San Francisco Cracking Down on Appropriation of Chinese Names for Political Gain

The city of San Francisco is cracking down on the appropriation of Chinese names while running for office, making guidelines for choosing what names appear on the ballot stricter.

Because of San Francisco's significant Chinese population, the city offers ballots where candidates can put down a Chinese name. A law from 2019 currently determines that a candidate can use their Chinese birth name, if they have one; a direct phonetic translation; or any name with a demonstrated "established use."

The rules, however, don't specify what "established" meant — until now. The San Francisco Department of Elections has now clarified in a memorandum that a candidate must prove "they "have been known and identified within the public sphere'" for at least two years.

These guidelines, including the one from 2019, are in place due to politicians choosing Chinese names for political gain.

In 2022, as reported by NBC News, for example, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins ran with the name 謝安宜, pronounced Xie An Yi in Mandarin and Ze On Ji in Cantonese, on the ballot — it means “safety and pleasant.”

Legislative aide Natalie Gee, who was running for the Democratic County Central Committee before the law was created in 2019, had a similar problem on her race. Her opponents chosen Chinese name sounded a lot like the Chinese name Gee had her whole life.

"I get that non-Chinese candidates want to connect with the Chinese community, and that is great, but they should do it genuinely rather than appropriating a Chinese name so that they appear Chinese--that comes off as deceptive,” Gee told NBC.

“I know non-Chinese people who have been bestowed a Chinese name by our community elders because of their long history of working in the Chinese community--in those cases, it’s an honor from the community.”