San Francisco Cracks Down on Use of Chinese Names on Ballot, Citing ‘Cultural Appropriation’

San Francisco, mired in a homelessness and drug epidemic that has seen office workers and residents flee its once booming downtown — while the ones who stay are issued bulletproof vests — is cracking down on ballot name rules amid a trend of candidates using their “authentic” Chinese names when running for office. 

According to The SF Standard, the city's Department of Elections is enforcing a 2019 state law that bars political candidates from using a Chinese name on a city ballot unless a name has been given to them at birth or used for at least two years. 

The rule follows a flood of non-Chinese candidates adopting a Chinese name to appeal to monolingual Chinese voters. Due to San Francisco’s large Chinese-speaking population, ballots are printed in both English and Chinese.

According to 2014 census data analyzed by the San Francisco Planning Department, there are approximately 144,000 Chinese speakers in San Francisco, about 17% of the city’s population. Of that population, 94,000, or 65%, speak and read limited English. 

Over the years, many non-Chinese candidates have adopted names with meanings that they believe will strengthen votes. Mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, a first-time office seeker, recently picked the chosen name of 羅瑞德, which means "auspicious" and "virtue."

The new rule would restrict Lurie from using the name unless he can prove it was on his birth certificate or that he has been using it for two years.

The trend of candidates using Chinese names on ballots was brought into question by Supervisor Connie Chan, who is the only Chinese American on the Board of Supervisors.

Chan called the trend a form of "cultural appropriation," claiming that non-Chinese candidates were taking advantage of the ability to use a Chinese name on the ballot.

“Cultural appropriation does not make someone Asian,” Chan told The Standard. “There is no alternative definition to whether someone is Asian or not. It should be based solely on a person’s ethnicity and heritage. That’s what this law is about.”

According to The Standard, an incident between two local candidates — in which one non-Chinese candidate was accused of using the same Chinese given name in her campaign as another — prompted Chan to look into the issue. 

Chan’s inquiry led to a letter issued by the City Attorney’s Office in which Department of Elections director John Arntz said that the board will now implement the state law to avoid the abuse of Chinese names.

“The Department can adopt a policy that sets a reasonable standard requiring candidates to demonstrate their use of a name or transliteration for the preceding two years when filing nomination papers,” Arntz said in the letter. 

Per The Standard, while the law will prevent non-Chinese candidates from abusing the flexibility of self-submitted names, it may also impact American-born Chinese candidates who do not have a birth certificate in Chinese that proves they were born with Chinese names.

The outlet noted that several candidates were asked for additional documentation on the Chinese names they used, which was difficult to compile.

The naming enforcement comes as San Francisco finds itself dealing with compounding crises of homelessness, rampant open-air drug use, a cratering commercial real-estate market combined with a housing crisis, and other quality-of-life issues that were exacerbated by the pandemic.

The city's supervisors have come under withering criticism for their approach to those concerns, including from one of their own who recently called San Francisco the "Spirit Airlines" of local governments.