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If you are curious about the pronunciation of the names, you can copy and paste the characters to this website and hit the play button. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ :

https://chinesepod.com/tools/glossary/entry/

Or click the links below(which I am not sure if they will work)

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Ou Jian Jun(欧建军):

Pronunciation(Please tell me if the link doesn’t work):https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=dc29475a534d48e7457db05b185d7001

Ou(欧) – a family name that originates from ancient Yue(越) people in south China. If you have read the wuxia novel the Legend of the Condor Heroes you probably remember the Ou Yang family and Ou Yang(欧阳) shares the same origin as Ou(欧).

Jian Jun – ‘army founding’, referring to the founding of the People’s Liberation Army(PLA). Obviously this is a very ‘communist’ name. In the 50-70s it was not unusual that families gave their children a patriotic name like ‘liberation'(Jie Fang/解放), ‘surpass the US'(Chao Mei/超美), ‘nation founding'(Jian Guo/建国), ‘help North Korea'(Yuan Chao/援朝). You can tell from the straightforward style that these type of names are considered a bit out-dated and lower-class.

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Lin Ye(林烨):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=69b5adec7b82986a0d5c8e390590fa29

Lin(林) – a common family name especially in the south. The most common meaning of the character is ‘woods, grove’. It’s the same family name as Hayashi(林) in Japan.

Ye(烨) – this character is no longer used in daily life and mostly seen only in names and classic Chinese. It means ‘bright, glorious, firelight, sunlight’. It’s very literary, so you can imagine his parents are probably well-educated. It’s a beautiful name.

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Chu Yuan Jiang(楚远江):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=118223e6012895d754b2b22033607528

Chu(楚) – a rare family name, originated from Chu state in the Spring and Autumn Era. The famous poet Qu Yuan(屈原) is from Chu state.

Yuan(远) – “distant, faraway”; Jiang(江) – “(large) river”, in classic Chinese it also refers specifically the Changjiang/Yangtze River.

It’s a poetic name that paints me a picture of a Jun Zi(君子) standing on top of a cliff gazing at the river in a distance, singing famous poems and lamenting about all the great historical figures that are carried away by the river(as a common metaphor of the non-stop passing of time).

I am thinking of lines like:

大江东去浪淘尽，千古风流人物。

星垂平野阔，月涌大江流。

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DaBiao(大彪):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=441f4d33ce8499f5e1dea02dbcd60616

This is probably a nickname. ‘Da(大)’ literally means ‘big’ and is a common prefix for names to show intimacy and respect, although it is possible that this is his actual name. Biao(彪) is a very muscular name for male. The character originally means the pattern on tigers or a young tiger and now it carries the meaning of ‘bulky, strong, bold’. This character instantly reminds me of a Dongbei/Northeast gangster(no offense to your Dongbei people!).

An interesting note is that if his family name is indeed Lin, then his name would be the same as 林彪, a famous general who almost became the successor of Mao Zedong.

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Han Dong(韩东):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=0e690e1c4d98e93218566f7a73a9978d

Han(韩) – common family name. It has several origins including the Han state in several eras in the history. Yes it’s the same character as the name of Korea.

Dong(东) – “east”

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He Ling(何凌):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=aae76533792c6eb8f548484c2487ef9d

He(何) – common family name, branched out from Han(韩) about two thousand years ago.

Ling(凌) – “ice; rise, higher than”

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Xiong Xi Liang(熊希亮):

Pronunciation: https://www.purpleculture.net/chinese-pinyin-converter/?session=21f1808836d0c5371d89f1cd3a66eda3

Xiong(熊) – relatively uncommon Chinese family name, one of the most ancient family names. It means “bear”.

Xi(希) – “rare; hope”; Liang(亮) – “bright”

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Miscellanies:

These are purely my guess, but City X is probably Chongqing and City B is Beijing.

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