Talk: Ouyang Lianzi

Lianzi

I don't know what to say. This is Lianzi. I am working in HK for an investment bank.They spell my name wrong because they use Cantonese Pinyin as the producer David Liu is American Chinese. My full name is Ouyang Lianzi.

P.S.I had a conversation with Caroll and his wife Debi last month. When he said " I love you Xiao Foo", I cried. That was our first contact after 25 years.

Xiao Foo will always love Big Bird. -- Lisa Ou 27 December 2007

Wow, it's amazing that you came by. Thank you for your message! -- Danny (talk) 19:02, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

It is! Thanks so much! As you can see, we've been confused about the issue, so it's great to have it from an unimpeachable source. We love Xiao Foo too! -- Andrew Leal (talk) 19:22, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

name

I noticed the apparent use of a "Q" in rendering the name of the actress who played "Xiao Foo [sic]" as I re-viewed the DVD today. However, no romanization method uses a "Q" to transliterate the pronunciation of the first character of her surname (which is just like saying the name of the letter "O" - her surname, which is romanized in Hanyu Pinyin as "Ouyang" rhymes with "so long"). What looks like a "Q" in the screenshot you provided looks more like a defective "O" to me. Because I teach Chinese, I'm biased toward the letter which best represents the pronunciation of her name. The rendering of her full name in Hanyu Pinyin (used in mainland China since 1958) is "Ouyang Lianzi", as reflected in my editing efforts. -- user:ChineseCorrection 23:54, November 27, 2007

Hm. I see how that can be a stylized capital O (different from the lowercase o also seen in the screenshot below). What does everyone else think? —Scott (talk) 05:00, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

It makes sense to me. At this point, it's clear that the credits are inaccurate as far as the name translation is concerned. What's not entirely clear is the proper rendering of the whole name.Luenlin says it should have been "Ou Yang Lian Zi." Two newspaper articles and Chinese Correction say "Ouyang Lianzi." And Caroll Spinney, in The Wisdom of Big Bird, misremembers her as "Lien Tsu." In all likelihood, Chinese Correction's translation is correct, but at this point, it's so muddled (especially regarding the last two syllables) that I'd rather not make a definitive statement until/unless we can find something more direct, preferably from the former child actress herself. Until then, I'd support moving to "Ouyang" (since that one seems to be confirmed beyond reasonable doubt) and a note after it, "as translated in the credits," to cover our bases. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 08:38, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I would guess that the mistake of using Q instead of O started from the first day they produced the episode. Take a look at the IMDb.com site. [1] The spelling is consistent between you and IMDb for now. If you change it to O it might cause an issue of searching her name in Google. --Luenlin 08:49, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't think we need to worry about affecting either Google searches or IMDb itself (which is highly fallible, and it seems whoever submitted the cast list copied their info from us anyway; it wasn't there before we expanded Big Bird in China). If it's a mistake, and at this point it's fairly clear it is, we should change and address it, not perpetuate it, even if it remains on other sites. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 08:57, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I easily found a few of the library links on the video. All of them quoted Quyang as her name: [2], [3], So I still believe it was the producer who started the mistake. It wasn't you. --Luenlin 05:58, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

I know I'm kind of late in this, but I was the one who submitted the cast list to IMDb, over two years ago, and I got it from the opening credits to the video, not from Muppet Wiki. I was only just becoming acquainted with the Wiki at that time. I submitted those cast names just as they appeared on screen. Garrettk41 03:55, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Oops. I only just noticed the above message from Ouyang herself. I didn't look before. So never mind. The end credits made a mistake. Garrettk41 03:57, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

letter and name

Does anyone have a link to the letter she wrote to Carroll mentioned in the article? It's almost cruel to tease us by telling us about it without knowing how to read it! — Joe (talk) 14:04, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Not cruel. . There's no real way of finding the message, assuming it's still online, that I can find, and I thought it was worth adding. If you want to, go ahead and take it out, but I thought it helped flesh out the article. If I'd seen the actual missive, I definitely would have either linked or quoted. It's existence was identified in an interview with Spinney following the DVD release of Big Bird in China. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 14:32, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Nah, it can stay in. It's too bad it might be lost in Internet-land. I'll see what I can find. — Joe (talk) 15:05, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

This link may be helpful to get in touch with Xiao Foo again. A person named Lisa Ou posted on Amazon claiming she was the little girl who acted Xiao Foo years ago: [4] --Luenlin 08:32, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Had her name been properly spelled by the Chinese HanYuPinYin, it would have been Ou Yang Lian Zi. Why wasn't her name properly spelled? I suppose by the year 1982, Chinese names have been standarized. --Luenlin 06:39, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

user:ChineseCorrection posted a problem report that "the romanization of the lead actress' name is incorrect. It should be Ouyang Lianzi." I don't know what method was used to translate the name back then, but the name we're using for the actress is the one that was displayed on-screen. Please see accompanying screenshot. —Scott (talk) 18:14, 27 November 2007 (UTC)