About my Name

My official American name is Bryan Liu Jiang. My middle name, Liu, and my last name, Jiang, are the romanized versions of my Chinese name. The main reason for my first name being Bryan is that it sounds very close to the pronunciation of my first name in Chinese, Bó Ēn (博恩). Why my parents specifically chose this name also has to deal with the Western characteristics associated with Bryan, including virtue and positivity. They chose Bryan with the ‘y’ since it stands out more than the norm Brian.

My parents named me my Chinese name before my American name as Jiāng Bó Ēn (江博恩). My American middle name, Liu, comes from my mother’s surname, Liú (刘). Liú has no meaning other than being a surname. Liú is not a part of my official Chinese name but is the derivative from which my American middle name comes from. The first character of myChinese name, Jiāng (江), comes from my father’s surname; this is my official surname in Chinese.  Although in most contexts the name means river, when used as a surname it is seen by Chinese speakers as only a name rather than its meaning river. The second character of my Chinese name is Bó (博). Bó has multiple meanings in itself including abundant, grand, or extensive (on the magnitude of the size of the universe). However, my parents primarily intended this part of my name to mean broad and profound in the context of being scholarly and having wide knowledge. The third character of my Chinese name, Ēn (恩), mainly means grace. My parents chose the combination of Bó and Ēn because in Chinese, the name gives a sense of elegancy and nobility. 

As the River Flows with Time...

The theme for this website is supposed to represent a river since my last name is translated as 'river.' Like a river, time flows by continuously in one direction. However, as the water keeps flowing, the river also leaves behind artifacts of what came previously upsteam, like memories of the past. Also true, the water keeps moving forward to an unforseen destination. This website will track this river of time that represents my life. As you wade through, you may find artifact sediments of my past, and as you continue down the river, you may end up finding the wide open ocean of my future.