About my name

My name is ZHU Zeyu, or in English order, Zeyu Zhu. In Chinese, it’s 朱泽宇.

Here’s an audio of my preferred way of pronouncing my name for those who don’t speak Chinese. It speaks my name in the English order (given name first, family name second), without the Chinese tones.

If you want to challenge yourself, try this. It’s in the Chinese order (family name first, given name second), with the Chinese tones.

Zeyu = 泽宇. It’s actually two characters.

Ze (泽), when used as a verb, means to moisten or to light up. It’s the same character in Mao Zedong and Jiang Zemin, which means to light up the East and to moisten the people (or to improve people’s lives, since water is essential for life). Yu (宇) has many meanings. Originally, it means the roof. It can also mean a room, the sky, or the universe. Therefore, Zeyu means to light up the room/sky/universe, however you interpret it.

Zhu (朱) is my family name. It literally means the color of red, but in Chinese we don’t usually care about the literal meaning of a family name.

Feel free to call me Zeyu. Addressing others by their given name is a tradition shared by Chinese and many people in English-speaking countries.

If you want to learn the Shanghainese (Shanghai dialect) way of pronouncing my name, grab me a drink. 😉