In Chinese, the first character (Tu) is the family name while the following character(s) are the given name (Youyou).
p.s. the “ou” sound in Chinese is pronounced more like an “o” rather than than an “ooh”, so the joke doesn’t really work (not quite, but it’s close enough. I’m not very good at speaking Mandarin so take this with a slight grain of salt)
People always get mixed up regardless, people refer to people by different names like nicknames or relationship like ‘mom’ so when you get to the name part its always some funny mix
Note that in Chinese, the first character is the family name while the next ones are the given name. So “Youyou” would be the given name!
Naming customs in various places are very fun to learn. Did you know that in Iceland, the last name is the father’s first name appended with “son” (male), “dottir” (female), or “bur” (non-binary)?
Depending on whether Tu or Youyou is her “first” name for the song it will be:
“Happy birthday to Tu”
Or
“Happy birthday to Youyou”
Both have repetition that is likely to trip up a lot of people.
In Chinese, the first character (Tu) is the family name while the following character(s) are the given name (Youyou).
p.s. the “ou” sound in Chinese is pronounced more like an “o” rather than than an “ooh”, so the joke doesn’t really work (not quite, but it’s close enough. I’m not very good at speaking Mandarin so take this with a slight grain of salt)
People always get mixed up regardless, people refer to people by different names like nicknames or relationship like ‘mom’ so when you get to the name part its always some funny mix
“Happy birthday to Carol/Caroline/Slut/Mom!”
Yeah, that checks out.
Good ol’ brigadier general Caroline Slutmom 😁🫡
Slutmom sounds like a British village with an unfortunate name like Cockthorpe.
“Did you know Cockthorpe has a church?”
I wonder what they worship there…
— Powerwolf, Coleus Sanctus (2013); a song about the Holy Scrotum
Yep, either way if you are singing Happy Birthday to her, you likely know her well enough to know her name well and sing it with no problem.
The singers could be staff at a restaurant who are not familiar with her…
East Asian, China.
So her given name is “Youyou”, pronounced Yoyo (flat high tone).
Youyou is her first name, and it’s “dear”, not “to”. So it would be “Happy birthday, dear Youyou”.
Note that in Chinese, the first character is the family name while the next ones are the given name. So “Youyou” would be the given name!
Naming customs in various places are very fun to learn. Did you know that in Iceland, the last name is the father’s first name appended with “son” (male), “dottir” (female), or “bur” (non-binary)?
You’re right, I mistakenly thought that Western naming convention was being used. Fixed!