Oranges in a box II

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Oil on Canvas

8 x 8 inches

Last citrus of the series for now.

 Recently there are a couple of incidents that happened back to back with the same theme – people getting my name wrong in promo material among other mishaps. I am so used to having my own name double checked when I perform because believe it or not, having your name wrongly announced right before you go up stage regularly is not something you want to deal with.
The most common mistakes is my surname, Leong and Loong is a more common than my surname- Long. The problem is that my surname is so rare that people automatically assumed I spelled my name wrongly. 🙄 not to forget my own given name, Haze which makes more sense when it is Hazel. You have no idea how many times I receive a phone call and the first thing that I hear is “Hi Hazel” which also means the first thing they hear from me is a dial tone. The best are caucasians, they never get my name wrongly cuz all Chinese names never make any sense to them anyway.
So from someone who always had her name said or written wrongly, I can say that it feels dehumanizing the same way your dog wouldn’t respond when you call it “apple”. And how do I deal with it? I meditate to “I am nothing”. No pun intended as that was what happened in all seriousness. I meditate to the fact that my name doesn’t define who I am. Now this is an intended pun.