese Surname Isn't THE SAME As Barbie Xu And Mary Xu

Asian Drama News

 

Xu (or alternatively spelled as Hsu) can be spelled the same in English but mean different in Chinese! Why? Some people thought that the late Beatrice Xu shared the same surname. However, if one knew basic Chinese -- certain characters may be spelled nearly the same in English but NOT the same in Chinese characters. Yes, Chinese can be a confusing language! It's good that encoding in Chinese with a standard keyboard is now easier thanks to Pinyin. One no longer needs to learn another alphabet to master Chinese. However, you need to learn Pinyin first and its different tones!

The late Barbie Xu and the late Mary Hsu share the same Chinese character. The Xu in Barbie Xu and Mary Xu is spelled out as 徐 (Xú) -- which is Shui in Hokkien. However, Beatrice's surname is spelled out as 许 (Xǔ) which is Co in Hokkien. Notice the accents too. Chinese is a tonal language similar to Tagalog. The Xú would be similar to the mabilis tone in Tagalog. Meanwhile, the Xǔ tone is spoken with a curve. 

In short, only Barbie and Mary shared the same surname.